By Jove it’s Bundooks & Bayonets

I intimated last time that this post would be about the currently unloved ginger headed step child of my collection, ie my 100YW collection, but sadly, I lied.

Instead, and perhaps in compensation, I bring you some Indian Mutiny fodder. 

They say you can’t polish a turd…which is undoubtedly true, but you can of course always roll it in glitter - which is the approach I’ve just taken with a set of rules I wrote last year for the Indian Mutiny. They were almost erm…good. Almost. Tantalisingly close in fact…but while I grew disillusioned with them I failed to delete them off my computer in my usual fashion.

Which has been a blessing.

Because after months of dicking around with published (and very well regarded) rule sets, I’ve finally circled back to mine and might, just might, have something I’m happy enough to play actual games with. Are they perfect…nope…but they’re close enough for a paddy as my racist father would have said. 

To be clear the journeys been a long one on this particular front, and my experiments to date have included, 

1. The Men Who Would Be Kings. Great for general cinematic colonial adventures (which I love) but they really shine when fighting uncountable waves of savages who are happy to feed themselves into your Gardner guns arc of fire armed only with a kiwi fruit. 

2. The Sword and the Flame. Very old school (50yrs?) As difficult to get your hands on as a pair of elephants testicles, but once I had them I found I hated the close combat rules. Doh.

3. Sharpe Practise 2. An excellent set I cant honestly criticise. Sadly there’s too much detail in there for my drug befuddled brain to remember. It served as a constant reminder that I really am losing it and sort of took the fun out of proceedings. 

4. The Devils Wind. Sorry but I can’t get past that it sounds like the aftermath of a bad jalfrezi. 

5. Fist Full of Lead Bigger Battles. Almost. Almost. Probably came to these too late. I’ve now grown weary of roster sheets data cards and some of the more « amusing »  character traits ascribed to colonial officers. 

So then back to my own buggers muddle, my Frankenstein like mishmash of stolen ideas and ill thought through game mechanics. They’re probably crap…but they’re my crap…and if I really can’t recall the specifics of the terrain section on page 3 of 3 then I probably ought to accept that it’s over, call the nurse, and ask for the bedpan. I’m now on version 1.2 and the titles changed from “I don’t like it Sergeant - it’s too quiet”, through “Never mind the Bundooks” to “Bundooks and Bayonets”. They’re hex based, D6 ers, fire tables free and counters light (or lite as my American reader would have it) and they don’t contain nuts. 

Handsome fella ain’t he! Chat GPT knocked 15 years off my life and dressed me up as a colonial British East India Company officer which was jolly nice of it. Oh bless…look, actual hair on my head. I do miss you hair…Please come back.

My mutineers suffer from older weapons than their European opponents, fragile morale, and poor command and control, but they do not lack for pluck or intelligence and their greater numbers can often swing things in their favour.

Here’s a test game I ran with them last week.

The Indian forces surrounding Somerset House have set up several guns to bombard the defenders into submission. 

The 64th have exploited the breakthrough at the Mansanar bridge and the 1st platoon have advanced to within several hundred yards of the Somerset House perimeter. Their mission was to destroy the gun battery and seize or destroy two piles of supplies that the besieging force have looted from the EIC armory. Unfortunately their advance has not gone unnoticed and even as they close on their objectives a detachment of the 28th Native Infantry have been sent to block their path.

Three twelve man sections of the 28th Native Infantry advance to stop the company men in their tracks.

The card activation mechanic kicked the British in the teeth from the get go. A joker meant a random event and the 1D6 roll of 5 saw a conflict of interest arise within the Sikh troops on the right flank. They buggered off on turn 1.

Just as the normally doughty Sikhs were off to the shops the left wing of the Indian force benefitted from a double activation and made it to the camp full of arms and ammo. All they had to do now was hold against erm…well…erm, zero opposition.

In the centre of the field and advancing on the dug in cannon, men from the 64th press forward, backed by the forces command group. Each section has an nco that does all of the real leading. The command group act as a potential rallying point for figures that rout and ensure that the kettle is on at all times. 

The British capture their left flank objective while the Indians charge bravely at them. The Brits operate in 8 man sections and the natives 12 man sections. Two native sepoys were shot at close range (there is no wounding in my rules only “out off the fight”). If you think that might be an abstraction too far, I challenge you to pick yourself up and carry on fighting when a 30gram lump of lead has just hit you at 1000 ft per second. Yeah, thought not. The two guys with the yellow counters had near misses and are “shocked”. In the end of turn morale check they ran for it and the still intact group of four in the neighbouring hex followed in their wake since routing has a negative effect on those in neighbouring hexes. The British lads behind the crates will need to spend a turn reloading those muskets if they wish to fire again.

Having tested the musketry rules I moved over to the centre of the field for a shufti at the morale section. The Indians here have charged into a hex containing four British soldiers and due to some excellent  die rolling “slotted” all four of them. The other four British soldiers have turned to face them and would have no doubt avenged their comrades had not my builder turned up to give me a quote. 

Everything worked out very satisfactorily, so if things continue to go well with the testing I’ll jump back into my Mutiny campaign and finish it off (it’s only been a year since the last update) lol. 

In other news, no sign of my blue moon ECW lads (old glory UK seem, erm, a bit “laid back” shall we say about sending stuff out. When I contacted them last week by email I got a “oh yeah, I was going to get in touch and let you know I didn’t have one of the packs you ordered - any thoughts on what you’d like instead?” Despite my prompt return email, they’ve still not turned up. Sheesh…you’d think I lived in ruddy Kathmandu.

Catch you on the flip side.

The dust up at Mansanar bridge

In this scenario the British need to capture the bridge across the Mansanar canal since the road across it gives the most direct approach to the besieged defenders of Salisbury house. 

In real life the mutineers beat the Crown forces on a number of occasions but were always hampered by poor command and brittle morale. In this battle I’ve attempted to reflect that - the mutineers have a bigger force, but, if the British actually get on to the bridge they will consider the engagement lost and immediately melt away.

They have deployed in a fairly random fashion around the canal bridge, intent only on creating a blockade of the garrison at Cawnpore. Morrisons mobile column trying to actually break out from the town comes as an unexpected surprise. 

All figures are Empress Miniatures 28mm and the rules used were The Men Who Would Be Kings. The British have 9 turns to capture the bridge before retiring to look for an alternative crossing point.

T1. Frobisher’s platoon enter on the lower edge of the board, moving at the double despite the heat. Ahead of them Mountjoy’s cavalry troop ride along the flank to flush out any hidden mutineers.

T2. Mountjoy’s troop find nothing to disturb the infantry as the canter past several potential ambush sites but just as they prepare to swing in towards the bridge itself…blammo… In the last position on this side of the board the dice revealed a platoon of the 28th Native Infantry who’d heard the cavalry coming. Mountjoy (whose die generated trait was short sighted) had succeeded in finding the enemy, though sadly with the loss of several of his troopers. The fire was from long range, so Mountjoy could not order a charge or return fire (he couldn’t see who was shooting) and instead ordered his men back the way they’d come.

T2. The men of the 28th let fly in a slightly uncoordinated fashion with their obsolete muskets, and cheer as several cavalrymen fall. 

T2. Secure in the knowledge that no enemy is present on their right flank the men of Urquhart’s platoon advance on the bridge along the central road - led somewhat superfluously by Colonel Morrison on his mighty steed - Maximus. 

T3. With their running shoes on (Urquhart is a fitness fanatic) the platoon managed to keep up with the colonel on his horse until they crossed the hump in the road and discovered mutineers on the ridge to their left.

T3. Oh bugger! A die roll revealed both potential ambush sites on the leftmost ridge contained mutineers. In the Indian turn the cannon and the shako wearing elite of the 28th fired into the British on the road. 

T3. The cannon fired and scored several hits. The chances of the leader going down are slim (a double 1 is required) so I rolled for it…and got… a double 1. Was this the end for colonel Morrison? Nope. The trait he’d rolled before game start was bulletproof bumbler so he could ignore the first hit. Perhaps the round shot took off his hat? Despite the musket fire from the soldiers on the hill he waved his sword and twirled his moustache to inspire the soldiers now pinned on the road. 

T4. Yet more of Urquhart’s men fell to musket fire and they became pinned again but the colonels moustache twirling was impressive enough to prevent them from running. Fearing for his short sighted leaders reputation Daffadar (sergeant) Kuldip Singh grabbed Mountjoy’s horses reigns and swerved the troop over the brow of the ridge towards the hurriedly reloading cannon. During the Indian portion of this turn another unit (of irregular horse) is activated on the bridge itself. All potential starting points have now been diced for so any unrevealed Indian units from their force pool can only enter the game from the far side of the canal.

T5. The Indian horseman charge off the bridge into the unsuspecting flank of Mountjoy’s troop. Brave Daffadar Singh and several others go down under the slashing tulwars but the fight doesn’t go the mutineers way and they are forced to retire. The rules allow for cavalry follow ups in this event so trying to catch up with some blurry figures he assumed to be his own men Mountjoy thunders close behind, his remaining troopers in tow. A second contact and skirmish causes the Indians to flee still further. 

T5. Still trying to catch those he assumes to be his own men Mountjoy makes it onto the bridge. The mutineers let out a collective moan of despair at the sahibs disregard for life and limb. Assuming he is protected somehow by the white queens magic they throw away their weapons and scatter. 

Game over and won within 5 turns! 

For a solo battle this turned out to be quite entertaining. I was convinced that the British would lose given the force disparity and the early casualties which pinned the assault force in place. The flukiness (is that word?) of the actual win and the fact that colonel Morrison should have been killed (except for his crappy character trait) made it a good, if fairly short, run out. 

So then the road is now open and Morrison’s mobile column is primed for a rapid march to Salisbury house. 

I think that calls for a quick huzzah don’t you? And perhaps a gong for Lt Mountjoy?

Huzzah!

Toodleooh. 

Morrison marches forth

Readers will recall that the redoubtable Mr Morrison sent me 36 beautifully painted Empress Miniatures (1st Madras Fusileers) last year, which acted as a massive boost to my nascent Indian mutiny project. The lads were accompanied by a mounted officer whom I’ve named Colonel Morrison in his honour. The following game will be his first run out using The Men Who Would Be Kings rules. 

The story so far. 

Indian mutineers had risen up in the fictional town of Jullundpur, forcing a small garrison of the 64th and the Weatherby-Blythe family to seek refuge in the Salisbury House EIC compound. Captain Lawrence of the 64th, disguised as a woman, managed to slip through the mutineer lines in the back of a cart and raise the alarm at Cawnpore.

Despite the rebellions occurring all around them, General Wheeler (officer in command) felt his position was quite secure and he ordered Colonel Morrison to form a movable column in order to relieve the Salisbury House defenders and return with them to the greater safety of the Cawnpore garrison.

The movable column is an adhoc force comprised of the 1st Madras Fusileers escorted by several troops of irregular cavalry. Morrison’s intention is to secure the bridge over the Royal military canal at Mansanar and reach Jullundpur in a rapid 3 day march. Other crossing points of the canal are available but securing any of those instead will lead to unacceptable delays and stiffening resistance. 

The scenario

The action is centred around the seizure of the bridge across the canal at Mansanar and the following 16 point British force is pitched against a defending 24 point Indian mutineer force. For easy of play all Indian units are led by officers with no traits and have a standardised leadership value of 8+ while the British units had the diced for characteristics as follows. 

OC - Colonel Morrison: “Bullet proof bumbler” (sorry Aly) Leadership value 9+. Luckily for him, if not his men, this Jonah leads a charmed life. Re roll (once) every successful leader casualty he falls foul of. 

Colonel Morrison - will add +1 discipline to any unit he is attached to. 

1st Platoon, C Company, 1st Madras Fusileers: Captain Frobisher - Fine swordsman. Roll 2 extra dice in melee. Leadership 5+ (very good).

Captain Frobisher - flashing blade extraordinaire.

2nd Platoon, C Company, 1st Madras Fusileers: Lieutenant Urquhart - Jolly sporty. This unit may add +2 inches to any at the double actions. Leadership 7+

Lieutenant Urquhart - All those hours spent at “rugger” are about to bare fruit.

2nd Troop - Prendergast’s Irregular Horse: Lieutenant Mountjoy - Short sighted. Cannot give order to charge or fire beyond short range. Leadership 7+

Lieutenant Mountjoy - What enemy? Where? Are you taking the pith (helmet). 

The British may enter anywhere along the leftmost board edge, though I’m minded at the moment to try a run along the bottom of the picture. No point engaging everything on the table, what! 

Special scenario rules

There are 12 possible locations for enemy units to be encountered, each will be diced for / revealed when line of sight is established. Any units absent from these positions will automatically appear beyond the bridge at location 12 which will always be the last location to be revealed. 

The British need to have a unit on the bridge before the conclusion of turn 9 to secure a win. 

All retreating Indian units must fall back towards or across the bridge. 

All stands of jungle terrain are impenetrable and block line of sight.

It is hellish hot (and not a dry heat either, lol) so all British infantry lose 1 inch movement / activation.

Any Indian defenders will immediately disengage and retire if a British unit makes it onto the bridge. 

Okay, I’ll be giving this a bash in the next day or so, so I’ll try and produce the batrep before month end - with any luck.

Toodleooh. 

P.s. if anyone knows where I can get my mitts on river terrain at least 15cm wide I’d be grateful of the heads up. I made some myself but it really didn’t cut the mustard. 

The siege of Salisbury House

I played a game the other day that went undocumented on the blog but the upshot of it was that the British retreated to the safety of the Salisbury House compound and sent out a message asking for help from the Lucknow garrison (Captain Lawrence disguised as a native and hidden in the back of a cart). 

The next game involved an attempt by the mutineers to storm the compound and was played over a week ago. Although I’ve lost my notes the following pictures will hopefully give a flavour of the action. The rules used were The Men Who Would Be Kings and all the miniatures are Empress 28mm. Both sides started the game with 25 point forces and the winner would be who controlled Salisbury house itself after 9 turns.

First up - a view of a part of the compound which is assumed to extend off board in several direction but is bounded in its entirety by a 12ft high rendered mud brick wall. Seen here are the main entrance (centre) and the tradesman’s entrance (snigger snigger) on the right.  The modular perimeter wall was badly and hurriedly scratch built but serves okay for now. In the background is another bungalow, to the left a tented field hospital and in just behind the wall in the foreground a walled croquet pitch.

I think this shot was taken around turn 2. The sneaky sepoys used a cannon to blow a hole in the perimeter wall - only to discover a British cannon looking back at them. Several waves of sepoys attacked the main entrance, the tradesman’s entrance and the left most portion of the wall itself. 

The defenders of this portion of the compound were two platoons of the 64th Regiment, a 9lb artillery piece and a platoon of Sikh Police. The Sikhs covered the rear of Salisbury house while the gun and the two platoons of the 64th covered the front. Despite complaints from the ladies the 64th took up a defensive position within the walled croquet area and made a right mess of the lawn as a result. 

Backs to the wall… Thankfully the battle was paused at this point for several hours while the servants came out and removed all the unsightly rubble from the smashed wall. Good job everyone.

The sepoys attacked from four directions, through the hole in the wall, below…

A mob entered via the tradesman’s entrance (sorry I still want to snigger) and tried to get onto the croquet lawn.

Began climbing over the wall itself…

And even snuck into the compound from the off board right flank. Definitely not cricket.

After some horrendous sepoy losses, they managed to secure the bungalow and control of the croquet pitch. 

The forces of colonial oppression still occupy Salisbury house, so they won, but the 12 wounded European soldiers that were the cost of holding off the horde are now being treated in tents that are constantly under desultory fire from the bungalow. 

Meanwhile, 40 miles to the west a small relief column under a colonel Morrison has been despatched from Lucknow. We can only hope he arrives in time! There’ll be no bullying off for the final chukka until the mutineers can be cleared from the croquet pitch, that’s for sure.

And finally. 

I’ve had a blissful three weeks or thereabouts without exposure to any news or current events. I strongly recommend it. Apparently the world still turns without me worrying about it. Who knew? No mushroom clouds on the horizon so all must be okay.

Music is and always has been a great soother of the noggin. Painting the Empress miniatures was largely accomplished while listening to an Indian themed sound track. Here’s an example which you won’t like and will skip out of after the few bars but which greater minds than mine have described as the best Beatles track they neither wrote or performed.

A bit of Tatva…

And this which is just a great laugh as well as a great song…

Look after yourselves mes amis.

Mrs Fanshaw’s hat - game report + exciting crisp news

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. 

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. 

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. 

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.

Mrs Fanshaw’s hat

I’m spending way too much time doomscrolling at the moment and sadly this has induced the grey chicken of despair to resume pecking away at the old noggin. As a counter to this I’ve resolved to severely curtail my screen usage via phone TV, iPad etc, which is probably a bit radical, but if it reduces my exposure to a very crazy outside world it will no doubt prove helpful. In accordance with this initiative I’ve turned off comments on the blog for now lest your witty observations lure me back to the demon screen in one form or another. Again we’ll see how that works out. 

So let’s get back to wargaming which is after all what you came here for. 

The first game to be played with my new Indian mutiny toys is about to start, and since it is a small affair that does not lend itself well to The Men Who Would be Kings, I will be using a set of Victorian themed skirmish rules originally intended for the Steampunk genre. 

So it’s the 10th of May 1857 and we are near the made up town of Jullundpur which is half way between the real life towns of Lucknow and Cawnpore. 

Jullundpur is a no account market town sitting astride the last navigable portion of the Gumti river. To the east of the town is the barracks of the East India Company’s 28th Native Infantry Regiment and to the west of the town a walled compound containing the East India Company’s district office and telegraph station.  There are very few Europeans in residence other than families linked with the administration or the military and they mostly live in company bungalows sited close to the district office. Chief amongst those civilians are the family of Sir Charles Weatherby-Blythe - the East India Companies district head.

Though it’s only May it is already intolerably hot and an atmosphere of sullen disaffection has descended on the natives, fuelled in part by the weather and in part by the rumours that a great rebellion against the sahibs might soon be in the offing. 

On Sunday the 3rd May Mrs Fanshaw noted in her diary that after leaving church…

“Indian soldiers, used invariably, on meeting any ladies or gentlemen, to salute them in the sepoy fashion, by just putting their hand to the side of the hat or cap, whereas these men did nothing but point and laugh at me amongst themselves, while talking a great deal together in an undertone, keeping seated on the ground the whole time. My mind misgave me - it appeared very ominous of evil.” *

Countdown to disaster - (semi historical fluff)

1) 8th May. Two platoons of Her Majesty’s 64th Regiment of Foot march into Jullundpur, escorting a covered wagon. The wagon holds two sealed crates that are quickly spirited away into the basement of the district office. The crates contain 3000,00 rupees - the yearly pension/ payoff for the areas former Raja.  (This is a LOT of money for the time but the 87 year old does have 14 wives, numerous concubines and a very hungry elephant to maintain). Naturally enough native eyes observed the crates being unloaded and it didn’t take long for speculation to run amok in the marketplace. 

2) 9th May. Listening to market gossip the sepoys of the 28th become convinced by agitators that the crates delivered to the district office contain bibles. They suspect that the European soldiers of the 64th have been sent to disarm them and forcibly convert both hindoo and musselman to Christianity through the power of their holy books.

3) 9th of May (evening). When the rumours that something bad is brewing become too loud to ignore Sir Charles Weatherby-Blythe visits the ex Raja and his nephew to determine their continued loyalty to the crown, (resolving to hold onto the pension money for now as a bargaining chip). 

4) 10th May. Colonel Thompson orders the 28th to parade in order to scotch their recent complaint that the cartridges they’ve been issued have been greased with pig and cow fat. Fearing the parade is actually a pretext for a gathering in which they will be forcibly disarmed the men refuse to attend. Colonel Thompson and a coterie of officers ride to the barrack area to remonstrate with them. Swords are drawn, shots are fired. The colonel and his officers are cut down. The men, now unconcerned by the nature of the grease on their cartridges, go on the rampage in the town, looting and burning anything or anyone of European origin. 

5) 10th of May (afternoon) News of the rising reaches the ex Raja and his nephew. Sir Charles Weatherby-Blythe who the two are currently entertaining is “detained” for his own safety.

6) In her husband’s absence Mrs Weatherby-Blythe takes charge. Major Ashcroft of the 64th agrees to move his force into the district office compound and then sends armed groups out to bring in food, ammunition, and any vulnerable civilians they can find.

The game

So this is where we’re at. As fires rage in the town - the newly arrived civilians are escorted onto boats where they’ll be sent up river to the safety of Lucknow. The only fly in the ointment is Mrs Fanshaw’s best Sunday hat that’s somehow been left behind in all of the confusion.

A daguerreotype showing the handsome Mrs Fanshaw and her hat.

Knowing that Mrs Fanshaw will probably refuse to leave without it, Captain Napier of the 4th Sikh police battalion gathers a handful of men and agrees to go and find it. Lettice and Constance Weatherby-Blythe insist on accompanying the party in case they get the wrong one or just have a man’s look and can’t find it. The pair “tool up” for any eventuality.

I divided the board up into six zones with the central bungalow being the seventh. In each zone I placed a playing card to represent roving groups of mutineers and angry bazar rabble. I’ve no idea what the cards are at this point. A red card denotes occupants and the number present in the zone, a black card indicates no one is actually about.

Captain Napier and co diced to arrive in zone 3 (Top right).

Every time that the hat recovery group moves to a new zone they will reveal their potential adversaries. All adversaries across the board are automatically revealed and activated if a shot is fired - whereupon they must move towards the sound of it. 

Napiers force gains 2VP for each mutineer who ends up suffering from extreme lead poisoning and 20VP if the hat is found and removed from the board via their initial entry point.

The mutineers accrue 10VP for killing / capturing each of the women or Captain Napier and 2VP for every Sikh they manage to despatch. 

I hope to play the game tomorrow but the Batrep will have to wait until some point before month end.

Oh yes, in case it’s of interest I’ve just started work on a 100 years war project in 28mm so more on that in April I guess. 

Look after yourselves mes amis. 

* Actually a quote from a Mrs Sneyd’s diary - a real life mutiny victim.

The Elephant in the room

Progress continues on the mutiny project so here’s yet another ((yawn)) show and tell to bore the arse off you.

With only a few walls and a couple of buildings still to complete I hope to start gaming my “not a campaign” campaign pretty soon. 

First up in this show and tell are these mutineers from the 6th Light (native) cavalry. They should give a good account of themselves in any open country fighting I reckon.

Next up is Mohan Chaterjee, friend to all. Available for removals, taxi service and bar mitzvah’s. No job too small. Special rates for all sahibs. 

And on we go to the actual movers and shakers. Here’s 87 year old Ranbir Mukhajee the forcibly retired* former Raja of Mukala province sitting here atop his elephant, (named Colin). The guy with the flag is his young ambitious nephew Vikram Bagchi, who’s heard on the grape vine that he might be nominated as Ranbir’s successor to the Mukala throne, should the sahibs ever choose to leave India for some strange reason. 

This is Mrs Fanshaw’s company bungalow, situated on the opposite side of the road and a little to the south of the HEIC district office compound. The widow Fanshaw has a very nice hat which she wears to church on a Sunday.

These are three resin wells from TT combat that I’ve just realised are still to be painted. I’ll get right on it. 

In the blast furnace of an Indian summer they are no doubt going to be vital objectives. Note only Europeans and Brahmins may draw from the central well and only those of the untouchable caste from the leftmost. 

Life imitating art? Could the young lady in the painting be Lettice Weatherby Blythe (below in the green dress) perchance? I think we should be told.

The temporary infirmary / hospital set up (should it be necessary) is provided by a number of Paperboys bell tents. 

Finally. Man of my word. Here’s the elephant in the room.

Right then mes amis, I’d best be offski, or as I believe they say in India… अब के लिए अलविदा

*By 1857 the (not so) Honourable East India Company had settled on a new and effective land grabbing wheeze. Native leaders without children of a responsible age were pressured, sorry I meant persuaded, that it was in their best interests to cede their lands and holdings to the company and “retire” on a generous government pension.