1919 Third Afghan War AAR With SP2

 So Chris and I fancied a 1919 3rd Afghan War Game, first night back at the club for me and keen to try make something of this period.

Chris decided we would try amend Sharp Practice and see how that went, good game as it goes although changes required for next time.

The Imperial Forces were on a rescue mission, a plane has been shot down, the crew need rescueing and the plane destroying, typically they are at opposite ends of the table however.

The Imperial foces have 

3 8 man groups of British regulars, 

2 8 man groups of Gurkhas 

MG and crew.

41 figures

The terrain is pretty rugged funnelling any advance, the Imperial entry point is denoted by the Rolls Royce Armoured Car.

Afghan Forces are all Tribal Irregulars they have:

1 group of 6 Tribal Cavalry

4 groups of 6 skirmishers

2 groups of 12 Tribal levy with rifles

1 group of 12 Tribal Levy with swords

1 Maxim and crew with a regular Officer

71 Figures.

The British are massivley outnumbered but have a significant superiority in firepower as they do not need to re-load.

However using that superiority isnt so simple, you have two actions and can move or fire with them, so I can move once and fire once, move twice and not fire or stay still and fire once but I cant use the firepower and keep moving forward. Decisions, decisions.

Oh I was British and Indian and Chris had the Afghans. Figures a mix of both our collectons.

The Afghan entry point is denoted by a very nice Bactrian Camel, naturally they quickly start to make use of the available cover. We made any flat area no cover and everything else light cover. Houses would be heavy cover if anyone ever got near them.

I deploy the British regulars into a single 24 man formation supported by my MG and go for the Pilots, my Gurkhas (really a mix of Gurkhas and Indian Muslims) will set off in the opposite direction to try destroy the plane.

The MG has some interesting rules, for the British I can roll as many dice as I want, however the more 1's I roll the worse things can get. So if I roll too many dice and get loads of 1's the gun could be out of action all game.

As the British advance across the low ground, the Afghan skirmishers start climbing the high ground. The British were always sure to occupy the high ground before advancing anywhere a lesson I failed to take heed of.

After two moves my forces have advanced either side of a hilly area in the middle, to the front of my British regulars a small band of cavalry hoves into view.

They are not really in my arc of fire but two units of Afghan Skirmishers in the open are so I let rip with a 24 man volley and throw in extra cards to make it a crashing volley. Half of each of the units is hit and they both take 6 shock forcing one to retreat and the other to break and Chris is already down 2 on his force morale.

Chris opens up wiht his MG, the Afghans roll 3 D6 and the result is the number of dice he fire, chris gets double five and a six. 16 firing dice, he inflicts three casualties and 5 shock, it could have been worse, he then follows this up with a short range cavalry charge .

This works less well I take 3 more casualties but wipe out his cavalry entirely. His force morale does not suffer however and we press on.

Chris has his other skirmishers in the rocks and trees flanking my Gurkhas in the open and opens fire giving my guys a severe mauling.

The Gurkhas struggle to respond, they are in formation so have to either break formation or have to turn to face the Afghans or keep going and being shot from behind, I compromise and break formation sending one unit after the plane and the other turns to return fire. A bad mistake six Gurkhas in the open against 12 Afghan skirmishers in cover is not going to end well.

At this point a tribal levy of swordsmen breaks cover and begins to rush the Gurkhas, they are still a way off but my guys are in a very tight spot.

After a move of fatal dithering my Gurkhas turn to fire back at the Afghans in cover with little effect the return fire is withering and my Gurkhas are being cut down.

To my left my British send another crashing volley into the Tribal Levy and forcing them to retire, my machine gun fires with 14 dice and I get way too many 1's, I am jammed for 6 activations, at least 3 turns and only manage to hit two of the Afghan Machine gun crew. The return machine gun fire inflicts more losses on my regulars but the Afghan gun Jams too, needing three activations to unjam. a turn and a half.

My Gurkhas have turned their fire onto the Tribal swordsmen storming across the plain at them with devastating effect. However they are 1 shock short of having to retire and lose more force morale, meanwhile one of my units is shot to the last man and the other has only three left who are forced to flee, my force moral is damaged.

I am still a long way from my objective and nearly half my force is gone. The Afghans are in the same predicament, its something of a race to the bottom to see who loses the most quickest. If I can drive off the remaining Tribal Levy I might just force the whole of the Afghan force back, if I cant the skirmishers will cross the hills and rocks to my flank and eventually the machine gun will open up again and my remaining troops will be cut down.

Meanwhile its 10.30 and everyone else has gone home, Terry has kindly waited to lock up and has his coat on ready to go so whilst Chris insists its a narrow potential win for the British I am happy with a draw. Well fought Sir, we will see you again soon.

In terms of the game, I think keeping the activation of Sharp Practice works well, however using formations isnt really cutting it for me, these were no longer in use in the same way by 1919, so maybe chain of command for the moving and firing mechanics is a better fit. We will have a play around for the next game and see how we get on.

Cheers Chris.