As mentioned previously, I have been tempted down the path of some forces for use in 18thC India, pitting the HEIC against the French and various local rulers etc. It certainly is a fascinating period to game, although many of the battles can hardly be called that until towards the end of the 1790's. Still plenty on offer for modest games, which suits me down to the ground.
CWD & India 18thC
With the above in mind, I popped a mail to Dave mooting the possibility of doing 'something' set in India for the Cotswold wargames Day and using Honours of War for the rules. Dave was on board from the off and since then we have been toying with ideas for forces, tweaks to the rules etc. It has certainly been lots of fun and has taken up most of my gaming time of late, so I thought I'd give a bit of an update of the state of play as it stands.
HEIC OOB c1750's
My force will nominally be based upon the HEIC and their local Allies, which currently equates to:
2 x British Line infantry (Superior)
2 x HEIC Troops (Standard)
4 x HEIC Sepoys (Standard)
4 x Irregular Light Infantry (Inferior)
4 x Irregular Light Cavalry (Inferior)
3 x Artillery (Standard)
2 x Allied Artillery (Inferior)
2 x Zumbarak (Inferior Artillery)
This is all very much a work in progress at present, with some playtesting required to make sure things work out as planned. So the below image is off most of the core force, bar some elephants, camels and heavy artillery. I want to make sure I have everything based and finished before I start painting. I still have a few more units to go, but at least I have everything to hand that I need, famous last words!
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| That's a lot of miniatures to paint, but will help focus my efforts. |
ImagiNations in General
Over the past few years, I have really embraced the whole concept of ImagiNations for a multitude of reasons. I love the ability to create some background 'fluff' for your force, but anchored in a plausible historical context. Then of course there is the fun of getting together figures that you like to create your force, as well as naming them, uniforms colours and flags etc. It would be remiss of me not to admit the attraction of less units to buy, paint and store, with say a core 18thC force being able to fight in America, Europe and India.
So whilst working my way through the HEIC force, I thought that the figures I'm using for the Allies, which are Pendraken 16thC Ottomans, could very easily with a few additions make a nice little force for some games set in Europe. This is something for the future but has certainly make me ponder on what else I might need to flesh them out so to speak.
Russia in the ACW
When I have my evening meal I like to listen to the radio and certainly Radio 4 has some great programmes on from 4.00pm onwards. Whilst listening to one of those, they mentioned a Russian 'colony' in northern California, namely Fort Ross and they briefly said that what might have happened if it hadn't been sold before the 1849 gold rush? This immediately pricked my ears up and I thought what a great setting for some 'what if?' games leading up to and during the ACW. Naturally this led to possible British involvement from Canada and possible German intervention based upon say and independent colony like Fort Ross.
From such small acorns do mighty oaks grow and all that, so I've parked this for the moment to come back to in the future, but I can see plenty of opportunities here. Such is the attraction of ImagiNations!
Great stuff Steve....I am closing in on the end of the Anarchy book by Dalrymple. In all honesty, it's a bit earlier in the piece than I am really interested in, but I enjoy almost all history, so have still felt the book was worth reading.
ReplyDeleteThe ACW intervention is always tempting...I love the Perry's British Intervention force in 28mm....I have been tempted to journey down that rabbit hole a few times...but have managed to resist, so far!
Thanks Keith! My period is certainly more mid-18thC than towards the end and the early 19thC when old Wellington hove into view. By this time I think the HEIC and British pretty much had stuff sown up, but if the various rulers and states had not spent so much time infighting, then they could have been given a good run for their money.
DeleteI think the ACW intervention is one of those wonderful 'what if's?' of wargaming. I have a similar interest and ideas based upon the 1st & 2nd Schleswig-Holstein Wars that could have spread to involve Russian and Great Britain. Then there is the tension between Prussia/Germany and France post the FPW when France started to re-arm etc...
You have some work at the painting desk laying ahead of you. Are you targeting the two Maratha Wars as inspiration for your project or turning your focus more toward the 7YW?
ReplyDeleteI certainly do Jon! I'm not sure which war we will be using for inspiration to be honest. Luckily there was little change in troops during the early campaigns, until the French started to uniform their Sepoys. What we do know is that rhubarb will once again feature as a narrative as per our other games, which is one of the joys of ImagiNations😊.
DeleteSome battles in India would certainly be interesting.
ReplyDeleteThanks Peter and we are certainly looking forward to trying our ideas out. If nothing else elephants and camels with guns will look good if nothing else!
DeleteI’d be tempted to keep all the Indian irregulars as generic as possible, then you can use ‘em for a wide time period. For the Anglos - “divide and rule”.
ReplyDeleteRussian America is fascinating. There are a number of books available on the subject, and often reasonably priced.
We were discussing only the other evening about how the Russians must regret selling Alaska. The world would be so, so different if they hadn’t (British troops remain in Canada, keeping the Russkis at bay - and the Yankees watching both).
Cheers,
Geoff
The Indian irregulars are going to common to both sides Geoff, with the battle probably decided by the regular troops and Sepoys, but you never know!
DeleteRussian America does open up so many possibilities for us wargamers, which is of course a good thing. I'll have to look out for some books to add to the to read pile...
Based on your previous recommendation I too bought the "Anarchy" and am happily working my way through it, a great book about a fascinating time...Regards.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad your enjoying the book Tony. I found it a brilliant read and a great primer for the period covered. Much more interesting and enlightening than the standard texts we had to read at school.
DeleteVery interesting; I wish we knew more about the flags carried by Indian armies in the mid-18th century, though! Sensible to take an ImagiNations approach to it for that reason alone, probably. ;-) Good luck with the project and I look forward to seeing it develop. That's another Dalrymple book I'll have to look out for, too.
ReplyDeleteIt is a fascinating period that in general, we in the 'West' know little about, other than the headlines battles etc. I've been able to find out some info via the dreaded TMP and Google on lots of flags, but I'm quite happy to go down the ImagiNations routes. I hope you get to read the Dalrymple book and enjoy it too.
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