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:

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:

 

Books for a Wargame

A unit on the march in India

Time to talk about the books I have collected to know something more about this campaing. There are no many books dedicated to this particular war, but I have some that are really useful for me:
Momento de hablar acerca de los libros que he reunido para saber algo más acerca de esta campaña. La verdad es que no hay muchos libros, ahí fuera, dedicados a la Tercera Guerra de Afganistán, pero tengo algunos que son realmente útiles para mí:

 

 

This is one of my older Osprey Books, and also one of my favourites for all times. Wonderful plates from the great Angus McBridge and really nice pics of the Frontier, but not much historical information... But it is a very fine Osprey!
Éste es uno de mis Osprey más antiguos, y también uno de mis favoritos, desde siempre. Maravillosas láminas del gran Angus McBridge y fotos muy bonitas de la Frontera, pero mucha información histórica... pero bueno, es un Osprey muy bonito.

 

 

Another Osprey book, this one from a very interesting series about Queen Victoria´s many enemies. There is not information about the Third Afghan War, but, on the other hand, there is some information about the Afghan regulars and irregulars, again, with nice plates and pics.
Otro Osprey, éste de la muy interesante serie dedicada a los enemigos de la Reina Victoria. No hay información acerca de la Tercera Guerra de Afganistán, pero, por otro lado, sí la hay acerca de las tropas regulares afganas y los irregulares. Además, con buenas láminas y fotos.

 

 

A 1921 compilation of the campaing. Full of period "flavour" and very useful information about the campaing, units involved, etc. This book is centered in the Waziristan punitive campaing of 1919-1920. My PDF copy is from the Serial no. 995.
Una síntesis de 1921 de la campaña. El libro rebosa "saborcillo" del periodo, y tiene información muy útil acerca de la campaña, unidades implicadas, etc. Está centrado en la expedición de castigo en Waziristán de 1919-1920.

 

 

And the "crown jewell" of my collection of books, "Crisis on the Frontier" by Brian Robson, author of "The Road to Kabul, The Second Afghan War". I have talked about this book in my other blog, but I think it can be interesting for this story to put here that information.

I found this book in a casual visit to Amazon, but its price was 51.96 GBP; a lot of money for a 302 pages paperback book (that, actually, is out of print). Fortunately, in the Lead Adventure Forum I found an entry about an small and totally unknow for me bookstore, Pagoda Tree Press that had the book for sale at only 12.00 GBP plus P&P. Of course, I ordered it straightaway. I also saw a lot of other interesting books in the web of Pagoda Tree Press and discovered that the booksheller, Hugh Rayner is a great chap with a true interest in his clients.
Y la "joya de la corona" de mi colección de libros, "Crisis en la Frontera" de Brian Robson. Ya he hablado acerca de este libro en mi otro blog, pero creo que es interesante para esta historia poner aquí esa información.
Encontré este libro en una visita casual a Amazon, pero su precio era de 51,96 libras esterlinas; un montón de dinero para un libro de 302 páginas en tapa blanda, ¡aunque esté descatalogado!. Afortunadamente, en el foro de Lead Adventure Forum di con una entrada dedicada a una pequeña y para mí totalmente desconocida tienda de libros, Pagoda Tree Press, que tenía el libro a la venta por sólo 12 libras esterlinas más gastos de envío. Por supuesto, lo pedí de inmediato. También vi en su web un montón de otros interesantes libros, y descubrí que el libero, Hugh Rayner, es una gran persona realmente interesada en sus clientes.

 

This is the link to the bookshop: http://www.pagodatreepress.com

 

In this moment I´m reading this book, taking a lot of notes about the forces and thinking how to adapt them to a chosen ruleset.

And about the ruleset? As I have said previously, I have two final options: "Triumph and Tragedy" and "Through the Mud and the Blood". I think I´m going to test this one, when I have enough figures, of course.
En este momento, estoy leyéndome este libro, tomando un montón de notas acerca de las fuerzas enfrentadas y pensando en como adaptarlo al reglamento que elija finalmente.
¿Y acerca del reglamento? Como ya he dicho previamente, tengo dos opciones finales: "Triumph and Tragedy" y "Through the Mud and the Blood". Creo que finalmente voy a probar este último, en cuanto tenga suficientes figuras.