Between real world commitments and the amount of games I'm getting to play at the moment (not complaining) I am a bit behind on the battle reports but will endeavour to catch up as soon as possible.
A few week's back, after our The Men Who Would Be Kings dabble with the Babbage Engine Native generator, George and I decided to try it again, this time on the North-West Frontier with George taking control of the randomly generated Pathan units as I attempted to bring civilisation to these "pore benighted 'eathen" - well seize some of their camel trains dotted around the table! (here they are posing for a pre-match 'team photo!')
The forces of Empire moved into the unruly tribal lands...
The 4th Gurkha Rifles seizing a native camel and its handler in the name of Queen Victoria!
Their success did not go unnoticed though and a group of Pathan riflemen were spotted skulking in the hills ahead of the Gurkhas.
Following the Gurkhas the brave men of the Bengal Lancers trotted smartly onto the field of battle...
Followed by some stout fellows from Berkshire, the 66th Foot.
Their appearance generated a native response, a large group of scimitar waving types appearing out of the dust to their front!
Followed by a second closer group...
These bally wallahs charged at the 92nd Gordon Highlanders who had only just crossed the mountain line!
A flurry of scimitars and sporrans saw the Pathans beaten back but five brave Highlanders would never seen the glens again...
The "Yellow Boys" (such an unfortunate nickname) then charged the Pathans to their front, their steel tipped bamboo lances held steady and low!
The Pathans proved doughty fighters though and whilst they lost half their men and had to fall back, they left four Bengal Lancers dead on the dusty plain.
On the British left flank a group of friendly Tajik irregulars moved forward looking for some camels to capture...
But their appearance brought more enraged Pathans onto the table!
The 15th Ludhiana Sikhs, led by a brave officer, pushed forward to capture another camel train...
But before they could secure it, more Pathans appeared yelling obscenities at the brave men of the Punjab!
Although depleted the Bengal Lancers continued to take the fight to the enemy, charging in again on the group they had just fought...
And this time almost finishing the rebellious tribesmen off!
The Sikhs however found the going tougher as the Pathans to their front charged them!
A bloody fight seeing many a tribesman and soldier fall dead!
Faced with scimitar wielding Pathans charging towards them, the Tajik irregulars opened fire on the enemy...
And surprisingly managed to hit some of them!
The 66th Berks, after a couple of turns observing proceedings, decided to obey orders and move forward.
However this generated more Afghan forces - a unit of rarely seen Pathan cavalry!
Who decided to charge the Bengal Lancers!
It did not look like the Gods of War(gaming) were with me as I failed to roll one hit... :-(
But then neither did George!!! :-) Oh what a laugh the Gods of War(gaming) were having!
With the melee a draw - with no casualties(!), the Pathans fell back...
Allowing the 66th to fire a volley at them, knocking three tribesman out of their saddles and Pinning the cavalry unit!
The Bengal Lancers seized the opportunity and followed this up, charging in on the enemy cavalry...
And whilst one brave sowar fell to a native blade, the remaining lancers killed six of the Pathans leaving just their Pinned Leader on the field of battle.
Unfortunately this charge took them into range of the Pathan rifles hiding in the hills and a volley of native rifle fire wiped out the remaining three Lancers.
The Lancer charge also generated another Pathan unit thanks to the Babbage Engine roll.
The 15th Sikhs and their opponents traded blows again...
And although they lost half their remaining number, the Pathans were victorious and the 15th Sikhs were gone to their god.
At this point George noticed one of his camels was rather wet!
It turned out
Bristol Independent Gaming's intrepid guard dog Sorcha had been licking the model!!! One can only assume the Pathans were smuggling 'Bonio' dog biscuits and the brave hound had sniffed them out!
Having solved the mystery of the wet camel we returned to the game with the 92nd Highlanders shooting down two of the Pathans who had defeated the Sikhs...
Before charging in bayonets flashing and kilts swirling to finish off the enemy leader and capture the camels!
On the British left the Tajik Irregulars supported by the 4th Gurkhas advanced towards another ungulate prize...
Though again Mr Babbage generated MORE Pathans to try and keep the camels from Imperial salvation.
These scimitar swirling tribesmen targeted the Tajiks...
Who, not well skilled in hand to hand combat, lost eight men and unsurprisingly became Pinned!
The Pathans skulking in the hills then joined in opening fire on the shaken loyal irregulars...
Killing another two Tajiks.
Then in a piece of terrible bad luck for the British Field Force another group of Pathan tribesman appeared on the Imperial right flank...
Charging straight in on the 92nd Gordon Highlanders...
And practically wiping them out!
With a cry of "Ayo Gorkhali!" the Gurkhas charged into the Pathans who had attacked the Tajiks...
Kurkis flashed in the Afghans sun and the Pathans almost fell to a man. The two survivors Pinned after the ferocious Gurkha attack!
Again Mr Babbage decided to generate more Afghani reinforcements following the Gurkha attack, with a fresh group of riflemen appearing some distance away.
Having dispatched the two survivors of the 92nd Highlanders, the blood thirsty natives turned their attention to another unit of the hated enemy...
The 66th Berkshire Foot.
The newly arrived irregular native rifles took a pot shot at the 66th...
Their largely inaccurate volley killing just one man from Berkshire. However his comrades were shocked by this and failed their morale check and became Pinned.
Smelling blood, the Pathans now surged forward towards the last two Imperial units...
The 66th rallied off the Pin and with the 4th Gurkha Rifles on their flank took aim at the advancing natives...
The Gods of War(gaming) were up for a laugh though and the Pathan rifles managed to kill another two of the 66th Foot - and once again they failed their moral check and became Pinned...
Which meant that as well as being outnumbered by the charging Pathans, they could only fight at half effect as the enemy crashed in waving their shiny scimitars!
Unable to even inflict one casualty on the charging natives, eight men fell never to see the green fields of Berkshire again, leaving their officer standing alone in the face of the Afghani. We hope he saved the last bullet for himself...
This left just the 4th Gurkha Rifles to face the Pathan hordes...
And soon scimitar and kurki clashed in the dust of the Afghan plain!
Although they took many an enemy soul to the grave with them, the Gurkhas were unable to resist the mass of the enemy...
Another sad tale of Imperial failure to be read in the newsheets of Calcutta and London over breakfast...
The game was a lot of fun and for some time it felt like success might be had by the brave sons of Empire as they defeated enemy units and Mr Babbage did not regenerate Pathan units. However the change of luck that occurred with the arrival of the Pathans within charge range of the 92nd Highlanders and my subsequent poor dice rolling for morale checks sealed another Imperial defeat.
