"Sikh Wars books and rules" Topic

With the new 15mm black hat figures available i'm thinking of a new period to game.
can anybody recommend any books on the war and what rules may be suitable for large battles and/or skirmish.

For rules I've used Black Powder and had some very good games. There are a lot of things in there that will help with differentiating the Sikh troops and making some units slightly better than others where they need to be and making some units abysmal.

For books I'd look at The First Anglo-Sikh War by Amarpal Sidhu. It is well written, easy to read, covers the battles in some detail and has a nice overview of the first war.

After that there is the official Bitish army history The First and Second Sikh Wars by Reginald George Burton. A little bit stiff here and there but has good detail, although there are contradictions with the Sidhu book in many fundamental aspects.

The Hero of Aliwal by James Humphries is pretty good as well. It is sort of a bio of Harry Smith during the war.

For more flavour you can read James Coley's Journal of the Sutlej Campaign. This is the journal of a chaplain who marched with the army. He seems to get things a little confused here and there, as I'm sure he didn't have a perfect understanding of what was going on, but it gives some of the feeling for what how the soldiers themselves experienced the war.

For general Sikh history I've found both The Khalsa and the Punjab edited by Banerjee and Khushwant Singh's A History of the Sikhs informative.

Thanks for the info.
Black Powder seems to turn up everywhere these days. I'm not much good at converting rules or making lists, so may have to wait for a supplement to be available.

The Sidhu book looks great, though a little pricey.

You don't really have to convert the rules at all. It works fine as written, it is written to cover the Sikh Wars.

I can send you what we used for lists if you would like. The troops don't really deviate much from the basic stuff in the book, just an odd special rule here and there.

There is a very comprehensive guidebook to the Sikh Wars in the works. It should be out this year (I think?). There are a number of threads about it. Here is one: TMP link

I believe it will be published by The Virtual Armchair General (TVAG).

Dear laager50,

Truly, this going to be the "golden age" for gaming the Sikh Wars. TVAG has been please to contribute information to Mike Lewis of Blackhat Miniatures concerning his 15mm lines to ensure greater authenticity and comprehensiveness.

Regarding rules, you may also wish to look at "John Company," the only set of rules written for the ground up for India between 1750 and 1860.

For a review of the First Edition here at TMP, you may follow this TMP link

There is more discussion about basing here TMP link

Regarding books, I think you'd very much enjoy reading Hugh Cook's "The Sikh Wars: 1845-1849" available through AbeBooks via this link

At about $24.00 USD for the postpaid book from the UK is a very good deal!

But, the best single source in English is due out this Summer from TVAG; Andrew Preziosi's "Sikh Wars Source Book." Containing the only complete OB's for the entire Khalsa and all battles, large and small, with analysis of the battles, period maps, illustrations never in print before, complete details of weaponry, organization, tactics, it will be all inclusive.

Years in development, Andrew has made use of contemporary Indian newspapers, political and professional journals, books and articles, correspondence with Sikh sources in India and the UK never consulted previously to build the most complete picture ever to the subject.

Publication is intended to be in time for HistoriCon this July, but final edting and layout are still ahead, so it will be a race.

Naturally, there will be considerable fanfare here and elsewhere when the Subscription begins, so please watch for it.

Otherwise, the best of luck to you, Sir!

TVAG

I haven't played this period but BP would seem to work fine.

For smaller games, try "The Sword and the Flame".

Thanks for all the replies.
I have John company, but not played them yet, and a old copy of THSATF.
Pictors, thanks for the offer, but don't want to put my email address on here. Will be ordering BP soon, as will probably use it for other periods as well.

I join Patrick's recommendation of Andrew's upcoming "Sikh Wars Source Book." It will contain lots of information simply not available in one place elsewhere-in the interests of full disclosure so you can take my opinion with a pinch of salt, I am making a minor contribution to Andrew's book.

For potted narative history, Cook is good and well worth the money-it was part of a series of colonial wars books that included histories of the Kandian war and Napier's march to Magdala. I like Burton as well; he did a series of official histories of various Brit wars in India, e.g., Wellington's Campaigns in India and The Mahratta and Pindari War. He served in India, albeit quite a bit after the Sikh wars, and so brought a bit of local knowledge to the subject.

If you want some more, try George Bruce, "Six Battles for India: The Anglo-Sikh Wars, 1845-6, 1848-9," Gen Sir Charles Gough & Arthur Innes, "The Sikhs and the Sikh Wars," and Edward J. Thackwell, "Narrative of the Second Sikh War" all of which can be found with a little searching. Bruce was used by George McDonald Fraser in writing "Flashman and the Mountain of Light," and both Gough and Thackwell were vets of the Second Sikh war so they knew a bit about it.

For general information about the Sikhs, Carmichael-Smyth's "A History of the Reigning Family of Lahore" and Cunningham's "A History of the Sikhs from the Origin of the Nation to the Battles of the Sutlej" are the classic sources and can make for interesting reading but are not always reliable.

For more modern books, Ian Heath wrote an osprey about 6-8 years ago ("The Sikh Army 1799-1849") that has some useful information and drawings in it.

There's lots more available (my list runs to pages, and I suspect Andrew has more than I do), but these should do unless you want to do an in-depth study of the wars.

As for rules, in addition to those mentioned, Ray Garbee has used Volley and Bayonet very successfully and his games are what first got me interested in the period, and I played in games run by Mark Stevens using "800 Fighting Englishmen" from Larry Brom and I thought it worked better for the larger battles of the Sikh wars than TSATF.

Dennis

There is also the Colonial Campaigns scenario book on this Topic by Tim Tilson.

And of course for an overview, you can't go wrong with Farwell's "Queen Victoria's Little Wars"

BY

"The Sikhs and the Sikh Wars" , by Gough and Innes is free on Google books. Great read and has good battle details.

Pretty well covered the books. The one that started my interest was Don Featherstone's `At them with the Bayonet!' This only covers the 1st Sikh war, though, and for a good general history of both wars, I'd go for HCB Cook's book noted above.

I'd been planning to do the Sikh Wars in 15mm for nearly 30 years, but there just wasn't a complete enough range. Then, last August I was poking about on Irregular Miniatures' site looking for something else entirely, and discovered a Sikh Wars range. A look around the other ranges for that period, a bit of negotiation with Ian Kay to get him to produce some EIC troops, and by January I had armies for both sides, painted, based and fighting. If you want to see how they look, go to the Irregular Miniatures site and look around at the appropriate ranges.

As for rules, I'm getting on, and decided that my old copy of John Company was a bit much to get my head around. I've tried Black Powder in depth, and I reckon it's a flimsy bit of sequinned rubbish, carefully concealed by smoke and mirrors. So I went for Rank & File from Crusader, and that fits my needs very well.

The one that started my interest was Don Featherstone's `At them with the Bayonet!' This only covers the 1st Sikh war, though…

I will state, here and now, that this book, which I purchased as a paperback at Harrad's London in March 1976, was the touchstone to getting me interested in the Sikh Wars.

And to this day I think it is still the single best, "pocket history" on the 1st SW.

BTW…

Stay tuned for a Major Announcement re: my Sikh War book this coming week.

Matter of fact, after my announcment, even though there may be a lapse in time between them, any further announcments regarding the book will come from TVAG…so that may clue you in a bit!

Andrew
At this late stage in 2014, Has there been any further news of the Sikh Wars Book, or have I missed it somehow.
Malcolm

Funny how this has come up just now.
Last week I pulled out my 15mm Feudal castings Sikhs from 20 years ago.
And my copy of Don Featherstone's `At them with the Bayonet!' Started rereading it tonight. After looking at the Black Hat Sikh range.
Looking to rebase my figures to Martian Empires. Tried Black Powder and have to agree with John Watts. Just not to my taste.
My friend has my copy of John Company.
And QRF confirmed my order of more Feudal castings to make a Sikh Ghurkha battalion.
Funny how this has come up again.
When is Andrew's book out?

For anyone interested, I've put my changes to fight the Sikh Wars using Rank & File from Crusader on the Crusader forum.

link