TMWWBK - Siege of Delhi

Sabzi Mandi, the village from where the mutineers will launch their attack

For our second game in January we played a game of The Men Who Would Be Kings. I chose the Hindu Rao's House scenario from the Colonial Conflicts scenario book, but modified the scenario rules to fit the figures I had, and to make things more interesting for the players.

One major change I made was to convert the rules to grid-based for this scenario. I reasoned that for the mutineers, there were really just three points of interest, which formed their victory objectives. For the British, I gave them the primary objective of defending those three points, and a secondary one of capturing a "spawning point" for the badmash, which could be "recycled" indefinitely. The spawning point was a temple (represented by a mosque building in the game) which was located in the built-up area, which I decided could be represented by a number of grids which could be used to determine combat. This gave the British player an option to try to capture the grid to stop the endless flow of badmash units, instead of just sitting at their positions and shooting throughout the whole game.

The mutineers mass for their attack on Delhi Ridge

The battle started a bit slow as, despite their numbers, the mutineers rolled poorly on the activation rolls and could hardly threaten the British. At the same time, the British could pick their targets tactically, choosing the unpinned units while ignoring the pinned ones, which again had difficulty rallying.

By the end of 12 turns, which was the planned game length, the mutineers were far from achieving their objectives. We decided to let the game play on, and the weight of numbers begin to tell. This prompted the forces on the far side of the table to sally forth to support their beleaguered comrades, and indeed the Gurkhas to sally forth from Hindu Rao's House. With no turn limit, it was a matter of time before the mutineers were victorious.

The Sirmoor Battalion sally from Hindu Rao's House

In retrospect the activation roll of 8+ (7+ if a general was in the same grid) proved too punishing - one sepoy unit did not make a successful roll throughout the whole game! At the same time the stacking limit of two units per grid meant that the mutineers suffered a congestion at the foot of Delhi Ridge, which available units unable to press the attack as pinned units were occupying the grids in front of them. If we were to replay this scenario, I will probably increase the stacking limit to three.

Conquerors and Kings - Battle of Idistavisto

For our first game of the year we played a mid-week game of Conquerors and Kings earlier this month as Martin was back for a break. I seized the opportunity to field my Tribal Germans against his Early Imperial Romans. The two armies last met in a game of Infamy! Infamy! five years ago, and now, with my army expanded with the help of a painting service, I decided it was time for a pitched battle.

The scenario I chose was the Battle of Idistavisto. FG and I took the Germans, while wahj and Martin commanded the Romans. I gave the Romans a "At my signal, unleash hell!" rule, which gave them the option to perform a flank march.

The Romans deployed wide, hoping to use their auxilia (and cavalry in the subsequent flank march) to flank the Germans and sweep up our right flank. On our side, I decided to deploy narrow and deep, anchoring our left flank on the river, and refusing our right flank.

To buy time for their flanking manoeuvre to arrive, the Romans similarly refused their right flank and gave ground. which caused me some concern. But the German line eventually hit the Roman line from the front and their right. Twice the Germans won the combats, but twice the Romans suffered no losses as their armour protected them and their Keep Order strategy warded off pursuits.

In the left hand corners you can see the widgets I made to aid in the calculation of combat dice

At the same time, their flanking attack was disco-ordinated, and FG's forces on this flank launched a spoiling attack, taking some casualties but giving us enough time to move more forces for the attack in the centre.

We ruled that the Romans we driven off the field, but had enough auxilia to prevent an effective pursuit.

Once again I enjoyed the game, and have plans for another one soon, and perhaps a massive one at the end of this year if we can get the players together.

Have a happy new year ahead.

2025 in Review and Looking Ahead

Fort Magherita at Kuching

2025 was another good year for wargaming.

Once again, I count eleven sessions. Many of the sessions saw new friends whom I gamed with for the very first time, and a couple of them saw decades-old friends whom I reconnected with during the year and join on the tabletop once again after a gap of decades.

Of the games I umpired, they can be broken down into two main categories: grid-based mass battle games in 15mm, and conventional skirmish games in 28mm. I foresee that we will continue to play these games in the coming year.

In particular, I think I have gained enough understanding of Peter Pig's Conquerors & Kings rules to plan scenarios and army lists to give challenging games to both sides. In fact, I have two historical scenarios planned for the coming year, featuring armies which we have yet to pit against each other on our table.

Unplanned acquisitions for this year were the 28mm Baron's War figures, and 28mm Perry Miniatures for Napoleonic skirmish. I have more 28mm figures for these two periods lined up to be painted in the coming year, with games to hopefully follow; after the effort the gang have made completing their respective Baron's War retinues, I certainly owe it to them to run a few more games!

On the 15mm front there have been additions to my existing armies, mainly to fill gaps and allow me to use them to represent different army lists.

I also added to my terrain collection.

While wargaming had been thriving, the same cannot be said of RPGs. My weekly session have had to be canceled on many occasions due to poor attendance.

I am hoping that the delivery of the new Lone Wolf RPG kickstarter next year will result in a new campaign and revival.

Have a good gaming year ahead.