Another pic taken by the same friend. I need to track down the personal photo site where he stashed several dozen more...
Saturday, February 26, 2011
13: 3rd SCINDE HORSE (played by 10th Hussars) ENGAGE TRIBAL CAVALRY...
A nice pic, taken by a friend. Definitely worth posting!
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
12: PAUSE IN BATTLE REPORT
The preceding battle report and its yet-to-come continuation and conclusion (hopefully in the not-too-distant-future!) covers a refight of Maiwand held over the course of several different days, but which actually ran very quickly.
The longest-running version we've played so far was the original "Mother of All Maiwand's" fought using slightly home-customized "big battle" TSATF variant on July 27th, the Battle's 130th Anniversary, which lasted about 15 hours -- almost four times as long as the battle itself.
The refight at the Pacificon Game Expo, played using Black Powder, was shorter and sweeter -- maybe 6 hours all told -- but involved slightly smaller armies on both sides.
This version used 800 FIGHTING ENGLISHMEN -- the official "radical" big-battle variant of the TSATF -- and I must say we found the streamlined movement and command elements of the rules fantastic. I'm not sure how long the game lasted altogether but I don't think it all added up to more than 4 or 5 hours of actual playing time.
The firing system worked fine but for us the melee left something to be desired and we wound up reverting to "classic" TSATF for hand-to-hand combat, albeit without the traditional "+1" for leaders.
The speed with which we were able to play was a happy surprise and this was actually the first time we ever managed to fight the battle all the way through to the very bitter end. And bitter it was to be sure.
More of that in the day(s) to come, hopefully sooner rather than later...
11: 66th INF. & BOMBAY GRENADIERS IN MIDDLE NULLAH, JACOB'S RIFLES PERPENDICULAR TO THEM ACROSS CENTER OF THE PLAIN...
(PLEASE NOTE: dust-colored stuffing used to mark units as having MOVED that turn, as plain white stuffing is used to mark units that have FIRED.)
9: GHAZIS CHARGE REAR-GUARD CAVALRY JUST NORTH OF KHIG...
(PLEASE NOTE: as not enough Indian Cavalry was available, these 9th Lancers and the 10th Hussars were pressed into service to supplement the one accurate unit of sword-armed sowars.)
