Another Mutiny Game

 I had the chance to play another Indian Mutiny game on Tuesday night at Oldmeldrum Wargames club. The Osprey blue books make for good off the cuff games and as my stuff was still sitting out of storage it was easy to put on a game. 

This time the defenders were the Mutineers and it looked like the British, were poised to roll them over from the very beginning. 

However Dave was able to get his men into cover and turn to face his attackers and it was then that both sides realised they had the same weapons and were facing soldiers as well trained as each other. Sending in the HEIC Europeans, whilst the Loyal Sepoys worked round the flank, Ross faced off a charge from some Badmashes and took casualties which whittled down his men.

Dave then launched his cavalry hoping to break the British line. Two charges were needed, but the aim was achieved and one of the European units was sent scurrying to the rear. However the cavalry were now themselves vulnerable and were charged by a unit of Loyal Horse and Ross was able to restore the situation. 

Ross's Sepoys seemed reluctant to advance against their former colleagues failing several activation dice and, now in musket range, the Europeans were suffering badly as their shots were unable to tell against the   Rebels. Taking another volley they were down to the last man. 

Whilst waiting for the loyal sepoys to come up, Ross had put his CO in with his cavalry and now sent them in against the Mutineers. It didn't go well and they were forced back, but worse still the officer was down and his force was now without a senior officer. 

By now both the Mutineers and the British had lost two units, the latter all of it's European men. The Mutineers were in good cover and I'm good order though slightly weaker than the Loyal Sepoys facing them as such they could probably hold their own and so with the darkness of the end of the game falling we decided to call it there and allow them to slip away into the night....

We really enjoyed this game, a more complex battle than initial deployments and points suggested it would be. TMWWBK has a way of not letting you get your own way and out games have always been fun. 

We don't have individual unit commanders as we tend to play with two or three aside and so allow for one officer with traits per player. To compensate we allow 7 to activate units. Another house rule is that a pinned unit can retire without having to make a rally check, if it has a clear path. This allows units to get back out of range and recover without always being whittled down on the spot. Of course if the unit is within range it can still be shot or attacked so it's no guarantee of safety! We also brought in the blunders table from Rebels and Patriots....because we miss it and with less characters on the table it's good to have those random factors without the hassle of remembering who has the best moustache or is the generals nephew! 

Project Alma - Crimean War Rebasing 2

 I don't like basing stuff....meh! 

But it needs to be done and I want to all to match when it is done. So this is a slog (for me at least).

Russians textured, just need flocked. I'm short of some guns for my Cossacks so will get that sorted and since the British have staff the Russians should get some too.

By happy coincidence each unit of Russians has a stand of skirmishers which makes it look like they are at least trying to deploy them!

The British need their bases textured and I have flags to fit to the Highlanders and Guards. That's todays job.

The Brits have riflemen as their skirmishers. Both sets are really well animated and even if they play no part in a game are nice to have even as scenery! 

Indian Mutiny Game - TMWWBK

An Indian Mutiny today with John and Eric from Banchory. Nothing fancy about the scenario - a British column trying to break through mutineer lines to reach Delhi. 

The British had 2 units of HEIC Inf and a unit of Loyal Sikhs, supported by a gun faced down 4 units of Sepoys supported by their own artillery piece. This being an early period game, all the units were armed with muskets rather than the new Minie rifles. John led the mutineers while Eric took the company forces....it was going to be a long game with both sides ebbing back and forth. Both were reinforced by a unit of cavalry and further infantry...but neither side were really able to win the day. In the end, despite taking the hill before the town, Eric was forced back to his start line while John was unable to muster enough men in his remaining units to be able to press home an attack without destroying his forces. 

We decided to end the game "as dusk fell" - the British retiring to await further men and the Sepoys falling back on Delhi during the night, thinking their job done.

Figs are from Foundry mostly with a few Empress miniatures in there too. I've glued thin cardboard slips under the former's bases are enough to bring them up to the same height as the taller Paul Hicks sculpts but otherwise they mix really well. The Sikhs and British foot have Empress command. The skirmish bases are from Warbases.

Rebasing my Crimean War Figs - Project Alma

 Some time ago I read Matakishi's Blog article about his Crimean War project. I've already based my 16thC figures on the 80x60 units bases which he uses for his projects. I am a big fan of Neil Thomas's books and have amended his Napoleonic book rules into a set which gave some good games. My Crimean war figures were individually based and as the collection grew this became a bit clumsy. I was using movement trays and things were getting fussy...

And I want to do a big Crimean war game for my Birthday in July. 

Put all that together and there's a big case for rebasing. So I went for it. 

My British will be the Guards Brigade, the Highland Brigade and two line regiments and the 95th rifles. Supporting them will be light cavalry in the form of Lancers and Hussars along with several guns. 

Facing them are 3 brigades of Russian Infantry, 12 units in total , with Skirmishers, Cossacks and Artillery in support. 

The infantry will be two stand units, each of 6 figures for the British and 8 for the Russians to simulate  their bigger units. Cavalry will be in two stands of 3 and one gun will represent a battery. Skirmishers will be units of 6, but these will be based on 3 round bases of 2 figures. 

I have enough figures to do all of the British, albeit I need to paint two units and I am short of some of command figures for the last 3 Russian infantry, but that's very easily fixed. My figures are a mix of Warlord plastics for the Russian infantry and Great War for most of everything else. 

For rules I will either be sticking to Neil Thomas's 19th C set or I will take Rebels and Patriots a little bit off piste and and use the units in there as regiments - this partly influenced the number of figures on my bases. Originally my units were 12 and 18 strong, 16 is the size of a large unit in R&P, so easily accommodated. I like the activation rules and the blunders in R&P and while the Crimean war may not be that rule sets intended scope is it smack bang in the middle of its range. Homemade rules are a third option.

I know the Russian regiments were much much bigger than the British. But this disparity in scale is lost by the execrable performance of the Russian army. Their big units on the table are still a threat, because they can soak up damage allowing them to close and they are supported by some decent quantities of artillery. The challenge will be in their deployment. The British command is poor - their challenge will be activating to defeat the larger number of Russians before they are overrun. Well that's my hope - I'm keen to see how it plays out and if it goes well I may fill out the Armies to include British heavy cavalry, Turks or French and some Russian Hussars and Dragoons and do Balaklava too. 

(I am also keen at some point to use the Russians against 1848 Hungarians, Neil's rules make this very do-able....but more on this another time...I'm sworn to secrecy!).

So I plan to have the figures finished by the end of April and terrain ready by the end of May. I need some slopes but have plenty polystyrene to use. I have buildings and everything else. 

This week I've painted 5 guns and crew and finished painting the 42nd highlanders. Not a bad start...one British regiment to go and then I need to do a LOT of basing!