Indian Mutiny figures and village

Our project for the 'Little wars' con later this year is to put on a Black Powder Indian Mutiny game.  I was a bit concerned that I had no figures or scenery but have managed to find some Mutiny Sepoys and got a few stands of tribals. Together with some of my Egyptian Janissaries and Mamelukes - who quite easily pass for northern Indian Punjabi tribesmen - I'll be able to contribute a few regiments.  

The other thing was scenery as I had nothing for a desert or native village but thanks to my War and Peace Games gift voucher (thanks to my daughter!) I got me one of the Rendera native mudbrick villages.  Its basically three of the same hard plastic models and a kit with a dome (for a village mosque) a bit more wall and shade for a stall, some pots etc, to make for a bit of variation.

I took the photos on the gravel path in my back yard which seemed to match in best with a semi-desert type setting. I would have taken a bit longer setting it up but its winter here and my fingers were freezing besides which, I was 'loosing the light' - being winter and all!

Pretty happy with the way they turned out, looking forward to our first 'test' game  - which, given all involved, is taking some organising (my sympathies for my mate Andrew - the scenario designer). It should be something different.  Which is just as well as the recent reorg of my study has revealed enough projects (read 'figures to paint'!) to keep me occupied for years.

Well that's it for this post.  I have no idea what will be next - I still have Mamelukes and a horde of Ottomans to paint BUT I think I've done enough posting on Mamelukes so hopefully with luck the next will be a game of some sort as its been a while since the last one!

Sikh Wars Interlude

While we work out our next clash on the Kokoda trail, I had to do a few 'jobs' that were required for my bodyweight in FPW Prussian & French lead.  Suffice to say I have two enormous (well, by my standards anyway) armies 14 battalions (@24 & 18 figures each!)  artillery batteries and 3-4 cavalry regiments plus commands.  Thats a lifetime's worth of painting of course and I will be concentrating on the Prussians first. BUT - there is a price to be paid for such frivolity.  The painting of  (my lead pimp) Doug's small mountain of Sikh cavalry.  I must confess, if it were not for the threat of divorce and financial ruin, I would seriously consider collecting Sikh Wars/Indian Mutiny figures (I seem to have painted an army's worth as it is!)  They are lovely figures too - all Foundry and some of the earliest of the Perry brother's handiwork (when Foundry was their day-job).  Michael has a real love of the period, even illustrating Ian Heath's Osprey on the subject (The Sikh Army 1799 - 1849) - my painting reference for most of these figures.

Sikh Cuirassier Jamadar (General) - my first and favourite of the Foundry figures.

Should have put more gold braid detail on the saddle cover - but I had too many more to paint!

The Sikh cavalry were as formidable as their infantry and the Sikh army, known as the Khalsa,  very nearly inflicted defeat on the British - after one such Pyhrric victory the Viceroy of India, Lord Dalhousie remarked: "A few more such victories will loose us the Empire!" Didn't help that the British general, Gough, was also an idiot.  His use of 'Tipperary tactics' - frontal charge with bayonet - cost the British thousands of casualties.  The Sikhs, as well as good infantry and well-armed, mad cavalry, possessed quite a large number of guns.  Sikh gunners were describes as 'huge' - most six foot or over, well drilled and utterly fearless.  As well as not having to face them, I am relieved to say the job for Doug did not entail painting dozens of Sikh guns and crews!

Perry-designed (?) Sikh cuirassier finished - & Doug can do his own basing!

And the trumpeter. As per European fashion: sans cuiras

Prominent amongst the cavalry arm were various types of irregulars.  The British found them to be very tough customers and often better armed than they were.  Like many Sikhs utterly fearless but as cavalry, virtually uncontrollable on the battlefield.  Bit too charge-happy to be really useful - fortunately for the better-disciplined Brits.  The next lot are Ghorchurras - armed with a medieval mix of armour, chain-mail, wickedly sharp scimitars, a variety of knives and even reflex-bows (powerful enough to punch through armour) and pistols or muskets.  The guys I've painted here are jamadars or commanders but I've got another bunch of irregular cav to go as well (he does extract his pound or two of flesh does our Doug ;-0 )

Yes folks, that IS a Rohan shield (with a few obligatory sword notches in it)

Other side, Ghorchurra commander

Another of the Sikh wildmen: a Ghorchurra Khas sowar (unit commander/NCO)

Not to be outdone for the period were (of course) the British.  The following is a British cavalry commander - could be a general or could be an officer (very Hodson's Horse-like; a young Hodson himself perhaps?)  Nice figure - not Foundry, as far as I can tell.

Last by certainly not the least (over a dozen more lancer types and more irregs to paint up!) are the Sikh Dragoons.  There were a number of Sikh cavalry units that copied the British and were organised and drilled in the classic European way.  There were a number of Europeans who fought for the Sikhs and organised these units.  One French Napoleonic veteran, General Jean-Francois Allard, not only commanded a Sikh army but sourced and brought over the carabinier-type cuirasses to equip the Sikh heavy cavalry (pics at top of blog).  But these are not they.  These are the dragoons m'Lord - nasty beggars that ride away then turn around and shoot you - very unsporting eh what?

Foundry figures again - very nice too.

And their jamadar - similar uniforms to the Brits but black leather webbing to go with a snazzy red turban!

Well that's it for the Sikh Wars cavalry for now.  I have a few more to do including the famous lancers but they will have to wait (sorry Doug!) as we have to try and avoid defeat on the Kokoda track - likely my next post but hopefully not weeks away this time round!

Remember to click on the pics for enlargement and leave a comment if you want.

Cheers,

           Doc

Black Powder Indian Mutiny Game

As I stated in my previous posts, I was preparing for another game using the Black Powder rules, this time the Indian Mutiny.  Our Canberra Black Powder group gamed one of the battles fought by Havelock on his third and final attempt to raise the siege of Lucknow, a desperate gamble with a tiny force the defeat of which could have seen all the native princes 'sitting on the sideline' come into the conflict against the British i.e. the end of British India.  So, small battles but the stakes were rather high!

Our force consisted of three brigades - the 1st with two British regiments including the 79th Highlanders and accompanied by loyal Sikhs, the 2nd of two British regiments and one loyal Sepoy.  The 3rd (my command) consisted of a small unit of British Lancers, Horse Artillery and Foot Artillery batteries.  All brigades had one small unit of rifle armed skirmishers attached.  The Mutineers had six brigades of infantry and one of cavalry in addition to two heavy gun batteries behind entrenchments - the latter proving an impossible nut to crack!

Historically Havelock marched across the face of the Mutineer army before hooking around its right flank and then literally rolling it up.  While they had to endure the galling fire of the Mutineer's well-sited artillery, coming around on their flank meant the Mutineers could not continue to bring all their guns or overwhelming numbers to bear. And of course - the Highlanders successfully charged the guns! The scenario basically recalled the historical deployment.

We ran into trouble almost immediately because the very unhistorical Mutineers who rather than being puzzled by British tactics, charged out of their lines and started a prolonged fire-fight as soon as the 1st Bde began to deploy.  Accompanied by appalling dice rolling by the Brits for their shooting and good saves by the Mutineers (which they managed to do consistently all game!) the Brits became stuck in front of the entrenched and well-served Mutineer guns!

On the left flank things got off to a slow start with my lousy shooting for the first three turns - in fact all four of my guns only managed to all hit something just once the entire game!  The flank was held by the artillery (all light guns) with small unit lancer and skirmisher support.  Firing at the Mutineer's guns proved a complete waste of time but they fortunately stopped a large warband of Ghazis.

Having killed their chai-wallah, the Ghazis milled about in confusion within charge range of the battery for two thirds the game before finally being driven off.   Meanwhile the lancers (special characteristics 'ferocious' and 'marauders') made a long ride around the Mutineer's left flank and proceeded to shatter one regiment of regulars (who amazingly managed to rally and form a shaky square for the rest of the game) another of irregulars and a regiment of cavalry before stopping, disordered (and blown) about two inches short of those bloody guns!
 

 One small unit (8 figures) destroyed the better part of an infantry brigade and a regiment of cavalry twice its size, suffered horrendous casualties from point-blank artillery fire (canister of course) but still stood and would have charged again (and won) against the guns if the game had gone one more turn.   'Ferocious charge' is not an adequate description and our group are debating whether or not this characteristic is historical and therefore warranted, or overblown for gaming purposes - creating a unit of mounted supermen.  So far the 'historicals' have it - the men were hugely motivated by the massacre of their women and children by the Mutineers and were consumed with hatred and revenge - nothing but being wiped out could have stopped them - so 'ferocious' is a reasonable reflection of their morale.  They didn't have it all their own way - they were disordered by the regulars shooting and had to 'rally' for a turn before resuming the attack.  The same thing happened after the cavalry combat which stopped them from sweeping onto the guns.  The artillery fire that subsequently caught them did not do enough to destroy them.  In other words, the combination of the characteristics awarded you on the tables and adequate dice rolling enabled them to survive.

 With Black Powder things get very bloody very quickly and there are small peculiarities like this that will crop up.  But they are a 'gentleman's' rule set and an agreement between players - effectively house rules - can be introduced to any game to cover any such issue.  Its the spirit in which all games should be played IMO! 

Also on the left flank the Mutineers managed to occupy and hold a building for the entire game in spite of point blank pounding by artillery and rifle fire.  As I only had a small unit of skirmishers (8 figures) there was no point in assaulting the rebel sepoys in the building.  Troops in hard cover get the full benefit of it in BP - as is the case in reality you need at least twice as many troops to successfully assault and winkle out enemy troops from buildings etc.

The British right ground to a complete halt - the Mutineers had reinforcements arriving at various points throughout the game (although they had to dice to bring them on) and repeated charges by overwhelming numbers took their toll on the valiant (and stubborn) Scots and their Sikh allies (who also have 'ferocious charge' - but never got to make one!) and after artillery fire and a prolonged hand-to-hand in the centre, the second British brigade also became 'blown' - game over!

For the first time there were no 'blunders' (2 dice @ six)  rolled on command!  As uncanny as the saving throws on casualties rolled by the Mutineers throughout the game!
It was a hugely enjoyable and each one has shown you get stuck in and get a result (albeit not always the one you want!) within a few hours.

The rest of the pics of this and other battles are on our Black Powder site URL.  Feel free to join our little group - we have several international members already!

Hope you enjoyed the post - as before please feel free to leave comment and/or rate this post and all the above pics can be viewed at their maximum size by clicking on them.

Cheers,
      Doc

Indian Mutiny Sepoys

 Indian Mutiny, 1857: as the last rays of light set a horde of sepoys rushed our lines...

 ...then began a lively fire upon us from the edge of the ditch

After completing the dismounted French dragoons, before starting the mounted dragoons I had a commission for our Black Powder gaming group for an Indian Mutiny game we're about to have.  I had 48 mutinous Sepoys to paint up.  As with all my pictures posted on this blog, click on them for the enlarged view.

For those of you visiting this blog who may not be familiar, the Indian Mutiny 1857-58 was the uprising of both Muslim and Hindu native troops (known as 'sepoys') against British rule in India.  While the mutiny of Indian troops was not universal it was very widespread, being worse in some areas such as Bengal and the Punjab. The Mutiny (or First Indian War of Liberation if you are an Indian nationalist!) involved some famous sieges such as that at Lucknow near Dehli and months of hard campaigning and fighting. The British were shocked at the scale and ferocity of the rebellion and it took over a year of hard fighting against rebel armies (with a high percentage of British-trained troops!) by the British and loyal native troops before the mutiny was finally suppressed.

 

Indian Mutiny 1857: the old Subidar urges his men on...

Most of the mutinous Sepoys retained their British uniforms in particular the traditional red jackets.  The figures I've painted are Old Glory and while not the most beautifully sculpted figures around, make up for it with the wide range of animated poses and the general accuracy of appearance.  I've painted these Sepoys up as Bengali native infantry which being very dark skinned, with simple uniforms made them straight forward but also a challenge to make them look the business.  I used a Scorched Brown as the undertone and then a Dark Flesh over to highlight, followed by a Brown Wash to tone.  In hindsight I'd use a lighter base colour or just Dark Flesh  with the brown wash over for a better effect.  While what I achieved may be close to actual appearance - for 28mm figures on a table top you need to exaggerate the tones a bit to make them stand out.  I finished them using my own 'Mediterranean' semi-arid mix for the flocking on the bases.

 Indian Mutiny 1857: as the sepoys came to the ditch in front of our lines, they hesitated...

 ...before being urged on for one last charge!

'Allah Akbar!' 'Death to the Infidels!' they shouted as they came on!

All in all I'm happy with the overall result.  The flag on the command stand is conjectural - the Bengalis are largely Muslim so I've given them an Islamic green battle flag with 'God is Great' in Arabic script as I couldn't find a suitable reference for 'British Go Home!' written in Bengali!

Mutinous scum they may be, but there is no denying their courage!

It was a nice interlude from painting Napoleonics and hopefully I will have some more pics of the game using these figures to post next week.

Meanwhile, as Homer's mate Apoo says 'Thank you -come again!'

Cheers,
          Doc

 
Thought I'd edit this post just to add a brilliant bit of artwork of one of your actual Bengali Sepoys at the time of the Mutiny.  I'd like to attribute it but I do not know who 'WRJ' might be - although it looks like a typical Osprey illustration. 

As you can see, there was a large amount of variation in the uniform with many local versions.  The usual adaption being the shortening of the jacket and the removal of the collar, which would have been irksome  in tropical India to say the least. This lad has substituted a frilly cotton one, as seen on yer more debonair sepoys. 

Nice.

Note also the knife tucked into the cummerbund - most 'cutlery' seems to have been worn this way.