Mudki - General Gough’s Text Book Battle

[OB]

Time flies, I had intended to publish an analysis of the battle of Mudki on the 18th of December which is the anniversary.  It never happened and I’ve finally caught up today. Mudki was the first battle of the Anglo-Sikh War.

Mudki was a very interesting battle with some unusual features.  It didn’t go quite to plan for either side and was extremely hard fought.  Subsequently, it was much mythologized. We had to wait for Amarpal Singh Sidhu to give us the definitive account in 2010.

I intend a game to re-fight Mudki shortly. 

In the meantime if you are interested in the Anglo-Sikh Wars there is an account of the battle on my blog.

https://youdonotknowthenorth.blogspot.com

[Easy E]

Thanks for sharing.  I found your details of the battle to be interesting. 

I admittedly am no expert on the Anglo-Sikh war so liked the look into a conflict and battle I was not familiar with.

[OB]

Thanks Easy, I’m glad you found it of interest.

My tabletop order of battle for Mudki is as follows:

The Sikh army has 5 units of regular infantry, 4 batteries of artillery and 3 cavalry units.  We don’t know how many of the cavalry were regular.  I’m going for 2 regular and 1 Gorchurra but that could be reversed and still comply with the information we have.

The British Army has 11 units of infantry or 12 if you think the 24th NI were present, 5 units of cavalry and 7 batteries. I would give the British one heavy battery to be deployed in the centre alongside 4 batteries of Horse artillery. 

The cavalry brigades deployed on the flanks were accompanied by Horse Artillery I have opted for 1 battery each. These I think would have come from the original British artillery deployment rather than being additional to it.

I’ll add an after- action report here soon.  In the meantime here are a couple of pics of the armies deployed.

[OB]

I had a go at replaying the Battle of Mudki with Field of Battle3 (FoB3).  Given the circumstances it had to be a solo game. FoB3 is good for solo gaming so no problem.

I also sought to follow the actual script of the battle as far as possible.  No hindsight so far as I could manage.

Anyhow, it played out pretty well as a recreation of the original event.  FoB3 has streamlined formation changes which was a plus in this game.

If it’s of interest here is a link.

https://youdonotknowthenorth.blogspot.com

[Deflatermouse]

Awesome work.
Great to see someone else with 15mm Sikhs.
Been admiring your work. Thank you for sharing it.
A couple of years ago we did a "Battle based on ..."  with my Sikhs
We even managed to have Squares form on the HEIC left flank.!

[bc99]

These are interesting thank you. I know very little about this conflict and admire your collection.

[OB]

Thank you both.

Good to see your collection in action Deflatermouse.

I'll post my next Mudki installment tomorrow.

[OB]

Part two of my Mudki game is now on my blog. 

I used Field of Battle to play it and it did not disappoint.  If it is of interest here is the link.

https://youdonotknowthenorth.blogspot.com

[OB]

I noticed one of my Sikh units had lost most of its basing in my recent Mudki game so I re-based it.