Indian Army Artillery

Mounted on pots awaiting paint

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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. 

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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". 

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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

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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. 

30th Lancer

Quite an imposing sight

Over Christmas, I did some completely frivolous mucking about with some Prince August moulds. This is, of course, as opposed to the very serious business of building armies for wargaming.  I quite enjoy casting, there's something quite soothing about doing something with your hands.  This was my first time messing about with a cavalry mould in 1/32 scale, but for a first effort he hasn't come out too badly. The only flaw that I can see in this specimen is that one of the horses ears is missing, but I think a little green stuff will sort that out relatively easily.

 

I'm rather happy with how the lance turned out

One thing that I've noticed with cavalry figures is that they take a great deal of metal, but they have a pleasing solidity in the hand that is quite satisfying.

 

For the most part this cast quite cleanly, though I had to have two trys at the arms, which didn't quite cast correctly. The lance is a puzzlement as it comes in two parts, but with a little care they went together reasonably well. I'm not sure I like having the pennant as a cast on part, as I think I would have prefered to add my own. We shall try it as is for the time being. 

 

The figure was trimmed and glued with epoxy as standard superglue wouldn't be quite up to the job. If the epoxy does not do the job, we might have to consider pinning.

 

The uniform is that of the 30th (Royal) Lancers, though there may be possibilities for paint conversions for other regiments.

Sitting a little far back for my taste

 

Prince August describes the 30th as follows;

 

 

"This unit was raised in Hyderabad, India, in 1862, by Captain John Gordon of the Coldstream Guards, by a treaty with the independent Nizam of Hyderabad; who was forced to give up large tracts of his land to pay for its upkeep and maintenance. According the the treaty the regiment was to provide security for the Nizam, but for the British authorities it served the added purpose of keeping his own power in check. Thus, when the Nizam's younger brother rebelled in 1929, the regiment moved into Hyderabad City and restored order. Later in 1854, the units name was changed to the 4th Cavalry and it became part of the Hyderabad contingent. During the Indian mutiny (1857-1858) Gordons Horses served as part of the Central Indian Field Force and took part in the defeat of a large rebel army near Mehidpus. It took part also in the relief of Neemuch and the capture of Jhansi. The regiment later saw action in the opening phases of the second Afgan War (1879), in several action o the North-west frontier. It served in Burma from 1887, undertaking police and anti-guerrilla activities. In 1890 it was renamed the 4th lancers, and again in 1903 it was renamed the 30th Lancers."

I shall have to correct that lean

On the whole, I'm relatively happy with this first effort, though there was a lingering uneasiness that I couldn't quite put my finger on until I looked at the photographs a second time.  I can't ever recall having seen a clean shaven Indian lancer. While I could add a painted on beard, I don't think that mere paint could possibly do justice to the magnificent facial hair sported by our brothers on the sub-continent.

I don't think paint could do justice to this.

(Image property of Amit & Naroop from their Singh Project)

A turbaned gentleman

A HAT Askari 

I've been following Ross's new game on his blog and I was thinking it might be a good fit for some games that don't quite work with CCN. I had intended to use it for an 1850s "what if" style scenario, using my Crimean Russians, Austrians, Hungarians and French.  On the other hand, I might actually see if I could use it with my Indian armies as they haven't had a go yet.  This was sort of prompted by the fact that I'm getting a game of TSATF in tomorrow and it means I won't have reset the table. 

With that in mind, I thought I might need a couple of Indian civilians.  I don't actually have any, but I did have a German Askari lying around. So I gave him a quick trim with a sharp knife and added some green stuff for a turban and turned his jacket into robes. 

It's not the neatest job in the world, but it might pass muster with a lick of paint. 

John Lockwood Kipling bas relief - inspirational stuff. 

I'm quite looking forward to getting a game into tomorrow. It's been a dogs age. I hope I remember how TSATF works. 

17th Lancers

The Charge of the Light Brigade by Caton-Woodville

I've written before about how every wargamer as "the battle" one that has captured his imagination and never quite lets go.  I would say the Waterloo is "that battle" so far as I'm concerned, but failing that - Balaklava is a close second.  I, like most, came to it via Tennyson, but my interest was further piqued by Flashman, read at a too tender age in the public library and the Errol Flynn film. Though it took me a little while to realise the Mohammed Khan was not in fact an integral part of the story. 

The Crimea is a sometime thing for me and I will be building armies for it. I just intend not to hurry. In the meantime, these chaps will be serving on the sub continent.  

These are Strelets British Lancers, painted and sometimes converted by our man in Budapest. 

These look like a Caton Woodville come to live. Wonderful stuff.

The chap on the left is a bit of a puzzlement. The 17th didn't carry standards at the charge, so I was a bit mystified when I saw this figure. I eventually decided that a lancer waving a Russian flag is a fine victory point marker and I asked Kris to proceed accordingly. 

I like to think of him, snatching it from the remnants of a shattered Russian column and riding off, bullets whizzing around him.

Two lancers at the charge and a casualty. 

The last thing many Russian gunners ever see. 

Moving forward. 

I love the sense of movement in these figures - if I was in two minds about the Crimea before, I'm decided now. 

Group photo. 

You can almost hear the thunder of hooves. 

A forest of lance points. 

Clearly, the officer in the centre is a bit more enthusiastic than the other ranks. 

Looking very sharp indeed.

Charge!

Run away!

I usually use casualty figures to mark where a unit has been wiped out. It helps keep track of victory points and so forth. Now as it happened, this isn't the casualty figure from the Strelets set.

On the other hand, I really like the pose, it looks like a photograph that shows a stricken lancer who has been thrown clear. There is a casualty figure of a lancer being thrown over his horses head, but Kris has rather cleverly converted him into another charging lancer. Can you spot him in the pictures above?

Mysoreans

Three Paltans of Mysorean Infantry

These are Mysorean infantry from Uwe's Wellington in India collection and I think you'll agree that Krisztian has done a bang up job on them. There appears to be a single ranker, a standard bearer and two musicians missing, but I would imagine they are squirrelled away in a box somewhere. These will be doing duty at Assaye, but are also by coincidence quite close to the uniforms worn by the troops of the Rajah of Kaala-Akaata and I'll be using them in that conflict as well. 

The figures themselves are available from Uwe's shop and would encourage you to have a look there. You will find them here.  I have to order some gunners to go with these chaps as soon as I've found some suitable guns, though I think those might be close at hand. 

Officer types importantly pointing 

These are all based and varnished now.  I wish I had realised what a good idea spray varnish was when I was younger as it would have preserved many more of the figures. I tend to go a little overboard with varnish these days, working on the basis that I would rather spend a little extra money on varnish than have figures with flaking paint. 

Two harmless fellows from the supernumerary rank, a drummer (an ESCI Muslim Warrior) and a standard bearer. 

Now that these chaps are based - I must move on to basing two regiment of Spanish infantry that I got from Uwe.  I started basing my Second World War British, but stopped once I realised that Vallejo English uniform (which understandably makes up a large part of their colouring) is the colour I use for my bases. I shall have to find a lighter brown, otherwise they will look like a muddy undifferentiated mass. 

I had been looking forward to a break from work for a little while, but it's looking like that is not going to occur, so the prospect of further progress on the War Room is looking remote at the moment. Oh well. 

That Difficult Second Elephant

The product of some filing and gluing 

There has been precious little time of late to do much.  However, there is something extremely soothing about getting something done in the wargaming line. I find it helps to keep a tray with some work on it and one can potter away at it, without needing to do much in the way of set up. 

This was an Ancient War Elephant, the kind gift of Donogh, which will be indulging in a spot of time travel. He will be carrying the generals of Kaala-Akaata into battle before too long hopefully. I shall have to convert   a mahout, which should be no great problem.  

The generals may prove more of a problem - I can't think of anything suitable at present. Perhaps a conversion of the ESCI Muslim warriors. 

There will definitely need to be a umbrella though. 

The Battle of Naushera

I picked up this up from Robert over at the Wargaming Command Post.  I've had a copy of "The Sword and the Flame" for quite some time, but have never actually sat down and played a game. Tim Tilson's book covers the First and Second Sikh Wars and is a bit of departure from The Sword and the Flame's comfort zone as it takes place in the first half of the Victorian era rather than the more typical second. The units are smaller (eight men as opposed to twenty) and there a couple of special rules (pausing to reload muskets being a notable one), but the bones of the game seem relatively intact.

Now as it happened, I don't have the figures to do the Sikh Wars and probably won't have for quite some time. Formerly this would have been fatal to the prospect of getting any games played - however, I fell in with young Unlikely McKenzie while returning home from evensong and he pointed out that there was a considerable overlap between the Sikh campaigns and the rise and fall of the Princely State of Kaala-Akaata.

I was pondering this with some skepticism when he produced a copy of "With Fire and Sword in India: battles and skirmishes with the Irish Brigade in the states of Chintal and Kaala-Akaata" by Sir. Felbrigg McKenzie. On leafing through this delicate hardback, I discovered that there were considerable similarities. Douglas very kindly loaned me the book (I believe the author is a distant ancestor) and I intend to read it further. In the mean time, I learned of the battle of Naushera which occurred between the forces of the state of Chintal and the Rajah of Kaala-Akaata in 1818.

A somewhat fanciful depiction of the battle of Naushera

Taken from "With Fire and Sword in India: battles and skirmishes with the Irish Brigade in the states of Chintal and Kaala-Akaata" by Sir. Felbrigg McKenzie.  

"The battle of Naushera was a product of an expansionist impulse in the princely state of Kaala-Akaata. There is little doubt that while the Rajah himself was no enthusiast for military adventures, he considered them  preferable to unrest at home.  In the autumn of 1814, Belit Rao, a great favourite of the Rajah's seized the city of Halla from the Rajah on Chintal.  The Chintalese unable to resist the steady European trained infantry of the Kaala-Akaatans and the considerable siege train surrendered. In the intervening years, the city was taxed heavily and in the Autumn of 1818, Rao ordered that the city be illuminated in his honour on the occasion of the Royal wedding. Rao departed the city to attend the festivities taking a considerable number of his infantry with him.  The inhabitants of the city seeing their chance rose in revolt. 

The revolt was led by Azar Khan, a nobleman who had raised a Corps of Ghazi from his Mohammedan co-religionists.  These had been driven beyond endurance by the exactions of the Rajah's tax collectors coupled with the insults of the apostles of the Weasel God, who were to exert such a baleful influence on the history of the state. 

Belit Rao returned at the head of his army to find Azar Khan occupying entrenchments outside the city.  The Rajah of Chintal had made no attempt to relieve the rebels as it was believed that he did not wish to attract the ire of the Kala-Akaatans before he could be sure that uprising would succeed. 

Belit Rao, who was a whiley strategist, had hoped to delay attacking the defences outside the city as his siege train had yet to arrive. However, his army was accompanied by a number of Sredni-Vashtar cultists who began to speak loudly that Rao was secretly in league with the Rajah of Chintal and that this was the cause of the delay.  Rao who had  been warned that he might be murdered in his tent began a precipitate and  sanguinary attack."  

    

The Unlikely Douglas McKenzie moving his troops forward

With the War Room out of commission and with a special dispensation from Mrs Kinch, I set up in the kitchen, extending the table with some small tables that I generally use for painting. The Unlikely Douglas McKenzie took the part of the rapacious Kala-Akaatan's while I commanded the Chintalese.  McKenzie refused his flank and decided to concentrate his forces on my left hoping to punch through the entrenchments on the heights.

McKenzie's cavalry thunders forward

Overall with a little care, we found the rules worked well.  The card activation kept things moving along and the shooting was interesting.  The chances of a hit were quite low, but those hits that occurred could be game changers. Tom Tilson's book uses eight man units, which means that carrying wounded isn't really practical, though we found that the melee, which is particularly bloody, made for some interesting game play choices.  We particularly liked the rolling to charge and rolling to stand mechanic. A game we'll play again I suspect.

I had expected to find using single based figures annoying, but the game moved so quickly that it never really became a factor.

These are poor camera phone snaps as I was too occupied with the game to dig out my camera. McKenzies cavalry have advanced in a hail of fire from the Halla militia, which levelled almost a complete squadron. However, the second line swept over their entrenchments and put the defenders to flight.

The Kala-Akaatan cavalry exacting a fearful toll

(Zvesda Turkish lancers, though we counted them as regular sword armed cavalry)

We discovered that units on the flanks are particularly brittle as they run towards the nearest table edge and this means that they often have no chance to rally. Unfortunately, those cavalrymen swept into the militia unit beside them and in the process unhorsed Azar Khan.  Records are sketchy and it is not believed that he survived the battle.

At this point, McKenzie had pierced my line and his regulars were beginning to get uncomfortably close to my militia. Not only that, but on turn three, two units of Sredni Vashtar cultists jogged forward from his back line (Lord knows where they had been before that, probably pulling the legs off spiders or something) while my Ghazi's were proving elusive.

Good-byeeee!

Rather concerned by the appearance of the red clad cultists, my militia and artillery hammered them causing an unlikely number of hits and sending them scurrying for the rear. Unfortunately there were also rather a lot of regular infantry left...

...and my army failed it's major morale roll which meant it couldn't move.

The Ghazi arrive

With my left flank almost completely smashed, I managed to get my Ghazi on the field. They attempted to close with McKenzie's regulars who were crossing my defences. Sadly, it proved too little too late as McKenzie's regulars dropped their muskets and closed with the tulwar.

The struggle rages back and forth

Unfortunately, McKenzie's regular managed to overcome my Ghazi who were pinned by another failed major morale roll. It was a savage combat that cost him one of his regular infantry paltans (battalion), but left my reinforcements either dead or fleeing for the rear. 

The Kaal Akaatan guns see the threat...

....but too late, my cavalry manage to sweep toward and wipe out the undefended guns. Both batteries were taken one by my cavalry and one by counter-battery fire. 

A close range firefight

With my Ghazi's nearly broken and McKenzie's regulars in my entrenchments, the battle degenerated into a vicious close range firefight that ended when he managed to convince his chaps to charge and finish me. When we counted up the victory points at the end, it was closer than I anticipated - 8-6.  

I enjoyed the game and would definitely play it again - though I wonder what it would be like with fewer, but 

larger units.  We finished up by cleaning the table as Mrs Kinch had made a magnificent Sunday roast which we made short work of.  The rest of the evening was spent in convival chat.  During which McKenzie mentioned that he had recorded another HP Lovecraft story, in this case "The Nameless City". Should you care to listen to it (and you should it's rather good) you can find it here.  

Heffalumps & other unfinished things

An unfinished Heffalump 

I spent this morning in the garden, hunting Heffalumps with the assistance of Flashman. Sissi is rather too sensible to go in search of Heffalumps apparently, though she was somewhat discomfited when we found one. 

The above is a HAT Indian elephant from their ancients range, though he will soon be stomping and roaring into the 19th century if I have anything to do with it.  He was painted in spare moments over the last few days with no particular reference other than painting colours that pleased me. 

Resplendent Heffalump

His mahout is looking a little underdressed and will have to be finished off. I'll be mounting him at the rear of a war cart drawn by oxen and mounting a cannon, though I think the oxen, cart and elephant will need to be on seperate bases. 

Two distinctly less attractive creatures

These are Airfix Saracen armoured personnel carriers and they present a far less attractive aspect than the elephant I can tell. They are rather too early for my BAOR and will be doing duty in my Soviet occupied London as transport for the collaborationist militia. With that in mind, I have assembled them as Mark II versions without the desert adaptations.   

Out on patrol

I generally have a horror of Airfix kits - as they are really painful to put together, but these were actually very pleasant as they are ex-JB models I believe.  I took my time putting them together and there were no problems, mysterious gaps or any of the other issues that seem to arise when I put a hand to polystyrene cement. 

Gunner at the rear

I was pondering how to distinguish the two as stowage isn't really an option with police vehicles (it would be stolen for one thing) when I thought of adding a chap to the rear hatch. This fella came with a carrier set that Mrs Kinch got me for Christmas last year and was originally toting a fuel can. I cut him off at the elbows and trimmed the arm to fit. I think he looks rather well actually. I imagine that the Saracen would carry a driver and a section leader/gunner under the Soviets, as I think that was how they organised their BTR squads.