UPDATED 19/2/2015- The Sands of Sudan - Connoisseur Command Stands

[Pyjamas in the Sands]

Hi Folks,

Just a quick message to show the latest offerings on the site, on this occassion the British Commanders for the Imperial forces in the Sudan and Egypt.
As always quite a few photographs on the blog with a fair share of updates.

Cheers

Carlo










http://withpyjamasthroughthedessert.blogspot.com.au/

[Traveler Man]

They're a great set of rules, and I have many happy gaming memories from them. 

[Driscoles]

Looking interesting

[Cecil Gaybody]

Dear boy,
These rules are a classic and innovative  set.
Peter  standards are rarely captured today.

Keep it up
Cecil

[rjandron]

I've been looking for a decent set of rules to game the Sudan campaigns. I confess though that I'm not familiar with Peter Gilder's rules. Can you give a quick overview of the mechanics? Just looking at the pages above and at the withpyjamasthroughthedessert blog, I'm seeing Umpire controlled Mahdist forces, random event cards, and presumably multiplayer Imperial forces.

What I would like to know is what dice, how big of units, are figures able to be based individually, or do they have to be based in multi-figure stands?

Also, will there be a PDF option for purchase available?

Thanks in advance!

[carlos marighela]

Just out of idle curiosity... what does the  'inspired by Peter Gilder' bit in the title mean? Are these Peter Gilder's own rules, which is what the initial post suggests or are they are variation of or perhaps original rules patterned after his rules?

[Pyjamas in the Sands]

Hi Carlos and RJ,

All good questions.

"Inspired by Peter Gilder" is exactly that.  The rules played at the WHC all those years ago were never actually collated and published and existed of little more than six A4 sheets with references on them (sometimes differing factors) and other keys such as movement rates, formation chnges, reaction tests etc.  The vast majority of what happened in these games came from Peter himself on the spot and was not generally recorded anywhere.

This was a project borne out of nostalgia for the photographs from the old Wargames World and Wargames Illustrated as well stories from various expatriate wargamers who moved to Australia and re-told great stories about fighting the Mahdi.

After gathering information, sheets, original source tables and other files, I have put the rules together as we have been playing them in Perth in an attempt to get as close to the Gilder style of game as possible.  There was certainly enough information to garner the basics however yawing gaps which needed greater investigation as Peter G drew on several other rule setsfor range charts, reactions etc.  For example there was no artillery range chart in any of the original documents given to me by the WHC many years ago though we did have the factors and effects.  However some investigation found the chart Peter Gilder had been using in an old out of print, long forgotten rule set!

I have been working staedily on getting these rules out for around 15 years!  The last eighteen months has been the real push however to get the facts right, ask gamers about their recollections and playtesting to ensure it all flows.  It does so wonderfully in my opinion.

From discussions and correspondence with many regulars to the WHC in that glorious era these are a very accurate reflection of the games they played.  

In terms of scale, style and type of game you are correct.

The Umpire plays the part of the Mahdists and there entry, troop type, disposition and general attitude is determined by the situation and random dice.  The events cards play the part of creating an additional element of the unknown into every game so that the same scenario can only rarely ever play the same way twice.  Mahdists are on larger style crafted bases for ease of movement and each base reprsents 100 men (scale of 1:10) even thoug there could be as few as 5 figures on a base if desired.

The Imperials are all played by the gamers.  "Us" against the Umpire is great fun!

This is also the perfect game for Solo play.

Organisation is based on five companies to a regiment each company consisting of 12 figures.  Once again, you can use 12 or as few figures as you wish as figures are never removed from bases but marked off on an easy to use Roster sheet.

Cavalry work in squadrons and Troops and artillery batteries in sections up.

I have seen these egames played in 28mm, 15mm, plastics 1/72nd scale and even 6mm.  It all looks fantastic as the unit sizes are impressive.  However as mentioned earlier depending upon your budget you could easily play these games with as few or as many figures as you desire.  The Mahdist are generally recycled at a rapid rate so you could easily play a good sized game with as little as five boxes of Perry Plastics representing the forces of the Mahdi!  Maybe two regiments of Brits each of up to 60 figures, a squadron of mounted and a few screw guns with three or four crew each and you are ready to head down the Nile and save Gordon!!

The dice required are D4, D6, D10 and d20.

At this stage there is no plan to produce a PDF of these rules or for any additional planned supplements.

Thanks so much for your interest and questions and feel free to visit the blog for many more details, pictures and explanations.

cheers

Carlo  

[carlos marighela]

Thanks for the response. Good luck with the project!

[dhtandco]

If you ever played the old pony wars rules, Peters were based largely on these in terms of troop arrivals and reactions, they are certainly a fun set to play! Good luck with your venture

[Pyjamas in the Sands]

Thanks for all the lovely comments gentlemen - much appreciated.

Yes, the rules that were originally played at the WHC were from a number of different rule sets that Peetr Gilder really liked the feel of.  The Sudan games were designed to be simple (but with a very subtle tactical edge), fun, quick to learn and fast to play.

The rules are proving popular with wargamers from all over and the Sudan is getting another rule set to give an excellent gaming period some more air.

Cheers

Carlo

http://withpyjamasthroughthedessert.blogspot.com.au/

[Madmick]

Thats good timing as the four feathers is on tv now.

[Pyjamas in the Sands]

Hi MM,

Old Harry Faversham makes a cameo appearance in the photographs within the rules mate.  Or at least someone who looks a heck like him!

Cheers

Carlo

[ragnar69]

Hi can you get a copy of these rules in England (The sands of sudan)Regards

[Pyjamas in the Sands]

Hi Ragnar,

So sorry I missed this with the holidays.

You can email me directly at:

carlopagano@bigpond.com

Cheers and thanks for your intereest.

Carlo

[ragnar69]

Hi Carlo thanks for the reply.I have placed a order with you now for your rules a few days ago and thanks for replying to me direct about the size difference between the Perry's figures and connoisseur figures.happy New year regards Steve