Taking the Hummund Ghuree Planning a Demo Game

 One of the first games back on the show circuit this year is planned to be Partizan in Newark, 10th of October. Its a show where my group typically put a game on and we have a 14 x 6 feet table booked. Wiht the pandemic and shows being cancelled we had not got around to deciding on a game, I put a few ideas forward to Chris Flowers who typically leads this and he suggested a Sikh Wars game.

My collection has expanded enough over the Lockdown period to be able to give us a decent sized game so now it was about deciding on something interesting to play.

Whilst the whole of the two Campaigns are really interesting I find the Second War or the "Punjaub Campaign" as it was called to be particularly interesting. Of particular interest is the early fighting around the City of Multan which sparked the whole campaign.

So to take us back a little. The British army defeated the Sikh Army in a serious of hard fought and close engagements in 1846. The Sikh army felt it had been betrayed by its hight command, with justification it has to be said, and simmered with resentment. The British installed Agents into every level of Sikh government to ensure they had control whilst leaving the venear of Sikh self government. 

The City of Multan is in the mainly Muslim South West, the British sent two junior officers to replace the local governer and reduce his garrison, escorted by Sikh regulars (mainly Sikh Gurkhas as it happens). The Garrison were unhappy about losing their living and murdered the two officers whilst their escort watched on, Mulraj the local governer seems to have been swept along with things.

Initially the British Indian government was happy for local agent Leiutenant Edwardes to try manage things, raising the local Muslim tribes and mercenaries against Mulraj and calling on the army of the Raja of Bahawalpore to support him he marched on Multan and fought two large battles(Circa 30,000 troops) pushing the Sikh forces back to the City. 

Eventually a division of British Indian troops with siege equipment would be sent to the City along wiht a division of Sikh regulars who were still fighting alongside the British. Evenetually those Sikh regular forces would be pushed and change sides and the besiegers would become the beseiged, the whole plot being like soemthing from a George RR Martin novel and presenting us with some very colourful, diverse and interesting forces to game with.

So having said all of that I was particularly interested in a couple of actiosn that took place in the lead up to the first seige. With villages and suburbs outside the city stoutly defeded by the Sikhs, the battle for the Hummund Ghuree particularly caught me. A large temple with two small villages loop holed and defended almost to the last man by the Sikhs, the British were thrown back on numerous occasions and took significant casualties in clearing this area. The troops defending this were local irregulars with matchlocks. I decided that this would make a fine looking game.

Once the game was decided on I then needed to think about forces, ideally most of what I had collected would be on table, mainly for my benefit but also the game needed to be a spectacle. At the same time we would probably have 6-8 players so forces needed to keep that many players occupied. This would require some creative interpretation of historical forces.But not overly so.

So having set the scene Richard neeeded an idea of terrain as Legendary Wargames would be providing most of this. The area around the City had a number of dry river beds or Nullas and the temple and villages were located near a hill that gave a good view inside the City walls so I wanted to represent these whilst leaving plenty of space for players to have a go a each other. Below is my inital sketch of the terrain.

So the plan is to have 3 Brigades of British/Indian Foot and 2 of British/Indian Horse advancing on the City with the centre Brigade tasked with taking the Hummund Ghuree.

Chum Chris Charlton will provide the temple, image above, and I have a number of indian adobe houses for the two villages. This will be defended by a strong brigade of irregulars, however to disrupt the advance the Garrison will sally out of the City, 2 brigades of Sikh regulars, a further brigade of irregulars and a horde of Cavalry will alos take the opportunity to sweep forward inot the HEIC forces.

Most of this is already painted and based but I will need to finish a few units off.

The real engagement had the irregular defenders eventually assaulted by one Brigade and there were initially only 2 British brigades at the siege but the above forces give us a game that should be visually appealing whilst giving all players enough forces for an interesting game.

I will post an update after the game with an After Action Report and plenty of images. There will also be a game to test the rules shortly so I will share images and After Action report of that too shortly.

Until then Stay Safe!