Battle of Mount Dingjun

"爲將當有怯弱時、不可但恃勇也。將當以勇爲本、行之以智計。但知任勇、一匹夫敵耳" "A general must have his moments of fear and weakness; he must not rely on courage alone. Let courage be the root, and carry it out with wisdom and design. One who knows only how to trust his courage is a match for a single man, no more." -- Cao Cao, who repeatedly warned the ever-victorious Xiahou Yuan (Records of the Three Kingdoms, Book of Wei, Biography of Xiahou Yuan) Four in the morning, on a night in the first month. At the foot of Dingjun Shan, the abatis of the Wei camps is burning. It was Liu Bei who set the fire. For a year his army had faced Xiahou Yuan and Zhang He at Yangping Pass without being able to move; now it has crossed the Han River to the south, advanced little by little along the hills, and planted its camp on this mountain. Yuan has come out to contest the ground. The board begins on that night. Wei holds two camps. Zhang He guards the East Camp at the eastern foot of the mountain; Xiahou Yuan himself, with light troops, guards the South Camp in the valley to the south. The valley road between the two camps is eleven hexes long, and at Zouma Valley it passes directly beneath the south-eastern shoulder of the mountain. On that shoulder stands Huang Zhong. [Take the head: how Liu Bei wins] The result is decided by a single margin. Margin = (points of objectives you hold - points of objectives the enemy holds) + (losses inflicted - losses suffered). The win line is 0. The margin is counted from Liu Bei's side: at +7 Liu Bei's Army has a tactical victory, and at -7 the Wei Army has one. Finish 7 points beyond the win line for a tactical victory, 60 for an operational victory, and 119 for a strategic victory. If neither side gets that far, it is a draw. The objectives are Dingjun Shan 30, South Camp 20, East Camp 20 and Yangping Pass 10. Liu Bei's Army begins with Dingjun Shan and Yangping Pass, 40 points; the Wei Army begins with the two camps, also 40. But this board has one way to win that is faster than the margin. Xiahou Yuan is a sudden death unit (the counter with the gold border): the moment he is eliminated, the Wei Army loses. Yuan has 5 movement points, the fastest commander on the board. The soldiers had a saying: "Xiahou Yuan, Colonel of the Army: five hundred li in three days, a thousand in six." Because he is fast, he runs to help. [Hold the camps: how Wei wins] Wei wins at the other end of the same line. Keep Yuan alive and hold both camps to the end, and the margin will not move. The difficulty comes when the East Camp is pressed. The historical Yuan split off half his men to help Zhang He, and was killed while returning south with his light troops. If he does not go, the East Camp falls. If he goes, the valley road runs beneath the mountain. [From the heights, with drums: the one descent] The Biography of Fa Zheng says that Liu Bei "ordered Huang Zhong to mount the heights and attack with drums and shouting." Huang Zhong and the two units beside him, Huang Elite I and II, are surprise units (the counters with the light-blue border). The first time any of the three fights, at the end of that turn the three alone may move once more and fight once more. This happens only once in the whole game for Liu Bei's Army. Fa Zheng said "Now we can strike" only after Yuan had divided his force. [The sick marshal] On the north bank of the Han, near Mianyang, stand Guo Huai, Du Xi and two reserve units. They are a standby force and will not move of their own accord. The Biography of Guo Huai says: "Huai was ill at the time and did not go out." They wake if attacked or if an enemy moves adjacent, and from T5 (noon) they wake with a chance that rises by 20% each turn. As Yuan's marshal, it was this man who put the beaten army back together. [Commanders] Liu Bei's Army: Liu Bei. On Dingjun Shan, Huang Zhong, Huang Quan, Gao Xiang and Liu Feng; at the headquarters on the northern foot, Zhao Yun with his officer Zhang Zhu, and Zhang Yi, the magistrate of Mianyang; on the eastern wing, Wei Yan and Chen Shi. Unit names come from the Biography of Zhang He, "more than ten thousand picked troops, divided into ten parts" (the Elite counters), the Dongzhou troops inherited from Liu Zhang, and the levies of Baxi and Shu commanderies. The plan of this battle belonged to Fa Zheng and Huang Quan, but there is no record of Fa Zheng leading troops, so he is not a counter. Zhang Fei, Ma Chao, Wu Lan and Lei Tong belong to the Xiabian campaign of the previous year, where Wu Lan and Lei Tong were killed. Wei Army: Xiahou Yuan (General Who Conquers the West, Protector). At the East Camp, Zhang He and Xu Huang; at the South Camp, Yuan himself, Zhao Yong, the Inspector of Yi Province appointed by Cao Cao, and Xiahou Rong, Yuan's fifth son, thirteen years old. In reserve, Guo Huai, Yuan's marshal, and Du Xi, who supervised military affairs in Hanzhong. Unit names: Yuan's light troops, Zhang He's guard, levies of Liang and Yong provinces, Qiang horsemen from west of the passes, Di tribesmen of Wudu, and Hanzhong levies. Cao Cao, Cao Zhen, Cao Hong and Cao Xiu arrived only after Yuan's death and are not on the board. [What must be decided in nine turns] Liu Bei's Army: press Zhang He in the east, go for the South Camp, or wait for Yuan to move? The activation limit is 10, fewer than half of your 24 units. Huang Zhong's descent comes only once. Wei Army: keep Yuan at the South Camp, or send him running east? The activation limit is 9. Climb the mountain to contest it, and every hex you climb toward doubles the defender's combat strength. [Epilogue] Yuan was killed. Zhao Yong died too. Those around the thirteen-year-old Xiahou Rong took him by the hand to lead him away, but he said, "My lord and my father are in danger; where could I flee from death?" He drew his sword and fell in the ranks. The army lost its colour; Guo Huai gathered the scattered men and set up Zhang He as commander, and at last the camps grew calm. The next day Liu Bei wished to cross the Han, but when he saw Guo Huai form his line well back from the water, he did not cross. Liu Bei is said to have remarked, "We should have taken their chief. What use is this one?" (Weilüe). The man he feared was Zhang He. In the third month Cao Cao came from Chang'an to Yangping, issued his order of "chicken ribs", and in the fifth month abandoned Hanzhong. In the seventh month Liu Bei took the title King of Hanzhong. Huang Zhong became General Who Conquers the West and died the following year. The one who buried Yuan's remains was his niece, who had become the wife of Zhang Fei. 　　On the night the abatis burned, Yuan split his men in half 　　The half he split hurried east along the valley under the mountain 　　Up on the mountain, the drums began 　　The boy of thirteen was taken by the hand, and would not run 　　The bones of the man warned he was a match for one man alone were buried by an enemy general's wife 　　That autumn, Liu Bei called himself a king The year of confrontation at Yangping Pass is folded away; the nine turns run from the night the abatis was burned to the evening of the same day. The positions of the two camps and of Zouma Valley are not given in the sources and have been inferred from the terrain. The Biography of Fa Zheng says the camp was made "at Dingjun and Xingshi", but Xingshi is a mountain some eighty kilometres to the east, so the reading of the Biography of the First Sovereign, "camped on the slopes of Dingjun Shan", has been adopted. The Biography of Zhang He says Yuan "went to put out the fire, met Liu Bei on another road, fought, and died"; the Biography of Xiahou Yuan says he "split off half his men to help Zhang He, was attacked, and fell in battle". The board is laid out so that either can happen. Xu Huang, Gao Xiang, Wei Yan, Liu Feng, Chen Shi, Zhao Yun, Zhang Zhu and Zhang Yi were in Hanzhong during this campaign, but there is no record of their being at Dingjun Shan on this day; their positions are conjecture. Combat strength is not a head count (Liu Bei's Army 75 to the Wei Army 63: Huang Zhong's three units carry enough weight to come down the mountain and reach Yuan). Among the counters' flags, the commander's banner reading "帥" follows the convention of novels and comics and is not a banner found in the sources. 1 hex = 500 m, 1 turn = 2 hours, 1 CS = about 400 men. T1 = 4 a.m. on a night in the first month, T2 = 6 a.m. (dawn), T5 = noon, T9 = 8 p.m.