Once More Beyond the Khyber

A cheap and cheerful British Expeditionary Force for TMWWBK action beyond the Khyber Pass.  All 15mm from Irregular.

Here are the Highlanders, there will be three units of them.

A gun.

And of course, Bengal Lancers.  

The Afghan resistance are provided by Irregular and Minifigs.  

Those Lancer figures would be ideal for Fayne's Horse in the Opium War.

Bengal Lancers

Soon (ish) we will be off to the North-West Frontier with TMWWBK and so I invested in some sight unseen Irregular Miniatures Bengal Lancers.

I almost always like to see before I buy but Mr Kay does a good pugaree, perhaps the best, and so I took a chance.  I’m glad I did as I find these little fellows full of character.  Here they are and I hope you like them.

Next, we return to Natal. By the way, and not entirely off topic, Queen Victoria had a dog called Looty, from the Hindi "Lut" meaning plunder.  Not many people know that.  Could that be Michael Caine behind the binoculars?

The Rani Knows All

It is the Rani’s policy to extend her protection to all of her subjects.  When the sepoys arrived, she took great care to preserve Krishnapur’s Parsi money lenders from their avaricious attentions.  Her consideration was much appreciated, and she made it plain that a steady flow of accurate information would be an appropriate recompense.  To seal the deal and to tie them to her cause she has borrowed heavily, the interest is ruinous but the sowars and sepoys must be paid.

Now she knows the British are coming and she determines her strategy.  She will send all of her Sowars and her cavalry guard to repel Hope Grant’s* force before he can do too much damage.  In the meantime she summons the priests and imans of Krisnapur, she is owed military service by her zemindars and intends to raise her army.

Separately Akbar Khan will take the Sepoys and some artillery to intercept General Rose. You can see the Rani giving a hearty Shabash!  While Akbar jollies the boys with a rousing speech.

The cavalry will rendezvous with Akbar who will assume of all of her forces and fight a decisive engagement.

In the interests of size comparison let's have a closer look at the Sepoys.  Irregular Miniatures on the right and Dixon on the left.  Very mixable.

* She's not quite up to speed.

Folorn Hope

General Hope Grant feels his orders are too restrictive, denying him the ability to act on his own initiative.  He does not want to inflame the Pandies by being seen to withdraw from engaging them.  That said he will scrupulously obey orders and can take great satisfaction in the retribution his column will deal out to the natives.

His force consists of:

Hodgeson’s Horse, a Sikh formation perhaps more committed to loot than battle. 

A British Battalion, still musket armed.

A battalion of Punjab Sikh's likewise armed with musket.

At his own request, he is accompanied by a single battery of artillery.

The guns will slow him down but could be decisive should he meet serious opposition.  On the eve of departure orders arrive requiring him to attend on Sir Colin Campbell immediately.  Bereft of Hope,  General Rose entrusts the mission to Brigadier Wilson.

Rose’s Column

The great thing about wargame campaigns is that you can pick them up where you left off and let the story continue to unfold.  So after a lengthy break the Rani and her would be nemesis General Rose are up in arms once more.

General Rose has two units of cavalry one of Sikh’s and one of British regular lancers.

He is well provided for with two batteries of artillery.

His infantry consists of three battalions of British regulars and one of Sikhs and a Ghurkha battalion.  All of the British are armed with rifles giving them greater range than their opponents.

In his train are the engineers and pontoon boats essential to his mission and he is well supplied with rations for the journey.

Standing orders dictate the cavalry are to screen, probe and seek to detect any sizeable enemy presence along the route.  The column is to march each day before dawn to maximise speed. 

I bought and painted some new toys for the game which you will see as we proceed.

General Rose’s Gambit

It was fair to say that General Rose had been unlucky so far.  The troops called him the accursed Rose. That he was plucky no one doubted and so when it was decided that the Rani must be taught a lesson his eagerly offered services were swiftly accepted.

It was a daring plan; a strong force would bridge the river protecting the Rani’s capital Krishnapur and establish a bridgehead on the far side.  This would be re enforced and then the city subject to storm and sack.

There were problems, patrols had been unable to penetrate the strong screens of Mutineer cavalry and intelligence was contradictory.  No one was sure exactly where the Rani’s main forces were.  The danger was that Rose would be caught on the march and the pontoons and necessary boats destroyed or immobilised through loss of draft animals.

Clearly what was required was a strong cavalry force to prevent the column being surprised.  With adequate warning, the firepower of the column’s guns and new rifles would see off any assault.

To help things along General Hope Grant would feint to the north dealing out retribution as he went.  Thus, causing uncertainty among the foe and perhaps making them divide their forces.  

If General Grant met with over strong opposition he was to withdraw.

A City for The Mutiny and beyond

After much enjoyable reading and a few games I came to the point where I wanted to game the sieges and street fighting that characterised much of the war to re subjugate ‘The Jewel in the Crown’.  That meant scratch building a city and after a bit of research I decided foam board might do the trick.  Now it’s time for a disclaimer I had never attempted modelling on this scale before and I knew it would not match the work of the true artists in our hobby.  That said the finished product has attracted some kind words and I’m happy with it.

All in all, the entire project including material and tools cost me under £30.00 and that is pretty competitive so long as you have the time for the work.  Also there was a learning curve that has equipped me for my next building project – The Great City of Tenochtitlan.

So now I have a city which will serve as the fictional Krishnapur*, Delhi (though it’s the wrong colour) Kabul, Herat and at a push the Crusades and Muslim Spain.

Here it is.

The whole thing is modular so it can be put together in a variety of ways even to create a British Residency (of sorts). 

Best of all everything was designed to hold at least one unit and in some cases more.  No more sighing as defenders hurl themselves backwards from the parapet having lost their balance.  I might add a fourth wall as its currently the table edge.  Also for Kabul I need to make some compound walls favoured by wealthier residents.  The is a small voice in my head saying Sevastopol but I’m ignoring it.

A final photo of the city as Krishnapur.  That bridge needs more work.

* From JG Farrell’s great novel The Siege of Krishnapur.  

Indian Irregular Troops in 15mm

Variety, they say, is the spice of life and some of us prefer it in our miniature armies too. Here are some figures from a variety of Manufacturers that could turn up in Indian irregular units. We'll start from the left and work our way right just like HG Wells.

First base Irregular, ERM and Irregular again, Second Black Hat, Third ERM, Fourth Dixon, Minifig, Dixon and the last base Two Dragons. 

Six command figures the first three from QRF the last three from Black Hat.   The latter are on deeper bases so please allow for that. 

 

The Khalsa in 15mm Part 1

We are going to look at some of what’s available in 15mm and for the regulars of the Khalsa that means QRF, Irregular and Black Hat.  The photos can speak for themselves for those of you thinking of a Sikh collection. When we get to the irregulars we can spread the net a little wider.

The QRF are the 20? year old Steve Shaw sculpts - very elegant.  Irregular are a recent range, good clean lines and as far as 15mm turbans go Ian Kay must be the prince of pugarees.  Black Hat is the newest and most comprehensive range - great detail and lots of variety of figures. 

QRF sell their infantry figures in packs of eight, Black Hat retail ten infantry and five command per pack respectively and Irregular sell individual figures. For cavalry QRF are four to a pack and Black Hat five with three for command.  Prices at the time of writing are fairly similar.

Infantry

Let’s start with the Khalsa regular infantry and the good news is that the three ranges are compatible as we can see. There is no problem in mixing and matching any of these. 

QRF, Irregular and Black Hat

 Artillery
The guns next. Here is a Black Hat cannon with a QRF crew next to an Irregular Persian gun and crew. 

This substitution is because I do not yet have their Sikh one and the figures, apart from the hat, are very similar. Black Hat also offer two gun crews (Foot and Horse) and QRF have some nice guns - all work well together. The Black Hat cannon is a must have in my view and I keenly await their Sikh 6pdr.

For  convenience let's do the camel gunners here as well.  

Irregular Persians are standing in for their Indian ones, QRF Moghuls and the Black Hat Sikh.  The latter is too small for me and does not have a camel gun.  He would be OK with Peter Pig Sudanese Ansar and I think that is where he is going.

Next time we will look at the Khalsa cavalry and command figures.

The Rani Strikes Back

The Rani or was she a Begum? Saw the Mutiny as an opportunity to redress the many oppressions and exactions put upon her and her people by the Company.  As a hereditary prince she could rely on the support of her people if she went to war.  Gallant horsemen would follow her banner and her tripartite guard of hereditary soldiers, oath bound Ghilzais and Baluchi swordsmen would fight and if necessary die for her.  Her artillery though was ancient and probably could not be moved from the city walls.  Latterly the Wahhabis of the city had offered themselves as holy warriors willing to destroy any Ferenghees she cared to name.  All in all, it was not enough and as a British column approached with the intention of garrisoning her city she reviewed her forces.

Unit	Armament	Combat Die	Defence Die	Short Range	Medium Range	Long Range
Matchlocks	Musket	D8	D10	0-2	2-4	4-6
Ghilzais	Jezzail	D12+1	D10	0-4	4-6	6-8
Baluchi	Swords	D10	D8	0-2	0	0
Wahhabis	Swords	D10	D8	0	0	0
Zemindaris’	Carbine	D10	D6	0-1	1-2	2-3
Zemindaris’	Carbine	D10	D8	0-1	1-2	2-3

The long range Jezzail of the Ghilzais would be an advantage and from behind the walls her matchlock men would fight effectively.  The Baluchi and Wahhabis would charge bravely but without artillery there was little hope of success.

Then the Sowars and Sepoys entered the city proclaiming their allegiance to her family and begging her to lead them against the British.

 

Since their leader Ahmed Khan had looted the treasury before leaving his life with the Company the Rani graciously accepted the money and his services and decided to fight.

Unit	Armament	Combat Die	Defence Die	Short Range	Medium Range	Long Range
Sowars	Carbine	D10	D6	0-1	1-2	2-3
Sepoys	Musket	D10	D6	0-2	2-4	4-6
Sepoys	Musket	D8	D6	0-2	2-4	4-6
Battery	9lb Smoothbore	D12	D8	0-5	5-10	11-18
Battery	9lb Smoothbore	D12+1	D8	0-4	4-8	9-16

The Sepoys and Sowars were trained soldiers and the artillery men were perhaps more skilled than the British. Still she would take no chances.