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! 

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.

19th Century....some Mutinous Chaps....and a familiar Character

I've finished basing my mutiny figures now. A mix of Iron Duke and Foundry - the latter on a cardboard shim to lift them just a little bit higher to match the slightly taller Hicks sculpted figs. 

These are a unit of the Iron Duke mutineers - with  flag I found online. They'll take the field on Tues evening at a club game.

I also came across a 19thC civilian who reminded me of a well known whisky logo.... Meet Sir James Walker, Her Majesty's Agent At Large and commander of the Moray Militia in the recent unpleasantries with Russia*. Also known as Johnny to his friends. 

*more of this to follow at a later date!

Sikh Wars - Follow up

 Thanks for the kind comments regarding my last post.

I tested positive for covid on Sunday but between sweats, sniffs, coughs and splutters I have managed to do a little bit of painting and basing.

First up were some old glory Sikh's. Not as nice as the Foundry figures, nor the Studio miniatures range, but the same height as the former and so able to fit in and flesh out my my army. I painted these almost exclusively with citadel contrast paints, (trousers and metalwork were normal acrylics). I think they've come out pretty nicely. 

OG Sikhs, with Foundry Officer

I also managed to do some baggage camels. These are Empress Miniatures and very nice indeed. They too were given the contrast paint treatment - aggaros dunes as the base, with iraqi sand from Vallejo to lighten them up. Baggage was a mix of contrasts and acrylics. This give me 8 elements of baggage in total for my NWF/Indian armies. I think I will add a buffalo cart and bheesties which will make it a fair size and appropriate for the location - trains were often as large or larger than the armies they accompanied and in several cases were not large enough even then to provide the food and fodder required. For this reason they are an essential feature of armies in these areas. 

Whist raking around for more bits to add, I came across a signed copy of Donald Featherstone's book - The First Sikh War - on evil bay, so that got snapped up. He responsible for me taking up wargaming as his book "Wargames" was in my local library as a kid. I've never looked back.  It's nice to have this connection.

I have started to paint some of the Empress/Iron Duke sepoys. This will give me a further unit in shakos and also a unit of deserters....or mutineers. Sepoy uniform didn't change at all from the 30's to the Mutiny and that means I have a ready made army to start cover the first outbreaks and battles around Delhi. For the British units in shell jacket and cap from Sikh war ranges are fine, but even that semi formal uniform quickly gave way to improvised affairs. The Mutiny seems another period crying out to be gamed using TMWWBK - so I will!

Size Comparison - LtoR - Perry Afghan, OG Sikh, Empress Sepoy, Foundry Sikh, Empress Nz War 

(Although the foundry figure is smallest, his base is very thin and with a shim underneath there is next to no difference between OG, Foundry and Empress)