Battle of Changping

"War is a place of death, and Kuo speaks of it lightly. If Zhao does not make Kuo its general, well and good. If it insists on doing so, the one who destroys the army of Zhao will surely be Kuo." -- words Zhao She left to his wife, concerning their son Zhao Kuo (Records of the Grand Historian, Biographies of Lian Po and Lin Xiangru) Along the northern ridge of the board, a long wall of piled stone runs from east to west. Zhao spent a hundred years building it. Its palisade faces north. Qin came from the south. The standoff lasted three years. Lian Po built his ramparts on the east bank of the Dan River and did not move, and Wang He could not break them. The King of Zhao grew impatient, believed the rumours, recalled Lian Po and sent Zhao Kuo. On the same day, in the Qin camp, the Lord of Wu'an was placed above Wang He, and an order went out that anyone who revealed it would be beheaded. On arriving, Zhao Kuo at once rewrote the army's orders and came out of the ramparts. [How Zhao Kuo wins] Hold the headquarters on Mount Hanwang (40 points) and Changping (30), and do not lose the war of attrition. The margin opens at +70, and the victory line is +25: even losing a ridge or a ford or two, you win as long as you keep the headquarters. But you cannot win by standing still either. With four hundred and fifty thousand men, you can move only 12 counters at a time. Zhao Kuo rewrote all the army's orders the moment he arrived and replaced every officer. And if Qin takes Guguan and Mount Daliang, the 12 falls to 6, and then to 3. [How Bai Qi wins] Not from the front. If Zhao takes the Qin Camp (6,15), Zhao gains +3 moves, but not a single victory point. While Zhao Kuo is being drawn towards it, send the twenty-five thousand of the surprise force round by the northern slope road to Guguan (14,2), and cut the fords of the Dan with five thousand horse. Guguan is a gate in the stone long wall, and its palisade faces north: climb up from the south, and there is no wall. [Commanders] Zhao Kuo = Lord Mafu, son of Zhao She. Picked Troops = the band he led in person in the final charge. Feng Ting = the Han general who handed the commandery of Shangdang to Zhao and fought on at Changping. Bai Qi = the Lord of Wu'an, the real commander, whose appointment was kept secret. Wang He = the general in name. Sima Geng = the general who closed the north. The twenty-five thousand of the surprise force and the five thousand horse are two bodies whose numbers alone survive in the histories, and these two split the army of Zhao. [Decisions this board lets you test] Does Zhao come out of its ramparts or not? Come out, and it can take the +3 of the Qin Camp, but with the Dan River at its back. There are only two bridges on the board. Stay in, and it keeps its moves, but has too few counters to stop the surprise force going round to Guguan. Does Qin push the front, or send troops round the north? On T5 and T6 the levies of Henei enter from the southern edge: the limit rises by +2, but they arrive at the far southern end of the board. [Outcome] For forty-six days the Zhao army was surrounded and cut off from food. Zhao Kuo divided his army into four bodies and broke out four and five times, and at the last led his picked troops himself, and died shot by the Qin crossbows. The remaining four hundred thousand surrendered, and Bai Qi buried them in the valley of Changping. Only two hundred and forty of the youngest, it is said, were sent home alive. Qin too lost half its men, and Handan did not fall that year. Zhao never again raised an army for the field, and it perished thirty-eight years later. The wall faced north. Qin climbed up from the south. For forty-six days the grain road was cut, and four hundred thousand became the name of a valley. War is a place of death, the father said. That place of death, the son found. The three years of standoff and the fighting over the Kongcang and Laoma ridges in the seventh month have been folded away. The board carries only the few days from the morning Zhao Kuo came out of his ramparts. The forty-six days of starvation have been placed off the board: the outcome was decided before them. The numbers (Zhao 450,000, Qin over 500,000) are those of the Records of the Grand Historian, and later scholarship strongly holds them to be exaggerated. The ratio of combat strength is set not at the ratio of men (0.90) but at nearly even (0.99). Of the flags on the counters, the commander's banner marked 帥 follows a convention of novels and comics; it is not a flag attested in the sources. The Four Symbols and Big Dipper banners of the van, rear, left, right and centre armies follow the Book of Rites (Quli I). 1 hex = 800 m, 1 turn = 720 minutes (half a day), 1 CS = about 3,500 men. T1 = the morning of the first day of the ninth month, T11 = the morning of the sixth day of the ninth month. Odd turns are mornings, even turns evenings.