18thC India List for Honours of War

As mentioned recently, Dave and I have been working on a list for use in 18thC India for our forthcoming Honours of War game at the Cotswold Wargames Day. This is based upon admittedly limited reading on the mid-18thC in India period, but I feel enough has been read to make some informed decisions, at least for what we have planned. As always our games are to have fun, have a feel of the period and hopefully learn something along the way too!

Now please feel free to comment, belittle our ideas (not too much😉) or make suggestions to improve things. Afterall this is very much a work in progress and by no means set in stone. Things might change if and when I get chance to run a few trial games, or during the game itself on the day. We are flexible in our approach as it's only a game afterall!

Background Info

The early days of the Honourable East India Company and the conflicts it was involved in have little info with regards to the battles fought. There appears to have been lots of bribes prior to battles to get one side to defect, no intervene or simply ride away, with the battles not being battles in say a mid-18thC European sense, as there was little action, despite large numbers involved. So there is some artistic licence that can be taken in how to replicate these actions and it is up to you how you want to reflect this. These then are our take on things:

The French and British sent some European troops to support their respective trading concerns in India. These were the best troops there and so it is appropriate to class them as Superior. Each of the Companies had their own troops or militia that were trained, but no especially to any high standard. So these have been classed as Standard. Given both sides used lots of Sepoys due to the limited number of Europeans there, they were relatively well trained to support the Europeans in military actions, yet could be fragile, hence classing them Standard for shooting and melee but Inferior Class for rallying. 

For our game and for fun, we have included European ships crew as well as some nominal Jacobite forces after the failure of the '45. Whilst not good for shooting that are pretty good at getting stuck in, hence the Onferior shooting but Superior melee.

Both sides Light Infantry, of which there were large numbers of, they were more used to raiding rather than pitched battles, so these are classed as Inferior Light Infantry. The same is broadly true of the Indian and Afghan Light Cavalry, that are also classed as Inferior. The limited numbers of Heavy Cavalry with armour as classed as Standard only.

The French had the edge on the British in terms of how they used their artillery, so these have been class as Superior, whilst the British is Standard only. The Indian States had heavy artillery that was more of a status symbol rather than being especially effective. Their rate of fire was low and they were pretty much immmobile once deployed, hence being rated Inferior but Heavy guns and immobile.

Both sides had plenty of fun and exotic troops, such as Elephants, Zumburak Camels and Rockets. The Elephants were certainly at the end of their useful period but are too fun to leave out, ditto the Zumburak Camels. All of these were largely used to break up the very large Light Infantry and Light Cavalry units that were found on the flanks of all armies of the period. So whilst not being especially devastating (famous last words!), their main use to attrit units on the flanks to limit their offensive abilities and to make them less able to resist attacks.

In terms of C&C, the British had the edge (think Clive of India) but the French did have good commanders too. So here the British have the slight edge. In contrast the Indian and Afghan commanders are much less able in comparison, to reflect their tendency to switch sides, to go raiding after the baggage etc. Again they did have the odd excellent commander, but rarely so.

The List

French & British Infantry – Superior Infantry.

European Infantry – Standard Infantry.

Scottish & Ships Crew - Inferior Infantry for Shooting but Superior Infantry for Melee.

Sepoys & State Troops - Standard Infantry but Inferior Class for Rally.

Light Infantry – Inferior Light Infantry.

French Artillery - Superior Medium.

British Artillery - Standard Medium.

Indian Siege Artillery - Inferior, Heavy, Immobile (possibly shoot every other Turn to reflect long reload times).

Elephants - Inferior Light Artillery, Infantry Move Rate, No -1 for Moving, Large Target, Ignore Terrain penalties.

Camel Zumburaks - Inferior Light Artillery, Light Infantry Move.

Rockets - Inferior Light Artillery (range of Medium Artillery). Deviate on D6. 1 – Miss, 2 – 3 Deviate and hit next nearest unit, 4 – 6 Hit target.

Indian Light Cavalry – Inferior Cavalry.

Indian Heavy Cavalry – Standard Cavalry.

French Commands - 1-2 Dithering, 3-5 Dependable, 6 Dashing.

British Commands - 1- Dithering, 2 -5 Dependable, 6 Dashing.

Indian Commands (Light Infantry & Light Cavalry) - 1-3 Dithering, 4-5 Standard, 6 Dashing.

So there we have it. I hope you found this interesting and possibly informative too. As mentioned at the start, this is very much our take on things and the above has been done to try and balance things to make for a fun game. Please feel free to change, tweak or amend things to your hearts content. As always any suggestions to improve things would be grealty appreciated.

TTFN.