Black Powder for 2nd Anglo Afghan War/NWF?

[H.M.Stanley]

Hi, has anyone gamed this period using 800FE or BP?

My collection of figures is growing and i'm not sure whether i should expand my S&tF games into 800 Fighting Englishmen or Black Powder.

Any thoughts chaps?

Thanks

James

[Hobbit]

(just deleated long post on fighting the 2nd Anglo-BOER War with BP  MUST LEARN TO READ)

I've done a lot of work on the 1890s NWF but not the 2nd Anglo-Afghan War - I'm almost certain that there was an article or two in Wargames Illustrated on this very subject about 18 months ago.

I think BP would work really, really well for this period with the appropriate use of BP's "Special Rules". One observation though is that you will almost certainly have to increase the British firepower slightly (having had a look at the manuscripts for the BP Zulu and Sudan suppliments the fire factor has been upped to 4) as at present it is very difficult for the British to stop a charge with firepower alone.

[H.M.Stanley]

Thanks Hobbit

Any information (BP related or otherwise) on gaming NWF 1890s would be very much appreciated

We've had one game of BP Colonials where the British were absolutely swamped by Mahdists! I took the stats from the AZW game in the RB. Upping the shooting stats, as you say, may be a start

[H.M.Stanley]

I need to trace that article too ...

[Hobbit]

The main thing is that I usually treat Pathans as a skirmishing warband but drop their shooting to 2. However I then back them up with a few warbands of  ghazis with melee weapons only. British and Indian troops usually get Steady or Valiant and the better shots get Sharpshooter. Most British and Indian troops are also allowed to skirmish. This gives a kind of rock-paper-scissors(-lizard-Spock ) effect as the Anglo-Indian forces need to juggle the more effective firepower of skirmishing formations with the solidity of lines; the Pathan tries to pin down the Anglo-Indians while getting their Ghazis into place.

[H.M.Stanley]

Noted and understood [Sheldon  ]. Thank you

[H.M.Stanley]

Just making a (mental) note what i have, these being based individually for S&tF but mounted on Warbases movement trays in units of 10 (6 for cavalry):

4 x 10 Indian Infantry;
2 x 10 British Infantry;
2 x 10 Highland Infantry;
2 x 10 Gurkha Infantry;
1 x 12 Indian Cavalry;
1 x 12 British Lancers [unpainted];
1 x Mountain Gun/crew

16 x 10 Pathans
4 x 10 Ghazis
2 x 12 Pathan Cavalry
2 x Guns/crew

I reckon i can put out enough to make a decent fist of it.  

Last time out i had the British in units of 20 (the Mahdists being similar). This time i'll use them in their 10s. Having more units of Imperial troops might make for a better game next time

[GordonKhartoum]

Nice collection growing there HMS.

In general I'm not a great fan of BP but (admittedly for slightly earlier Colonial conflicts) it seems to work very well. The key is getting the stats correct to balance the game. I'm sure there was an article in Wargames Soldiers and Strategy a while back for the Indian Mutiny that you could use as a basis to work from.

In contrast I am a big fan of TS&TF & so would expect to like 100FE but don't. The mechanisms to "up scale" just don't work for me.

I can stick the rules in the post for you if you want a read through.

GK   

[H.M.Stanley]

My dear GoK,

I have the 800FE thankee but i'm obliged for the offer.

If you happen to have a copy of the IM article that would be splendid.

Your obedient etc etc

HMS

PS my Chinese Warlords are coming on in leaps and bounds for our Winter game. Do catch up old boy  

[Hobbit]

Smaller units (i.e. your 10 man units) will work just fine with BP. Units are usually shown as being much larger, but beccause almost everything can skirmish they tend to take up a lot more room therefore smaller units work better. I hope that sort-of-circular statement makes sense!

[H.M.Stanley]

Smaller units (i.e. your 10 man units) will work just fine with BP. Units are usually shown as being much larger, but beccause almost everything can skirmish they tend to take up a lot more room therefore smaller units work better. I hope that sort-of-circular statement makes sense!

It does - thanks.

May i just go back to skirmishing and also shooting? If i understood you correctly, formed British units would shoot with 4D6. Would that mean that skirmishing units have even more shots?

I have played BP but mostly with Naps

Cheers,

James

[GordonKhartoum]

Agree with Hobbit - 10 figure infantry units work very well. You may need to adjust the size of the cavalry units to compensate.

GK

[H.M.Stanley]

Cavalry drop down to 6s (Small).

Jobs a good 'un 

[Hobbit]

Skirmishers get +1 on their roll to hit and -1 on being shot at. Therefore fire is more likely to hit formed units - skirmishers firing at other skirmishers will cancel out each others' bonuses. If you give units the "Sharpshooter" special rule then you can re-roll one die. We often give this to the Pathans even though we reduce their shooting value to 2. This means that they tend to cause a steady trickle of casualties and disorder effects without having devastating volleys that destroy units outright. Our players do tend to pull damaged units out of the line to rally them (this could be because we're all dreadful when it comes to passing break tests).

And yes we often use 6 figure cavalry squadrons.

[H.M.Stanley]

Of course [slaps own forehead!]. Thanks