The Khalsa Part 2

Khalsa Cavalry, Gorchurra and the irregulars

The Khalsa regular cavalry were trained by veteran soldiers who had military experience in European wars.  Accordingly, they could carry out all of the evolutions and manoeuvres expected of their European counter parts.  There were three branches of the Khalsa cavalry, cuirassiers, dragoons and lancers all fully and appropriately equipped.  They could be supported by Khalsa horse artillery.

The Punjab was horse territory however the numerous and more socially prestigious Gorchurra seem to have had their pick of the horse flesh available.  The Khalsa cavalry chose from what was left.  It also seems clear that the cavalry was the least prestigious branch of the Khalsa.  This inclines me to rate them all simply as regular – if you disagree upgrade or down grade some of them.

Unit	Armament	Combat Die	Defence Die	Short Range	Medium Range	Long Range
Cuirassiers	Sword	D10	D6	-	-	-
Lancers	Lance	D10	D6	0-1	-	-
Dragoons	Carbine	D8	D6	0-1	2-3	-
Dragoons	Carbine	D10	D6	0-1	2-3	-

The Gorchurra were the nobility and gentry of the Sikh kingdom and their immediate followers.  They were well equipped, often armoured and sometimes rode barded horses.  Their weapons were of good quality and included lances, swords, axes and long Jezzail like matchlocks.  They were all excellent horsemen.  

Before Ranjit created the Khalsa they had been the mainstay of the army and with the Alkali its battle winners.  Their favoured tactic was to wear the enemy down by firing from the saddle in a skirmishing or caracole fashion followed up by a fierce charge.   

Such tactics were less effective against European regular infantry who could both out shoot and out range the Gorchurra.  That said there is no reason to believe that a new tactical repertoire was adopted and so my Gorchurra may both charge or skirmish or both if they carry matchlocks.

The question arises of how to model the effect of armour in respect of the wealthier Gorchurra and Khalsa cuirassiers.  Plainly this is an advantage in melee and we should also note that even unarmoured Gorchurra were reported by British cavalry as very difficult to hurt as they leaned over their horses presenting only a thick turban and a shield on the back as a target.  A unit of Bengali irregular cavalry proved to be the British exception (as Brent Nosworthy noted) and caused havoc among the Gorchurra with their razor sharp swords.

Unit	Armament	Combat Die	Defence Die	Short Range	Medium Range	Long Range
Fully Armoured	Lance	D12	D10	-	-	-
Armoured	Matchlock	D12	D8	0-1	2-3	-
Unarmoured	Matchlock	D10	D6	0-1	2-3	-

Let’s look at the remainder of the irregulars now.  Many of them had previous military experience and all owned and practiced with weapons. For convenience I have divided them into matchlock infantry and melee infantry in reality the division would not have been so hard and fast.  Also it seems a good place to include the camel gunners.

Unit	Armament	Combat Die	Defence Die	Short Range	Medium Range	Long Range
Matchlock men	Matchlock	D8	D4	0-2	3-4	5-6
Swordsmen	Sword	D10	D4	-	-	-
Camel Guns	Up to 3lb Gun	D8	D4	0-3	4-5	6

There are a couple of points here that could be reflected in the rules to add flavour when gaming Sikh War battles.  I'm minded to adopt the following:

• British cavalry,except lancers and a single unit of irregular cavalry, are down 1(in FOB terms) in melee against Gorchurra or Cuirassiers
• The Matchlock was clumsy compared to the Musket so down 1 (FOB again) for all firing

Finally a word on the Sikh command, treachery only infected the highest level of command below that officers were as able or otherwise as in any other professional army.