The Battle of Naushera

I picked up this up from Robert over at the Wargaming Command Post.  I've had a copy of "The Sword and the Flame" for quite some time, but have never actually sat down and played a game. Tim Tilson's book covers the First and Second Sikh Wars and is a bit of departure from The Sword and the Flame's comfort zone as it takes place in the first half of the Victorian era rather than the more typical second. The units are smaller (eight men as opposed to twenty) and there a couple of special rules (pausing to reload muskets being a notable one), but the bones of the game seem relatively intact.

Now as it happened, I don't have the figures to do the Sikh Wars and probably won't have for quite some time. Formerly this would have been fatal to the prospect of getting any games played - however, I fell in with young Unlikely McKenzie while returning home from evensong and he pointed out that there was a considerable overlap between the Sikh campaigns and the rise and fall of the Princely State of Kaala-Akaata.

I was pondering this with some skepticism when he produced a copy of "With Fire and Sword in India: battles and skirmishes with the Irish Brigade in the states of Chintal and Kaala-Akaata" by Sir. Felbrigg McKenzie. On leafing through this delicate hardback, I discovered that there were considerable similarities. Douglas very kindly loaned me the book (I believe the author is a distant ancestor) and I intend to read it further. In the mean time, I learned of the battle of Naushera which occurred between the forces of the state of Chintal and the Rajah of Kaala-Akaata in 1818.

A somewhat fanciful depiction of the battle of Naushera

Taken from "With Fire and Sword in India: battles and skirmishes with the Irish Brigade in the states of Chintal and Kaala-Akaata" by Sir. Felbrigg McKenzie.  

"The battle of Naushera was a product of an expansionist impulse in the princely state of Kaala-Akaata. There is little doubt that while the Rajah himself was no enthusiast for military adventures, he considered them  preferable to unrest at home.  In the autumn of 1814, Belit Rao, a great favourite of the Rajah's seized the city of Halla from the Rajah on Chintal.  The Chintalese unable to resist the steady European trained infantry of the Kaala-Akaatans and the considerable siege train surrendered. In the intervening years, the city was taxed heavily and in the Autumn of 1818, Rao ordered that the city be illuminated in his honour on the occasion of the Royal wedding. Rao departed the city to attend the festivities taking a considerable number of his infantry with him.  The inhabitants of the city seeing their chance rose in revolt. 

The revolt was led by Azar Khan, a nobleman who had raised a Corps of Ghazi from his Mohammedan co-religionists.  These had been driven beyond endurance by the exactions of the Rajah's tax collectors coupled with the insults of the apostles of the Weasel God, who were to exert such a baleful influence on the history of the state. 

Belit Rao returned at the head of his army to find Azar Khan occupying entrenchments outside the city.  The Rajah of Chintal had made no attempt to relieve the rebels as it was believed that he did not wish to attract the ire of the Kala-Akaatans before he could be sure that uprising would succeed. 

Belit Rao, who was a whiley strategist, had hoped to delay attacking the defences outside the city as his siege train had yet to arrive. However, his army was accompanied by a number of Sredni-Vashtar cultists who began to speak loudly that Rao was secretly in league with the Rajah of Chintal and that this was the cause of the delay.  Rao who had  been warned that he might be murdered in his tent began a precipitate and  sanguinary attack."  

    

The Unlikely Douglas McKenzie moving his troops forward

With the War Room out of commission and with a special dispensation from Mrs Kinch, I set up in the kitchen, extending the table with some small tables that I generally use for painting. The Unlikely Douglas McKenzie took the part of the rapacious Kala-Akaatan's while I commanded the Chintalese.  McKenzie refused his flank and decided to concentrate his forces on my left hoping to punch through the entrenchments on the heights.

McKenzie's cavalry thunders forward

Overall with a little care, we found the rules worked well.  The card activation kept things moving along and the shooting was interesting.  The chances of a hit were quite low, but those hits that occurred could be game changers. Tom Tilson's book uses eight man units, which means that carrying wounded isn't really practical, though we found that the melee, which is particularly bloody, made for some interesting game play choices.  We particularly liked the rolling to charge and rolling to stand mechanic. A game we'll play again I suspect.

I had expected to find using single based figures annoying, but the game moved so quickly that it never really became a factor.

These are poor camera phone snaps as I was too occupied with the game to dig out my camera. McKenzies cavalry have advanced in a hail of fire from the Halla militia, which levelled almost a complete squadron. However, the second line swept over their entrenchments and put the defenders to flight.

The Kala-Akaatan cavalry exacting a fearful toll

(Zvesda Turkish lancers, though we counted them as regular sword armed cavalry)

We discovered that units on the flanks are particularly brittle as they run towards the nearest table edge and this means that they often have no chance to rally. Unfortunately, those cavalrymen swept into the militia unit beside them and in the process unhorsed Azar Khan.  Records are sketchy and it is not believed that he survived the battle.

At this point, McKenzie had pierced my line and his regulars were beginning to get uncomfortably close to my militia. Not only that, but on turn three, two units of Sredni Vashtar cultists jogged forward from his back line (Lord knows where they had been before that, probably pulling the legs off spiders or something) while my Ghazi's were proving elusive.

Good-byeeee!

Rather concerned by the appearance of the red clad cultists, my militia and artillery hammered them causing an unlikely number of hits and sending them scurrying for the rear. Unfortunately there were also rather a lot of regular infantry left...

...and my army failed it's major morale roll which meant it couldn't move.

The Ghazi arrive

With my left flank almost completely smashed, I managed to get my Ghazi on the field. They attempted to close with McKenzie's regulars who were crossing my defences. Sadly, it proved too little too late as McKenzie's regulars dropped their muskets and closed with the tulwar.

The struggle rages back and forth

Unfortunately, McKenzie's regular managed to overcome my Ghazi who were pinned by another failed major morale roll. It was a savage combat that cost him one of his regular infantry paltans (battalion), but left my reinforcements either dead or fleeing for the rear. 

The Kaal Akaatan guns see the threat...

....but too late, my cavalry manage to sweep toward and wipe out the undefended guns. Both batteries were taken one by my cavalry and one by counter-battery fire. 

A close range firefight

With my Ghazi's nearly broken and McKenzie's regulars in my entrenchments, the battle degenerated into a vicious close range firefight that ended when he managed to convince his chaps to charge and finish me. When we counted up the victory points at the end, it was closer than I anticipated - 8-6.  

I enjoyed the game and would definitely play it again - though I wonder what it would be like with fewer, but 

larger units.  We finished up by cleaning the table as Mrs Kinch had made a magnificent Sunday roast which we made short work of.  The rest of the evening was spent in convival chat.  During which McKenzie mentioned that he had recorded another HP Lovecraft story, in this case "The Nameless City". Should you care to listen to it (and you should it's rather good) you can find it here.  

This must be Holland

Is that a windmill? We must be in Holland. 

Du Gourmand and I are working on organising a games day for the 8th of June. We're hoping to get three games in during the day, each of which will be a full blown eight player Command & Colours Napoleonics game,. 

Rigorous research

At present the three games are code-named Not-Quatre-Bras, Not-Ligny and Not-Waterloo. We won't be cleaving too closely to the Hundred Days, just using it as a loose framework to hang our games on. We'll be taking the opportunity to use the new Russian rules, in the absence of the Prussians, so there's been quite a bit of basing at my end - while Du Gourman disports himself and reads popular novels. 

Painting corks - it turns out Kristzian knew what he was talking about

These are some Hinton Hunt Russians that I'm based up for the big game. We haven't worked out exactly how big it will be in terms of units, but it should be reasonably hefty. I normally work on the basis that a battalion commander generally has three companies to worry about and he never really thinks much lower than platoons, so the ideal number of units a player will handle will be about twelve before things get confused or forgotten. 

We're hoping to put three good scenarios together within the limits of the figures we have and the terrain that's available, but the rough outline is a French army advancing into Holland in 1813 in order to smash an Anglo-Russian alliance that is supported by a British amphibious expedition.  

I'm drafting some maps and resisting the urge to fill them bumper to bumper with troops. 

More Russians

Astute readers will be able to spot some Strelets Grenadiers, Hinton Hunt infantry, ESCI Crimean infantry and some Elheim reconaissance troops. I don't think they'll be joining the coalition against the Corsican Ogre somehow.

I'm quite looking forward to this as it's good to be my own man again, now that my exams are over. 

The Reluctant Schoolboy

School Boy by Albert Anker

I'll be dissappearing for a little while as I have an exam next week, that I haven't done half enough work for.

See you all on the other side.

Monday Papers: Part the Fouth

Resurrection Men

 "Resurrection Man" is an obsolete term now, thank God, but it is still one that interests me. I first heard it when my father described the Robert Louis Stephenson story "The Body Snatcher".  My father and I have a particular affinity for Stephenson which coalesced mainly over Treasure Island which was a particular favourite.  We both still maintain that all really great books contain a map.

I recall in my mid twenties, the particularly shocking moment, when Dad having told me that it was time for me to inherit his collection of Stephenson's, brought me down to the library that he kept in the basement and we discovered that it had been burgled.

Boris Karloff as the eponymous Body Snatcher

I have slowly begun to reconstitute that library which has been a wonderful opportunity to re-read those Stephenson's that I had forgotten. Re-reading "The Bodysnatcher" brought a classic horror film to mind. Boris Karloff is often only remembered today for his portrayal of Frankenstein's monster, but I think his performance in this RKO classic is as fine a thing as you could find.  A compelling testament to the power of pure acting ability.

It has occurred to me that being an archaic term, Resurrection Man requires some explanation. In the early 19th century, there was a serious shortfall in the number of cadavers required for medical training and no legal way for medical schools to get their hands on bodies for the teaching of anatomy. As a result, there grew up an illicit trade in body snatching, where grave robbers or "resurrection men" as they were known would steal bodies to supply the medical schools.

Two Irishmen, Burke and Hare, are the most famous examples of the breed - though to be fair they were not representative. Grave robbing was a comparatively minor crime at the time and Burke and Hare decided to cut out the middleman and began to indulge in a spot of murder, sixteen in total, to supply their customers.

Resurrection Man is also the name of a powerful novel by Irish crime writer Eoin McNamee about the Shankhill Butchers, a particularly nasty chapter in our history. McNamee is a fine writer and his prose has a sort of hallucinatory clarity that I always find compelling. He's written several other books of Irish crime and is well worth tracking down.


May the Fourth be with you. 

There's been something of a celebration of Star Wars online over the last few days which is no bad thing.   I rather like Star Wars, at least the first three films. They have a bravura and sense of old fashioned story telling that is completely lacking in the second three.  I think the problem with the second set of films is that they set out to be good Star Wars films rather than good films or even good science fiction films. There comes about where the entire enterprise becomes so self referential as to be completely pointless.

What is definitely lacking is the edge present in the great Space Opera that inspired the films.  The "planetary romance" has a bit of a bad name in science fiction circles, but I think that there is a lot of fine work in that field and none better than that of Catherine Lucille Moore.  CL Moore wrote some of the finest science fiction that I have ever read and some of her best tales concern Northwest Smith, a Sam Spade of the Spaceways, who slouches through a Burroughsian Solar System with a heat ray on his hip.

Probably the best known of her stories is Shambleau, which isn't available online, so you will have to track a hard copy down.  This is high quality story telling in the old style, told with a lightness of touch and eye for human folly that leaves it as sharp and surprising as it was when it was first written.


Tradition

The Phoenix Park Murders

Terry Eagleton is an odd fish, I often disagree with him, but his concision and most of all his humour would make it a sin to deny him a hearing.  I read him recently and came across the following passage, which I rather liked.

"The Kantian imperative to have the courage to think for oneself has involved a contemptuous disregard for the resources of tradition and an infantile view of authority as inherently oppressive."

There's quite a bit to be said for that approach to my mind, but today I observed a tradition that is a little odd. It's not a tradition of my family, but rather of Mrs. Kinch's.  On the the sixth of May 1882, an ancestor of Mrs Kinch's was working in the Vice Regal Lodge in the Phoenix Park, when a group of men known as "The Invincibles" attacked Lord Frederick Cavendish and Thomas Burke, slashing both men to death with surgical blades.   Burke was the intended target of the attack and the attackers were eventually caught and convicted, through the work of Superintendent John Mallon, and several were hung.

Mrs Kinch's ancestor observed the aftermath and helped carry the bodies inside.  Curiously enough, he then returned to the site and cut a small cross into the turf and marked it with a flower that he had taken from the lodge. On the anniversary each year a member of the family returns (I suspect a few have been missed) and places a flower on the spot.

This year, I have been deputised.

Flowers from Mrs. Kinch's Garden

There is official site marked with a small cross of white stones, but family legend places the actual site some distance from there. I sloped up to the Park and paid my respects to Lord Cavendish and Mr. Burke this afternoon.

Basing Cossacks

Precious little Wargaming being done at the moment - but I did get a first coat of paint on the War Room and started basing some Cossacks that that I got from Krisztian some time ago. 

A spot of Napoleonic Russians rather than Cold War chaps - back to normality. 

Interesting Find

I found this in second-hand bookshop yesterday.  I think it will prove useful in my cold war games.

Midnight in some burning town

Capability Savage contemplates how he is going to move his drinks cabinet six feet closer to Moscow

This was a game played a couple of weeks ago now, mainly as an exercise in working out how Savage Worlds could handle modern (post '45) combat.  The scenario was cribbed from the Force on Force supplement, Cold War Gone Hot, and was called "From Afghanistan with Love". The scenario showed a Dutch unit (I substituted my Brits) defending a hamlet against a platoon of Russian Motor Rifle Infantry.

The mention of Afghanistan in the title is a reference to the fact that the Soviets are using a tactic called the "Bonegruppa". While Soviet infantry were expected to dismount and frontally assault on foot over the last 300 yard from their transport.  In Afghanistan, the BMP's would drop the lads off and then flank the enemy position while the infantry assaulted.  

The scene - a crossroads petrol station somewhere in the Low Countries

The buildings are some Dapol plastics that I bought from a chap already assembled and more normally seen on model railway layouts. The petrol station is a surprisingly robust card kit again meant for model rail roaders assembled by young Savage. 

The figures are a mix of Elheim and Liberation. 

Can we spot any Imperialist dogs in the town?  I guess not. 

The Soviet flanking force move in, but fail to spot any of the British infantry skulking in the hamlet. 

Plan? I don't recall there being a plan.

A lone Russian is pinned down by fire while the rest of his squadmates dash for cover

The Russian plan was a simple one, they would attack on three sides, with two dismounted infantry teams attacking from the south and the west, while the bonegruppa moved in from the east to support the advance with fire and gun down the fleeing NATO troops if they decided to bug out. 

Villanous LeGlace checks his copy of the rules

"I'm not normally a praying man - but Comrade Stalin if you can hear me..."

Soviet infantry plaster the yellow Dutch house with fire

One thing we quickly learned about modern weapons in Savage Worlds - if you can see it, you can probably kill it. In some ways, I don't think the system is particularly well suited to infantry firefights with automatic weapons, however, I think we may have found a solution that particular problem. 

A lone British officer staggers out of the house rocked by gunfire and explosions

Meanwhile a sniper (artistically balanced on the cinema pot) keeps the Russian infantry (out of shot to the right) pinned, while he picks them off. 

Soviet infantry move forward through the woods firing as they go. 

The Soviet infantry assault is going rather well here, the same could not be said of the attack elsewhere. 

Villanous LeGlace moves his Soviet blocking group of armoured personnel carriers

Du Gourmand suddenly realises that LeGlace has mixed up his left and his right

That's some really tempting side armour you have there old chum

Capability Savage notices that LeGlace has moved into line of sight of his Carl Gustav team and opens fire. The rocket glances off the vehicles armour in a particularly unlucky fashion, but causes some damage and panicks the crew. LeGlace guns it and accidentally exceeds the vehicles top acceleration, forcing him to make a driving check. 

Which he fails. "You just can't get the help these days," thinks Du Gourmand.

LeGlace blows his driving roll causing the vehicle to fishtail wildly, striking the gentlemen's convenience immediately outside the petrol station and then carrying on. There is then a brief flick through the rules, while we discover what effect the collision has on the vehicle. LeGlace was apprehensive, but we soon realised that bricks and mortar couldn't harm the BMP beyond giving the crew a bit of a shake.

The Fallen

Urrah!

Meanwhile the advancing Russian infantry had wiped out the defenders in the petrol station in a flurry of grenades and move forward to clear the place out. 

The surviving British infantry decide to make a run for the table edge, dropping smoke to cover their retreat. 

The Soviet infantry give chase

A brutal close range firefight ensues

The British attempt to dive for cover into the house and manage to scramble through the windows. 

Unfortunately, the Soviet squad pursuing them hit the deck 

while LeGlace's BMPs have finally made it to the ball. 

Note the BMP on the left (partially obscured) which has been gaily knocking down trees and continued to do so, once LeGlace worked out how the collision rules worked.

Sadly for the forces of the Free World, the lead BMP fired it's machine gun and Grom 73mm cannon into the building and that did for the rear guard. The seven survivors scarpered off the table edge. 

The Platoon commanders BMP (still covers in the remnants of a Gentlemen's convenience no doubt) proceeds in triumph down the road. 

This was another proof of concept game and we learned a lot. 

- When playing Savage Worlds with miniatures and modern firearms, the table represents such a small area that if you can see it, you can probably kill it. 

- Vehicles are not difficult to run under the rules. We slowed up quite a bit at first, but once we got the hang of things, LeGlace's Soviet BMP driver was running things over like a....Russian driver?

- Grenades are fantastic in assault. This should not have come as a surprise. 

- Simply plonking figures down on the table a la a regular wargame is not going to work. We need to take a serious look at how the rules for notice function. Everyone was using cover, but concealment is going to have to be looked into. 

- Suppressive fire was always non-existent, mainly because the men had point targets almost all of the time. As General Du Gourmand put it, "Why scare him when I can kill him?"

- Man packed anti-armour weapons are extremely nasty in Savage Worlds. To be honest, any armoured vehicle that is finding itself on the same tabletop as hostile infantry is already too close. 

We will be approaching the next game differently.