Colonel Ponsonby: Big Game Hunter.

Just to be clear, I despise the idea of "big game hunting."  I do however have a collection of Victorian explorers who fit the bill for this role very well.  I also have the Tusk rules.  I`ve been having a day making bases and "concealed" markers for my recent run out with ever decreasing number allocation., and decided the combine the two. 

 To try out the markers I had Colonel Ponsonby and Major Bigg-Twerp, baronet, use the terrain I had set up for the French Indian War, to try out some hunting.  Naturally however I intended this to be a challenge for our in-bred pair of Aristocratic twits.  

I have a collection of big game, mainly lions tigers and wolves, that seems a little eclectic.  I set these up in a simple random table.  The hunters then stalked around the forest, using edna as they neared the trigger points.  Lady Bigg Twerp and her friendly Guards Officer chum, Captain Eustace Improper were the first to trigger an animal, a very large (28mm?) tiger.  after some very ineffective shooting, and my punning jokes about improper advances, the tiger reached a second "concealed marker and rolled d6 -5 vanishing into the undergrowth.

The Colonel and Major, advancing on a separate track, moved against this marker, rolled their edna, hoping to flush the beast, only to discover two unlikely Velociraptors.  Since we all know that velociraptors hunt using distraction and flank attacks this pair were far enough apart to ambush our heroes.   

Before Major Bigg-Twerp could say "anachronism," he had been struck by a charging dinosaur, and was on the ground in several pieces.  His chum Colonel Ponsonby missed his shot with "Bessie," his faithful elephant gun against the raptor in cover to his front, and the second raptor charged and took him down too.

Lady Bigg-Twerp fled the scene with improper haste, and Captain Improper made a hasty if somewhat improper retreat.  

The 22nd Foot get involved with Edna

I`m still enjoying gaming the French Indian War in 10mm.  This week I decided on a longer table using some solo gaming mechanisms.  Setting out the table, with crisscrossing tracks was the easy part.  I then spread six green dice around, showing 1 to 6, as event points.  A British figure coming within 12cm of one of these dice would trigger an Edna roll.  The first dice would generate an encounter on a six, the second on a five and so on.  

The first Edna roll... a six!  The column is ambushed

The French/Indians could setup anywhere as long as one of the figures in their group was within 12cm of the dice.  I added a second roll to this.  On a 1 or 2 the French had a war party of five figures, on a 3-4 five plus a big man, and 5-6 a group of ten with a big man.  I had already decided that the Native Americans would break and run if they lost over a third of the figures in any group, reflecting their propensity to fight another day...

The French, serving under Major George Curieux, had no set figure number since they would be randomly generated.  The 22nd Foot had Colonel Whitmore with two groups of ten redcoats, and a group of eleven Colonial Rangers under Captain Roger Rogers. 

Groups of Indians appeared, fired at the redcoats and then ran for one of the unused event points, vanishing into the undergrowth.  At one point they appeared behind the Colonel`s neat lines lead by Major Curieux, and began sniping.  Curious George's ambush went astray however.  The Colonel about faced his line and delivered a crushing volley.  According to Packenham this sort of this should not work, but perhaps Colonel Whitmore had failed to read this... 

The end of the game saw an excellent Indian ambush that isolated the British baggage.  It wasn`t in enough strength however and melted away as the British closed in.  The Colonial rangers performed really well.  Captain Roger Rogers is clearly very able.

This is an excellent period for a solo game.  I could not have predicted the spread of ambushes.  At a certain level I think the French lead Native Americans won.  The casualties however seem to disagree with this.   Seven British, five redcoats and two provincials, against nine Indians.  I`m not sure that Colonel Whitmore would bother to count provincials so that is a 5/9 victory.

Major George Curieux will seek his revenge...

Dr Snodgrass' History of the Lancaster Regiment Vol 1.1875

15mm Blue Moon British Officers and Explorers

I am waiting for the delivery of my 15mm Order from Peter Pig.  The postage to and from Cyprus is subject to delays but I fully expect to pick them up this week.    I had a clear idea of exactly the setup I wanted, Khaki drill uniformed British that could serve from 1880 to 1914 against a variety of enemies.   Given that my Wellington in India armies include more than a few Pathan and North West frontier types I am already well ahead.

I like some of the ideas in Dan Mersey`s "The Men who would be Kings" rules.  The layout for figures is relatively cheap for one thing.  For reasons of storage and tabletop size I opted for 15mm.  My British field force will have Four units of 12 Infantry as its core.  These are the Kings Own Lancasters.  I also included a Cavalry force of 8 dragoons who could replace one of the Kings own units on campaign, or a field gun.  I also included a unit of Egyptian Infantry, to give me a set of very well balanced force options.

Blue Moon Armed Archeologists

The Irregular tribesmen of my Pathan or Dervish enemies come in at 16 figures to a unit.  These will be around 6 units to a force, and under the solo part of the rules I think they may be quite deadly!   At some time in the future I intend to add the Beja, Zulus and Boers to this setup, but for now I`m good to go.

Time to sort out some campaign rules.  Dan Mersey makes the narrative of a game very much in keeping with the "heroism" of Victorian warfare.  The Officers are very much at the core of these rules.  

Some "Chaos in Cairo" Mummies.  Just in case!

I wanted to use realistic names, so my Officers names are drawn from the Disraeli Government of 1875.  I even included a young Disraeli and Gladstone who will be mortal enemies as 2nd Lieutenants when they join the regiment.

Sergeants names are taken from the list of Blackpool Football Club players 1877 to 1947...

My narrator for the Regimental history is Dr Winston "Pot that chap" Snodgrass MD, Military Surgeon to the regiment.      

Snodgrass served as the regimental Surgeon for the 4th foot, later the Kings Own Lancasters, from his joining the Regiment in 1875 to its final destruction at Mons and Le Cateau in 1914.  His nickname "Pot that chap somebody" was earned under fire on the Northwest Frontier, and he was a keen Diarist, recording the campaigns, triumphs and disasters of the battalion throughout its service in the Empires colonial wars. 

Establishment 1875

Lt Colonel Benjamin Beaconsfield 5+:  A Jolly Good Chap 5+, Bravo, bravo, well respected.

Major Stafford Northcote 6+: A Pleasant Manner.  A pleasure to take tea with but characterless

Captain William Hart Dyke 7+: A bag of nerves. Likely to leg it if pinned, on a roll of 3+.

Captain William  Hartnell Smith 6+: The Gentleman has a bottle!  A drunkard. Roll for leadership.

Lieutenant Frederick Stanley 5+: Terrible Planner.  Unit has limited ammo.

Lieutenant Henry Sir Selwin-Ibbetson, Bt, 9+: A fine Moustache, but otherwise forgettable.

Lieutenant Vincent Mahon 6+: Yellow Belly, his unit will not melee, but only fire at enemy.             

Lieutenant Rowland Winn 5+:  Fine Swordsman rolls two dice in melee

2nd Lieutenant James Dalrymple 5+: Brave. Removes one pinned marker automatically per turn

2nd Lieutenant Crichton Elphinstone 6+: Short sighted.  Cannot order fire except at short range.

2nd Lieutenant Charles Cairns 6+:  Ugly.  No mirrors in his house!

2nd Lieutenant Henry Richmond 7+:  Lucky.  May reroll any one set of dice once in the game.

RSM Charlie Atkin 6+: Bald as a coot.  No game effect but he has  a shiny head...

CSM Harry Bedford 6+:  Unlucky, Becomes a casualty on a roll of 1 or 2

Quartermaster Jock Wallace  6+:  Steady , The men like him.

Surgeon Dr Winston Snodgrass MD 6+:  A damned fine fellow, nothing more nothing less

D6	D6.  Roll once per year for each period of service.
Home Service 3 yrs D6 1 -2 (Dice +1 if already on Home Service)	Depot Horseguards Brighton Ireland Caribbean Canada
African Service 3 yrs D6 3-4	Beşik Bay Egypt - Sudan West Africa South Africa - Natal Somalia Persia
India Posting 5 yrs D6 5-6	Bombay North West Frontier Afghanistan Bhutan China The Australias- New Zealand
Armageddon	France 1914

Home Service

Promotions Table Yearly

Retirement Table Yearly

Home Service Events

Depot

Roll for replacements.

Roll on Depot Events table. 

Horseguards

As Depot but roll on Horseguards table.

Brighton

Roll on Brighton table

Ireland

Fenian troubles table Restricted to a single game.

Caribbean

Roll on Caribbean table.

Canada

Fenian Troubles table.  Restricted to two games.

Beşik Bay

Blame it on the Turks... The Fleet deploys to the Troad.  A single skirmish.

Africa Service

Promotions Table Yearly

Retirement Table Yearly

Africa Service Events

Egypt - Sudan

The Gordon Relief expedition 2 games in Egypt 2 in Sudan

The Mahdist Revolt.  3 games in Egypt, 3 games in Sudan

The Revolt of Prince Imhotep... Where's my mummy gone?

British East Africa

The War against the Zanzibari Slavers

South Africa - Natal

The Xhosa revolt

The Zulu War

The Matabele Revolt

The Boer Revolt

The Boer War

Somalia

The Mad Mullah

Persia

Showing the Flag in Iraq

India Posting

Promotions Table Yearly

Retirement Table Yearly

Africa Service Events

Bombay

Uses Brighton table

North West Frontier

NWF table 3 games.

Afghanistan

Afghan War table.  3 games

Bhutan

Bhutan War table 3 games

China

A new Opium war.  2 games

The Australias- New Zealand

The Maori War.  3 games

France 1914

1914 is the last year of the game.  The Regiment is recalled to Britain and takes part in the Armageddon of a European war.  3 games based on Mons, Le Cateau and a fighting retreat. 

The first Skirmish for Colonel Whitmore of the 22nd Foot

During the French Indian war the 22nd Foot were known as Whitmore's Regiment.  Like others during that war the Regiment experimented with the use of light troops as a response to the disaster on the Monogahela, but like the Colonel it had served on the continent during the War of the Austrian Succession.

By 1757 the Monogahela was two years in the past and my Redcoat Light Company represent the first British attempts to meet the French and their Indian allies on equal terms.  The Colonel was present at the Siege of Louisburg, and upon it's capture was appointed as Governor.  he was further promoted to Brigadier General before falling off the front end of a ship at midnight in Plymouth Harbour 1761.  

I can speculate that his fall was perhaps due to the evils of Spirituous Liquors, or perhaps may have been a sign of his unpopularity, or innate clumsiness?  Either way this is the leader I need for my own 10mm 22nd Foot.*

The Game

 Raiding parties from the Abenaki have been seen on the waterways of the frontier.   The British decide to send a Company out to one of the forts, accompanied by the Colonel of the 22nd Foot.

The Light Company of the 22nd foot has 30 figures.  Three of these are Command figures, a Colonel, a Captain and an Ensign.  Operating in three groups the British advance along the forest track.  To meet them a French Captain with thirty Indians operated in smaller groups, the plan being to work around the flanks.  

 The British tried to form lines.  This was a disaster historically, but in the game they could squeeze as much firepower as possible down the narrow channels of fire available on the forest tracks.  

I repeated the tactic as I advanced, with a wall of fire shredding the trees and native Americans in front.  

 The Indian tactic to outflank my line failed.  The British avoided volley fire as the Indians closed in, shooting right and left very effectively.

  

 With over half of the Abenaki killed or routing the 22nd Foot closed up again to continue their journey.  The Colonel directed the main two rank line, sword drawn but unused. 

My figures are for the most part 10mm Pendraken.  mounted on a 1 cm washer they give a game on  a small tabletop battlefield.  Once again I used the Donald Featherstone Rules for Close Action, with some amendments of my own tagged on.  They are interesting.  A figure is either killed, or routs.  That makes for a very fast game.  Native Americans would not stand and fight to the last man so there is something that feels right about these rules.  

*In the interests of fairness I should point out that other Colonel Whitmores are available from the period, a William, a Francis and a George.  One way or another the Whitmores lost us America!

Hiawatha's day at the dead tree stump.

 A group of ten Colonial Rangers are making their way along a forest track towards the stream crossing at the dead tree stump.  They encounter Chief Hiawatha and his war-party, which co-incidentally is of exactly the same size.

The natives (red dice) win initiative

 Skirmishing over the stream the Rangers are, somewhat surprisingly, out-shot by the Indians.

 This is initially a game of long range sniping.  (12cm but that's long range here.)

The rangers try to sneak over the stream

Shooting across the bluff

That Native shooting is pretty good here!

Finally the Ranger Captain fords the stream.  The Indian chief s killed.

The Indians begin to rout

Game over as the Rangers pursue.

The casualty station.  Four Rangers four Indians and three routed Indians.

Preparing for some French Indian War Skirmishing

I was re-reading Donald Featherstone's "Wargames," a book I owned before the move to Cyprus and the great eBay sell off.  The Great Don includes his ideas on close warfare, French Indian war style skirmishing.  I was very surprised to see how close these were to the TooFatLardies rules.  The use of D6, 5 or 6 to hit, a D6 to resolve hits - the list goes on.  I scanned the original two pages of the book to give myself sufficient scope to do some adding or amending, and began to plan a game.

In my 10mm Marlburian/18th Century collection, which to be honest weighs twice as much as any other setup I have, such is the depth of metal, I had already gathered a FIW setup.  30 x 10mm Indians on 1cm washers (oddly the same size as a 1 cent piece.  Hurrah for the Euro) and a similar number of Seven Years War British Light Infantry.  

I`m sure Don used bigger figures so the first order of business was to convert inches to centimetres for the rules.  Mr Farage would not approve, but then I don`t approve of him so we're even...

I needed some central terrain pieces.  The forests of the new world were not flat terrain, so I decided on some hills.  One of the things I liked about the Last of the Mohicans was the landscape.  

My old artists paint board has sadly come to the end of it`s life.  It`s flock encrusted and multicoloured.  A nice piece of laminated MDF though, so I cut myself three three small sections.

I also acquired some sharp edged dark grey granite driveway pebbles from a source that shall remain nameless.  Some white glue allowed me to arrange the stones in a pattern I liked, and I had the beginnings of my hills.  Allowing this to dry I began the process of using filler to give my hills a smoother appearance.   

Once this had dried I coloured the white filler with grey, adding flock to represent the grassy areas.  I also added holes in the filler to accommodate trees - inserting trees on the hills may be an option I want to take up.

One of the finished hills here needs to dry out properly.  Using two different types of flock gives the impression of moss on the rock, with small scattering of grass.  Some of my 10mm Native Americans are trying the hill out for size, verdict... very defensible. 

The Petains of course will fully realise that hills such as this are a tactical error for a gamer like me.  The tactics of wargaming would insist on the earliest occupation of these hills, making them excellent for victory objectives.  

I would like to think that the Great Don would approve, and I`m looking forward to giving his rules a good go on my next wargaming day.  

The question is of course will that French Officer, lurking among the Indians, be a match for King George's Light Company of the 22nd Foot.

Why the 22nd Foot?  Well I am interested in the career of Colonel Edward Whitmore and his watery end, but more of that another time... 

A visit to the Chalcolithic Prehistoric village at Lemba

I had read about the living history experiment at the recreated Chalcolithic village at Lemba, and decided that since one of my favourite coffee shops is actually in Lemba I should wander down to see how recreated history was getting on.  The period of 2500BC is a little before my interests but well... it`s a nice walk, along by a cascading stream (during the winter) and a valley of green trees.   It also passes the college of art and its bizarre and yet somehow fascinating decoration of statuary and ... well art...

In the 1970s when the village was first excavated (the University of Edinburgh no less) the idea was "to systematically study the prehistoric buildings of Cyprus... characterise the building materials as uncovered by excavation, determine technology; to classify and characterise all Chalcolithic building types in Cyprus; to investigate archaeological site formation; and material culture and finds."  The recreation of the mud-brick round houses beside the original archaeology began in 1982.

Well these days it's a field.  The terracotta colouring on the mud-brick houses has faded.  Some of the roofing has collapsed.  Much of the stone footings for the original village are exposed, as are the burial pits.

The information boards tell us that these were a simple and peaceful fishing people... well maybe, but that is based on grave goods finds.  These days it seems everyone's ancestors were simple and peaceful and politically correct.  The original excavation clearly shows the round houses, and I was actually quite impressed by the Mud-brick houses.  This was one of the first attempts at experimental archaeology, certainly in this part of the world.

When the Sea Peoples arrived in Cyprus it was these people that they conquered, and it was these people who eventually assimilated them.  perhaps.

A nice day out, but I can`t help but feel that a 4500 year old archaeology site in Britain would have been better protected.  Then again this one is free to enter, and that isn`t usually the British way either...

 

The College of Art.  No... I don't get it either but was interesting to see.