1879 Battle of Charasiab at Colonial Barracks convention - updated Nov 21, 2015

[Mad Guru]

Thanks very much, Herby, wish you could too.  Tacoma isn't that far from Los Angeles!

Darrell: don't I know it!  I've been checking their website several times a day waiting for the pics to arrive.  I guess I don't consider the figures truly "released" until I've seen what they look like, since I can't bring myself to buy them until then -- but it's true and you are absolutely correct: they have been up on the website and available for purchase for some time now.

[Mad Guru]

Apologies -- I accidentally clicked to "quote" my post instead of "modify" it, and now I can't figure how to delete this pointless additional comment!  I will report myself to the moderator and ask for some advice...

HAH -- can't "report myself to the moderator" because it "doesn't make sense" -- which I must admit is a very reasonable approach!

I'll send a Private Message instead...

[Atheling]

Darrell: don't I know it!  I've been checking their website several times a day waiting for the pics to arrive. 

  I know the feeling 

I guess I don't consider the figures truly "released" until I've seen what they look like, since I can't bring myself to buy them until then -- but it's true and you are absolutely correct: they have been up on the website and available for purchase for some time now.

Yeah, with the net being no. 1 in the wargames world for shopping I do wonder if any folk do just buy without seeing first? Probably not many if any at all!

Darrell.

[Mad Guru]

Pics of the three new Command packs are up -- British & Highland "Command Groups," and Punjabi NCOs...







Not sure why the kilted Highland officers are wearing greatcoats en banderole across their shoulders when none of the several packs of kilted Highland troops are, but that's not a deal-breaker for me.  I'll finally place my order tonight after work.

My more accurate British and Indian army for the Battle of Charasiab is one step closer...

[Marine0846]

I have not looked in on your thread for a few weeks.
What a treat to see a battle report.
And what a report.
Most excellent, if I may say.
So many photos, lovely.
Thank you for sharing.

[Mad Guru]

First off, THANKS for the kind words, Marine0846!

Next: here are some pics of the set of "jumbo" size (5" x 3-1/2") game cards my Photoshop-smart teenage daughter helped me create, which I will hopefully soon be taking with me to the Colonial Barracks V convention on the weekend of November 6th-9th in Metarie, Louisiana, just outside New Orleans...





















For more pics and info, please feel free to visit my blog by clicking the LINK below, and thanks in advance for your time if you do so:

http://maiwandday.blogspot.com/2015/10/pick-card-any-card.html

PS  I hope to be back before too long with an AAR on play-test 2.0, which is schedueled to pick up just an hour from now (struggling to contain my excitement and rein in my expectations!!!), which I am playing against "The Other" Daryl, AKA: Arundel, who lives half-an-hour away from me, but who I first met here on LAF!

[Arundel]

Allow me to boldly chime in, then, on what is shown above. As has been mentioned, I'm lucky enough to live very close to Guru (by LA standards, at least), and last night's game was as spectacular to play in as it is to look at. I played the valiant Englishmen trying to bring a modicum of civilization to those ungrateful hillmen, and must say things were going relatively well for the lads when I had to excuse myself in order to get my beauty sleep. No doubt Roberts wouldn't have approved.

My command had ground down the enemy positions in the centre after surviving one of the closest calls I've ever faced in a colonial game: three units of howling ghazis leapt up from the scrub to charge a badly isolated half unit just issuing from a defile with several limbered mountain guns coming up behind. (I must roundly proclaim my innocence here and lay all the blame on my subalterns, for nearly destroying what was otherwise a plan of genius.) Caught with their pants down to their puttees, things for my Sikhs were looking very dicey indeed, when not one, not two, but all three of the scruffy fanatics failed their close roll (of 1-16 on a d20!) and went scurrying off into the hinterland, harried all the way by our late arriving cavalry. Three failed 1-16 rolls! One of you mathematical johnnies can no doubt come up with what the percentage for that is (my wife says it's a 1/125 chance, but it's early). Suffice to say it was memorable.

Action on the wings was progressing, but there were several ridges of enemy held artillery emplacements that I have to admit, sotto voce, I don't know that we could have carried. Alas, like Cinderella I had to leave the ball early, and all further operations were left in the hands of my fellow British commander, so I'll be as interested as any of you to hear how things turned out in the end. If things went badly we all know who to blame.

The game itself was a wonder to behold. I can assure you it looks even better in person than the photos can convey, and often I found myself simply gazing at it dreamily, soaking it all in. The terrain, figures, scenario, the cards (which I still claim were stacked) and the meal were all first rate. It was an amazing evening in every way.

Darrell, wish you could have joined us! You really need to get working on that.

[Monty]

An exciting project and a simpy stunning board!   
I'm really looking forward to your AAR.

Cheers
Stefan

[Marine0846]

Really love the cards.
All the different card sets for the different Larry Brom rules,
really add to the fun of the game.
I know that some don't like them, to much randomness.
But if you are winning, you like them.
If losing then not so much.    

[Mad Guru]

First off, THANKS AGAIN, Marine0846 -- and I agree about the cards!

I'm happy to report that play-testing of the Charasiab scenario resumed... but unhappily must add that play had to be cut short before a final result was reached.  Nonetheless, a good time was had by all and valuable lessons learned, all of which I hope to incorporate when the game is played "For Real" so to speak, for the very first time ever, at the Colonial Barracks V convention in Metarie, Louisiana, just outside New Orleans, on November 7th, one week from this coming Saturday.

I must offer my most humble and sincere THANKS to Daryl, AKA: Arundel, for joining me twice over the past few weeks and making it possible for me to work lots of kinks out of the game, as well as providing some truly wonderful company -- and thanks again to Lead Adventure Forum for making our newly-in-person friendship possible.

Here's some highlight pics form the 2nd play-test:

5th Punjab Infantry (here portrayed by Guides Inf.) advance through the narrow gorge between the "Red Ridge" and its Western spur...



Tribal garrison of Khairabad hangs tough despite taking severe casualties...



Having dispersed its Afghan regular infantry prior occupants, 92nd Gordon Highlanders crown the heights of the first of the twin Conical Hills, Dejarat Mt. Gun visible in b.g...



5th Gurkhas advance to take the road North to Kabul...



Afghan regular artillery on the heights above Sang-i-Nawishta Gorge, waits for their opponents to advance into range...



Fighting on the "Red Ridge"...



G/3 Field Artillery joins the 23rd BNI (Sikh Pioneers) in blazing away at Khairabad village and its defenders...



Arundel/Daryl's 5th Punjab Inf. marching up the road to Kabul... through the narrow gorge... which might have proved to be their grave... but -- sadly -- didn't...



Tending the wounded...



Afghan General Ghulam Haidar Khan attempts to rally fleeing remnants of his infantry...



I also created the first of 9 "Roster/Game Sheets," one for each player -- 3 British and 6 Afghans -- one side of which lists all their units, the other side of which has all the charts needed for game play, listing only those same units which they'll be rolling dice for, thereby making it possible for them all to fit easily on that one page, as seen here...



http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3_t8u94KmIY/VjF09i8CYKI/AAAAAAAANnw/Aee9bmbg--g/s1600/IMG_1466.JPG

A bunch more pics are up on my blog, which if you're interested in seeing, please click here:



...and thanks in advance for your time if you do!

[Earther]

 

A sumptuous and glorious spectacle of British heroism and Pathan cunning! Bloomin' marvellous sir! 

[FifteensAway]

"Meanwhile, this wouldn't be the Lead Adventure Forum if I didn't grab at least a handful of pics from the game and post them, so here goes..."

From the above quote from the intro to the photos of the first play test - which I didn't make because I was already back home by then, alas - I've deduced an essential element of Mad Guru's secret to being so good and so prolific.  He says he will post a handful of pics but he posted twenty, since it is normal to have five fingers per hand and he posted twenty pics - HE HAS FOUR HANDS!    No wonder his work stands out.  Imagine what we could all do with four hands.  Hmm, now, if so endowed, about having a threesome...    (no not with you unruly lot, such minds!)

[Mad Guru]

My sincere thanks to Earther and FifteensAway for their very kind comments!

In the interim since they left them, the day has come and gone, and a fine day it was if I don't say so myself.  I'm happy to report I managed to pack up and drove my Charasiab terrain and armies from Los Angeles to New Orleans (about a 4,000 mile round-trip) to attend Colonial Barracks V at the Metarie Sheraton Hotel.

Sadly, as many of you already know, 2 days before the annual convention celebrating his rules, Larry V. Brom -- whose health had been declining -- passed away.  His daughters Lori and Christy decided the show would go on, so Colonial Barracks went from being a celebration of Larry Brom's rules to a commemoration of his life.  Like the others who were there, I am very happy I was able to attend.  Lori and Christy seemed to really appreciate having so many friends and fans of their father gathered around them, and we were all happy to provide whatever support we could, while also playing with our toy soldiers and model terrain, as Larry would have wanted us to.

I put up a rather lengthy post on my Maiwand Day blog, covering some of the other other amazing games and then going into my usual elaborate detail re: my Charasiab game.  That being said, I was unable to secure a dedicated photographer or fellow GM, so my time was pretty much consumed by running the game itself, and I didn't get as nice a visual record of the seesaw battle as I would have liked.  Still, there's about 150 pics of my game, plus an intermittent written chronicle, and the story does get told, so I can't be too hard on myself!

It was a hard-fought action, and advantage swung back and forth several times before it was over, which is exactly what I hoped for and had been working towards when designing and play-testing the scenario.

Some of the highlights included:

-- the British Gatling Gun JAMMING on the very first turn, very much like both the real Gatlings jammed early in the real battle, which was the first time they'd ever been used by the British army in combat;

-- the 5th Gurkhas launching a CHARGE at the Afghan regulars atop the Red Ridge, and the Afghans rolling so well on their fire card and then again when they got a BONUS FIRE card, that the Gurkhas were decimated;

-- the Afghan commander on the East end of the table, who was known as "Unlucky Mike" due to his awful die rolling for the previous 2 days worth of games, rolling a 6 and destroying the British Heliograph Team that was helping extend Command Radius for the commander of the British brigade attacking him;

-- 92nd Highlaners succeeding in "CROWNING THE HEIGHTS" of the first Conical Hill on the bank of Logar River;

-- 12th Bengal Cavalry CHARGING several units of Tribesmen in succession and seeing them all ROUTE AWAY before the Sikh horsemen could touch them with their sabers;

-- 12th Bengal Cavalry managing to REACH THE NORTH-WEST END OF THE TABLE and occupy one of the two Exit Road OBJECTIVE POINTS...

If interested in learning more about exactly how the British and their Afghan foes fared, please use this handy link to pop over for a visit:

http://maiwandday.blogspot.com/2015/11/there-back-again-wargamers-holiday.html]http://maiwandday.blogspot.com/2015/11/there-back-again-wargamers-holiday.html]http://maiwandday.blogspot.com/2015/11/there-back-again-wargamers-holiday.html

Meanwhile, here's a couple of dozen pics (note I did not use the term "handful"!) to whet your appetite...

[Arundel]

The combination of TSATF and your set-up, along with heaping servings of Southern food is, I would think, about as close to heaven as one can get in this life. Guru, this really is the sort of game that makes others (mine included) look rather down-at-the-heels by comparison. And I'm not gushing--I've seen it at first hand. Splendid, splendid work, and a fitting testimonial to the memory of Mr. Brom. Congratulations, and thank you so much for sharing!