The 11th Madras Punative Expedition

Once again the Typhoo Sultan, and his tea related puns, have been causing trouble in the Carnactic.  Time to call the 11th Madras Coastal battalion out of garrison duties at Fort George and march them to reach the enemy stronghold.

The Sultan is faced by the British Governor, the Earl Grey, supported by Colonel Reynolds and Captain Ashworth.  All three are pink gin sipping useless articles.  The true commander of the 11th is the very shouty Major Tudor Williams, an incredibly active and angry man.  His personal servant is Randi Ram, a lowly and cowardly Sepoy that Williams imagines is his illegitimate son.  Randi however believes himself to be the son of Captain Whitmore a previous Battalion Officer now returned to Britain.

Major Williams may
not actually be sane.
His men call him
"The thundering Pig"

The Battalion have taken four companies on this punative expedition.  Lt Grahame's, Lt Mackintosh, Lt Beaumonts's and Lt Sugden's.  They also have a Cavalry troop of the 1st Madras Horse, and a pair of guns in support.

Famously the battalion put down the rebellion of the Bhuna of Dahl, a local Nawab who is a proxy of the Sultan.

On  table the advance begins on the village of Chinta, occupied by rebel forces, probably belonging to the Bhuna at this stage.  Of course the Bhuna may well remain as the local Nawab, but compared to the Sultan he has only small rupees as the saying goes in Fort George.   

The Game, the Arcot Road, 

Chinta on the Arcot Road.

The 11th deploy their line

And some of those Sepoys need sorting out!

Riflemen in the rocks to the front.  Dealt with.

The guns clear up the remnants

My Cavalry goes all in against the camel guys

A Camel spanking

Lt Grahame gives them a taste of British spunk

Lt "Jock" Mackintosh wins the game with a mad bayonet charge.  Those Sepoys in the HQ group are still facing the wrong way!

Up the Nile Game 2, the village.

Young Herbert Farthingdale is regretting taking that commission with the Khedive's Egyptian Army.  His latest command, a company of the 7th Garrison Battalion are poor shots and less than keen.  They haven't been paid in six months, and the Company's Remington rifles are rusty to the point of being dangerous and have a poor range compared to the Martini Henry Rifles of the British. 

Colonel Boris Bumsby Pasha, a chubby chancer and camel worrier of some renown, and Herbert's commanding Officer, has detached the 7th company to secure Taboun, whilst the column marches on Kabkaba and the "Mad Fakir."   It's still all looking a little bit grim.

 

The Village of Taboun

Second of three games, the Village.  The Seventh Garrison Company, supported by an Egyptian crewed gun, have set out under Herbert to secure the village on the flank.   

The battlefield

And the village, plumbing limited.

7th Company march for the village.  No Dervish so far.  I'm using blinds for the enemy.

Mahdist riflemen in the dunes.  We give them a volley.  Seven hits.

The enemy are driven back pinned, and I give them a second volley.

7th Company reach the village and face yet more Dervish riflemen in those dunes.

My gunners need training.

The gun crew are wiped out.

The company drive back the Dervish.

But Dervish tribesmen and camel riders are swarming around the village now.

The camel riders swarm in as darkness falls, but among the buildings the Egyptians fight well.  Herbert survives, at least until morning. 

The Broad Fourteens Patrol

The Pride of Seaham!

A simple scenario linker for grouping coastal forces games.  A chart of Patrol areas linked to mission briefings.  Keeping it simple seems like a good idea. 

My back of a postcard rules, so far... Work in Progress.
1 inch = 5 knots Weapons roll multiple d6 spotting within 12".  Vessels moving half speed heard, and bearing detected at 36" Vessels firing or planing at full speed with a plume are visible.	Two sixes are a critical hit, roll 2d6 2.  Life belts,  3.  Raft 3.  Command,  4.  Waterline hull,  5.   A weapons point 6.   Rudder,  7.   Props,  8.   Engines 9.   Wireless Transmitter 10. Aldis lamp 11. Command 12. Fuel fire
To Hit dice      5 or 6. Machine gun  1d6 HMG              2d6 20mm             3d6 4cm/2pdr        4d6 Over 12"        6 needed for hit. Within 3"       4,5,6 hits
Damage dice 1  Through the woodwork 2  Into the upper hull 3  Sheer off 4  Sheer off 5. Hit 6. Hit	Captain`s Character 6  Inspirational Hero 6 Crew points 5  Bold Brass Balls 5 Crew points 4  Solid and Dependable 3  Sound Chap. 3 Crew Points 2  Wobbly and Losing it 2 crew points. 1  Pretty Piss Poor.  1 Crew Point.

HM Armed Trawler Pride of Seaham

I diced up Lt Johnny Stiff-Rodde as a sound chap.  He recruits a skilled Coxswain P/O William Allcock (+1) and an exceptional Gunner (+1) Leading Seaman Wankum.

The Patrol

Pride of Seaham is conducting a patrol out to the Broad Fourteens.  Primarily an AS mission the boat is also under orders to look out for downed aircrew 

1.  The Swept Channel

The vessel enters the swept channel and rolls 6.  E-boats, everywhere E-boats.  I must be more careful of what I include in an encounter table!

Two pairs at 10 and 2 o'clock.

The enemy box the trawler.

The view of the target from my scratch built E-boats.

The E-boats close in

But the fire from the trawler is accurate and my skilled gunner hits them.

A rookie error, the E-boats are moving too quickly to coordinate

The Pride of Seaham turns away but the E-Boat fire continues and the rusty old girl is hulled badly.

It all ends dreadfully, Pride of Seaham is sunk.  A few survivors make it to a Carly raft, and the dice reveal that one of them is the Captain.  Let's hope his next command has something more to challenge the Germans than a rusty old trawler.

It's up the Nile for you Farthingdale.

Young Herbert probably shouldn't have taken that commission with the Khedive's Egyptian Army.  His men, the 3rd Sudanese, were well trained regulars, the only issue being the Remington rifles they used having a limited range compared to the Martini Henry Rifles of the West Kents.  The real problem was the Mission, march up the Red Nile and sort out the Dervish problem.

Easier said than done, especially when you are an idiot of Herbert's calibre.

Our Hero is serving under Colonel Boris Bumsby Pasha, a chubby chancer and camel worrier of some renown.  Its all looking a little grim.

 

The Garrison of Abu Hamed has been lead out by Colonel Bumsby to march on Kabkaba, where a "Mad Fakir" has been preaching a Dervish Jihad against the Turks.  The Fakir is a little unclear on just who his enemies are!

The Wadi

First of three games, the Dervish ambush Colonel Bumsby's force at the Wadi.  I`m using Men Who Would be Kings, with 15mm figures and 2 figures to a base.  My Regular units are 24 figures (representing 12 bases) and the Dervish Tribesmen 32.

The Game

The Abu Hamed Wadi

A 24 point field force, right to left, the Regular Sudanese, a well drilled Mountain gun battery, the West Kents and the Lancashire Fusiliers.

Rocks to the right, the wadi ahead and a patch of sand, unscouted.

The sand turns out to be good going, but the rocks are filled with Babbage generated shooters.  Dervish spears appear to the front.

The Fusiliers give them a round of firing, killing seven. 

Bumsby scouts the wadi and is stuck fast.  He always was too large for that poor pony.

They come again and we kill four more

But those devils in the rocks get four of my men.

The Fusiliers see off the Dervish but at grievous cost.

The sad demise of Captain W.A.N Kerr of the Loyal North Lanc's Fusiliers

Bumsby steadies the Lancashires as the mountain guns get into action.

More Dervish shooters appear.  they kill off the Lancashires, just one shrt of killing Bumsby himself.

Although the fellow comes close.

Colonel Bumsby retreats to the West Kents and the tactics are now to hold the line

The Sudanese are regulars, but their rifles are poor  At long range they snipe at the Dervish.

In fact its at "only just" range.  Four hits out of twelve.  We'll take that.

All three Dervish units on table are pinned.

The guns get six hits out of eight.  Well drilled indeed.

And another four for the Sudanese.  Its very much swung to the Colonial field force

The Shooters deliver a charge,  Their bullets will not harm you, etc...  The bayonets do though. Six hts versus three

We've seen them off.  The Papers will love it, Her Majesty will love it, that fat idiot Boris Bumsby may even make Prime Minister yet.