"Bala Hissar or Bust! AAR" Topic

Hosted 5 other gamers this past Saturday at my place for the first ever running of this scenario. Happy to report everyone had a lot of fun, despite the game being weighted a bit too strongly against the British force attempting to break out of their camp and reach safety at the far end of the table, behind the walls of the Bala Hissar fortress.

The 2 units of Bengal Cavalry earned great glory executing multiple charges and sweeping just about every Afghan unit they made contact with away, without ever having to actually engage in melee, as their foes simply failed their Stand And Fight morale check die rolls every time. This was rather historically accurate, in the sense that on favorable ground, such as roads and flat land, the presence of British and Indian cavalry, let alone their actual charges, was often enough to chase away their Afghan foes.

But the glorious cavalry charges weren't enough to overcome the much larger number of Afghan units opposing the Anglo-Indian army's desperate bid to reach the fortress.

When all was said and done we came up with some good adjustments which I think will vastly improve the balance of play and provide the British with a decent shot at victory. Hopefully will get to play it again in the near future and confirm that!

Here's a LINK to the AAR I just posted on my blog, and thanks in advance for your time if you come by to visit:

link

MANY THANKS to my fellow gamers: Michael, William, Jeff, Daryl, and Odin (yes that's his real name!) -- especially William and Jeff, who both travelled to my place in Los Angeles all the way from San Diego, for the game.

Finally, here's a handful of teaser pics:

(NOTE: this game is based on the British retreat from Kabul to Gandamak in the Winter of 1841-42, but the version we played was transposed from the First Afghan War to the Second, since I don't have any appropriate British or Indian troops painted and based yet, and the season changed from Winter to Spring, Summer or Fall, as I have yet to "Winterize" my terrain. But all that will hopefully come in time.)

Superb!

Guru, the photos are amazing as usual. I was lucky enough to be part of this game and can say it was a tremendous amount of fun, with fine companions, a challenging scenario, many laughs, good food to keep the fighting strength up, and of course the astonishing figures and table the photos above can only hint at. It was a great time in every way!

This looks tremendous! What a great use of your terrain and boards that you had made for other scenarios. In the end it seems that you added the new gate for Kabul and bridge and then had all you needed.

The only "Touristy" thing I did on my tour in Afghanistan was to wangle a spot on a patrol going to the Bala Hissar, just so I could say I went there

Thanks very much, Daryl, it was great seeing you again, and I was happy for the chance to play on the same side as you for a change!

Rhingyll, yes, I scratch-built one bridge and one gate for the city wall, and also added pillars that reached the surface of the water for one of the 2 smaller bridges inside Kabul, and painted an old NWF resin building, to replace a red-tiled Mexican building I used as a place-holder when I first laid out the game.

Here are pics of the various "last-minute" terrain pieces…

Happy to say it all came together just in time to be ready for the game.

GuyG13: You are my hero! Did you take any pics…?

Were you ever in or around Charasiab -- about 6 miles from Kabul, South of the mountains, between the Logar and Kabul Rivers? I built these river boards for a refight of the Battle of Charasiab. Via Google Earth that area looks virtually identical to the British maps of the battle from 1879.

Wow. I am not worthy. That's a gorgeous looking table.
Per chance to dream.

Thanks very much, Ragbones, but don't be silly, you most certainly are worthy -- I just saw your pics of the Khartoum layout you posted!

Mad Guru,

Long story short- We got to the outside of the Bala Hissar just as it started to get dark. Achmadinjhad (Spelling), of Iran had come to visit Karzai and screwed up all the Traffic in Kabul, so we were 2 hours late. My pictures didn't come out. The guys on the patrol felt bad and gave me a CD with some. I would have to dig them out.

I probably did go by Charasiab. I was really stationed on Bagram, but had to go Kabul often. I usually went by air, but made the trip by road twice.

Oh, and your game looks really cool BTW!!!

I was lucky enough to visit the Bala Hissar in 1976.

Yours is Way Prettier, MadGuru !!

!!!!!!!!!!! What a table! And you live in LA!?! (I reside near Long Beach) I would have given much just to watch and photograph the game!

I will look at your link later and I bet after that I will have to get my Afghans out for a fight!

Flying Glove 1556: thanks for the compliment, and happy to hear pics of our game may have helped encourage you to play an Anglo-Afghan War game in Long Beach, which has lots of sand available for terrain use, and is not too far from Brookhurst Hobbies in Garden Grove! To be honest, I wish you'd been here, as we could've used the services of a dedicated photographer! Speaking of which…

Better late than never, here's another LINK to some very good pics of the game, taken and posted by Michael "Reggie" Davis, on his excellent Horse & Musket blog:

link