More books!

20th Punjab Regiment of BNI, painted by Walter Fane (1868)

I think it is a good idea to put here, in new entries, the books I´m finding (and buying in some cases). In spite that the Third Afghan War is a really dark period, it is, on the other hand, possible to find useful information about the background of the combatants, the country, the weapons and tactics used, etc. in these books.
Part of this information has come to me thanks to Moonshadow and other commentators of my blog so, in their comments, there is also more information.
Creo que puede ser una buena idea poner aquí, en nuevas entradas, los libros que voy encontrando (y comprando en ocasiones). A pesar de que la Tercera Guerra de Afganistán es un periodo realmente oscuro - y en España aun más - , es, por otro lado, posible encontrar información útil acerca del trasfondo de los combatientes, el pais, las armas y las tácticas usadas, etc. en estos libros.
Parte de esta información me ha llegado gracias a Moonshadow y otros comentaristas de mi blog, por lo que, en sus comentarios, puede encontrarse información adicional.

 

"The Armies of India". A wonderful book from Major A.C. Lovett. It is possible to find a lot of his illustrations in the web, and they are true classics of the period. The book is full of interesting information about the Indian units of this army from the begining of its history to 1911 (date of the illustrations). It is, in fact, a short history about the Indian Army during the British Empire.

I expect to use it to paint that very difficult element, the Indian soldier (sepoy or sowar), and can say that its drawings are wonderful, wonderful.
"Los Ejércitos de la India". Un libro maravilloso del Mayor A. C. Lovett. Se pueden encontrar facilmente en la web un montón de sus ilustraciones, que son, sin excepción, verdaderamente clásicas acerca de este periodo. El libro está lleno de interesante información acerca de las unidades nativas del ejército, desde el comienzo de su historia hasta 1911 (fecha de las ilustraciones). Es, de hecho, una breve historia acerca del Ejército de la India durante el periodo de esplendor del Imperio Británico.
Espero usarlo como referencia para pintar ese elemento tan complicado, el soldado indio (a pie o a caballo), y puedo decir que sus ilustraciones son maravillosas, maravillosas.

 

I bought my PDF copy from Your Old Books and Maps. Their link is:
 

 http://youroldbooksandmaps.co.uk

 

A sample: Types of Punjabi Regiments

 

 

An Osprey classic. It has some very interesting pieces of information about the Infantry units, including a complete list of all the Infantry regiments. The plates are also very nice, and there are some of them dedicated to the 1900´s period.
Un clásico de Osprey. Tiene algunos datos interesantes acerca de las unidades de Infantería, incluyendo una lista completa de todos los Regimientos. Las láminas también son muy bonitas, y hay algunas correspondientes al periodo de 1900.

 

A complementary book from the other one, but without much information for me. I have this one only because I like a lot the Bengal Lancers...
Un libro complementario del anterior, pero sin mucha información para mí. Realmente, lo tengo porque me gustan un montón los Lanceros de Bengala...

 

 

My last acquisition from Osprey, looking for the British Army figures I expect to paint soon. Very good general information about the "others" theaters of the Great War and useful information about the uniforms of the British troops. The plates, very good, as is usual from Mike Chappell.
Mi última adquisición de Osprey, pensando en las figuras de tropas británicas que quiero pintar pronto. Muy buena información general acerca de esos "otros" teatros de operaciones durante la Gran Guerra, e información muy útil acerca de los uniformes de las tropas británicas. Las láminas, muy buenas, como es normal en Mike Chappell.

The Rolls-Royce A/C is one of my favourite vehicles of all the times. It has perfect lines! During its long "tour of duty", this vehicle was in all the war theaters of the British Empire, and there were some of them fighting in the North-West Province, so I expect to buy and paint some of them, probably from Brigade Games/Company B.
Very nice Osprey book, highly recomendable IMHO.
El auto blindado Rolls-Royce es uno de mis vehículos favoritos de todos los tiempos. ¡Tiene unas líneas perfectas! Durante su extenso periodo de servicio, este vehículo estuvo en todos los teatros de guerra del Imperio Británico, y hubo unos cuantos de ellos luchando en la Frontera del Noroeste, por lo que espero comprar y pintar algunos, probablemente de Brigade Games/Company B.
Un libro muy bueno de Osprey, altamente recomendable, en mi opinión.

I am now painting the figures I need for the first (and introductory) scenario. I have almost finished the Afghan models but I´m going to need more time for the Indian platoon.
On the other hand, I have some Musketeer Miniatures British cavalry that I,m thinking about to use in my games as Yeomanry (because they are very nice figures!). I only need an small cause...
Ahora mismo estoy pintando las figuras que necesito para el primer (e introductorio) escenario. Prácticamente he terminado ya los afganos, pero voy a necesitar más tiempo para pintar el pelotón indio.
Por otro lado, tengo en un rincón algunas figuras de Caballería británica de Musketeer Miniatures que estoy pensando usar como Yeomanry (¡porque son figuras muy bonitas!). Sólo necesito un pequeño motivo...

To finish this entry, a pair of shot of the Great War Miniatures figures I´m painting now, to use them in a more "classic" Great War game, one placed in the Western Front:
Para terminar esta entrada, un par de fotos de las figuras de Great War Miniatures que estoy pintando ahora con intención de jugar un escenario de la Gran Guerra más "clásico", uno ambientado en el Frente Occidental:

The First Scenario

SCENARIO 1: GUMATTI´S AFFAIR.

This was, originally, a punitive expedition against a notorious bandit that took place in 1903, near Bannu District in the North-West Frontier and I have written about it a past entry. Because my main area of interest is the Third Afghan War, I have adapted this small action and put it in 1917, also in an smaller scale (in the part of the British forces). This one can be a very good scenario to test the rules, no complex and without too many figures (that I need to paint, all of them...).

I have reproduced here a first hand account of the original action wrote by Michael O´Dwyer, a typical British traveller that accompanied the expedition to chase Sailgi. It is, in my humble opinion, a very interesting narration.

Extract from "India as I knew it: 1885-1925", by Michael O´Dwyer.

A very pleasant feature of Frontier life was the close and constant contact with the soldier and his work. In November 1902, I had the pleasure of taking part - unofficially - in a typical Frontier "scrap". I was dinning at the Station Mess in Bannu and I sat between Colonel Tonnochy, VC, the officer commanding the 53th Sikhs, and Captain White, the Adjuntant (both were killed next day). I discovered that Tonnochy was taking up a column next morning to attack and blow up the trans-border fort of Gumatti, for many years the headquarters of a desperate band of outlaws who, led by the notorious Sailgi, had committed many murders and dacoities within our border. Donald (now Sir John), the Deputy Commissioner, was going with them as Political Officer, and I decided to accompany him.

The column consisted of five hundred men of the 53th Sikhs, eighty sabres of the 21th (Punjab) Cavalry and two mountain guns, not howitzers unfortunately. We started about 2 a.m. and advanced cautiously through the Gumatti Pass under cover of pickets thrown out on the hills on both sides. Fortunately we met with no resistance in this Thermophylae where a dozen men could have held up a Brigade. We got into the open ground surrounding the bandit´s fort about nine o´clock, and the cavalry scoured the plain to round up possible enemies. Some "friendlies" told us that Sailgi was in the fort with some half-dozen comrades, but would never surrended. We wished, if possible, to effect our object without bloodshed.

Donald, under a flag of truce, went to parley with the outlaws, pointing out the futility of resistance, and promising them a fair trial by a British officer (they asked that it should be Donald himself) if they gave themselves up. The negotiations broke down because they insisted inter alia that their stronghold should be spared and that they should not be submitted to the indignity of being handcuffed! We were not prepared to take any risk, as there was every likelihood of our being followed up and attacked on our way back by hostile bands who, from the hills around, were watching our movements. After due warning, the two guns began to play on the fort at 11.30 from one thousand yards. I well remember the old Subadar-Major of the 53th Sikhs, when he heard them begin, shouting to his men in Punjabi: "Hoorah, boys, here´s a chance of a medal!". Unfortunately, the Viceroy decided that the operation must be only a blockade so we had not true artillery. The little mountain guns made little impression on the massive mud walls of the fort, and the outlaws now and again appeared on the parapet shouting menaces or derision.

The guns were brought up to one hunderd yards into a well protected position, and there was another parley with Sailgi, who was, however, still obdurate. The troops then closed in on all sides, taking such cover as they could find, and directed a steady fire on the loopholes to check the outlaw´s fire while awaiting a breach in the walls by the guns. At this stage, the outlaws located the guns. A Sikh gunner was killed and another wounded while serving them. Donald had a narrow escape. I was with Tonnochy, and we moved forward to see if a breach just then made in the bastion was feasible. Bullets came whistling around us. Tonnochy was shot through the abdomen and fell mortally wounded. I hastily threw myself under the shelter of a bhusa (chopped straw) stack and fell upon the protecting circle of thorns. The Sikhs, under cover in the ravine just below, roared with laughters at my predicament. Then, recovering from my fright, I helped Donald and a party of Sikhs to bring the striken Commandant to a place of safety. A Major of the 53th Sikhs took command. The situation was an anxious one. The guns had failed us. The storm of the fort before a feasible breach had been made would involve very heavy losses. A withdrawal to Bannu, wich some suggested, would be a confession of defeat, and we should certainly have severe casualties in returning through the pass in the approaching darkness. We held a Council of War. I supported Donald and others in pressing for the attack, and this was decided on.

Lieutenant Brown, RE, with a party of Sappers, made a dash for the fort under cover of a strong fire from our side, threw himself into the ditch, laid two time-fuses to explode the gun-cotton and by a miracle, all got back unharmed. It was a gallant act and won him the D.S.O., for he had to run the risk twice, as the first fuses failed to work. The second attempt was successful; there was a tremendous explosion and a great hole was blown in the side of the bastion. The storming party, under White, made a rush for this and though the Sikh Subadar was shot down, they got into the bastion. The outlaws driven out of the bastion took cover under a traverse in the enclosure, and kept up a brisk fire on our men. White, the Adjuntant, a cheery and gallant fellow, had made a bet that he would avenge his Colonel and get Sailgi that day. He raised his head just over the parapet to take aim and his skull was shattered by a bullet. Meantime, other breaches had been effected; troops poured in on all sides and soon fnished off the few remainig outlaws. When we entered, all were lying dead; some very buried deep beneath the debris of the explosions, and among these was Sailgi, with his teeth clenched and his hands gripping his Martini-Metford so tightly that it took two men to unloose it.

His wife, one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen, and his mother were in the fort and fortunately, unharmed. They were made over to some "friendlies" who were relations of Sailgi, and told an interesting history. When the parley with Donald had broken down early in the day, owing to Sailgi´s refusal to be handcuffed in the presence of his women-folk, and Donald had turned his back on the fort, Sailgi raised his rifle and took aim at Donald saying: "I have got to die today, I may as well have another Faringhi (he probably said Kafir, unbeliever) to my credit". His mother struck down the rifle saying: "No, Sailgi. The Sahib has given you no cause. He has spoken you fair". And Sailgi obeyed. He was a brave man and not without his own sense of honour.

Our success at Gumatti was fortunately completed just before darkness set in. Otherwise, our position would have been very precarious, as we should have been sniped all night by Sailgi´s sympathizers outside, and he and his band would probably have slipped through our cordon in the darkness.

We encamped in and around the fort during the night and even then were sniped. Davis of the 53th Sikhs was wounded.

Next morning at five o´clock I started off for Bannu with the convoy bringing in the dead and wounded. Later that day, a terrible explosion sent Gumatti fort "sky high" and announced all along the border that the hand of the Sirkar was as strong as it was long.

The Scenario.

Bannu District, North-West Frontier. March 1917.

A notorious bandit from the other side of the border has been marauding Bannu area for the last few months, taking advantage of the chaos produced in the British garrisons by the Great War. Finally, the British District Officer has sent against the bandit, Sailgi Akhbar Khan, an small force with orders to kill or capture him in his redoubt, an old fort sited in Gumatti, eight miles from Bannu.

This scenario has been written to use with the "Through the Mud and the Blood" rulebook, adding some necessary adaptations to represent this particular area of operations. I have taken as a base of this scenario one written by Max Maxwell as part of his very interesting article "Insurrection in Mesopotamia".
The link to the scenario is in the side of this entry, in "Interesting PDF´s".

 I have painted some more figures to use in this scenario and in my project:

Afghan tribesmen. These are the first four figures from Empress Miniatures I have painted. I like a lot these models from the prolific Paul Hicks; they are wonderful and full of character. Paint them has been a pleasure!

Indian Infantry. These are figures from Woodbine Design I have painted as member of the 20th Duke of Cambridge (Punjab) Infantry. They are not of the same quality as the Empress models but are not bad figures, easier to paint!

The Ruleset

Finally, I have selected the ruleset to play this project. This one is "Through the Mud and the Blood" from Too Fat Lardies. Chris Stoesen talked me about this rulebook and I think, after reading it, that can be a good choice; I need only to do some modifications to reflect this small colonial campaing in the XX Century.

 

 

"Through the Mud and the Blood" is a 60 pages ruleset aimed at the large skirmish game level based in the Great War, with thirty to a hundred figures a side. It has been written by Richard Clarke of Too Fat Lardies fame and its main area of operations is the Western Front, but it is very easy to adapt it to other theaters of the war and, also, other conflicts of that age.

The ruleset uses a 1:1 figure to man ratio, so the innovative "small unit" tactics of this conflict can be used in the game. The ground terrain scale is 12" = 40 yards, something that is both aesthetically pleasant and practical for the use of ranged weapons. Each turn can represent less than a minute of real time, so the best game can be, in my opinion, an small clash between patrols, a trench raid, etc.

The dice used are the most common of them: D6, D8, D10, Average die and Deviation die.

There are two sort of men in "TtMatB": Big Men and Men. The first ones are the heroes and leaders and the latter are the member of the Groups, units of section or squad size that shape the forces and need the Big Men to operate efficiently. Something very nice, in my opinion, is that, in this ruleset, the Player can form his men into Groups of his choosing, combining them to tailor make, as in the reality, the forces he need to win the battle.

As in many other Too Fat Lardies sets, the turn sequence in "TtMatB" is determined by a Game Deck of cards that contains cards for each Big Man and, also, other aditional cards used to reflect the forces involved in the fight. All the cards for both sides are put in the same deck and then are dealt out one at a time. In this way, having one of your cards dealt means that it is your turn, but there is a random movement mechanism that means that only the Big Man or Support Unit named on the card can take his/its turn (the Big Men can influence units to act as a part of their own activation).

These cards represent Big Men, different units, the end of turn and also national characteristics, as the "Hesitant Troops" or "Dynamic Commander" cards.

A Big Man uses his Initiative valor, from one to four points, to undertake actions such as taking his turn, activate a Group of men, remove points of Shock from a Group, etc. When a Big Man uses one point of Initiative to activate a Group, this one may use its full allocation of Action Dice to Spot, Move, Fire, etc. All Groups have two Actions Dice per turn.

About the troops, they are defined by two areas: Experience and Morale, and there are also some troops types: the Rifleman, the Bomber, etc.

These are some of my Woodbine Design figures, ANZAC´s

In "TtMatB" there are two types of movement: on Blinds, when a force is not spotted by the enemy, and on tabletop once the force has been spotted and the figures are on the table. This system of Blinds allows some "fog of war" in the game because the Blinds are 6" x 2" cards which may represent a force up to two Groups in size. The Player can also have some dummy Blinds to confuse the enemy or to represent scouting parties. With the use of these Blinds, spotting is an important element of the ruleset, but it only need a page to be clearly explained (something very common in this rulebook).

Each Group and Big Man (not Officer) may use their Actions Dice to fire and some figures from a Group can fire whilst other move. The number of dice a Group uses to fire depends on its weapons and any Shock marker it has. There are also some modifiers to the number of dice used. Finally, the dice are rolled and they are compared with the score needed to hit the objetive, Lastly, it is necessary to determine the effect of the hits, from "Near Hit" to "Killed".

In a game dedicated to the Great War in the Western Front, the rules for the off-table support are very good and complete, with the Artillery Barrage taking a pre-eminent place.

About the Moral, a unit can be in three states of it: Good, Reasonable and Poor. The accumulation of Shock points affect to the Morale of a Group, which will become shaky and incline to "refuse to fight".

There are also chapters of the rules dedicated to the Wire (of course!) and Engineering tasks; the Armored vehicles (with a good selection of them) and Aircraft. These rules are short but very well designed.

On the other hand, the ruleset has a very large supplement about the Artillery in the Great War and its representation in the game. Finally, there is also a second supplement with national guidelines for Germany, Great Britain, France and USA, very useful to create a force.

Too Fat Lardies has published, in their Specials, many interesting rule supplements, scenarios and other articles for this game system, and one of them, "Insurrection in Mesopotamia" by Max Maxwell, has become the base of my gaming project.

Summing up, "Throught the Mud and the Blood" is a very well though and designed game system for the skirmish game based in the Great War. The rules are not complex, the text is not excesive, but there is a very good level of detail all around.

 

In this blog, from my very good friend Benito, there are a lot of information, game aids and AARs about this ruleset:

 

http://mylardiesgames.blogspot.com.es/

 

I´m now writing the first scenario, based in the Gumatti affair, to use as a sort of introductory game and to test the rules.

Nota: He incluido una traducción al castellano de esta entrada en mi otro blog, "Jugando con Muñequitos".



Skirmishes on the Frontier 1901-1908 II (UPDATED)

Jalalabad Hills

Tactics and Terrain.

Following the reading of "Small Wars and Skirmishes 1902-1918", I´m going to put here a bit of information about the terrain of the Frontier and the tactics of the combatans taken directly from that book (I suppose some people have not the book so it can be very useful).

 

The North West Frontier had 800 miles from the borders of Kashmir in the north to Baluchistan in the south. In this mass of mountains and valleys lived the warlike, fiercely independent and great opportunistic Pathans, raising their modest crops and fedding their meager livestock. And, of course, fighting all the people that crossed their lands...

The variation of climate could be really extreme. In winter and spring the climate in the plains and lower valleys was pleasant and the mountains were really cold; in summer, those valleys and plains sweltered in the heat, and the barren mountain were "like the inferno". The rivers changed dramatically depending of the season, from mere streams or dry riverbeds in winter and summer to rock-strewn rivers in the spring. There are few fords over the main rivers, the Kabul the Kurram, the Kaitu and the Tochi, but they are not necessary but during floods.
The roads are very, very bad, and there are not railroads in Afghanistan, so wheeled vehicles are really scarce and camel are generally the prefered method of transport.

As can be see in the different pictures of this blog, the country of the North-West Frontier form an area of inhospitable hills. The valleys are, most of them, narrow and little cultivated; water is scarce and many of the slopes are bare of forest. These stony hills have an scanty pasture for the rickety flocks and herds of the inhabitants, grouped in a great number of hill forts and small villages.

The Frontier tribes had two main characteristics: oustanding bravery and a fantastic ability to cover rough terrain at a fast speed. But they had not the weapons and discipline displayed by the British Army in set-piece actions. The effect of the new artillery pieces and the fast and flat trajectory of the new rifles had much to do with the recent reluctance of the tribesmen to come to close quarters, so sniping at columns on the march and small ambushes to advance parties were the more efective ploys. In this way, any manoeuvre involving the withdrawal of picquets and rearguard actions were really a time of danger for the British and Indian troops.

 

The tribesmen made an effective use of the rugged terrain and were very agressive as long as the prospects of the fight were good; they were the perfect opportunistic, watching closely the enemy columns and waiting for the perfect moment to attack. For their defence, they constructed sangars, fortified riflepits, in almost every hill side and practically every village on the Frontier was enclosed by thick walls of mud and stone, with watchtowers enfilading every approach so every one of them needed a carefully planned assault.

 

Between 1907 and 1910, the smuggling of modern firearms reached a climax on the Frontier when 30,000 Martini-Henry rifles were brought in to Kandahar via the Persian Gulf. They were mostly rifles made redundant when Australian and New Zealand forces received new .303 rifles at the time of the Second Boer War. French and German arms dealers had bought up the surplus of weapons and shipped them via steamers and fast dhows to customer on the Frontier. With these weapons, the tribesmen were able to cause a lot of trouble to the Frontier Constabulary and British Indian Army forces.

The mission statement for the new Indian Army, restructured in 1902, was to defend the Frontier from Russian and Afghan incursions, with internal security as a secondary role (the tribes were left mainly "beyond the pale"). In practice, only with the Third Afghan War materialised the international threat so most military activity was concerned with punitive expeditions to restore Imperial order on the Frontier.

As I have said, my first game will be about one of the first of such expeditions in the XX Century, the attack against the bandit stronghold in Gumatti.

This is the fort I´m going to use (with a bit more modern enemies...):

This wonderful model has been built by Timmy from Wargames News and Terrain and I expect to put the scenario in a next entry. In this moment I´m thinking about the ruleset I´m going to use with the small skirmish I have planned.

 

To finish this entry, here are some pictures about another old Foundry figure I have painted, a Punjab Lancers Officer:

 



Books for a Wargame II (updated!)

Punch, 30 November 1878

Moonshadow is a fantastic commentator in this my new and humble blog. In my last entry, "Skirmishes on the Frontier 1901-1908", he has added a lot of information about the dress and weapons of the Afghan tribesmen and also about some very interesting books, so I think it can be useful to have this information here, in a new entry.

 

A recent adition to my collection of books, thanks to a very good friend. "The North West Frontier. British, India and Afghanistan. A pictorial history, 1839-1947" by Michael Barthop. Very good book, full of fantastic pictures and period drawings of all the fighters. Very, very good.

 

 

"Small Wars and Skirmishes, 1902-1918", by Edwin Herbert. I have talked already about this very nice book. Interesting for the operations in the Frontier previous to the Third Afghan War.

 

"Crisis on the Frontier", by Brian Robson. The true generator of all this. This one covers the full war, including the Waziristan Campaing.

"Operations in Waziristan, 1919-1920". An official account of the campaing.

"North West Frontier, 1837-1947". One of my first Osprey books. Very nice plates. It has a good piece of written information about this war.

"Armies of Nineteenth Century: Central Asia and the Himalaya" by Ian Heath. Background information, always useful, I think. Ordered from Amazon!

 

"Rising and Rebellions, 1919 to 1939" by Edwin Herbert. Looking at Moonshadow´s comment in my last entry, it is a must for me!

"The Afghan War, 1839-1919" by T.A. Heathcote. This one appears to have two useful chapters devoted to the Third Afghan War, and I think the rest of the book is also very interesting.

 

"The Frontier Scouts" by Charles Chenevix Trench. The history of the Frontier Scouts, Pathan tribesmen leb by young British officers; first hand accounts, I think.

 

Not bad group of books, and fortunately, all of them can be found in Amazon. I have some of them, and expect to buy the rest during this year (I need a pair of birthdays, I think...).

 

Thank you a lot for the information, Moonshadow!

Skirmishes on the Frontier, 1901-1908

Another of my books, with interesting information about Afghanistan and other small wars of the first years of XX Century. When "Small Wars and Skirmishes 1902-1918", from Edwin Herbert, was announced by Foundry, I was one of the first subscribers, and I was really pleased when the book arrived at home. It is a really solid (and big) book with a great quality.

 

 

It is full of wonderful small colonial campaings around the globe, and one of them has been very useful for me in this moment, "The Zakha Khel and Mohmand Expeditions on the North West Frontier 1908".

In this moment, I´m painting some Afghan figures from Foundry, and waiting for more models from Empress Miniatures and Gripping Beast. Thinking about how to begin the gaming of this project, I finally took this book thinking about to begin the project with a previous campaing also centered in Afghanistan. And this particular chapter of the book is perfect!

 

Between 1901 and 1908, "the seven years of peace", there was only a military campaing in the North West Frontier, the Zakha Khel Expedition of 1908, but there was also a police action in November 1902, when the Deputy Commissioner for the NWFP, Captain J.S. Donald, went to attack a bandit stronghold at Gumatti, in tribal territory, with a colum consisted of the III/4th Sikhs, 80 men from the 21th Punjab Cavalry and two guns under the military command of Colonel Tonnochy. The leader of the outlaws was a Pathan called Sailgi who had murdered several people in the Bannu district (Gumatti was eight miles from Bannu).

 

The outlaws´ fort was soon encircled, but they refused to surrender, so the guns were emplaced to fire, with little effect, against the mud-brick walls. In fact, the outlaws were able to shot dead one Sikh gunner and wounded another. Colonel Tonnochy went froward to see if the guns had created a breach but also fell mortally wounded. A party of sappers then went forward and laid time fuses from a ditch to explote guncotton packs against a bastion of the fort. Then, an storming party under Lt. White rushed forward to exploit the new breach. White and his subadar were shot dead, but the rest of the forlorn hope pressed on, assaulted the fort and killed all the outlaws, including Sailgi.

 

A perfect, really perfect small police action in the Frontier that I´m going to use to write my first scenario to test the period and the ruleset.

 

This small campaing shows also the new problem found by the British Indian Army in the Frontier, created by the advent on a large scale of modern, breech-loading, magazine rifles firing smokeless powder. Now, it was not possible to send only a handful of men to deal with an hostile stronghold; it was necessary to send a full inter-arms column and then, the result of the fighting depended upon discipline and individual training and initiative.

 

Interesting from an Afghan player point ov view...

These are the first Afghan tribesmen I have painted. They are 28mm miniatures from Foundry, wonderful old Perry figures: