Two Games of TMWWBK on the NWF

 Matt came over for a game of TMWWBK. I diced for a scenario and it was the one to attack a village. It made sense the attackers would be the British _ took them and Matt had the Pathans.

Then we rolled for the leader stats. With crushing inevitability I rolled a Ld 9 leader for the field gun, meaning my most effective chance of pinning and driving back the Pathan's from their heavily defended building was not terribly likely to fire...
Ho hum, on with the game

Pathan's occupied the buildings as the British came on.

Leaving the gun behind, hoping it would provide some support.

It didn't and two very effective rounds of shooting rather whittled one column away!

The Sikhs were fierce, but were also soon shipping casualties.

Deploying their well known cantilever formation the Pathans continued their spirited defence.

Pathan reinforcements were soon on the way.

Not that the lads in the buildings looked like they needed much.

A couple of shots got through, but mostly the British fire was ineffective.

The Ghazi were soon in the village

And more tribesmen assaulted the beleaguered British.

 

The rocks gave scant cover.

And with the last of the regulars dispatched the tribesmen rather ruined the British gun commanders cuppa!

An easy victory for the Pathans. Once the gun was ruled out by a poor traits roll I was always under pressure and a failure to make much use of terrain, or have a plan of any sort meant the men were cut down piecemeal.

On the plus side TMWWBK definitely plays fast -so as the first debacle had taken not much more than an hour including set up we had time for another game.

We swapped sides and rolled up the scenario with a fixed objective (in this case the tied up wife of the Governor) in the centre of the field.

As the gallant British guard took cover in a nearby wood, leaving the objective in plain view I sent tribesmen sneaking around the corner.

Pathans with guns raced toward an enclosure.

As their comrades took control of the village.

Soon the British gun was barking (Matt *not* having rolled a bad leadership). This proved too much for the tribesmen who failed to rally and fled the board!

meanwhile the gun armed chaps began plugging away at the British in the woods.

More murderous fire pinned another Pathan group.

The goats were obstructing the view a bit!

Finally with the centre broken the gun was bought to bear on the Pathan firebase.

Soon after the Pathans were forced to give up their quest for the objective and the remainder quit the field.

A *slightly* more satisfying game but again some poor leadership rolls hampered the Pathan mission before it could get going.

Ld 9 on a pinned unit of tribal infantry pretty much means they're leaving the board. I like the colour the traits give, but in both these games it felt like poor rolls before the game began meant I was in with no chance of winning. Rebels and Patriots that I played recently with James was altogether more satisfying.

I think I need to play TMWWBK a bit more regularly to see if I can get a feel for it, but these two left me wondering if I should try a different set of rules for the NWF.