Saturday, July 14, 2012

The Battle of Assaye






Expatriot Mercenary General Gorman leads the Tippoos troops on the field of Assaye. The elephant palanquin is just slightly out of shot, my apologies.

Uwe over at History in 1/72 may be interested in Seringapatam, I on the otherhand am rather more interested in the Battle of Assaye. Wellington once described as the victory he was proudest of, which means something from the chap generally accepted to have won the Battle of Waterloo (quiet at the back Hofschroer) .

I've been tinkering with ideas for scenarios set during Wellington's campaigns in India for a while now, so I finally sat down and put a scenario down on paper.

Those of you who have been reading for a while, know that I had something rather special planned for the 12th of July. Sadly, that has had to be postponed and as a result, along with being called to court at short notice, I was in a foul humour. I was contemplating a evening spent profitably kicking the cat and glowering at Mrs Kinch, while denying that anything was wrong. Then Gorman suggested that we might have a game after all. Savage came along as well along with Tootsie, that's Mrs Savage, and she and Mrs Kinch repaired to the kitchen where they smoked and do whatever it is that women do when they could be playing wargames.




Rather magnificent Mysorean rocket artillery from Uwe, painted by Krisztian. I keep toying with special rules for these chaps, but at present they're just standing in for artillery.

So we played a lot of games, did justice do some of General Gorman's port and finished off my remaining stock of Asbach Urband. The Peninsula games I'll put up in due course, but I was most pleased with how the Assaye games went. We used the rules I'd sketched out previously and a map I cobbled together from a mixture of Weller and the Osprey. We used my fictional Khala-akatans to stand in for the Maratha's. The games went well, with the honours even at two victories a piece. 

I will need more cavalry however.


More of Uwe's crew, this time manning monster gun - I presume a Revell knock off, as it was originally in a box of Mars 17th century artillery

The British won by a greater margin, but I've weakened their forces somewhat to make it a little more even and hopefully with some blind playtests it might be fit to see the light of day. Drop me a line in the comments box and I'll send you a copy, just let me know how it turns out.




 The British centre looking decidly thin - I seem to recall I lost this one.

It was a good night and all the better for being unexpected. I'm much more confident about my scenario designs that I was a while ago, where I suspected it was more a sort of black art that I didn't really understand. Which I suppose shows that nothing beats doing a thing.

And we will get to the Boyne. 


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

4 comments:

  1. Seems interesting and I believe I could sub in my CCA persian blocks and be able to play straight up - Maybe use Portugese blocks for the core units so the no VP units stand out..

    I'm keen to get a copy. However with a baby due in the next three weeks I'm not sure i can promise to play test. Maybe solo?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Conrad Kinch,

    It is interesting to see 1:72nd-scale figures in use on the C&C:N board. I have used my equivalent BATTLE CRY and MEMOIR '44 boards with 15mm-scale figures, but had not thought of using my larger scale figures.

    I will now!

    All the best,

    Bob

    PS. Interesting scenario, by the way!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hey I am interested in Assaye too!!
    At the moment the regular Sepoys for Scindia are with the sculptor and next will be EIC light cavalry.

    This battle is really impressing with a colourful Indian army beside regular units.

    Just one question is still open. Had the 78th Highlanders a kilt and bonnet as some sources suggest and as it is shown in the Osprey campaign, or did they had the usual British uniform for India - white trousers and the hat?

    I used the Strelets British infantry for the 74th Highlanders at Assaye.

    cheers
    uwe

    ReplyDelete
  4. One can sympathize with the Glowering plan but Assaye seems like a damn fine alternate.

    Glad to see this emerge actually (now I don't have too...). It certainly looks good. There is a lot to be said for 4 man units when kicking something like this off.
    's math sin.
    Ross

    ReplyDelete