Everybody's got something to hide 'cept for me and my War Elephant - The Battle of Nowshera 1823

Sikh Akalis (Wikipedia) 

Behold their fancy hats! What kind of battle has Sikh holy warriors (Akali) and a personal War Elephant? Only the best kind of battle. 

Ever since I read Ian Hernon's "Britain's Forgotten Wars" as a young man, I've been fascinated by the Sikh Wars and by the Sikhs. They're such a contradictory, decent, turbulent and interesting people that they repay study. I've wanted to play out some of their battles on the wargames table for ages and I had the chance to yesterday.

I picked up Tim Tilson's Colonial Campaigns - Rise and Fall of the Sikh Empire book years ago and I've had mixed success in getting it to the table. But a hefty Newline Miniatures order and a willing confederate in the person of the Welsh Wizard has presented a golden opportunity to make 2024 the year of the Sikhs.


Tilson's Book is a supplement for Larry Brom's classic The Sword and the Flame colonial rules, but rejigged for big battles. It's one of those curious things that shouldn't work, but really does. We're still getting to grips with the rules as neither of us had played them in years, but Tilson's amendments are actually quite small and work well.

Ranjit Singh - a pretty tough customer 

But what of the battle of Nowshera? 

This was a battle between the nascent Sikh Empire and the Afghans.  The Sikh's were led by a chap called Ranjit Sikh, a tough, one eyed general who built an army that married European style infantry to Sikh cavalry and an impressive artillery arm. Eager to expand his territory, he pushed into that part of Afghanistan held by the Durrani Empire and took Peshawar. 

After conquering the territory, he withdrew after leaving a small garrison.  The governor of Peshwar, an Afghan fella named Azim Khan (half brother of Dost Muhammed Khan of whom you may have heard), got understandably shirty about this. Khan gathered an army, proclaimed a jihad and made his way to Nowshera where the Singh had built a fort.  

Ranjit Singh countered by deploying his own forces to Nowshera and fell upon that part of the Afghan army that had arrived there. Khan had not yet reached Nowshera and his allies had taken up a defensive position there. 

Singh attacked this isolated part of the Afghan army and crushed it, storming the Afghan entrenchments after a powerful artillery bombardment. 

Khan fell back and Singh retook Peshwar, razed it and broke the Durrani power in the region.  Khan withdrew, possibly to see off a leadership challenger, but would soon die of cholera.

  

The Welsh Wizard contemplates his deployment, I'd sent him pics the day before so that we could get started quickly. 

The Durrani Afghan's put everything in the shop window, lining the walls with their infantry and keeping only their cavalry in reserve.  Both sides were awaiting reinforcements, but how long would it take them to arrive? 

I began the game with only my regular European trained infantry present, but I decided to drive on.  My plan was to refuse the right flank and press hard on the left, concentrating my best and most disciplined infantry there to crush that part of the line and roll up the position. 

The Sikh figures are almost all Newline, while the Durrani Afghans are a mix of Hagen Mahrattas, converted Cossacks and later period Afghans.  

The Durrani position was strong, but I had the qualitive edge in infantry, which I hoped would would prove decisive. One thing about Tilon's rules is that musketry was well modelled.  We thought the hit rate was quite low, but it seemed to work well and gave the right feel as units could move, but would be ground down over time. 

The musketry duel between my lads and the Afghans started to take effect. 

I used my Hagen Mahrattas (painted by Krizstian Takacs) as Durrani.  The Welsh Wizard used his fire cleverly, inflicting casualties that while they didn't wipe out units, slowed them down and made them linger longer under their guns. 

The Teddy Bear stuffing marks units that have fired their muskets and therefore need to reload. 

I concentrated my attack on the angle of the position on the grounds that it would put me in dead ground from the Afghan guns. Attacking a position held by greater numbers even of inferior troops is no joke and my reinforcements were nowhere to be seen...

I spread my fire evenly across the defending troops and managed to bait some of them into charging out of their position (this is reflected in a special rule in the scenario and did actually happen in reality) to attack my troops toiling up the slope. 

This ended predictably as the leading paltan of Sikh troops let the charging Durrani get within pistol shot and then gave them a volley at point blank range.  

With predictable results. The Durrani were broken and started running. Unfortunately for me, the Welsh Wizard brought his reinforcements in just in the nick of time and before my troops could get themselves organised and push on to solidify their hold on the position, he had managed to bring up several units of Ghazi, ferocious Sons of the Prophet, fired with religious zeal. 

This was a turning point in the game as we could hold this part of the entrenchments, Ranjit Singh would be well on the way to a victory.

Fresco in Jammu depicting Akali Phula Singh and his Akali-Nihang warriors making a last stand against Afghan Ghazi warriors in the Battle of Nowshera (Wikipedia)

This led to a turn where there were good decisions and mistakes on both sides and which was so exciting that I completely forgot to take pictures.  In brief; 

- the Ghazis faced with two disorganised Sikh paltans coming over the wall decided to stand and fire rather than charge in. 

- my reinforcements finally arrived, two units of Gorachurra (traditional Sikh armoured cavalry) and two mobs of Akali (the Sikh equivalent of Ghazi, religious warriors with giant hats and killer Frisbees) led by Poona Singh on his personal War Elephant.  I ran these lads forward as fast as I could, trying to take the weakly held left flank of the Durrani position. 

- Afghan cavalry made an attempt to flank the advancing Sikh infantry by jumping the entrenchments and swooping into their flank only to get enfiladed by the Sikh artillery who punished them severely and sent them scurrying to the rear. 

The Afghan fire hurt the Sikh regulars, but not enough. 

Meanwhile, my Gorachurras decided to chase the fleeing Durrani cavalry, supported by the Akali, who were spoiling for a fight. 

(Angry Punjabi Elephant noises)

The Durrani defenders managed to shoot up the Gorachurras on the way in and broke one unit of them and sent them fleeing to the rear, but the remainder got stuck into the rallying Afghan cavalry who attempted a counter charge, only to be simultaneously hit by Poona Singh and the Akalis. 

(Sounds of Punjabi chanting "Na na na na, Na na na na Wahey Goodbye!")

Meanwhile on the other flank, the Sikh regulars took a risk and dropped their muskets.  Drawing their tulwars they went straight in at the Ghazis.  One lot of Ghazis took one look at the line of ferocious looking beards and blades coming towards them at speed and decided that they had urgent business elsewhere.  They were chased down and butchered to a man. 

And here is where the battle took a fatal turn. My regulars took on the second unit of Ghazis and a fierce battle ensued. Tulwars clashed and bayonets flashed and the screams of the dying rent the air.  

The Ghazs either fled to the rear or fell wounded, all except their leader.  History does not record this doughty warriors name but he ended up fighting on alone.  He struck down three Sikh warriors and ended up facing General Hari Singh*.  General Singh here being played by an Ottoman mounted leader from Zvesda's Turkish Cavalry set because I haven't painted my Sikh generals yet. 

Now, I had thrown General Singh into the fray because if I'd managed to destroy this unit of Ghazis it would have meant that I would have secured one third of the trenches (worth victory points), I would have destroyed another Ghazi unit (also worth victory points) and I would have been poised to completely dislocate the entire Afghan position. 

We rolled and the result was a draw. 

We rolled again and not only did I lose the combat, but I also rolled a one, which meant that General Singh was not only defeated, but he was dead. 

Down he goes.   This provoked a round of morale tests throughout the army and badly shaken by the loss of their leader, the Sikhs began to withdraw.  With the Sikh position unravelling and the Welsh Wizard needing to return to his Tin Mine, we called the game there. 

This was a hard fought game that went all the way to the second last turn and which could have gone either way until the end game.  I've always enjoyed The Sword and the Flame because it creates these moments of drama. The heroic last stand of the unnamed Afghan leader shall live on in story and song. 

It's been a real pleasure to get back to gaming with the Wizard, a reminder of times when we were both teenagers and playing Warhammer Panzer Battles with Airfix figures.  It was also good to get my Sikhs on the table, I'm looking forward to maybe getting a few more Sikh games in this year. 

Fingers crossed. 

*This leader is listed in Tilson as General Blabharda...which I'm assuming is a joke.  I mean really.  Blab Harder?

Indian Army Artillery

Mounted on pots awaiting paint

(click to embiggen)

Along with Nick's very kind gift of Ghurkas, there was an Indian Army screw gun and crew.  I know shamefully little about the Indian army beyond what I've learned from Jac Weller's "Wellington in India", but decided to set to these fellas as there was no Indian artillery attached to the Kinch Field Force. 

There was the vexed question of how to paint them though, some scratching around had yielded a succession of fearsome looking gentlemen in khaki.  However, my liking for the more brightly coloured uniform won out and I went in search of something appropriate. My colonial forces are inspired by "The Man who would be King" and "Zulu", more than dull actuality. 

Blandford and Farwell were not supplying my wants in that department, so I turned to The Sword and the Flame facebook group.  Julian turned up trumps with the picture above, which looks excellent.  The turbans are "Spankin' in red" as Pete Postlethwaite would say. 

(click to embiggen)

Armed with this sort of information, the battery swiftly took shape and is currently doing duty on the Southern Border of the Kinch domain. I've no idea as to the maker, Ral Partha maybe, as they are on the larger side of 1/72. The gun itself so far as I can make out is a RML 2.5 Mountain Gun immortalised by Kipling in the poem "Screw Guns". 

(click to embiggen)

I shall have to add a mule to carry the whole assemblage, but I think I have something in stores.  I'm very happy with how they turned out, all the figures were painted with thinned Vallejo acylics.  I added some inks to the turban and did a slight highlight, just to show off the red a little. 

Out looking for Wascally Wahabbists

(click to embiggen)

These, I'm sure you'll agree, are a fine addition to the Kinch Field Force.  Thank you very much to Nick for his generosity and Julian for his knowledge of uniforms. 

I think these chaps will have to take the field and show De Gormaine a thing or two about how its done. 

A Punitive Expedition on the North West Frontier

Skinners Horse scout down the valley

After a long break, we finally made it back to the Northwest Frontier. This game followed the adventures of the Royal Mallows 2nd Platoon, led by the Lt. Unlikely Douglas McKenzie, whose last game was in May of 2015.  I am aghast that it has been that long.

The scenario was that a radical preacher from the princely state of Kala Akaata had been stirring up trouble on the Northwest Frontier.  As a result the men of the village of Medina Wasl have been raiding their neighbours rather more than usual.  Attempts to negotiate an end to the raiding have proved fruitless and McKenzie has been despatched to burn the village.

He had 24 turns to make across the board, burn the village and then make it off.

The field of battle - note the pass on the left, which McKenzie referred to as "Ambush Valley"

McKenzie had a squadron of Skinners Horse, a platoon of Ghurkas and his own platoon of the Royal Mallows under his charge. He decided to stay on the right hand side of the river and avoid the steep sided valley on the right, which he reckoned was prime ambush territory.

The Gurkhas spot a group of Afghans lying in wait

The Gurkhas proved themselves some very dangerous customers, though I did mix up their rough terrain bonus with the river crossing rules, which meant that they were able to ford the river rather more quickly than I anticipated. 

This was their inaugural game and they did Nick proud.

And make short work of them

They set about the ambushers with a will, though they lost their officer wounded in the fray. The Ghurkas would prove to be the men of the game as the Royal Mallows proved sluggish, prone to rout and generally liable to disgrace the name of Corkmen for the duration of the game.  

McKenzie makes for an enthusiastic ghurka

Skinners Horse charge home

The yellow boys swept around to flank the village and took some scattered fire which emptied two saddles along the way, but they couched their lances and charged.

The melee was a surprising one as the Afghans drove off the fearsome horsemen with some casualties.

Meanwhile, a sturdy rifleman stand his ground and drives off many times his own numbers

Now lead by their Havildar, the Ghurkas secured the flank on the right of the Imperial advance. There then followed one of the curious runs of luck that TSATF is prone to.  One of the Ghurkas did not have sufficient movement to climb the hill and ended up being charged by a unit of Afghans defending the village.  The narrow space between the river and the hill meant that only three men could reach him at a time and he promptly slew anyone that came near him, including their leader and  driving them back.  

"Zing!" goes the Jezail bullet.

Meanwhile, McKenzie had finally gotten his sluggish Irishmen moving and advancing in line down the valley. The Afghans having a rush of blood to the head after defeating Skinners Horse, dashed out of the reeds and charged the redcoats. Meanwhile, a single half unit of Afghan rifles accompanied by a jezail sniper, appeared in the Imperial rear.

McKenzie decided to use independent fire, burning two ammunition counters, and absolutely smashed the Afghan charge, destroying the unit almost entirely until only the leader remained. Then disaster struck a single shot from the Imperial rear rang out and McKenzie fell from his horse, wounded.

What followed was one of the most unlikely series of die rolls I have ever seen.  The lone Afghan leader managed to complete his charge and the Mallows blew their roll to stand. They were chased by that single screaming swordsman until he failed his morale and was bayoneted by the Ghurkas. The paths of glory lead only to the grave.

The rallied Lancers look on as the Ghurkas advance and take fire from the village

It was left to the Ghurkas to advance on the village, supported by Skinners Horse. These dismounted and began peppering the village with their carbines.  Meanwhile the Mallows managed to fail their rally rolls three times running and narrowly avoided routing off the table. They rallied eventually, but not after some truly impressive swearing on McKenzie's part, and started advancing down "Ambush Valley".

I'm afraid we got too caught up in the game at that point and I forgot to take any further pictures. The Ghurkas won a pyrrhic victory in the village and ended up routing off the field, after a hard fought battle in the streets of the village. By the time the Mallows arrived, the fighting was pretty much done, the Ghurkas having killed the fakir in the confusion.

A lone Ghilzai prepares to drop a "large rock" on the advancing Royal Mallows (carrying two wounded figures at the rear)

The Mallows pressed for time headed down "Ambush Valley", but managed to spot the lone figure waiting Road Runner style next to a large rock.  I had used a scrunched up business card to represent the rock as I reckoned it couldn't do too much damage to the figures. But the Corkmen making up for a pretty dismal performance spotted him and brought him down before he could do any damage.

In the end, they arrived in the aftermath of a terrific battle to burn the village, gather up the wounded Ghurkas and make for friendly territory. Lt. McKenzie is recovering from his wound and has apparently experienced something of a "road to Damascus" moment*, though it remains to be seen whether it will stick.

The Sword and the Flame, even though I still managed to get rules wrong and I lost, still manages to give a tight and exciting game. I think one of my goals will be not leaving it so long to play next time. McKenzie will ride again!

*Readers of the next issue of Miniature Wargames will understand why.  

If you're British and loyal....

....you might try some Royal Marine. 

Sweeney Todd is probably the most Brechtian of Stephen Sondheim's work. The story of a wronged man descending into madness and wrecking a terrible revenge on his persecutors, society as a whole and frankly any poor soul that happens to get in his way. The story is good, the music is enchanting and the ideas are interesting. 

I much prefer Sondheim to Brecht as he is funnier and cleverer. Brecht's ideas of alienation and distancing are not without merit, but to be honest, I think Sondheim is rather more successful in getting his ideas across to a wider audience. "Pacific Overtures" is a particular favourite and probably one of the best meditations on the differences between cultures that I have ever come across.  I forget a Brecht play half an hour after it's finished*, but can remember Sondheim shows that I saw once ten years ago.  

Funny old thing memory. 

But with that rather tenuous connection to Royal Marines out of the way, let me present some poorly lit shots of what I'm working on the moment. 

I finished my exams on Friday and while they were not an unalloyed success, I am very, very pleased to see the back on them.  I'm happy that I passed five of them, the sixth chap might be a little close. Fingers crossed. 

The day after, Mrs. Kinch tootled out to work, while I sat on the couch and contemplated my hangover. I also did some work on these fellows, touching up the white crossbelts and because wasting time is fun, I painted the individual panels on their sun helmets. 

This was probably surplus to requirements because the helmets were already white and had benefited from a light grey wash to bring out the detail. More to the point, they should have been a light brown as they were stained with tea, but I like a nice bright white pith helmet and carried on regardless. 

I've done nineteen of these chaps, rather more than I need for Egypt, but I thought that since I was painting them anyway, I might as well do enough for a full platoon of troops in The Sword and the Flame.  Irritatingly, I seem to have lost one along the way, so I shall have to dig out another. 

*I am actually struggling to remember the details of Mother Courage right now and failing miserably.

Egyptian Lancers Finished

 

I’ve finished the Egyptian lancers and on the whole I’m reasonably pleased with them.  They aren’t going to win any awards, but they look well enough to pass muster at three feet. 

 

 

 

The lances are made from steel spears which were recommended (and a sample provided) by Mike Lewis of Black Hat. They were intended for 1/32 Prince August Highlanders, but not being able to find my drill has tied that up for a little bit. I added pennants made from printer labels, though I now realise that I sound have painted them green rather than red and white. Too much time thinking of the 17^thLancers on my part I think. Better fix that before I varnish them.

The saddle and tack are probably too complex, but I just painted around the detail where I could and it seems to have done the trick. I don’t think Mike Snooke & Co will be banging my door down for uniform tips any time soon, but for my purposes they’ll do. I probably could have done more research on these, but it would have taken time and to be honest, I just wanted to get on with it. Uncertainty has a terrible tendency to paralyse, decisions are deferred and nothing gets done – which is frustrating. But in the case of toy soldiers, where very little (if anything) is at stake, it seems silly to get overly precious about things.

 

Definitely a case where it is easier to get forgiveness than permission.

 

And a shot from the rear.

 

Does my fez look big in this?

I’m quite happy with how this little project panned out. All the remains to be done for Kassassin is an armoured train carriage and a gun to mount on it. What could be simpler?

Egyptian Lancers - Progress of a sort.

Having done all the trimming necessary in my last post, I got to work with greenstuff. Each figures has had a wire lance added and a green stuff fez with tassel.  These were a bit awkward to do and looking at them now I've made them too big.  Getting the lances to stick was another trial, but they're pretty solid now. 

A quick blast of white spray later and it's time to get base coating.  While the size of the fezzes seems to stand out a mile to me, I'm sure at a distance of three feet they will be less of a concern. 

I shall reserve judgement until we see them with a lick of paint. 

Egyptian Lancers

Kassassin

Having clearly set out my stall for what I wanted to bang away at this year, I have quite naturally done none of those things and attacked another problem entirely. Mike Dippel, who did sterling work on the Command & Colours website and other projects, wrote some Colonial scenarios, including one on Kassassin.  I had intended to bang out some Second Afghan War stuff, but Egyptian blandishments lured me away. 

Now, I have most of what is required to play this scenario, but I was lacking a unit of Egyptian cavalry and a railway gun.  I shall probably extemporise something for the railway gun, using a flat bed and a spare gun model, but the Egyptian cavalry were more of a puzzlement. 

Britains Egyptian Cavalry. 

I don't mean Britains Egyptian cavalry, of course. 

I mean Egyptian Cavalry made in Britain, but for Egypt. 

But by Britains. 

And possibly by Britons. 

I hope this clarifies things. 

Egyptian Cavalry

(picture stolen from Ross) 

Du Gourmand and I played a colonial game recently and I just wanted to playtest a scenario.  As a result, rather than using the full panoply of figures (which I didn't have anyway), I just popped three cavalry figures down to mark a unit.  Having played through the game several times, we realised that it didn't look bad and perhaps it might be something we should experiment with.  At least until full 12 strong cavalry units and 19 strong infantry units become available.  

But where to get three Egyptian cavalry figures. 

The base figure, an Italeri Union bugler.

The Good Lord has bestowed upon me many blessings, a beautiful wife, an excellent cat, great friends and a job I loves. I am duly grateful.  

Ability as a sculptor is not among my talents. However, I had this chap lying fallow and it seemed silly not to try. 

Cut away the bugle and the front of the cap. 

Now, there is every possibility that this may be the last post on this blog. I have attempted conversions in the past with mixed success, but three figures is certainly a record. 

No doubt this will end in tears and Joy & Forgetfulness will be upside down and on fire by the time I finish.  We shall see. 

If that is the case, gentlemen, it has been an honour writing for you.