AFGHAN ARMY LIST FOR MAIWAND

I already posted everything below on its own PAGE, so I apologize for "double-dipping" the same info twice -- but I feel it's important enough to warrant an entry here on the HOME PAGE as well. I probably should have put it up here first.

So, in case you missed it when it went up yesterday on a back-page, here it is as a headline. The BRITISH ARMY LIST should be coming very soon, as it is much, MUCH shorter to transcribe!

In time (hopefully before too long) I will post info on all the figures used for all the units and LINKS to the companies that manufacture them -- though I imagine most visitors to this site know that stuff already!

REGULAR INFANTRY

At the battle (7/27/1880): ________In the game (7/27/2010):

5 Regts. Kabuli Infantry _____________4 x 20 fig. units + 5 additional leaders

4 Regts. Herati Infantry _____________2 x 20 fig. units + 2 additional leaders

1 Regt. Kandahari Infantry ___________1 x 20 fig. unit + 2 additional leaders

1 Regt. The Wali's mutineer infantry_____1 x 20 fig. unit + 1 additional leader

SUB-TOTAL: approx. 7,000 men________SUB-TOTAL: 170 figs.

REGULAR CAVALRY

At the battle:_________________In the game:

1,000 Kabuli cavalry______________3 x 12 fig. units + 1 additional leader

SUB-TOTAL: approx. 1,000 men______SUB-TOTAL: 37 figs.

REGULAR ARTILLERY*

At the battle:________________In the game:

36 guns & crew*_______________12 guns, each w/4 fig. crew

_____________________________SUB-TOTAL: 48 figs.

IRREGULAR CAVALRY

At the battle:___________________In the game:

Approx. 3,000_____________________4 x 12 fig. units + 2 additional leaders

Jamshidi & Feroz-Kohi

tribal horse

SUB-TOTAL: approx. 3,000 men________SUB-TOTAL: 50 figs.

TRIBAL & GHAZI INFANTRY

At the battle:____________In the game:

Approx. 15,000 men_______6 x 20 fig. unit of Tribesmen + 2 additional leaders

_______________________6 x 20 fig. unit of Ghazis + 2 additional leaders

SUB-TOTAL: approx. 15,000 men____SUB-TOTAL: 244 figs.

GRAND TOTAL AT THE BATTLE: Approx. 25,000-30,000 MEN

GRAND TOTAL FOR THE GAME: 548 figs.

*NOTE REGARDING AFGHAN ARTILLERY AT MAIWAND:

According to my non-professional but somewhat exhaustive research, Ayub Khan's army which set out for Maiwand contained 36 guns -- but en route from Herat, one battery of 6 stayed behind in the city of Farah (LINK to wikipedia's FARAH page), leaving a total of 30 guns; then there is a near-definitive record of a FULL BATTERY of Afghan artillery WITHDRAWING from the field before firing a single shot or even having "dropped trails" to set up its guns (see the page of this blog devoted to Baden-Powell's visit to Maiwand battlefield weeks later -- Baden-Powell visits the battlefield -- for his first-person report re: what may have been one of the guns from that never-engaged Afghan artillery battery).

This leaves us with 24 Afghan artillery pieces actually lobbing shells at the enemy during the course of the day.

Using the not uncommon tactical-level horse-&-musket period scale ratio of 2:1, with a two-gun "section" represented on the table by a single model canon & crew, this gave me a grand total of 12 Afghan guns, which -- using the Table of Organization and Equipment from The Sword And The Flame -- meant FOUR 3-GUN BATTERIES, one of which I classified as ARMSTRONG RIFLED BREECH LOADERS, with longer range than the best of the British Artillery, while the remainder were treated as lesser quality guns than the RHA battery's but equal to the guns of the improvised Smooth Bore battery, manned by crews formed from infantrymen of the 66th Regt.