Second Sikh Wars playtest

 Hot off the game last week we decided to put our alterations straight in and go again, all well and good if you remember to take the British with you!

I left a box of Company foot at home so we only had 2 battalions. So apologies everyone, 4 battalions of Sikhs were pressed into service as Sepoys.

So the Khalsa forces were one brigade of 2 regular cavalry another of 4 regular infantry, then 3 tribal foot and finally 2 native irregular foot in an earthwork, the Sikhs were supported by 3 guns and 2 camel guns.

The "British" had 2 brigades of foot each with a Queens regiment and 2 Sepoy battalions, they also had two regiments of Horse 1 European Lancers the other Governor Generals Bodyguard. Lastly a brigade of 2 irregular infantry battalions, also supported by 3 guns.

Chris decided that he would put the cat amongst the pidgeons and throw his tribal infantry and the British allied irregular matchlocks and try distract Steve form his main objectives.

Next he started his cavalry forward to try keep the British cavalry from impacting the game

Meanwhile his regulars start to form a defensive square on the flank of the redoubt to stop the British flanking it. All the while scoffing at my suggestion of forming a triangle as the Sikhs did at Aliwal :-) .

The camel guns deploy on the flank of the tribal irregulars to harras the British foot.

Undaunted the British line advances all across the front.

With the first British brigade advancing on the earthwork the second  on is free to wheel intot he flank of the irregulars in preparation for supporting volleys into the tribal troops.

The Tribal units start to take casualties but press on regardless.

The Matchlockment volley the Tribal irregulars as they charge in but are unable to stop them closing. 

A bids eye view of the fighting shows the outnumbered Tribal irregulars doign all the fighting and starting to feel the consequences of that.

The commander of the Sikh regulars is happy to finish off his hollow square and wait for the British next move. Whilst trained to drill int eh European manner by ex French Napoleonic officers the Sikhs were slow to manouvre in comparison to the British regulars.

The Tribal irregulars facing the Mathclockmen manage another round of melee before failing their moral after losing a base and being forced to pull back.

One unit of tribal foot charges the horse gun, whilst the gun only fights with a single dice and the Tribal irregulars with 6 the Tribals are unable to inflict any casualties on the gun crew.

The British first brigade stops at effective range and exchanges a number of volleys with the Sikh Matchlockmen. Pretty ineffectual, unfortunately though they fail their order to charge the breastworks and must remain where they are.

The SIkh Dragoons move forward to support the Currassier charge into the lancers.

The other unit of tribal foot is down to 2 bases and pretty ineffectual at this point.

The Sepoy battalion wheels into the flank of the Tribal irregulars and they quickly break saving the horse guns.

Not surprisingly the Tribal troops are driven off with heavy losses.

The British lancers have taken terrible casualties but fight on holding off the Sikh Currassier. It is this engagement in particular that has me thinking about the quality of the British troops in Melee and how we can enhance that. I decide that from next time troops will have a dice per base plus double their quality, so better troops have a much bigger advantage.

Another decent game, played quite well but also showed that we perhaps need to change things slightly on firing and combat as units took too long for casualties to build up.

Another game soon with more amendments included.