Having watched Sgt Guinness' campaign for a while, I'm seriously thinking about running one of my own set in the Northwest Frontier. Since I'll be doing it solo, my best bet is to use Charles S. Grant's classic Programmed Wargames Scenarios. The obvious scenarios are from the final chapter, Reconnaissance in Strength, in which a Blue "player" force marches upcountry against a programmed Red force. My first thought, given the Great-Game-gone-hot feel of my Wofun collection, was to have an Afghan force in the center of a valley, with Russians and British both coming at him from opposite ends. After they meet in the middle, having between them vanquished the locals, they would have one big fight to settle who holds the entire pass.
The catch is that Red force needs nine infantry units, four cavalry and two gun batteries, while Blue has five infantry, three cavalry and two batteries. The artillery provided in the "complete" set is actually very ample for all three, no problem there. But for the rest:
Afghans - four infantry units, one and a half cavalry units.
Indian Army - three infantry units, two cavalry units.
Russians - three infantry units, three and a half cavalry units.
These are on the order of 15-20 infantry or 8-10 cavalry apiece. To field the appropriate numbers, I'd need to break them down into half-units. Easy enough, and there are options for that in both The Sword and the Flame and The Men Who Would be Kings, but it might still seem a little small. Perhaps the scenarios can be modified. I also needn't stick quite to the suggested proportions - a Russian army with lots of cavalry seems appropriate! One issue is that Blue ends the series with not only his "standard" force, but the survivors from previous scenarios, thus having to be larger. Of course we could just have a standard campaign, with two of these allied against the other. Russians and their Afghan allies invading the Raj?
Another possibility is Bob Cordery's Bundock and Bayonet, in which companies are represented by five figures. That would work alright.
On the other hand, I'm reading the "Gordon Expedition" chapter of Mike Snook's Into the Jaws of Death right now, and I have plenty of River War minis... this "scenario-string" would work just fine for that, too, with some fiddling with the numbers since in TSATF the natives should always significantly outnumber the Europeans. Perhaps simply doubling Blue's assigned assets?
Thoughts and suggestions welcomed.
Thanks for the link to the Sgt Guinness's Campaign - a great read and inspiring post. I can well understand your own enthusiasm. The 'Great Game' style of campaign you have in mind looks very promising.
ReplyDeleteYou might consider using what you have 'as is' to begin with as a species of prologue to a more extensive campaign later, depending upon where you want to go with it. The Russian and British expeditions are aware of the ambitions of the other but don't really know each has a small reconnaissance expedition in the area, approaching respectively from north and south. The Afghans know of both, and want a bar of neither - they might interfere with the lucrative incomes to be got from banditry along the (say) Gandamulluk Pass...
Cheers,
Ion
I'm considering using the Grant scenarios loosely, as pure inspiration. But I was just reading a post by ManofTin about "third forces," which reminded me that Grant's book has a section on just that - with charts for which side they lean towards, and how they react to the fighting in their midst. Definitely some ideas in your comment there!
DeleteI like the sound of this Great Game gone hot campaign. Had something like that in mind myself. All that's lacking are the toy soldiers and scenery :-(
ReplyDeleteI only thought of it after buying my first Great Game figs and having to think about how to use them. Reading books on the topic helps!
DeleteIf you need figures, there is now a small collection of NWF Paperboys...