Not Quite Victorious Army

 But I'm sure they will be when they eventually get onto the table for a game!

For some time now I've been building up a generic Chinese army, I'm not sure why and I can't remember how it started, perhaps I just like the colours.  And the flags, the flags are great.  Anyway, there is no grand plan, I just bang out another unit every now and then when an idea comes to me, it's quite therapeutic, doing something different.  Here's what I've got so far:

When I call them generic what I have in mind is that they will be used as an opposition in a Colonial scenario or possibly in the "Back of Beyond" or even at a stretch against Samurai.

These irregulars in black pyjamas and red bandanas are based on the Vietnamese Pavilion Noirs, mostly made from Hing Fat and other pirate figures, some have been given shields from wooden disks, others have Chinese heads (from Dorset Model Soldiers) just to give a bit of variety.

The flag has been cut out using pinking shears to give it a scalloped edge.  The inscription means something but I can't remember what, hopefully nothing rude.

Imperial Infantry, Artillery and Cavalry in the centre, irregular horse on the flank.

The matchlock men are more Hing Fat pirates, their tunics extended with plasticene, otherwise just a paint job.  The spearmen are medieval knights, made in China, which are currently available everywhere, and very useful they are too.  For a more Quing period look they've been given plumes on their helmets and replacement spears from metal rod with tassels added.

The cannon started life as a table cigarette lighter, it looked sufficiently gaudy for the job and just need a spruce of paint.  The crew have been given Mandarin hat heads (Dorset Models again).

The Imperial Cavalry started life and Italieri Mongols, the flags I found on the internet and just played around with them in Publisher.

The irregular Cavalry are the remains of the Italieri Mongols padded out with some Huns made in Spain by Jecsan.

More of the irregular Cavalry.

Battle of al-Musayfirah 1925

We felt it was time to give the "One Hour Wargame" (OHW) rules by Neil Thomas another airing, Anthony and I both like the fast moving simplicity of this game system and it works well with 54mm toy soldiers.

Looking back through old copies of Wargames Illustrated for inspiration I found a scenario for the Battle of al-Musayfirah in 1925 during the Great Syrian Revolt.   After WW1 The League of Nations had given France a mandate to govern Syria and the French promptly instituted a number of measures to control the local tribes.  This inevitably lead to a nationalist uprising  by the Druze, which spread to the other tribes.

We chose scenario 15 from OHW, Fortified Defence, as it best reflected the actual battle.  Basically, a French Foreign Legion column was ambushed and badly mauled so the survivors took refuge in an old Turkish fort at Suwayda.  A relief column was prepared and an advance party sent forward to set up a defensive position at the town of al-Musayfirah as a staging post for the main column following behind.   A traditional colonial campaign in the finest traditions of P C Wren and Beau Geste, here's how it went:

On the left is the old Turkish fort at Suwayda, the town behind it in the rear centre is  al-Musayfirah, to the right of the town is a rocky area, in the OHW scenario this should be woods but rocks are more suitable for the desert so we just gave them the same terrain effect for movement and combat as woods.

We diced to see what forces each side would get, the French got 3 Inf, 2 Arty and 1 Cav, while the Druze got 3 Inf, 1 Heavy and 2 Cav.  That seemed to represent the original forces quite well, I wasn't sure what to use for the Druze heavy unit, in reality they had some artillery but I couldn't find any references to machine guns or other heavy weapons so a little imagination was called for.

The French start with one unit in the old Turkish fort at Suwayda and one in al-Musayfirah.  The Druze opened the ball with a mass attack on the garrison in the old Turkish fort.  Victory would go to whichever side occupied both the town and fort at the end of 15 turns.

The rules give the two garrisons additional firepower, which reflects the actual battle as the French had machine guns which took a terrible tole on the attackers.   To even things up the Druze have a refit rule which allows them to create a second wave with all their original units at their starting positions, rather like the Zulu wave mechanism we used in our recent Rorke’s Drift game.

The French cavalry came from the collection of veteran wargamer John Ruddle who created them from bits and pieces of old Britains hollow cast Spahis, all repaired and repainted.  Behind them the French Command are represented by Starlux mounted FFL.

The first wave of the Druze attack succeeds in overrunning the defenders in the fort and pushing back the relief column.  At this point they invoked the refit rule, leaving the fort abandoned temporarily while the second wave formed up for a renewed attack.

In the Druze second wave one unit has reoccupied the fort while the main push is directed against the garrison at al-Musayfirah.  Here the remaining infantry and Command, with heavy unit attached, use the cover of the rocky terrain to advance for a mass attack on the town.  The camel borne gun is the handiwork of Ross Macfarlane, as are the fort and town buildings.

The all out assault goes in, Druze mounted units rush the town while the foot provide covering fire from the rocks, will the beleaguered garrison hold out?

As we reached turn 15 and the end of the game, the superior firepower of the French forces carried the day.  A bombardment of the fort drove the Druze defenders out, leaving it unoccupied, while the mounted units caught in the open were wiped out by the French mountain artillery.

Anthony insisted we take a picture of the lunch, l'd like to tell you it was something suitably North African but clearly it's traditional beer and pizza.

The game played out very similar to the real battle, in 1925 the Druze suffered heavy casualties from the French machine gun strongpoints in al-Musayfirah.  They did manage to break into the town and promptly made off with all the columns horses and donkeys, but the attack through the rocks was broken up by a continuous bombardment from French aircraft.

Rorkes Drift, another BattleCry game

Anthony has taken delivery of the Rorke's Drift compound, commissioned from Mike Lewis of Imperial Miniatures, who designed it for use with the BattleCry or Portable Wargames rule systems.  As with our previous Risorgimento game there is a scenario sheet for playing Rorke's Drift using BattleCry on the Command and Colours website, so we decided to give it a spin, here's how it went:

An overview of the compound model, designed in modular form for ease of storage and transport, it can be reconfigured for other scenarios.

All of the figures are from Anthony's Zulu War collection and are made by Little Legion Toy Soldiers they really are a joy to game with.

The mechanics of the game require the British defenders to withstand three waves of Zulu attacks.  A wave is repulsed when four Zulu units have been destroyed, the Zulus then return to their starting positions to begin the next attack wave.  All Zulu units are reinstated at the start of each new wave to represent their overwhelming numbers.  

At the end of each attack wave the defenders are allowed to rearrange their formations within the compound but their casualties are not replaced, so the garrison is being steadily depleted.  Victory objective for the Zulus is to destroy all the British units.

The first Zulu assault inflicted casualties but couldn't breach the mealie bag walls before being beaten off

The second wave approached more cautiously and succeeded in breaking into the compound but concentrated fire from the redcoats drove them back and they were repulsed again. 

The defenders were now severely depleted as the third wave breached the wall in several places, then just when it looked like they would be overwhelmed they managed to regroup and hold the line.  (Just like in the movie!)

So a close run win to the Brit's.  The format of  the successive attack waves worked very well and would convert easily to non grid based games, particularly any siege games.

Battle Cry Isandlwana with 54mm toy soldiers

The new year has seen a long awaited return to playing games with toy soldiers, give or take a day it was the 140th anniversary of the Battle of Isandlawna so it seemed only fitting to recreate it on the table.  Anthony has been diligently building up a superb Zulu War collection made by Little Legion Toy Soldiers and found a scenario for Isandlwana on the internet using the Battle Cry game system devised by Richard Borg.  We were joined by John, a long standing enthusiast of H G Wells "Little Wars" who acted as umpire.  Here's how it went:

The Zulus deployed in traditional "Buffalo Head" formation, the main body (chest) formed up across the donga while the horns work their way around the flanks. The British infantry form up in line behind the donga, with Durnford's Natal Native Horse on the left flank and a gun in the centre covering the right flank.

The Zulu line makes an impressive sight, they have no firepower but if they can close to contact their units have greater resilience in hand to hand combat.  The Zulu also have a slight advantage in command control to reflect their mobility and tactical use of terrain.

The British depend on being able to bring their superior firepower to bear.

A few of my Zulus, produced by "A Call to Arms" made up the numbers, painting the laces on Zulu shields is a most laborious chore. 

The British line waits steadily for the onslaught.

The Zulu right horn falls on the British left flank and steadily wears it down.

Durnford's troopers attack the Zulu left horn and stall the advance on that flank but are wiped out in the process.

With the main action taking place on both flanks the Zulu centre waits to see the outcome.

The British line moves up to shorten the range and fires off a volley forcing some of the Zulu units to fall back.

With the flanks being steadily overwhelmed by the horns, the chest surges forward in an all out attack.

The British line fragments, and suddenly it's all over.

The game played out surprisingly similar to the historical narrative, which is the mark of a well designed scenario and what we always aim for.  It took about three hours to play (including a break for beer and bacon butties).   

LITTLE WARS REVISITED GAMES DAY 2019

The above event will be held on 16th March 2019 in Woking and you can find all the details on the Group Forum here: LWR Forum 2019 Games Day  Anthony plans to put on another game using his Little Legions Zulu War collection at the event and will be using the Portable Wargame rules devised by Bob Cordery.  So if you want to watch or take part in some great wargames played using 54mm toy soldiers why not come along for the day.

More Marathas - conversions by Ian Walden.

Today the sun finally shone on London so I took the opportunity to get out in the garden and take some pics of the rest of my Maratha collection as promised in the previous post.  All of these figures were converted by an old friend, Ian Walden, who sadly passed away recently and I thought it would be nice to share them with a wider audience to show my appreciation for his great skill and imagination.

I couldn't decide which of the pics to show so I just put up everything I took, hence this post is long on images and short on text!

The collection as a whole less the artillery wagon shown in previous post, they are all based on the Maratha army at the time of the Battle of Assaye though in my world they also double as Mughal troops for the Carnatic Wars.

The cavalry are made from Jean Hoefler Napoleonics, the shields were made from decorative buttons and earrings.  Ian was very keen on these Hoefler figures, he'd been a career soldier and spent much time posted in West Germany where he acquired a mountain of them. 

Spearmen made form Jean Hoefler cowboys with turbans and tunics made from milliput.  

These musketmen and the swordsmen below are all converted from Hing Fat pirates made in China.

More buttons and earrings pressed into service as oriental shields, I sometimes think Ian must have had shares in Milliput.

Ian couldn't always get models of the Britains Indian elephant so he would just cut down the ears on the African elephants and use them instead.  Here bowmen are sitting in the howdah.

More mobile artillery, the gunner is made from a Britains/Herald medieval knight.

For the backdrop I used the rockery in my garden with every palm tree I could find.

In the third howdah the nearest figure wields a long spear with a counterweight on the end to aid balance, the two bowmen are made from Britains/Deetail Wild West series Indians.

The vegetation looks quite lush in the bright sunlight.

 Mrs C sneaks into the back of the shot.

A reasonable number of pieces for a skirmish game, now I just have to knock out some East India Company troops for the opposition

And finally........... the Sepoy General deploys his Burmese to bring down the Maratha elephants!