Last night, Andy and I met at my house for the second play test game of Dan Mersey's new Colonial rules. I had completed two units since game 1 so the Anglo-Indians had a unit of Gurkhas and the Afridi Pathans had an extra unit of riflemen.
The Anglo Indian force was 23pts and comprised 1 company of the Suffolk Regt, 1 company of the 4th Sikhs and 1 company of the 5th Gurkhas. We gave the Suffolks the best rifle available and upgraded them to 'sharpshooters' thereby increasing their chance to hit. We felt that this would be the best way to represent the better quality rifle in the hands of British troops and its correspondingly greater rate of fire than that issued to Indian Army troops. We upgraded the Sikhs so that they had better morale and close combat ability. The Gurkhas were play testing an idea for them to ignore difficult ground (they are from Nepal, after all) as Dan hadn't got this in his rules but was keen for us to try it out.
The Afridis had 24pts comprising 1 group of sharpshooters (better chance to hit) armed with poorer quality rifles (less range than the British guns), 1 group of riflemen with the same and 1 group of riflemen with jezzails (shorter range than rifles). They also had a group of swordsmen and a group of swordsmen who were upgraded for better morale and combat ability to represent Ghazi fanatics. All bar the jezzail armed troops had the ability to go to ground and reduce their chance of being shot at.
The scenario is also a draft from the rules and has the British attempting to patrol and scout the table by moving into contact with the relevant marker (in this case an animals base or a rocky pinnacle) of which there are 6 - 1 in each 2 x 2 foot section of the board. The Pathans deploy only the jezzail armed guys. The rest I had to note in secret which section they'd come in on. They can then do so in any of my activations, anywhere in the selected section. The Brits then chose their entry point and we rolled for leadership. Luckily for me, all my troops were either leadership 5 or 6 (excellent!!!) and some had additional abilities to make them more resilient. Andy's Suffolks were able to add extra distance when moving 'at the double' and the unfortunate Gurkhas had an officer who was prone to abandoning them if they became pinned! Andy's units' leadership ranged from 7 to 8 (average).
Here's the opening shots (sorry about the poor pics - lighting in my kitchen is shocking and the flash was washing everything out on most shots where I attempted to use it).
Here's the table at the start of the game. My jezzail chaps are on the left on the central hill...
Here's the view over towards the British troops as they deploy...
Here are the Gurkhas advancing in the cover of a large hill...
The resolute Sikhs in the centre...
The Gurkhas first move saw them double up the hill and patrol the first objective! Across the table, the Sikhs and Suffolks also moved rapidly and it looked like Andy would be halfway home at the end of turn 1...
However, I then deployed my Ghazis in section 5, which, handily, was right up the Sikhs' backside!!...
I also deployed my sharpshooters in the rocks on my left, guarding the access to the objective in that section of the board...
Here's the table at this point in the action...
The Sikhs then activated and turned to fire at the onrushing Ghazis, killing a couple but not slowing their advance.
In my turn the Ghazis hit home, but the hard-hitting Sikhs, despite suffering heavy losses, drove them back.
The British were now in charge of two objectives and my jezzail men, hopelessly out of range, advanced...
The Sikhs finally destroyed the Ghazis in combat. Luckily this had delayed them from gaining the middle objective. At this point, the Gurkhas advanced over the hill towards my jezzail men who were trying to guard the central objective. Over on my left, The Suffolks were pinned by the sharpshooters, which discouraged Andy from doing anything much else with them throughout the game, which meant that, as the Ghurkas advanced, I was able to reveal and deploy my remaining units...
This led to a brutal slaughter with the Ghurkhas being cut down to the last man, their officer hurling himself back into the fray to die a hero's death and surely receive a posthumous Order of Merit medal. The Sikhs fought gallantly, their officer surviving to escape the combat only to be cut down in a hail of lead from the sharpshooters. At this point, the game was slipping from Andy's hands as all my remaining men advanced on the Suffolks...
Luckily for them, the Suffolks had formed up and unleashed volley fire, causing immense slaughter, but to no avail. Surrounded and outnumbered, they were cut down to the last man...
At this point, Andy and I totalled up the victory points to discover that we had 12 each! A draw!! We rationalised this by saying that, although they had destroyed the British force utterly, the Afridis had suffered such tremendous losses that their rebellion was over - they simply had no men left to fight on.
This was a cracking game. The scenario worked really well. My victory was helped by my warriors' excellent leadership - the Mullahs had obviously done their work well, as the massed British gunnery did nothing to worry the brave Pathans, so, in effect, they were almost never pinned.
A few queries arose about the rules and I pinged an email to Dan this morning for clarification, but overall, this was extremely encouraging (not too mention great fun!!!)
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