Sikh War......coz I forgot the Figures!

 At Oldmeldrum Wargames Club we have lots of good terrain for games, which we keep at the club in the British Legion. However we don't have space to keep our figures which meant I had to humph mine down from my loft last night. It wasn't til I was laying out the figures for the next game in mini campaign that I realised I'd left a box at home.....the one with the mutineers in it 😫

Still I had the Sikhs instead so we improvised and the British found themselves facing down 2 units of Sikh regulars, a unit of Akali warriors and an artillery piece instead of the mutineers. What was going to make a bigger difference to this game, and the following one was that the Sikh players rolled decent stats for their officers, giving them a free re roll once per game and a free action for one of their units. All the British could muster was an inexperienced cavalry officer and a pleasant infantry commander for their BNC, BHA, HEIC Europeans and 2 units of BNI. 

Ross and Alastair commanded the British and started off in fine fettle moving across the table in fine form. The former taking the infantry down the right while the latter took the horse and gun down the left towards the Sikh held village, just over a river at the end of the table.  On they came in fine order, marching and trotting steadily, closing down the  distance to their objective...until the Sikh artillery, which had moved up to the rivers edge unlimbered and opened up on the Bengal native cavalry.  The first round of John's artillery crashed into them causing some fearful casualties and it went downhill from there. 

The 3 infantry moved up to the river and found the crossing contested by the 2 units of Sikhs commanded by Dave who had moved his men out of the village to oppose the British. The British took heavy fire as they approached, the pinning them  in place and it was the Sikhs who, making use of their free activation got the better of the firefight and crossed the river with bayonets fixed. They were supported by the Sikh artillery which has finished off the cavalry and were deprived of their own gun whose crew had been cut down by the rampaging Akali's. It was all over in an hour. John and Daves Sikhs had inflicted a heavy defeat on Ross and Alistair's British.

We still had time for another game from the campaign. So the table was swiftly rearranged and this time Alastair and Ross took command of a column of men marching across the table, British on the left under Ross and BNI and BNC on the right under Alistair, sandwiched between the two was their baggage and wounded. Their objective was to get off the table from the opposite end. Facing the, was an equal force of Sikhs. John had Akalis and Cavalry facing Alastair while Dave commanded his two Sikh regulars and an artillery piece against Ross's pleasantly led men. 

The second game was a close contest on the right. Alastairs men were able to see off the Sikhs and indeed were able to begin to sweep the cavalry round onto the opposite flank. General Smiley, aka Ross, wasn't having a good evening. Sikh musketry, bayonets and artillery had whittled away his force on the left and driven the remnant back on the baggage. Confusion reigned. Alastair's men moved through the train to try and stem the attack but it was to no avail and they too were hit hard. Dave seemed to have pleased the dice gods since last weeks poor showing. The Sikhs had won the day again, setting up the last game of the campaign.....a desperate last stand. But that will have to wait.

Figures from Foundry, camels from Empress. Wrong British used....compounding my earlier error I took my 1st Afghan War was stuff out of the box! A couple of topsy turvy games, but good ones😂

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) 

Sikh Wars Game

 An off the cuff colonial game at the Club last night as it was the first for a few weeks due to holidays. This gave me a chance to get my Sikh Wars figures out, although annoyingly I left the Akali at home!  I also got to put my rather nice village and hill fort on the table too which blended in very well with the mat and bases. 

We doubled up the sides, using two 24pt "brigades" each with their own commander per side. The Sikhs deployed first, occupying the fort and village and stretching across the table following the road.  A small number of Sikh regulars and guns were backed by tribal infantry and cavalry. The British were a fairly balanced force of European and Sepoy infantry and cavalry with a couple of guns. 

The game was fairly balanced, and at the mid point it could have gone either way, but with the failure of two units on the British right to activate the Sikhs were able to gain the upper hand and despite heavy casualties approaching 50%, were able to get a win.  A nice fun game! (Edit - The buildings are by the Colonial Steamboat Company and were an Xmas gift from my wife)

I think TMWWBK is a decent rule set, we missed the blunders and bonuses from Rebels and Patriots so may add them for future games. We also allow pinned units to retire a full move but retaining their pin instead of remaining in place - unless a unit is surrounded it does allow them to pull back this way and stay in the game. Finally we think artillery is just a little bit powerful and next time we'll reduce the dice from 4/8 to 3/6. 

Sikh Wars - Akali Warriors.

 Some time ago I bought a box of Sikh Wars figures from Graham Cummings. I have almost finished painting all of that little treasure trove and have been adding to it here and there and expanding into the earlier Afghan War of 1839-42. 

The most colourful figures in there were these Sikh Nihang or Akali warriors, clad in blue and yellow. Graham started off a couple of them and I've now finished off the rest of the unit. 

The Akali movement saw themselves as the armed protectors of the Sikh faith and used traditional weapons including sharpened steel quoits which were spun and cast towards the enemy. Their colourful clothing is depicted in several superb paintings one of which is shown below. 

These figures are from Wargames Foundry. Studio Miniatures also make Sikh wars figures but they are very tall 28's and sadly incompatible, I feel, with Foundry's well sculpted but smaller 25's. Iron Duke's Indian Mutiny figures also provide some useful figures and are much more similar in size to Foundry, albeit in a more dynamic and modern style, sculpted by Paul Hicks. These two ranges will provide what I need to finish this project, supplemented here and there with choice bits like the Carlist Wars Rocket Battery and plastic Afghans from Perry and the Afghans from Wargames Atlantic. 

 For The Men Would Be Kings, this unit of tribal infantry will be Fierce. It will lead from the front, for at the time of the Sikh wars the Sikh leadership saw them as a group of fanatics who should be allowed to sacrifice themselves and thus rid them of potential troublemakers.

We've already had a Sikh Wars game at Oldmeldrum and have another one planned this week. I've made up a campaign which I hope to run shortly and I understand that the Quartermaster in Chief has spoken to the Colonial Steamboat Company and some scenery is under construction for Xmas delivery. See what you started Graham!😁

Before I sign off, some 18thC news. My mojo has much returned of late and I'm now all but finished Against Spain. Proof reading highlighted some changes that were required and a few tweaks were needed to the scenarios. Stay tuned!