"Action in the Northwest Frontier" Topic

As promised, we pulled out our NWF mini's and playtest copy of To the Last Cartridge and played a game that included my newly painted Afghan Highland Guards. Here Trenchraider looks over the situation contemplating how best to deal with the coming onslaught.

The Afghans basically had Pathan tribesmen attacking the British left and center while 4 companies of Afghan regulars attack the right. The Pathans run into trouble right away failing almost every morale check they have to make despite support from a 6 lb gun.

The Afghan regulars initially enjoy a lot of success in their advance but eventually get into trouble as the British throw in reinforcements to bolster the flank.

Even the vaunted Ghazi are stymied as the rush in to put the British to the sword. They are wiped out in the rocks from a combination of devastating firepower and a charge from a British company on their decimated ranks.

We do manage to score some points and kill a few British units, but in the end the British are victorious.

Dave

Good looking figures!

It is probably just my ignorance, but did the Afghans really have 'regulars'? I've only ever heard of irregular tribesmen…

Yes, they had a regular army that at least on paper, fought like their European contemporaries.

Well there you go! Learn something new every day!

Well, much like the Afghanistan of today, tribal ties tend to be much more binding than ties to the national government. The Afghan national army in the 1870's was relatively small, not especially well equipped, and not nearly as motivated as the irregular tribesmen to send the foreign interlopers packing.

Really like the look of your game table!

Looks great! When are these rules due out?

From what I am hearing, the second edition of Ambush Z has top priority, then hopefully Trenchraider's rules. I think you will really like them. It has a point system (not really for tournament play but to allow for evenly matched pick-up games), and terrain generation (again to ease set-up for pick-up games).

I watched the game and it was a proper resolution, the Queen's Men chastised the Indigenous Peoples! The Afghan regulars looked very nice.