Advice requested/Recommended Reading - Pre-1857 India (esp. 1820-1850)

[AKULA]

I'm thinking once again of a new project, but torn between gaming the Mutiny, or the period in the 20-40 years before...

- Any recommended books with a flavour of the 1820s - pre-1857 period?
- How usable are Indian Mutiny ranges for the 1820s-late 1840s (thinking of the uniformed miniatures obviously)?

I'm toying with a campaign between two local states ...(perhaps with limited involvement by the EIC) ...

Unfortunately my knowledge pre-Mutiny is sadly lacking, so is this a realistic aim for that period?

[Emir of Askaristan]

It's a fertile field for gaming.

The Last Mughal and the Anarchy by William Dalrymple are excellent background reads. Full of detail.

If you can find it at a sensible price, The British in India from Foundry will give you all of the uniform info and campaign details you need for the full period and you can pick what you like.

(There's a version of The British in India available on Everand - an e book reader app).

As for Indian rulers troops I think Caliver Books do some on the Mughal Army

Other than that there are Ospreys on the British on Campaign, The Afghan and Sikh wars, the Sikh Army, the Mutiny, Queen Victorias enemies in India - all of which should be readily available cheaply second hand. Helion have a new book on Wargaming the Sikh wars and a few others in their catalogue.

Foundry and Empress have great ranges and figures are becoming more generally available for household troops as opposed to general irregulars. So you could quite easily pick real or imagined Indian states and furnish armies for them and pitch them into the mutiny or have them send contingents to any one of dozens of earlier campaigns. British uniform styles changed (usually headgear) a fair bit so are not always compatible, but by the Sikh War the Sepoy uniform remained unchanged until the Mutiny.

[SJWi]

Amarpal Singh's two books on the 1st and 2nd Sikh wars are meant to be excellent. I have one but its still in my "to be read" pile. Thoroughly recommend anything by William Dalrymple. His book "The Anarchy" about the HEIC is compelling reading.