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A great and glorious thing it is .....To learn for seven years or so, The Lord knows what of that and this, .....Ere reckoned fit to face the foe - The flying bullet down the pass ..........That whispers clear: "All flesh is grass."
...Karoram Valley |
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Max's fine gaming table had been languishing unused, and he had been
promising a Northwest Frontier-style game for almost a year, steadily working
on styrofoam scenery to provide a fit setting for his beloved new Foundry
Pathans and Indian troopers. It came about when Alan was to be in town on
a visit.
The rules used were The Sword and the Flame (Twentieth Anniversary edition), with the exceptions noted in the full scenario description (at end of battle). The photos were taken by David, since Steve had decided to go on strike as game photographer; his return is devoutly to be hoped for. |
| The Scenario and Tabletop Beezel el Amid has returned to Karoram, the valley of his fathers, after making a name for himself on the Ouargi plains. Consolidating his hold on the local hill clans, Beezel
with his brother Hasib, at once begins to launch raids on the neighboring
valleys, only recently pacified by the British. The Ouargi frontier is
once more in turmoil, and Gen. Sir Garment Wooleys and Maj. Webley 'Bulldog'
Kaufmann lead a punitive expedition to burn the three villages that have
harbored Beezel, and, if luck is with them, bag the wily villain himself. Table size is 5 x 8 ft. (1.5 x 2.4 m.). [The table drawings in this section were erroneously drawn to scale out at 4 x 8 ft., so the actual table proportions are 25% wider than is shown]. |
| Part the First - In which the Expedition arrive |
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Click on parts of the map for views of the scenery.
The Battle |
| Moving from the South, Wooleys and Kaufmann decide to concentrate on the Eastern pass, take Elabad, and sweep westward down the valley. One company of Sikhs holds the West pass to prevent unpleasant surprises and tie down local native bands, while Gurkha and Sikh companies are sent up the ridge on either side of the Eastern Pass. The forward units send out scouts to winkle out hidden units of hillmen, and a rider is sent to scout the pass in advance of a squadron of Bengal Lancers |
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Immediately, a unit of jezailchi at the East pass makes its presence known by trading fire with the Gurkhas moving through the craggy terrain on the other side of the pass. A well-aimed musket-ball does in the cavalry scout.
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| The mountain gun is needed against the jezailchi on the cliffs, but both units of Maj. Kaufmann's khaki-clad Imperial troops find the going rough in the narrow defiles between the small hills to the southeast. Their maddeningly slow progress blocks the paths, and the gun is trapped uselessly in the rear; the mules bray and the gun officers curse as only grizzled artillerists can. |
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A Gurkha scout crosses the ridge, to discover a clan of hillmen in the valley near the pass. He sees fresh units of natives pouring into the valley near the village opposite. |
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Far to the west, the Sikhs scouting the second pass come under fire from another unit of native muskets on the ridge, and fall back, settling down to a laconic firefight. |
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In the center, Sir Garment's Sikhs have trouble scaling the steep cliffs. As they gain one precarious foothold after another, one unit of scarlet Imperials moves forward on each side, with a second mountain gun behind. Maj. Kaufmann's Lancers form up at the mouth of the Eastern Pass. |
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