Randi and the Saucy Mare, part 2

Oh, honourable Captain Whitmore Sir,

Good King George's 30th of the Foot are here in Madras.  They are in fewer numbers than supposed, being only a pair of Flank Companies, the Lights and Grenadiers.  The remaining companies of this battalion must be still on a ship somewhere...

    I haven`t ink shaded these boys yet, and I also have to confess that I started using a dark flesh tone on the Musicians, so that it looks like these were recruited locally in Fort George!

They will have to wait for a battle however, since the 2nd Madras have just completed a major brawl with the forces of the Typhoo Sultan, and sent him reeling back to his tea plantations.








You may recall  that  at the village of Chinta, almost within sight of the walls of Fort George the battalion faced the regulars of the Sultan.  We drew into our lines and advanced with our colours, the Major shouting at us all this while.

The green turbans of the Sultan's regiments came to meet us.  We gave them the volley, or "Three a F***in minute," as the Major describes it. 

Our light company was divided between both flanks, (once again gamey... not really histirically accurate, and pretty much a mistake as I didn`t have enough big men to control them) and we had a Squadron of Sowar Cavalry with my Brother Ram Dittin as their Silladar, lurking to the rear.

 I must confess that Major Williams did not perform with his usual gusto.  Perhaps it was the presence of the Courtesan The Jhani of Bhalti, in the village.  Williams actually deserted his post during the battle and went to pay court to the Jhani.

Fortunately the battalion has the Subadar-Major, (Big Man 2) and he drew some really lucky combinations of flags, enabling him to command the Sepoy line and remove shock.  Captain Grahame, as Big man 3 also did an excellent job.

The Saucy mare of the title was captured by the Sultan`s cavalry early in the game.  
 

The Sowars of the 1st Madras Cavalry had one moment of glory when their charge saw off an enemy squadron, but they were thrown back in confusion by the second of the Sultan`s cavalry units.



















The end was in little doubt since the Duc a L`Orange, commanding the Sultan`s battle line, was taking too many casualties, and shock was really mounting.  The Subadar -Major, Haidar Sikh, acquired three flags and cleared the way for the 2nd Madras to go in with the bayonet, and these minifigs bayonets are a thing to behold!   Slightly later Captain Grahame also came up with three flags.  The Typhoo regulars didn`t like it up em' and ran for home.

The Jhani watches the battle.  Is she a spy?

The Madras Cavalry in their first fight

 

Major Williams pays court... Unsuccessfully!

Subadar Major Haidar Sihk, in the silliest hat ever worn on a field of battle. (according to Dr David Chandler)

Notice Randi at the back "guarding the flag."  What a hero!

The devastating bayonet charge of the 2nd Madras clears the field.

Introducing The 2nd Madras Coastal Battalion 1780

Introducing The 2nd Madras Coastal Battalion 1780

Colonel. Charles Reynolds I         "Useless, Pink Gin drinker"

2iC Major Williams.  III               "The thundering Pig"

Adjutant Captain Ashworth. I       "Cricket bat Trousers Lustful" "Big Feet"

Subadar Major Haidar Sikh. III    "No sense of humour whatsoever."

Ensign "cannonball" Sugden I

1st Company, the Grenadiers

Lt Quentin Whitemoor. Status II     "the Idiot"

Subadar Hazra Singh III                  "Huge Moustache," the actual commander of this company.

Jemadar II. Ramit Uppar                 "Ram-it Amit the lecherous cad"

Havildar-Major I. Virat Kohli. III   "Never happy" "Intolerant"

47 men. Polished. Fair shots.

East India Flintlock Musket, 46ins, bayonet.

2nd Company

Lt Erasmus Quilp III                        "Sick Leave"

Subadar III. Shikhar Dhawan          "The Big Man"

Havildar I. Ajinkya Rahane             "Bold" "Religious"

Havildar I. Suresh Raina                 "Suicidally brave"

66 men. Rabble Poor shots.

East India Flintlock Musket, 46ins, bayonet.

3rd Company

Subadar Uncle Shami                       "Everyone`s Uncle"

Jemadar II. Ravichandran Ashwin    "Bold" "Fierce"

Havildar-Major I.  Rohit Sharma      "well combed Mustache"

Havildar I.  Ravi Khapoor                "Fierce" "Scars"

54 Men. Rabble Poor shots.

East India Flintlock Musket, 46ins, bayonet.

4th Company

Lt Miss Gloria Beaumont II               "Shot in the Dhoolie, wears a sari"

Subadar III. Vikram Rajeshwar          "The real boss"

Jemadar II.   Uncle Shaeed                 "Everyone`s Uncle"

Havildar-Major I. Farhan Acktar        "Suicidally brave"

Havildar I. Saif Ali Khan                    "Very thin and dour" 

61 Men.  Rabble poor shots.

East India Flintlock Musket, 46ins, bayonet.

5th Company

Lt Mr Hamish Macintosh III             "Suicidally brave, a Scotchman"

Jemadar II. Viktra Manulaglan          "The Big Mustache" "Moody"

Havildar II Charu Ghrant                   "The charmer""

39 Men.  Drilled,  fair shots.

East India Flintlock Musket, 46ins, bayonet.

6th Company

Captain Mr Gunnar Grahame III            "Brainy, Dark and sarcastic"

Subadar III.  Singh Dhoni                      "No sense of humour" "Middle aged"

Jemadar II. Varun Aaron                        "Incredibly short sighted" "Bold"  

Havildar-Major I. Mohit Sharma            "A coward of massive proportions"

Havildar I. Yuvraj Singh                         "Very thin and dour"

48 Men.  Drilled, fair shots

East India Flintlock Musket, 46ins, bayonet. 

7th Company. The Light Company

Lt Mr Parky Parkin. I                               "Lanky Idiot"

Subadar III. Ramesh Rampal                   "A big mustache"

Jemadar II. Arjun Rampal                        "Suicidally brave"

Havildar-Major I. Om Parkash                  "Dark and sarcastic

Havildar I  Dilip Fairbanks Jr                   "battalion athlete and acrobat" 

59 Men.  Drilled, Skirmish trained, fair shots

East India Flintlock Musket, 46ins, bayonet.

Conductor of Ordnance. Ravindra Jadeja

Sub conductor of Commissariat and Public Works Departments.  Bhuvneshwar Kumar Noor

Supply Merchant Nookie Noor, with his boys Max and Paddy.

Civilians in the campaign

Donesh Trump, Dutch Indian fast talker and failed businessman, enemy of Nookie Noor.

The Rani of Bhalti, Courtesan.

Princess Jhelli of Bhuna, Indian patriot and rabble rouser

Brother Belcher of the Wigan Missionary society, Lecherous coward

The sacred cow of Pornomalee, strictly speaking an animal but woe betide anyone who hurts it!

Lady Wesley, wife of the Governor of Madras

Miss Linda Lovelace, pure and innocent daughter of the Parson of Ft George

The sacred goat of Bhuna, worshiped by the strange goat cult.

The Guru of the goat, head of the cult of nascent thugee stranglers.

The Mad Fakir, Ram Shackle, Randi's brother, and patriotic rabble rouser

Notes on the Sepoy army

Sepoy 

In the EIC/Indian Army an ordinary native infantryman equivalent to a Sowar in the Indian Cavalry.

Silladar

Indian cavalryman who provided his own arms and horse instead of having them supplied by Government - the Silladar system originated in the irregular regiments of native cavalry but was extended to the regular cavalry of the Bengal and Bombay Armies in 1861.

Sowar

In EIC/Indian Army an ordinary native cavalryman equivalent to a Sepoy in the Indian Infantry and to a Trooper in the British Cavalry.

Matross

Inferior class of soldier in the EIC Artillery ranking below a Gunner.

Naik Indian Army rank equivalent to corporal.

Lance-Naik NCO in the Indian Infantry equivalent in rank to a British Lance-Corporal.

Havildar Indian Army rank equivalent to sergeant.

Havildar-Major

Most senior NCO rank in the Indian Infantry equivalent to a Sergeant-Major in the British Infantry and to a Kot Dafadar in the Indian Cavalry.

Dafadar

NCO in the Indian Cavalry equivalent in rank to a Havildar in the Indian Infantry.

Lance-Dafadar NCO in the Indian Cavalry equivalent in rank to a Naik in the Indian Infantry

Kot Dafadar Most senior NCO rank in the Indian Cavalry, equivalent to a Troop Sergeant-Major in the British Cavalry and to a Havildar-Major in the Indian Infantry.

Warrant Officers 

Officers appointed by warrant. In the EIC/Indian Army they held the ranks of Sub-Conductor and Conductor and were intermediate in rank between Non-Commissioned Officers and Departmental Officers. In addition, from 1882 a small number of British Army warrant officers with the rank of Sergeant-Major or Quarter Master Sergeant were appointed to non-departmental posts in the Indian Army.

Conductor

Higher of the two appointments within the Warrant Officer rank in the EIC/Indian Army, the lower being that of Sub-Conductor. Conductors and Sub Conductors worked mainly in the Ordnance, Commissariat and Public Works Departments. Conductors were eligible for promotion to the higher grade of Departmental Officer.

Sub-Conductor

Lower of the two appointments within the Warrant Officer rank in the EIC/Indian Army, the higher being that of Conductor. Sub-Conductors and Conductors worked mainly in the Ordnance, Commissariat and Public Works Departments. Before 1860 Sub-Conductors were recruited from NCOs of the Town Major's List/Effective Supernumeraries, after 1860 from NCOs of the Unattached List.

Jemadar 

In the EIC/Indian Army the most junior rank of Indian Commissioned Officer, equivalent to a Lieutenant in the British Army.

Ressaidar Rank of Indian cavalry officer intermediate between Jemadar and Risaldar (see below). In April 1921 the rank of Ressaidar was abolished, all existing Ressaidars being regraded as Risaldars.

Risaldar Rank of Indian cavalry officer equivalent to a Subadar in the Indian Infantry. Until April 1921 it was intermediate between Ressaidar and Risaldar-Major (see below), after that date between Jemadar and Risaldar-Major. Risaldar-Major

The most senior rank of Indian cavalry officer, equivalent to a Subadar-Major in the Indian Infantry.

Subadar

Rank of Indian infantry officer intermediate between Jemadar and Subadar-Major, equivalent to a Captain in the British Army and to a Risaldar in the Indian Cavalry.

Subadar-Major

Most senior rank of Indian infantry officer, equivalent to a Risaldar-Major in the Indian cavalry.

Raising the 2nd Madras
Recruiting the Companies.

1 – 2  50 + 5D6 

3 – 4  40 + 4D6 

5 - 6   30 + 3D6 

1 Rabble 

2 Rabble 

3 Rabble

4 Drilled 

5 Drilled

6 Polished

(only one result of Polished is allowed and these troops will form the Grenadier company)

Dice Result 

1-4 Poor shots 

5-6 Acceptable shots

Each Company has the following complement  of Officers and NCOs

1 x Lieutenant,

1 x Subadar

up to 2 x Jemadar

up to 2 x Havildar. 
On a D6 roll of 5 or 6 a senior or "Major" may be added to these ranks, as Havildar-Major, meaning a senior Havildar.

The Officers names are generated fro the TV Show "It Ain't Half Hot Mum," whilst my Indian Army  Officers and NCOs are mainly Bollywood actors.

Character.

SP2 provides an excellent character generation system to give you a fully rounded idea of the Officer and the help or hindrance he will be supplying during the game.   My games are however solo, and although I need and idea of the nature of my characters I also need to be kept a little in the dark, until my dice rolls reveal some hidden truth during a game.  

To help me achieve this I used the basic characters from the TV show for my European Officers, and a few simple dice rolls on a table for the Indian Army Characters.  They will keep these traits, but may have hidden depths I am unaware of.  

 I came up with this character trait table, that works for me:

	6	5	4	3	2	1
6	Acne	Lanky	Agitated	Humble	Uncle	Unhinged
5	Long moustache	Short sighted	Intolerant	Cautious	charmer	Useless Idiot
4	scars	Drinker	Bloodthirsty	Bold	Thin and dour	Stupid
3	Big feet	Hot Tempered	Middle-aged	No sense of humour	Sarcastic	Cad
2	Clumsy	Moody	Man of few words	Brave	Never Happy	Lustful
1	Athletic	Loud	Fierce	Religious	Bristling Mustache	Cowardly

Working out my Campaign for the Peninsular

I`m really happy with the Sharpe Practice 2 rules, the character driven nature of the game, added to the fact that these can be linked in a series of games makes it ideal for a campaign.  Being a solo wargamer out here on Cyprus I need a campaign that links my games together, but one that is not map based or, frankly, one that is reliant on me putting any great amount of work into it.

My Peninsular Forces slowly taking shape.  Garden painting, I recommend it!

 

I have one more requirement for a campaign and that is an element of randomness.  The game needs to surprise me, and to spring surprises on me. 

Sharp Practice 2 has a number of mechanisms that help me here.  Firstly there are a number of random scenarios, either battles or missions that can be generated, half battles half missions.  Secondly is the presence of civilian characters, and in the Peninsular that can be the Priest acting as a double agent, the Guerrilla leader, or the afrancesados Count and his servants.  A random selection of these appearing  during a skirmish mission, or even on the battlefield, will personalise my game.  Of course I can recruit members of the Marshal Petain Gentleman's Club to generate some characters for me.

I intend to follow the fictional adventures of the 2^nd battalion 4^th foot during my Peninsular war.  More often than not they will be facing the 27^th du Ligne, but the focus will be on The King’s Own Regiment 4^th Foot, endowing its Officers with character, and following their careers during the war.  For example the first Colonel of the 4^th will be Colonel Courtleigh Manners, the politest man in King George’s army. 

The battles of the Peninisular war that involved British troops will be used as a campaign timeline.  For each of these battles the 4^th Foot must roll a minimum of three times on the scenario list.  If one of these is a “battle” scenario then that represents the actions of the 4^th Foot during that particular fight.  A second or third “battle result represents other actions undertaken during the fighting.  If no battle is generated the 4^th foot must roll again until a battle occurs.  I have added a list of separate missions that will be used if a mission is rolled more than once during the same battle.

So the first series of games would be based around Rolica.  I intend to use some of the great maps available online at peninsularwar.org.  A Mission might be to escort an Engineer to Obidos, contact the Spy hidden at Quinta Gruga before the French get to him (or her) or how about rescue the fictional Brian Wellesley, Arthur’s younger and much dimmer brother.

Within the SP2 rules are mini-campaigns, stretching the structure of those six basic games, and completed in order.  I intend to tweak them as per:
1.  Keep the young Ensign/Viscount alive over 3 games,
2.  Missions to support the Exploring Officer,
3.  Scour the Minor characers to discover the French Spy,
4.  Clear the Commander's dishonour,
5.  Support the Engineering Officer over three games,
6.  Working with our gallant allies, over three games,
7.  Capture an Eagle, in one of the next three battles,
8.  Find the missing banker, over the next three missions,
9.  The new colonel is a pompous arse, three games to get him killed..

The list of battles would look like this, with three or more games for each battle, although I suppose Roliça and Vimeiro could be combined:

Battle of Roliça

Battle of Vimeiro

Battle of La Coruña

Battle of Porto

Battle of Talavera

Combat of the Côa

Siege of Almeida

Battle of Buçaco

Lines of Torres Vedras

Battle of Barrosa

Battle of Fuentes de Oñoro

Battle of Albuera

Storming of Ciudad Rodrigo

Storming of Badajoz

Battle of Salamanca

Battle of Vitoria

Battle of Maya

Storming of San Sebastián
Bayonne
Orthez
Calvinet Ridge/Toulouse

I`m sure its a list I will add to, perhaps the retreat of Sir John Moore needs its own missions before La Coruña etc...

One of the great values of being a solo wargamer is that I can indulge in a project like this.