Sunday, September 25, 2016

FOR SALE! - Indian Mutiny collection

SOLD


After some thinking over the last couple of days I have come to the decision to sell my Indian Mutiny collection. I want to continue playing Sharp Practice but with smaller skirmish units, which is not what the Indian Mutiny is best suited for IMO.

The minis are all from Iron Duke Miniatures and Mutineer Miniatures, and based on 25mm plastic bases. They are all individually based and have been used only three times for Sharp Practice. This is all you need in order to play Indian Mutiny with the Sharp Practice rules, but they will usable for The Men Who Would Be Kings rules as well.

In total there are 142 minis (86 Mutineers/Rebels and 56 British/HEIC) and 2 artillery pieces - I am looking to get £4 for each mini and £6 for each artillery, which amount to £580. £500 for all minis and artillery

On top of this I have the Engineers Wagon, Ammo Wagon, and a Water Cart, which I am looking to get £25 for.

Then there are 4 deployment point markers, which is another £25.

Both the wagons and deployment point markers do not have to be part of any deal.

Shipment within the EU and for the UK will be £60.

Let me know if you're interested in the comments below and please provide a way for me to contact you back.

Here are some images of the collection:

Rebels

All Rebel units

 Two units of Well-Ordered Sepoys and Leader

Three units of Sepoy Rabble, two Leaders and musician

One unit of Badmashes with Big Choppers and Leader

One unit of Badmashes with Big Choppers and Leader

One unit of Sepoy Artillery and Leader

Two units of Sepoy Skirmishers and Leader


British/Company

All British/HEIC units

 Three units of Regular Army, Leader and musician

One unit of Gurkhas and Leader

One unit of Loyal Native Infantry and Leader

One unit of Civilian Volunteers and Leader
One unit of British Artillery and Leader

Deployment markers and wagons

Thursday, September 22, 2016

Indian Mutiny - The Escorted Lady

Played another Sharp Practice Indian Mutiny game with Chris yesterday. All miniatures used are from my collection of Iron Duke Miniatures and Mutineer Miniatures. Chris had surprisingly agreed to try out the rules again. We went for smaller forces this time with a focus on skirmishers. We ended up with a lot of support points, so artillery, marksmen, musicians, a second deployment point and extra leaders were added.

For the first time I also added two minor characters to the game a herder and a holy man, who each could provide some help to either side if persuaded to do so.

The table was littered with terrain as I tried to replicate a lush valley where the strong sun had left much of the flora dead. It took me some 45 minutes before I was satisfied with the look of the playing field.

The Escorted Lady
July 1857. The British have been tasked with getting colonel Cooper's headstrong daughter Kathleen away from the small farm, which she so far has refused to leave. The British, led by captain Pilkington must escort her across a valley.

The Rebels are led by Sagai Palatha, a vengeful mutineer who hated Cooper and has sworn to rid Indian of him and all his kin. The Rebels know that the British are trying to move out the colonel's daughter across a valley where an ambush would be ideal.

British Force
Capt. Pilkington (Status 3)
2 x British Skirmishers

Lt. Moore (Status 2)
1 x Gurkhas

Lt. Halson (Status 2)
1 x Artillery, Medium

Rebel Force
Sagai Palatha (Status 2)
Daman Mahajan (Status 1)
2 x Well-ordered Sepoys

Gadjaahar Negi (Status 2)
1 x Sepoy Skirmishers

Shavran Kapoor (Status 2)
1 x Sepoy Skirmishers

Mohammed Falat (Status 1)
1 x Badmashes w/Big Choppers

The Game
The British deployment point was a bit to the left of Kathleen Cooper's farm, so the British would have to swing around the farm to get hold of the headstrong daugther.


The Rebel deployment point was situated behind a rocky hill and the secondary deployment point was placed behind the same hill but closer to the middle of the board.

Both sides took their time to deploy, must have been the bloody heat. Kapoor's Skirmishers found a good spot close to the holy man where they would make full use of the cover, and would be able to get into a good firing position once the British moved forward. The Badmashes led by Mohammed Falat were not as affected by the heat, so they moved swiftly across the table into the almost jungle like terrain on the opposite side. They would attempt to get in behind the British. Halson's Artillery were the first British to make an appearance, but the artillery crew was suffering in the heat and the medium gun only slowly moved forward.






Eventually the rest of both forces entered the fray. The British strategy was for the Moore' Gurkhas to take care of Kathleen Cooper, while the Skirmishers of Capt. Pilkington and the Artillery would try to provide cover. The Rebels learned the hard way that both the British Skirmishers and their Artillery were dangerous from a long distance. Sagai Palatha had moved his Sepoys forward behind the rocky cliff, confident that the British were too far away. The British Skirmishers first fired at the Sepoys, and inflicting casualties, worse however was that Palatha himself was injured and this hindered his ability to lead his men, so Daman Mahajan was given control of one of the groups.






The Sepoy Skirmishers were still holding back, waiting for the British to move forward. Eventually Palatha and Mahajan managed to get their Sepoys in cover and then started rallying their shell shocked men. The Badmashes kept themselves in cover on the flank, patiently waiting for an opening, but threading water for some time. The Well-ordered Sepoys were still being rallied from their initial shock.



The British then got moving. Both the Skirmishers and the Gurkhas started moving up the road. Kapoor's men then emerged from their cover and fired into the flank of the Pilkington's skirmishers, inflicting a lot of shock onto the troops. Knowing that they would have to move along a a greater speed the Gurkhas began running up the road, with Kathleen hanging on, Pilkington's skirmishers returned fire, inflicting a few casualties. From behind cover Gadjaahar Negi's skirmishers emerged to pour some more fire on Pilkington's men, but their shooting was not as effective as Kapoor's skirmishers.





Kapoor's men then ran towards cover among the palm trees, and the British move ahead. Both Pilkington's men, despite their shock, and Halson's artillery reacted fast to the new thread from Negi's men, and more or less took them out of action, as Gadjaarhar Negi was killed. The remaining few men retreated, unable to do anything.

The Gurkhas move swiftly along the road, but straight into the now functioning Well-ordered Sepoys of Palatha and Mahajan, who fired. The Gurkhas took fire from both the flank and head on, and suffered a few casulaties as a result. The Badmashes decided to abandon their original plan and turned around making an attempt to cut off the Gurkhas later up the road.











At this point we had to stop the game as Chris had to get up early in the morning. As usual I really enjoyed myself. Even more so in this game than the first, as most of the rules we could remember, but also because the game had fewer miniatures. In the first game I had 60 figures, while in this I had 40, and I much prefer the smaller number. Chris still hates unit games and is not a fan of the Tiffin Chip. He likes the uncertainty of who goes next and the Command Chips, but not that your Leader could end up not activating. So it will probably be a while before he will want to play Sharp Practice again.

What to do?
I am left wondering whether the Indian Mutiny is the correct setting for me. The difference in the quality of the troops on the two sides mean that the Rebels will almost always have a lot more figures. Looking at the French Indian War, both sides are more evenly matched and games with more or less only skirmish troops will give you small, intense games, which I think I like more. Sharp Practice as a rule system is certainly something I want to continue playing.

So should I sell of my Indian Mutiny collection, and start a French Indian War project? I don't really know, but if someone is interested in this Indian Mutiny collection let me know as I could be interested in selling them.

Wednesday, September 21, 2016

Broken Legions - Germanic Barbarians warband

Since the rules were released I have wanted to revisit my Germanic Barbarians warband. I wanted to style them more like the Harii tribe with black shields and dark clothes. I tried painting some camouflage on their skin, but it did not look good, so that was dropped.

Anyway here they are. Missing from the pictures are the Wulfkin figures as they were not repainted.

 Chieftain, Witch/Druid, and Champions

 Warriors

Linebreakers

 Fanatics

 Pathfinders



Sunday, September 18, 2016

Indian Mutiny - The Waiting Spy

Some weeks ago I introduced my friend Chris to Sharp Practice. Chris has a distinct dislike for unit based historical game, so what was not to like for him in an Indian Mutiny game. I knew this would be a hard sell, so full credit to Chris for trying out the game. My arguments for him trying it out was the game mechanics and the tactical choice that the game has.

The scenario we played was based around the idea of a British spy hiding out in a cluster of buildings. The Brits were trying to get there in order to rescue him and the information he has on the mutineers, while the Mutineers were attempting to get to him to prevent the above from happening. Mechanics wise this meant that we placed a normal playing card face down in each of the four buildings. Once a building had been searched by a unit, the card would be turned over - and if it was the Jack then the spy had been found.

Chris played the British and went for a small, but well-armed force:

Leader 1 (Status 3)
Leader 3 (Status 1)
2 x British Regulars with Enfield Rifles
Leader 2 (Status 2)
1 x HEIC Regulars with Muskets


Playing the Mutineers I went for a large force of primary Sepoy Rabble:

Leader 1 (Status 2)
2 x Sepoy Rabble
Leader 2 (Status 2)
2 x Well-ordered Sepoys
Leader 3 (Status 1)
1 x Badmashes with Big Choppers
Leader 4
1 x Sepoy Rabble (Status 1)

Since it is some weeks ago that we played, I cannot remember all the details, so here is a brief summary.The game itself went well. In the beginning there was a lot of moving forward, trying to get into good positions and getting to the buildings. I was vary of the range of the Enfields so I was trying to make use of the cover. The British was therefore faster in getting to the buildings, but after searching the two closest by the spy was still not found. The Mutineers were moving into their first building while under heavy fire. The HEIC Regulars had take up a position on top of a building, giving them excellent view of the central area on the board. The Well-ordered Sepoys took on the British Regulars, and were supported by a unit of Sepoy Rabble, but firing volleys made it difficult to close in on the British. All Mutineer units took heavy casualties, but a unit of Sepoy Rabble got lucky and found the spy, who was then promptly escorted outside. Outside the HEIC Regulars continued to fire at the unit, and they were lucky to get away - it took some good rallying from the units leader though. In the end the Mutineers got hold of the spy and managed to get him back to their communications lines. The price paid was heavy though as the Mutineers took a lot of casualties

It was a good game and it flowed nicely - took some 3½ hours to play, but the checking of rules was minimal. Chris thought it was a good game as well, but he really dislikes having to move so many minis around. He agreed to have a go at it again at some later point. I enjoyed myself. While my solo game was a good experience it cannot beat having an opponent.

Here are some photos from the game.