Sir Garnet Quilp meets the Amir 1876

1876  Lt Colonel Garnet Quilp, "Chinese Quilp" due to his love of takeaway cuisine, is serving in the army of the Khedive of Egypt.  He has arrived in Suakin to take command and decides to take a column into the hills east of Suakin.  His intention is to take supplies through to an isolated Egyptian garrison at the Fort of Bir Tamat, on the cavaran route to Berber and the 5th cataract of the Nile.

The bandit chieftain and slaver Amir In Yashed has decided to attack the hated Egyptians

I wanted to try out the Men who Would be Kings Rules against a more conventional set, the Sword and the Flame.   I`ve never really liked the fact that the Sword and the Flame use 1 d20 per figure firing...  It seems like a crazy business to me, but in the interests of pitting the new rules against the Industry standard for Colonials I thought that it would be an interesting idea. 

Time to get my terrain down and begin rolling dice.  Quilp Pasha had a unit of Egyptian Fellah regular Infantry, and a poor quality Egyptian field gun and crew.  Giving the Mahdists a big unit of Irregular infantry and a unit of Irregular Cavalry/camelry made the points pretty much even.   

The Egyptians had camped, and deployed in front of their camp, which I counted as rough terrain.  The Mahdists entered on the opposite table edge and stormed across, the Camelry on their left taking a wide loop to outflank the Egyptians.  Once the Dervish foot closed to within firing range I rolled for Quilp Pasha's character.  turns out he is chronically short sighted and his unit can only fire at close range.  "I say are those our chaps? ... no What, what... hold your Fire fellows..."   He spent his time trying and failing to get the Egyptians to form close order for a volley. 

When the moment to fire finally did come the Egyptian Fellahs let loose a devastating blast, assisted by the gun and crew.  It almost literally blew the Mahdist foot away.  There was no way they could survive a pinning test after that.  Tribal infantry would have gone to ground, but this lot just milled about, pinned.  Under the Sword and the Flame a similar result occurred.  There was no restriction on longer range shooting and the Egyptians fire what felt like volleys to stem the advance.  The casualties were nothing like as devastating, but a failed test saw the dervish slink away, forced to retreat.

The Camelry meanwhile under Amir in Yashed (who turned out to be an effective leader) struck the flank.  Here we go I thought...  Ah but under the rules if one figure is in melee the whole unit counts.  No sweeping in from the flank to carry away a line in Men Who Would Be Kings.  The Egyptians could put up a stout defence in theory...  Under the Sword and the Flame the Egyptians broke and ran, but gloriously Quilp Pasha was able to aim his revolver and shoot the Amir out of the saddle!  

Under Men who would be Kings the Egyptians rolled dismally and were swept away anyway, the Camelry following up and giving them a second thrashing.  Quilp Pasha rolled snake eyes, double one is an Officer Casualty, so down he went, stabbed to death by the Amir.   

A great little game.  I have to remember that this is a skirmish.  The Infantry squares of a battle are less important here.  The Sword and the Flame are great battle rules, with some lovely touches.  I`m going to stick with the Men Who Would be Kings for a while however.  The small number of figures I use short changed the Sword and the Flame.  Given a bigger collection however...

In his lecture to the Royal Geographical Society in 1908 Sir Garnet Quilp described his miraculous survival and the terrible wounds inflicted by the Amir in graphic, if not salacious detail.  His imprisonment pending a ransom being paid and his subsequent escape whilst dressed as a pantomime horse only added to his reputation with Horseguards.  

The 4th Foot, 1875

Since I am working out my colonial campaign I thought I would expand some of my ideas for the career progression of my Officers, all named for members of Parliament in 1875.  One of the systems I had in mind for this is the Career path in the role playing game Traveller.  

I picked up my Peter Pig figures from the Post Office yesterday.  £50 worth in a rather substantial packet.    

I had carefully worked out the maths for my setup, giving me units of 12 figures or 8 cavalry figures.  One of the first things I saw was that unlike Essex Miniatures who shortchange you the guys at Peter Pig give you 8 figures in a command artillery or cavalry command pack.  

My Egyptian Regulars... they will also double as Afghan Regulars...

This however sets my numbers at odds with my plan and gives me that most terrible of things... too many figures.  I suspect that I am similar to most wargamers in that my immediate reaction is to consider buying more... just to complete the collection to avoid having those extra figures lying around.    


I painted up the single unit of Egyptian regulars, having designated the 4 spare figures as an extra gun crew, and in a fit of enthusiasm I made the magnetic sabot bases for them too.  

The Officer's Career Table.
Officers in my Kings Own Lancasters are expected to spend five years in each rank.  They roll on the careers table once every five years, and more junior Officers on the promotions table each time a vacancy occurs.  

If an Officer dies in Service, or leaves the service, a roll on the sub table will indicate why this occurs, allowing Dr Snodgrass to record this in his Official History.  The system is designed to be pretty brutal, so that in addition to Officers being killed in games on the tabletop the regiment will suffer an amount of "natural wastage."

The regiment has an establishment of One Lt Colonel, one Major, two Captains, four Lieutenants and four 2nd Lts.(or before 1880 Sub-Lieutenants.)  I had intended to field a maximum of 3 units, but I had ordered a pack of Sergeants as well as a Command pack, and by scraping up figures from the mule drivers and artillerymen I will now be able to field a fourth unit due to Peter Pig`s generosity!    
This is a work in progress, and I intend to run the Officer's careers game as a background to my games. 

	The Officer's Career Table.  Dice every 5 years.
	1-5yrs	6-10yrs	11-15yrs	15-20yrs	20-25yrs
1	Leaves Regt.	Dies in Service	Dies in Service	Dies in Service	Dies in Service
2	Drink problem	Leaves Regt	Leaves Regt	Leaves Regt	Ill Health
3	Map reading +1	Map reading +1	Debts	Debts	Leaves Regt
4	Pistol shot +1	Sword +1	Tactics+1	Training +1	Pensioned Out
5	Logistics +1	Logistics +1	Training +1	Tactics+1	Long Service medal
6	Command +1	Command +1	Influence +1	Influence +1	Honoured

	Leaves Regt.	Dies in Service	Promotions
1	Syphilis	Syphilis	Never ever Sir!
2	Cashiered as a Drunkard	"Accidentally" shot	Do not make us laugh
3	Regimental transfer	Unexpected illness	Not this year.
4	Takes a job in civilian life	Lost in action	Scheduled next year
5	Marries Money	The coward's way out	Promoted for next 5 yrs
6	Inherits	A fall	Promoted

The Official History of the 1st Battalion 4th Foot, the King's Own Lancaster  Regiment during the Colonial Wars of the Victorian period, by Dr Winston Snodgrass MD, Military Surgeon. Published 1915.

Regimental Officer	Annotations
The Official History of the 1st Battalion 4th Foot, the King's Own Lancaster  Regiment during the Colonial Wars of the Victorian period, by Dr Winston Snodgrass MD, Military Surgeon. Published 1915. 1875: India.  Lt Colonel Beaconsfield left the battalion, being promoted to Staff Colonel to General Baggot-Glubb at Simla.  The battalion was paraded before Major Northcote, now promoted Lt.Colonel and recently awarded a Knighthood for his service.  A popular Officer, morale is high. Captain Hart-Dyke was promoted to Major in the Rifle Brigade, and Captain Hartnell Smith to Regimental Major.  Two of our Lieutenants, Ibbotson and Mahon were promoted  to the Captaincy vacancies.   The two lieutenant vacancies were filled by  Sub-Lts. Crichton and Richmond. Two new Sub Lieutenants joined the regiment from the Lancaster Depot in England.  This pair will reveal their character in the field. Our Non Commissioned Officers, the RSM, Quartermaster and CSM will serve for the next five years if the dice of fate spare them. The regiment moved up to Oghi Fort in the Agror area.  This is opposite to the Hazara tribal lands, and promises to be an interesting posting.  The men were amused to be issued Khaki uniforms, the famous redcoats of the 4th being reserved for parades from this point onwards.
Lt Colonel Benjamin Beaconsfield 5+:  A Jolly Good Chap 5+, Bravo, bravo, well respected.	1875: Leaves the Regiment.  Promoted to Col.
Major Stafford Northcote 6+: A Pleasant Manner.  A pleasure to take tea with but characterless	1875: Promoted Lt Colonel. Honoured with a Knighthood.  Sir Stafford!
Captain William Hart Dyke 7+: A bag of nerves. Likely to leg it if his men are pinned , on a roll of 3+.	1875: Promoted Major to the Rifle Brigade.
Captain William  Hartnell Smith 6+: The Gentleman has a bottle!  A drunkard. Roll for leadership.	1875: Promoted major in the Regt.
Lieutenant Frederick Stanley 5+: Terrible Planner.  Unit has limited ammo.	1875: Sword skills +1
Lieutenant Henry Sir Selwin-Ibbetson, Bt, 9+: A fine Moustache, but otherwise forgettable.	1875: Brevetted Captain. Logistics +1
Lieutenant Vincent Mahon 6+: Yellow Belly, his unit will not melee, but only fire at enemy.	1875: Sword Skills +1   Promoted Captain.
Lieutenant Rowland Winn 5+:  Fine Swordsman rolls two dice in melee	1875: Dies in Service- Syphilis
2nd Lieutenant James Dalrymple 5+: Brave. Removes one pinned marker automatically per turn	1875: Develops drink problem.
2nd Lieutenant Crichton Elphinstone 6+: Short sighted.  Cannot order fire except at short range.	1875: Command +1 Brevetted Lieutenant
2nd Lieutenant Charles Cairns 6+:  Ugly.  No mirrors in his house!	1875: Pistol shooting skills +1
2nd Lieutenant Henry Richmond 7+:  Lucky.  May reroll any one set of dice once in the game.	1875: Promoted Lieutenant.  Command +1
RSM Charlie Atkin 6+: Bald as a coot.  No game effect but he has  a shiny head...	1875: Long Service medal
CSM Harry Bedford 6+:  Unlucky, Becomes a casualty on a roll of 1 or 2	1875: Training +1
Quartermaster Jock Wallace  6+:  Steady , The men like him.	1875: Long Service Medal
Surgeon Dr Winston Snodgrass MD 6+:  A damned fine fellow, nothing more nothing less	No annotation for this year.
2nd Lieutenant Brian Disraeli NB: hates anyone named Gladstone	1875: Joins Regiment
2nd Lieutenant Edward(Teddy) Malmesbury	1875: Joins Regiment