Well it was quick and very bloody and a little anti climactic. 12 turns in 30 minutes which would have been 20 if I hadn’t had to keep reminding myself of how the rules work. [long time reading - first time playing]. Somehow the gloss has gone off solo play these days.
Captain Napier plus six soldiers and the two Weatherby-Blythe girls entered the table on a mission to recover Mrs Fanshaw’s best hat before the beastly mutineers could get their grubby paws on it.
Mrs F’s bungalow had been randomly surrounded by groups of militant soldiery (represented initially by playing cards) and the playing area divided into 6 outer zones and 1 central zone containing the bungalow and the hat.
Night had fallen. A dice roll determined that Napiers force came on in zone 3 and their arrival caused the playing card for the zone to be immediately revealed. If the card had been a black suit then Napier would have been unopposed but it wasn’t it was red with a value of 5 - meaning 5 sepoys had been surprised by the groups arrival.
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| Not exactly fair odds as it turned out. They probably should have tried the “hug it out” strategy. |
Despite Napier having a number of initiative advantages over the leaderless sepoys they unexpectedly got to go first - shouting angrily as they moved towards the imperial interlopers. Note - All firearms start the game unloaded, the Sepoys weapons by omission and the imperial troops by design. Any gunshot would alert the entire mutineer force to the interlopers presence and cause them to move towards the sounds location.
The mutineers moved into contact with Napiers men and sprang straight into melee. Despite being outnumbered they put up a stiff fight. On the right of the imperial line Havildar (Sergeant) Kuldip Singh barely managed to parry his assailants bayonet while in the centre the extra imperial numbers and the poor training of the sepoys caused the mutineers assault to only cause the death of one defender. The only other person to come a cropper was Captain Napier who went down with a bayonet in the belly.
The imperial response was swift and deadly. Havildar Singh knocked his assailant to the ground with his rifle butt and finished him off on the floor while the other troops in the centre quickly overwhelmed the remaining mutineers.
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| Dukin’ it out mano a mano. |
Kuldip, now in command, ordered his force to close up and consolidate near the corner of the bungalow. Once everyone was in place they rushed over the balcony railing to find…
A black card indicating no one was in the building!
The hat was quickly located and since they could now return across an uncontested route it was pretty much game over. As it turned out they had a very lucky set up since post game I turned over all the cards to reveal that there were 21 other enemy soldiers in the zones adjacent to them. Captain Napier was pretty far gone when his men found him but they managed to drag him back to the district office compound where he became the first occupant of the defenders impromptu field hospital.
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| Salisbury House - district office for the Honorable East India Company at Jullundpur. The tented area on the left is the impromptu field hospital. Occupants 1, staff 0, medical supplies erm… 1 x packet of Bile Beans and a jar of camphorated oil. |
Mrs Fanshaw was presented with her hat and she tried to hide her displeasure at the way it had been crumpled as she boarded the last passenger carrying boat upstream to Lucknow.
Results wise the imperial side scored 20VP for getting the hat back off the board and a further 10VP for killing 5 mutineers. For their part the mutineers scored 10VP for “killing” Captain Napier and 2 points for the poor Sikh fella they chopped up.
I call it a resounding win for the forces of the white queen though I suspect Captain Napier’s family might view things differently.
And so dear reader there are two life lessons for you in this little game, firstly “never volunteer for anything” and secondly, “no good deed goes unpunished”.
Take heed.
So the game was a bit disappointing over all but fortunately the real excitement of the day came about from a late visit to Carrefour.
My letter last year to President Macron bemoaning the sorry state of France’s crisps brought about the immediate release of curry flavour. Now they have gone one step further and doubled down with…
Clearly, when the honour of France is at stake anything is possible.
Walkers…you’d better pull your finger out.
Next battle report will be the siege of Salisbury House.
Toodleooh.