Third Indian Mutiny Game Using The Men Who Would Be Kings

I played another Indian Mutiny game yesterday using the Badli-ki-serai scenario from the Colonial Conflicts scenario book. The scenarios use The Men Who Would Be Kings rules, but can be used with any rules set. I highly recommend the scenario book for anyone interested in playing games set during the Indian Mutiny, This battle was the first encounter between the Mutineers and the British column headed to retake Delhi. The Mutineers built a barricade linking a village and an old serai (a walled caravan stop), barring the way to Delhi. The British attacked in 3 brigades, 1 in front and 1 on each flank. The scenario required the British player to roll to see when the flanking forces would arrive and he kept this information secret from the Mutineer player. I played the Mutineer commander and, as it turned out, my opponent rolled the worst he could roll for his strongest infantry brigade. They would not appear until turn 6. That left him with 2 infantry units and 2 guns to demonstrate against the full Mutineer line while he waited for his cavalry and infantry flanking forces to appear. My opponent did a good job keeping the Mutineer line tied down and manged to destroy 1 artillery piece. On turn 3 his cavalry brigade arrived. It was not allowed to contact the Mutineer on its entry move, but on the next turn it routed 2 mutineer infantry units and a gun, attacking from the rear. Meanwhile, the British frontal force made a slow but steady advance and on the 6th turn the flanking force of Gurkhas, 60th Rifles and Bengal Europeans entered the table behind the serai. The Gurkhas and Rifles quicky pinned the defenders of the serai and the Bengal Europeans assaulted the building with the cold steel. It was an interesting and entertaining scenario and I look forward to playing through them all.

"About Raglan" Variant for the Crimean War?

I have been collecting 54mm miniatures for the Crimean War and I would like to use the "About Bonaparte" rules. Can those of you familiar with the rules suggest changes for the period? Russian infantry appear to be very similar to their Napoleonic counterparts: poor leadership, poor shooting and the almost exclusive use of the attack column formation. The British also seem similar to their Napoleonic ancestors. Some, but not all, of the regiments were armed with the rifled musket, so I would need to increase their range. They used the two deep line again. Their generalship was definitely worse than in the Napoleonic Wars. Any other thoughts?

Thanks!

Must see : Alte Fritz his Battle of Khartoum in 54mm

In the Caliver Books : WARGAMER'S ANNUAL 2021: LOCKDOWN BUMPER SPECIAL, I came across an articel with this impressive game by Blogger Alte Fritz.

https://altefritz.blogspot.com/2020/09/the-battle-of-khartoum-54mm-toy-soldier.html?showComment=1609099319644#c7822306956292688787

His buildings and terrain are excellent. and he refers to "Kingdom of Wittenberg blog" for how to learn to make buildings.

Just enjoy the 54mm eye candy!

Dirk

Zulu to Dayak Conversion

 I've wanted to set some scenarios in the Borneo of the 1840s. It's a period familiar to my European friends through the adventure novels about the Malay Pirate Sandokan. I already have a collection for the period in 28mm, but I think the period calls for the drama of 54mm. I noticed 1 pose in the A Call to Arms Isandlwana set that seemed like a natural for conversion to a Dayak warrior with a Sumpitan, a native blowpipe, so I decided to see how much work it would be to make the conversion. I learned a lot in the process. First, I carefully cut the rifle out of the Zulu figure and replaced it with a piece of brass tube. I chose brass as I didn't want the pipe to bend and crack the paint. It was easy to make a hole in the mouth of the Zulu and insert the end of the tube. Next I cut off all the cow tail arm and leg pieces. Then I used two part epoxy putty to sculpt a sarong and long hair. I now know I should have trimmed the Zulu loincloth first, as the sarong is too thick. I will make that improvement next time. Last I added a Barong dagger tucked into the waist sash and a feather borrowed from a plastic American Indian figure. I used the illustration in the Osprey Queen Victoria's Enemies (4) Asia, Australia and the Americas as a painting guide. Now I just have to make 9 more! I will be using a combination of Dorset Moro warriors and DSG pirates for the Malays.

Fenian Raid Remote Game

Originally posted on the Facebook A Gentleman's War Group: Inspired by Ross Macfarlane's reports of battles along the US Canadian border, I collected enough Fort Henry Guard figures to try out a Battle of Ridgeway game with the addition of unhistorical artillery and cavalry on both sides. I played remotely with David Smith, a retired history teacher and wargamer who has written several articles on the Fenian Raids. I used TSATF rules, since we both know them well and I thought that the way in which the majority of hits result in wounds would better mirror the historically low causality rate of the conflict. The two sides were evenly matched and that resulted in both sides trading volleys behind stone fences. The cavalry played no part and the artillery was pretty useless until the last turn when David put my artillery piece out of action with 2 hits. We called the game in the Canadian's favour after the Fenian's sustained 27 casualties, 9 of whom were KIA. You can see I recycled my ACW "Ragged Rebs" for the Fenians, only adding some green Fenian flags. I thought the contrast between the varied action poses of the Fenians and the stolid poses of the Canadians worked well. I used big white casualty rings so that David, who was playing the Canadians, could be them on his screen. 1 ring signified a wound, 2 a kill.