AAR Challenge Storage Thread

[The Wandering Scholar]

Send in the Elephants
By Ramses II CP

Part 4

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

1231, North of Bukhara

The Elephants Arrive.

After their victory at Bukhara the Mongols marched east and met the army of the Maharaja at a bridge to the northeast of that city. There they threw back many costly assaults by poorly trained Rajput armies desperate to redeem their recent losses, but declined to attempt to force a crossing. Instead they marched further north, towards Samarqand and the more weakly held bridge there.



Scouting Samarqand and the bridge to it's west they found armies overwhelmingly staffed with immense numbers of archers. They could certainly have crossed this bridge, despite the ongoing attacks from Rajput mercenaries and militia soldiers, but then they would have been facing another potentially costly siege against a well entrenched foe and a sea of archers. For two years the Horde held together there in the central plain, turning back every attack with dramatic losses, but gradually being whittled away.



In the third year they marched back south towards Bukhara, but this time the Maharaja was ready for them. He had gathered a massive army of elephants, javelineers and archers, and placed them under a fresh general who was desperate to prove himself and save the city. Surely never before had so many elephants been seen in one place outside of India itself, and this was no wild herd. These were well trained and highly motivated war beasts under the direction of stalwart veterans of the wars against the Muslims. Unflinchingly they advanced directly into the heart of the Mongol formation, facing the combined might of over five thousand of the enemy.



Tribuvanpal calmly drew up his forces in a long line, stretching across the gently sloping desert sands. He detailed several companies of javelineers to hold his left flank against an advancing Mongol army there, and sounded a general advance to meet the army of Jebe which lay before him. Normal Indian tactics called for the elephants to hold back and fire their missiles until the opponent was forced to commit himself fully against the Indian infantry, but on this day there would be no infantry.



On the left the javelineers struck the first blow, charging downhill against a disorganized foe who had been riding hard in the hopes of turning the Rajput flank. The carnage among the lead heavy lancers was very great.



In the center it was much the same, as Jebe sent his heavy lancers into battle against the massed elephant assault. Whatever panic the Mongols might have felt in their first battle against the elephants of the Maharaja at that bridge so many years ago they had now learned to control. The hated foe fought with great courage, never shrinking from the great gray bulk of the war beasts.



Tribuvanpal attempted to keep order in his lines by bringing multiple elephant companies to bear against each forward element of Jebe's command while sending the more experienced companies deeper into the enemy formation to disrupt it. This met with great success against the Mongol cavalry as company after company of heavy lancers was felled to a man, but losses inevitably began to mount among the more isolated elephants at the front. Still they held their discipline and slaughtered many men for each that fell.



On the left the main body of the Mongol reinforcements had been surrounded by elephants who were rapidly whittling away the brutal heavy lancers. None of these men would make it to the main engagement to disrupt the battle there, which preserved morale and prevented any massed attack against Tribuvanpal's flank.



As the attack against Jebe's force continued the first small group of enemy reinforcements arrived to his rear and began to shower arrows down against any elephants not heavily engaged in melee with the Mongols. There was no Rajput reserve remaining to commit against them, so their stings and our losses must be borne. The fourth and final reinforcing army was still organizing in the distance, trying to determine if they should aid Jebe first or his other reinforcements.



Back on the left the heavy lancers had been all but eliminated, and the elephants began to roll up the Mongol flank towards their massed infantry. If nothing else the loss of so many mighty horse warriors and their highly trained mounts would make this day a strategic victory. Tribuvanpal's army was starting to tire from the continuous fighting, but there could be no retreat yet.



The first company of elephants to reach the Mongol infantry on the left tore gaping holes in their formations, and butchered many hundreds of them while the Mongol Khan and his guardsmen fought desperately to hold back many more eager elephants. Though the Rajput men were growing weary they still inflicted great losses on the enemy.



Alas, at the central engagement the tide was starting to turn. The first elements of the fourth Mongol army (Seen to the left in the following screenshot) had arrived and added their arrows to the already high volume of fire directed at the Indian army. Two companies of elephants, including those of the secondary commander, Vakpati Jhala, went mad with fear and ran amok. Many of the rest were at half strength and struggling to continue fighting.



To the left the javelineers had completed their charge through the entire Mongol infantry formation, and hurled the last of their missiles against the enemy's heavy horse archers. Truly the sands ran red with the blood of the enemy on this day! Still, it was not enough.



The center of the Rajput line began to collapse under the weight of the fresh men of the fourth wave of Mongols. Vakpati Jhala and his guardsmen were all killed, and almost all of the elephants at the center were in flight or running amok. There was little for Tribuvanpal to do but sound the withdrawal and attempt to salvage what he could. Obviously the enemy had suffered horrific losses even in victory, and though they might be in possession of the field at the end of the day the price they paid was far higher than the worth of this patch of desert.



Retreating back into the deep sands Tribuvanpal paused to review the battlefield one last time. Around every elephant's corpse could be seen the scattered remains of a dozen or more dead Mongols. The advance of Ogodei's fresh force had swept the Rajput resistance aside, but the terrible cost and the fact that Tribuvanpal's own reinforcements were many times nearer than the enemy's would turn this tactical defeat into a mighty strategic victory.









Following this 'defeat' the garrison commander of Bukhara, anxious to avert another siege, departed the city and assailed the Mongols in the field with his men. Though the numbers were almost equal and the Mongols had just fought a terrible battle against Tribuvanpal which killed most of their heavy lancers they had no trouble sweeping the militia soldiers and crudely armed spearmen aside.





Siyaka Suryavanshi's men met a vengeful enemy, and were crushed as the Mongols returned the favor for their staggering losses in the previous battle. The Maharaja, angry at Siyaka's failure, called upon all the cavalry mercenaries in the Bukhara region to ride out and inflict more losses on the Mongols to emphasize the futility of their making a second attempt against the city.



Captain Lakshmanadeva made a good attempt and did inflict substantial losses on the soldiers remaining under Jebe, but he then found himself unable to withdraw or bring down the enemy general in battle, and took many losses of his own. The Maharaja was heard to remark that at least a dead mercenary had already taken his last coin.



After these battles the Maharaja drew on the depth of his forces in the region and fully reinforced Bukhara with hundreds of archers and several more companies of heavy infantry. The Mongols scouted the city closely... and marched away east, over the unheld bridge near Samarqand and all the way south to the bridge north of Balkh, where they would fall completely into the final trap of Maharaja Arjunavar the Cunning.

[The Wandering Scholar]

Send In the Elephants
By Ramses II CP

Part 5

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

1231, North of Balkh

After the catastrophic victory in which they lost three thousand veteran warrios the Mongol Horde could have chosen to retreat, to return to their homes and gather their forces for another attempt, but ultimately this too would have played directly into the Maharaja's plans. If the Rajput Empire were given the time to consolidate their holdings and fortify the Hindu Kush there could never be a final Mongol victory. So, battered, bruised, bloodied, and yet strangely triumphant the Mongols departed the deserts north of Bukhara and struck east, crossing the bridges west of Samarqand and force marching their men all the way across the unguarded bridge north of Balkh. That city was a tempting target, with a small garrison at the time of their march and the majority of the Rajput armies still concentrated to the west.

What the Mongol Lords could not know is the awesome wealth of India, which had allowed the Maharaja to continue training soldiers at his premier facilities in the east. Those men, having made the difficult trek through the mountainous Ghorid lands, were now in range to reinforce the Balkh region, joined by the usual Muslim conscripts and large numbers of local mercenaries. Balkh had appeared to be a weak point in the Rajput line, but it was merely bait in a trap. As soon as the Mongols wearied and made camp, just a short distance north of the city, the Maharaja cut orders for every man at arms nearby to march as rapidly as possible towards Balkh, and then he led his personal troops across the bridge behind the Mongols, sealing them in a pocket.



Three of his most experienced armies were unable to force their men near enough to strike, but thousands of others, including many fresh companies out of India, moved into position to pin the remaining Mongols using the curve of the river. The Mongol Horde had been surrounded by the Rajput Horde. Now was the time for the mother of all battles, for after the fall of the Mongols the Maharaja saw little chance that his other enemies would be able to stay his hand.

Coordination of so many men would be difficult, so the Maharaja arranged matters to allow for several different advances against the enemy. First one of his least experienced commanders, Tukaji Ranawat and his mentor and close friend Tukaji Minhas would assault the very head of the Mongol column. Tukaji Ranawat, who had seen training engagements against rebels but never a major field battle, would also be able to call on selected reinforcements from a smaller army nearby, but they would not advance onto the field without his command. (I had to give the AI a good commander and the best troops because even though it's improved in BC, it's still not very good at fighting.)



General Ranawat's men were mostly of decent quality, though his archers were a mixed bunch, but short on cavalry, while General Minhas commanded a modest quantity of cavalry and many elephants. It was planned as a classic engagement, with Ranawat's army acting as the anvil to Minhas' hammer. The enemy would approach from the northeast while Ranawat's reinforcements came in from the west.



First the general would have to deal with the indomitable guardsmen of the Mongol with the smallest command, Jebe. Ranawat dispatched his most decorated company of elephant archers to engage Jebe's men and pin them in place, to prevent the fast moving heavy cavalry from attempting to flank his infantry.



Jebe fought like a mad beast, even drawing the attention of Minhas' flanking force as it arrived on the field. General Ranawat, uncertain of how best to respond, stood his ground and awaited the expected assault from the Horde.



The remarkable resistance of Jebe's men delayed the advance of Minhas' flanking force and drew the small army of Kubeke to reinforce Jebe. Already the enemy had put a kink in the plan, but the cautious and inexperienced Ranawat ordered his men to keep their discipline and hold their ground. At long last one of the elephant javelineers from Minhas' command was able to strike Jebe a firm blow and knock him out of his saddle. Immediately an elephant from the archer corp Ranawat had sent out originally crushed the life from that mighty Mongol lord. (Screenshot was ugly, mostly the inside of an elephant. S'one of the problems with the Rajputs.)

Now the guardsmen of Kubeke and his small army were all that stood in the way of the advance of Minhas' men. They would have to be swept aside quickly, as the full strength army of Subutai the Tyrant was closing quickly on Ranawat's position with Khanzada Guyuk's quarter size force in support. The pivotal moment of the battle was near.



In the center Subutai was attempting to deploy his men to screen his right against the inevitable advance of Mindhas while still pushing forward his center against Ranawat's smaller army. Khanzada Guyuk was thus first to arrive, and his smashing charge against the center right of the Rajput line nearly annihilated an entire company of Bharat spearmen. Ranawat, on the left of his formation, commanded companies of Kshatriya warriors and Ghandara axemen to reinforce the line.



Moments passed as the massed ranks of archers drew their bows to fire at Subutai's advancing men while watching nervously the nearby assault of Guyuk and his guardsmen. If the line should fail those heavy lancers would carve a bloody path through the archers without hesitation, and the daggers of the lightly armed men would not be able to defend them. Back on the flank Minhas' personal guardsmen finally drug down the mighty Kubeke, freeing his massed elephants to advance at last.



Subutai knew he was in for a bloody struggle now, but he could not abandon Prince Guyuk to fight alone. Before turning his army to meet the hammer of Minhas he dispatched two companies of heavy lancers to try Ranawat's line and reinforce Guyuk. Ranawat was watching alertly for the attack of Subutai, and so he immediately ordered his remaining heavy infantry companies to reinforce the right side of his line against Guyuk and the heavy lancers. The line guarding the archers would now be quite thin, but all of the Mongol heavy cavalry had been committed to battle.



Just as he felt the situation on his right was starting to edge in his favor Ranawat got word of a disaster amongst the flankers, as Tukaji Minhas's elephant was felled by the guardsmen of Subutai the Tyrant. The veteran commander of the Rajput hammer had fallen and the flankers were in serious danger of being overwhelmed. Ranawat himself rode out to take command of their battle, seething with excitement, worry, and desperate hope. His first significant battle, and now he was in overall command of thousands of Rajput warriors engaged in a vicious struggle with a mighty foe.



His first action was to bring Minhas' cavalry around to screen his archers so that he could commit his remaining spearmen to the struggle against Kubeke and the heavy lancers. Guyuk's guardsmen were clearly tiring, and though the Indian archers would be unguarded Ranawat believed that battle must be won right now, or it would slip away. Ranawat's lone fresh company of elephants was also detailed to clear away the small remaining infantry force of Guyuk.



Arriving on the left Ranawat found that Minhas had fought a good battle against signficant odds, and now the Mongol's heavy lancers and heavy horse archers had been cleared away almost entirely. Subutai the Tyrant had rallied a dozen of those valiant men to his side, but he was having great difficulty keeping order now that elephants had penetrated his lines on all sides and were taking a terrible toll amongst his foot soldiers. The Indian general organized several heavily embattled companies of elephants into a flanking force to push through Subutai's small remaining cavalry force and deep into his infantry.



When a dozen elephants crashed through his line and charged into his infantry, Subutai realized the day was lost. None of his guardsmen remained to aid him, so when he turned to retreat the dam burst and the tide of remaining elephants crashed against his foot soldiers, who could not stand against them. Subutai the Tyrant himself was shot in the back as he attempted to withdraw, and felled by a simple arrow after having fought through countless close engagements with the massed war beasts of Minhas' army.



Across the field Khanzada Guyuk struggled to extricate himself from the Rajput infantry surrounding him. He had seen the fall of the banner of Subutai and knew with fair certainty that he was now the sole remaining Mongol general. It was less important to slaughter the hundreds of archers he had nearly carved a path to than to oversee the withdrawal of Subutai's remaining army so that they could fight again another day. Beset by elephants and Rajput cavalry on all sides, the Mongol foot soldiers were having a difficult time keeping order during their retreat. It was on the verge of becoming a rout.



Worse yet for the Mongols, Guyuk's attempt to guide the remaining infantry was cut off by a company of Minhas' Kshatriya elephants, and Guyuk's few remaining men were forced to fight for their lives once again.



Minutes passed as Guyuk's men struggled to cut a path out for him, but in the end they proved too few to deny the elephants their bloody revenge for the death of Minhas. Khanzada Guyuk, heir to the Horde, was brutally gored in the chest, and his corpse tossed into the air by an enraged war beast. Of the four mighty Mongol generals who had been brought to battle on this day not one would escape.



As the Rajput Horde harried the fleeing enemy army off the field that day they left behind a carpet of large, dark dots against the sand like elephant droppings in the desert. Screaming challenges and insults Ranawat and his guardsmen triumphantly rode among the broken Mongol infantry, scattering them and slaughtering those who could not flee.



It was another stunningly destructive battle, but this time the Mongols were driven back in defeat, and possession of the field went to the Rajput army. Reviewing reports after the battle Ranawat realized that though it had seemed to be a great battle and an amazing victory pulled off by his valiant troops, in fact the flanking force had done most of the heavy lifting and absorbed fifty percent losses in so doing, including the death of his great friend and teacher General Minhas. Elephants and cavalry had accounted for the overwhelming majority of Mongol casualties, while Ranawat's spearmen and heavy infantry accounted for over half of the Rajput losses. Three hundred Mongol prisoners would be offered for ransom, but the offer was refused.



Next the Maharaja sought to weaken and weary the largest remaining Mongol army under the command of Ogodei by sending an army of conscripts and javelin militia against it.



It was a mistake.



The best that could be said was that running down so many of Captain Vakpatiraja's cowardly soldiers must have dulled the blades of the enemy and cost them a great quantity of whetstones. The prisoners were executed by the Mongols. (I think that's the single worst defeat I have ever suffered playing a Total War game. Javelins just aren't very effective against mongol heavy lancers and Khan's guard.)



...


After that debacle Arjunavar of Mewar, an experienced Rajput general who had fought the Mongols before, was given leave to bring his army of mercenaries and conscripts into the field against Ogodei's men. His instructions were to attempt to hold the line long enough to bleed the enemy of his remaining cavalry, and then to fall back and let better equipped men complete the assault.



Arjunavar was forced to deploy in great haste as the Mongol Khan was entering the field very near his position. Almost immediately after his spearmen set their lines, before his archers could reach their position and draw their bows, the Khan charged.



Arrows and javelins poured out of the Rajput formation and into the Khan's guard, but their armor was incredible and few of them fell. Anxiously Arjunavar watched for the approaching banners of Ogodei, and urged his spearmen and javelineers to great efforts. Still the Khan advanced, crushing all resistance before him, and finally Arjunavar led his personal guard around his formation to come to grips with the Khan from behind.



Khan Jochi withdrew, having slaughtered nearly two hundred of Arjunavar's soldiers. Enraged the Rajput general pursued him, but was struck down by an errant arrow launched by one of his own men. His shocked guardsmen lost control of their elephants, and those beasts ran amok amidst the Mongol Khan's army.



It was a terrible moment to see the death of their general, as the still mighty army of Ogodei was just cresting the hills northeast of Arjunavar's men. When Ogodei personally led the charge of his remaining heavy lancers, it was too much for the battered mercenary spearmen. They broke and attempted to flee before the charge even fully struck home.



Having turned the flank of our spear line Ogodei and his guardsmen then rolled up the rest of the diminished line, while he ordered his other company of heavy lancers to ride into the massed Rajput archer formation. The leaderless Indian army had no response for these canny acts, and simply attempted to stand their ground and inflict as many losses on the enemy as possible.



One company of stalwart men singlehandedly prevented the wholesale rout of Arjunavar's army, as some veteran Dayalami javelineers, knowing that to flee in the face of cavalry was certain death, stood firm against Ogodei and forced him to call his heavy lancers away from the Rajput archers. Those men fought desperately for a few more minutes before being drug down and killed to a man, which gave the archers several more volleys to damage Ogodei's infantry.



In the end it made little difference, however, as two thousand Indians would give their lives against less than a quarter those losses among the Mongols. Arjunavar of Mewar's corpse was never found, and his few remaining men fled in abject terror.



The next day a messenger at the head of a column of wagons from the Mongol's ever shrinking supply train delivered the grim news to the Maharaja that Khan Jochi had ordered the nearly seven hundred Rajput soldiers he had captured to be put to the sword. Within the wagons were the heads of those men, piled high and reeking of death.



Shaking with rage the Maharaja swore a terrible oath that no Mongol who ever set foot in Rajput lands would be allowed to depart with his head. Then, though he knew he was being manipulated, he called Tukaji Ranawat to his side to ask if he wanted vengeance for the death of his mentor. It was a question that could have only one answer.

Maharaja Arjunavar the Cunning brought together every willing man with the strength left in his legs to march and in his arm to fight, and placed them under General Ranawat with only one order; crush the Mongols, break their armies, and drive their leaders from the field.

(continued, and completed, soon)

[The Wandering Scholar]

Send in the Elephants
By Ramses II CP

Part 6

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

1231, North of Balkh

The little known Rajput general Tukaji Ranawat stood before the men of his new command and thought deeply about the speech he must give. Since his costly victory just a few miles further south along this road there had been a pair of staggering defeats for the Rajput army. The men were not fully aware of just how badly those engagements had gone, but as a Kshatriya noble Tukaji was trusted with the knowledge and expected to have the fortitude to deal with it. In the words of the Maharaja himself Captain Vakpatiraja had done little but the dull enemy's swords with his men's lives, two thousand of them, and some six hundred had surrendered only to be brutally executed under the burning sun.

After that escapade Arjunavarman of Mewar, one of the Maharaja's most successful and favored generals, had led an expensive and well equipped mercenary army into the field, which the Mongols had proceeded to massacre. Arjunavarman of Mewar himself was dead, his body unidentifiable amidst the scattered bits of men remaining in the field. The only good news out of that mess was that the Mongol Prince Tolui had succumbed to his wounds after the battle, leaving only two Mongol generals still in the field. Khan Jochi, in command of the lesser force, and Khanzada Ogodei, at the head of a three quarters complete Mongol army. All told the enemy would field fewer troops than Tukaji, and yet their remaining men were merciless veterans of dozens of battles. They had faced elephants, arrows, spears, swords, and every manner of lance and javelin and survived despite it. They were the hard inner core of the Mongol Horde. They would not be broken easily.

Yet to break them was the very task the Maharaja had entrusted to Tukaji. To break the Mongols, or to bleed out his own life in the effort. There could be no more retreats, no more tactical withdrawals. Maharaja Arjunavar the Cunning had sworn an oath to see his enemies driven ceaselessly to their deaths, and General Ranawat was his instrument in the completion of this oath.



Shaking his head gently to clear such dark thoughts Tukaji raised his eyes at last, and under his sharp gaze the soldiers stiffened and stood erect. Pausing for only a moment to let his face fill with anger, General Ranawat said simply, 'Victory or death!'

'Victory or death!' his men roared back at him with one voice, 'Victory or death! Victory or death!'

The company leaders had a little trouble getting the men to form up afterward. Tukaji had instructed the infantry to make for a nearby hill and arrange themselves in a standard Indian battle line, with heavy spearmen backed by heavy infantry supported by massed archer fire.



The elephants of Tukaji's command had spotted a small company of Mongol foot archers that were badly out of position and unsupported. They charged immediately.



After crushing those men the foremost elephants moved on out to attack the right flank of the advancing Mongol armies, which was screened by two companies of horse archers. Tukaji, having seen the reports from the survivors on the impact of the Mongol charge against the Arjunavarman of Mewar's mercenary spearmen, had arranged a little suprise for the initial charge of the heavy lancers facing him.



More elephants moved in immediately to blunt the Mongol charges and give the infantry a chance to come to grips with their enemy at close range. In the center and on his right Tukaji's spearmen took few losses to the Mongol charge.



The battle was far from won yet, however, as these were just the remaining soldiers of Khan Jochi. Now the men of Khanzada Ogodei arrived in force, and Tukaji was very glad he had not broken his infantry formations yet. Ogodei's lancers charged to try to support their Khan's attack, but the scattered melee prevented them from bringing the full force of their lances against the Rajput infantry.



Still Tukaji withheld his infantry, commanding them on stiff penalty not to break their formations. Two of the elephant companies became uncontrollable, running amok, and several had to be put to death by their masters. The conflict in front of the Indian infantry line was utterly uncompromising, and attrition took a heavy toll on both sides. Eventually the assault against the right flank of the Rajputs was wiped out, and the few remaining elephants from that side moved to reinforce the center.



Khan Jochi and Khanzada Ogodei combined their guardsmen and managed to carve a path through almost all of General Ranawat's remaining elephants. The general was quite reluctant to expose his archers to the possibility of a charge, so instead he drove his own guardsmen to attack the two Mongol generals.



The battle was one of endurance now. The superior number of Rajput archers had taken a heavy toll on the Mongol foot, and there were fewer than half of them still fighting. Khan Jochi's small army had been entirely wiped out except for his few remaining personal guards. After a long duel with Tukaji's own personal elephant the Mongol Khan, worn out and bloodied, sounded his horn for a retreat. The instant he rode clear of the melee with their commander alert Indian archers directed a massive volley at him, and brought him down.



The battle had worn on, but it was no longer in doubt. Khanzada Ogodei, fearful at seeing his master felled, turned tail and ran from the field. The stalwart Mongol infantry remained to buy time for their general to escape, and were ground away by the overhwhelming volume of fire from the Rajput archers.



Tukaji Ranawat was elated! His valiant soldiers had, at a substantial cost in elephants to be sure, driven the final army of Mongols from the field in utter defeat. They had thrown down the killers of Tukaji Minhas and Arjunavarman of Mewar and vanquished the last great army of the Horde. No longer would men speak of a Mongol invasion, now they would tell stories of the Rajput Invasion!



In the end Ogodei escaped, but the men he took with him could hardly still be called an army.



Riding through the badlands southwest of Balkh Ogodei was hunted like a bandit, always being driven further into the rough country. At last, having been harried for many weeks, Ogodei chose his ground and came to a halt north of Herat.

The garrison commander there, Vallabharaj Jasrotai, got word from the weary hunters who had finally cornered the last Mongol Khan, and so he rode out, hiring on mercenaries as he went, and brought the beast to battle in the shadow of the mountains.



Khan Ogodei must have been weary and desperate after so long a ride, after such a bloody defeat, but he still fought like a demon. Not shrinking in the slightest he spurred his guards to a charge and immediately brought the battle to Vallabharaj Jasrotai's little tested guardsmen.



On that rough hillside Vallabharaj Jasrotai and Khan Ogodei did battle, fighting a personal duel amidst the hundreds of other men on the field while the cavalry mercenaries dealt with Ogodei's remaining infantry. Surely the Khan must have known many moments of terror, but his will to fight was undiminished.



General Jasrotai tried every trick at his disposal, every technique he had learned in battle school with his elephant. The beast took hold of the Khan's horse around it's throat, but the spiked armor saved the war horse from a broken neck.



Next the Rajput commander directed his war beast to kick the Khan from his horse. The Khan was an exceptional horseman, however, and despite suffering a catastrophically broken arm from this attack he held his seat, and kept command of his horse.



Looking around for the first time in many minutes Ogodei came to the realization that all the rest of his command had died, that only a paltry few of his bodyguards still defended him, and that the mercenary cavalry was starting to move back from chasing down routing Mongol foot to cut off the Khan's own retreat. At long last his will broke like his arm, and he made a panic driven attempt to flee the melee. Simple javelin mercenaries drug him down off his horse and held him captive, bringing the last battle of the Mongol War to an end.





Vallabharaj Jasrotai sent word to Maharaja Arjunavar the Cunning asking what was to be done with the prisoners, and the Maharaja sent back a simple note in his own hand stating only, 'Fulfill my oath.'





Two years later wise men of all faiths assessed the Rajput Horde as unstoppable, and destined to form a mighty empire stretching for the far east into Africa and Europe. When any man spoke of resisting the spread of the Empire another nearby would take him aside and say, 'You may fight. You may even win at first. And yet, what will you do when they send in the elephants? What, but die? No, no, go in peace my friend and be thankful the Maharaja is forgiving.'