Camel Rocketeers

A Camel Rocketeer

Illustration from Charles S. Grants and Stuart Asquiths

"Wellington in India: A Wargamers Guide"

I recently bought a copy of "Wellington in India: A Wargamers Guide" from Caliver Books. What you get for your money is a potted history of Wellingtons campaigns in the Mysore and Mahratta Wars, some uniform details, three scenarios and a set of rules.

The rules are different from the usual Grant fare as they use a roster system and are consciously modeled on Paddy Griffiths work in Napoleonic Wargaming for Fun.

One of the disadvantages of having the Memsahib back in the establishment is that there has been return of certain aspects of domestic tyranny. No longer may Kinch leave coffee mugs around the house with gay abandon or wander trouserless and free, thinking deep thoughts in the secure confines of his own home.

A welcome aspect of this is that I have had quite a build up of paperwork over the last few weeks and Mrs. Kinch is good at keeping my mind on the matter at hand. She ruthlessly cleaned some toy soldiers out of the drawing room when it looked like they were distracting me and has promised a bounty (there was mention of her famed chicken and ham pie) upon completion.

It was during a brief break, made all the sweeter by being illicit, that I came across the gentleman above. The text asserts that rockets were an integral part of the Mahratta military system, but several key questions were left unaddressed.

Did the Johnny on top dismount from his camel before loosing off rockets at the foe?

If he didn't dismount, how did he stop the camel afterwards?