The Men Who Would Be Kings: action on the North West Frontier

Martin came over for a game of TMWWBK using my NWF collection. I hadn't played for ages, so it was a bit of a stumble through at first. We just decided on a line up and fight scenario, which may have been a mistake in retrospect, but we just wanted to get to grips with the game. We did however roll for traits and Martin suffered a litany of drunkards, bumblers and a brutal cavalry commander which we feared would rather hamstring the Imperial forces. My rolls weren't great, with a couple of my leaders led by the bottle (or, more likely something "herbal" in nature and some short range guns - however I did have one hero who would be activating on a 4+!

The British had three units of regular infantry and a unit of regular cavalry. The Pathan forces had two units of Fierce Ghazi, a unit of tribal infantry and three units of irregular infantry. Apart from making the two ghazi fierce we avoided any upgrades.

The Pathan forces arrive to protect their village.

White clad ghazis with obsolete rifle armed regulars in the walled field.

The British arrive on the horizon

One unit of Ghazis on the left surged forward.

The cavalry, cowering under the lash of their brutal leader held the British left

The battle lines draw closer

The ghazis continue their surge forward.

Soon after this however they took fire and a single casualty, were pinned and then promptly routed from the field!

It was down to their less fanatical brethren to hold the field.

The rifle armed Pathans moved toword the orchard.

The remaining Ghazi's closed in on the cavalry.

Whilst the Afghan hero looked on.

The orchard was secured. For now.

Whilst the ghazi faced off the Sikh horse the tribesmen debated whether to attack the unit commanded by a shirker

The ghazi failed to charge home. Which was probably a bad thing.

The ghazhi were driven back by the cavalry but their fellows charged home. Only to discover why charging Close Order imperial troops is a bad plan.

However the ghazi fought back and drove the horse away, though at great cost.

While the tribal infantry were reduced to just three models.

Unfortunately for the ghazi this left them exposed to withering volley fire wiping them out (apart from their cowardly non-combatant leader.)

The brutal leader of the horse had perished in the fighting, which meant the survivor was able to rally. However his charge ended just short of the short range riflemen. With inevitable consequences.

Fire from the hero's unit decimated the shirker's unit and they soon fled the board.

Action now shifted to the Pathan left where two intact units of British remained.

Steady fire from the Afghan's forced first one and then another to withdraw and then flee.

The Afghan village was saved!

This was good fun - took a little while to remember how things worked exactly and the differences between the Rampant systems serve to sometimes trip you up.

I'd quite like to try and have some sort of mini campaign - I think the traits lend themselves to that kind of gaming and scenarios would make for a more entertaining game than line up and fight.