The Red Sea Gazette, Issue 1 1883

Run for the Hills (Nile) - A Men Who Would Be Kings Scenario - Part 2.

The Royal Dragoons make the first break.  Abandoning the Infantry Captain  Quincy flees for the paddle steamer

The RMLI secure the landing site

The Wasseer produces his sneak, a fleet of dervish fellucas with riflemen as crew. 

The Marines pull back to cover the gangplank, fearful that the Madhists will get between them and the steamer.

The Dervish fleet is pinned by the steamer's gun.  Colonel Quilp double times for the stricken boats.

Dervish riflemen appear in the rocks to snipe at the cavalry, but they are too late.  

The GS Wagon and its wounded reach the steamer.  Lt Herbert Farthingdale is saved and can write more letters to his mother.

The Egyptian Companies finally wise up and sprint for the Nile.  Hawtrey minces along unable to catch up.

The end game.  Our heroic Officers save themselves at the expense of their men.

Run for the Hills (Nile) Scenario, Men who would be Kings

The University of North Durham's boasts a collection known as the "Farthingdale Papers," recovered from the Library of Farthingdale Hall. Various members of the infamous Farthingdale family have contributed to these papers over the years, but one of the most misunderstood letter collections in the archive belongs to Herbert Farthingdale, an Officer of the Indian Army between 1880 and 1914.   
Herbert was a first class administrator and served in staff positions for most of his career.  He rarely  did any actual fighting.  One of his first letters refers to the doomed Quilp Pasha expedition which had as its objective a march from Suakin to the Nile.  

Herbert's letters are all addressed to his Mother, the redoubtable Henrietta Farthingdale, who was the "Mother" of modern Wargaming, and who is reputed to have thrashed the author H.G Wells at a game of "Little Wars."

Dear Mother,

I have been seconded to the expeditionary Force of Colonel Quilp Pasha this week.  A great battle occurred in which most of our forces were apparently wiped out, but which I cannot report on since I am reduced to riding in a general service wagon with the wounded following a bout of dysentery.   It was not wise to eat dinner with those Cavalrymen of the Royals.  Goodness knows what that meat really was!

I am recovered enough to view the scenario of the retreat to the Nile.  As we fled onto the great floodplain of the river we could see a cluttered terrain ahead.  With pursuit behind us we had to get to the “Firkit” a finely crafted river steamer which was moving downriver to our rescue.

The vessel seems stoutly constructed by a master builder, yet clearly has limited berths aboard.  My estimate would be that there are only some 24 places.

Captain Quincy of the Royals commanded the GS wagon to move through his line to the front.  He made a valiant charge clearing away no less than two large groups of Dervish chargers that appeared in the rocks before us.   The Royals suffered huge losses, but also took down a group of riflemen.  

The Rajput Infantry defending our rear were caught and massacred.  Both of their Officers were deemed to be too ugly to own mirrors, but died bravely.   

With the gun clearing our way Captain Quincy seemed confident that he could at least save the Royals.

To our right were the Queen’s Own Minifigs.  The eccentric Colonel Quilp Pasha, the sole surviving Senior Officer marched at the head of his men, with the idiotic and cowardly Lieutenant Hawtrey commanding a second group.  Hawtrey repeatedly failed to coax his men into moving.  He also seemed to be armed with a service revolver and table knife.  The Queens Own Minifigs are Old School!

Colonel Quilp sacrificed his Anglo Egyptian troops to protect the Queen’s Own.  The Egyptians had some poor Officers, and were soon decimated by the repeated appearance of charging Dervish Warbands.  It was the Colonel who first reached the halfway point across the table, no doubt patting himself on the back.  (Colonel Quilp was even spotted using his George Hare patented Dry Plate Extended Bellows Camera to photograph the scene.)  

All appeared to be going well.  The Dervish had been rebuffed.  The “Firkit” had tied up to the river bank and a company of Royal Marine Light Infantry moved out to secure the landing spot. 

The Dervish reacted to the Marines when a group appeared to their front, but with a combination of superb musketry from the RMLI and the cannon from the foredeck of the steamer these were recoiled.  The leader of these stalwarts was obviously a veteran and professional Officer!  

The Steamer used its Heliograph to signal the Imperial forces now half way across the plain... “The enemy can be seen massing behind you.”    Dervish cavalry suddenly appeared on the Eastern base edge, (newly painted) with a large unit of Camelry.  It seemed that the mad Khalifa was determined to destroy the surviving British Forces. 

Added to these woes are the fact that there seems to be a fleet of Dervish fellucas about to come down the Nile and onto the table.

Will the Khalifa succeed in his evil plan.  Will your poor son ever make it off this huge tabletop?

I will write as soon as I can Mother,

Your Loving Son, Herbert,

2^nd Lt, the 3rd Rajputs.

The Firkit and her Marines.  (and yes the gangplank is a "gone to ground" marker!)

The Nile Paddle Steamer Firkit

Paddle steamers formed a key part of operations during the 1884 Sudan war.  Indeed the steamers sent down the Nile in a desperate attempt to rescue General Gordon famously arrived only two days late.  Differing from purpose built river gunboats these were pleasure craft and working boats already on the Nile, taken into British service, although often given additional welded plates or sandbag defences.

The Firkit is named after a town on the lower Nile, 'Firket' (or Ferkeh, take your pick)  An alternate source for the name is the rumour that the Captain, Hieronymus Haddock, was often to be found on his bridge shouting “More speed ... oh Firkit.”

I began with 5mm balsa and cut out a 20cm deck shape.  I wanted this size for the tabletop, and the shape looked about right.  The “tail” at the rear is for the paddle wheel which will be mounted on this balsa base to give the model strength.

Since my figure collection is 20mm I wanted the model to accommodate some Newline Designs sailors.  As I built it however I realised that I was coming nearer to 15mm figure size.  Bath-tubbing generally works for me,  I use 10mm buildings with 15mm figures so  I went with what looked right rather than rigidly going for 20mm sized doors and windows.  

The cabin structure on the lower deck were formed from balsa, and then the upper deck from a thick card.  

A lip of thick card edged the balsa of the main deck, nipped with holding clips for the glue to set.  I left a 20mm gap around the cabin structure, mainly because my figures are based on those size of washers.  I intend to give enough room to evacuate the Queen's Own if needed.

 

Once the glue was set I fixed the funnel and upper works.  Then the fiddly work of building sandbags from air drying clay began was done, I set the railings in place, using slivers of bamboo, and scratch built a gun for the foredeck by using the end of an old paintbrush and some balsa.

Can`t help but think that I made the rear wall of those sandbags one line too high., but they look fine with 20mm figures behind them.

Any gaps at this stage were given a coat of filler, and I made sure to place some rough filler between the paddle wheels and at the bow to represent white water.

 

The  spare clay went to making lifebelts, barrels and stores boxes, as well as some struts for the paddle wheel.  

A large barrel went just behind the funnel, presumably Captain Haddock's private rum store.  Rumour has it that, like me, he is an Admiral Daiquiri man.

I used more clay to make a rope pile on the port side lower deck.  More bamboo was used to make the mast, although in the finished model this is removeable for storage. 

Fitting some of my Rajput Infantry around the vessel gave me a size check.  I can fit three into the bow section, or perhaps a gattling gun.  So far so good...

With the main body painted in "Vajello Iraqi sand" I use their "Sand" colour to paint the defensive sandbags.  

The paddle steamer "Firkit" was beginning to take shape.  I gave the lifebelts a touch or red and white, hoping this was not a sign of wargaming things to come.  The ship's name went onto the forebridge, but I darkened it after this picture was taken.

The last thing to do was the rigging.  I used a thin nylon strip recycled from the black netting from some Morrisons' oranges.  (the same netting that will form my Dardanelles Anti-Submarine nets in another scratch build project I`m attempting)  The fore and aft rigging crosses the mast, but it can still be dismounted for storage of the model.  

Under "The Men Who Would Be Kings" I intend to claim the paddle steamer as a crewed weapon on the foredeck, plus an Irregular rifle group (my 12 Newline Designs sailors) in good cover behind the sandbags.    I estimate the steamer to be around 9 points, moving at 6" per turn upstream, 8" downstream.  It will be interesting to see what kind of officer "Captain" Haddock is.

The groups count independently, although based on the vessel.  If the vessel is within 1" of the river bank the Sailors can disembark, as per moving across a linear obstacle, but equally in such a position it can be stormed by enemy chargers.  I made a balsa boarding plank for just that purpose.  Now that would be a fight I would like to see.

So that's the Firkit, built ready for action, and awaiting her chance to supplement the Queen's Own Minifigs on the tabletop.  Equally however, and here is the really devious bit, the Dervish also siezed and used paddle steamers.  Clearly Haddock is something of a mercenary, so my opposition can expect to see my 20mm Dervish crewing the boat too.  The Sneak of the Sudan strikes again!

Lieutenant Charlatan Heston saves the day at Jaksi.

Major Farthingdale-Pyles and Quincy Pasha attempted the relief of Jaksi using Men Who Would be Kings on our Thursday evening game at Durham Wargames club.  So far Mr Babbage has defended Jaksi, a revolting place, really well.  After dividing the forces into a British command and an Egyptian one we diced for it and I was fortunate to be taking the role of Major Pyles once again.  

Unexpectedly a last minute Dervish Commander appeared, The Mad Khalifa Nigel, who used a variant of the Babbage rules, since "The Khalifa" does not believe in letting his men slink away.  

With the Dervish appearing randomly and then acting under his command the Pasha and I were in trouble.     

The terrain had Jaksi, our objective on a hill against the far table edge, some random scrub and rocky areas, as well as a long dry donga, subject of much quipping and punnage during the game.

 The gallant Major Farthingdale-Pyles turned out to be quite effective, a 5+.  His unit of the Queens Own, Regular Infantry, were in luck!  My unit of Royal Marine Light Infantry were under the command of an ordinary regular Officer 6+.  The gattling gun Sergeant was a 7+.
Were my side was let down was the Cavalry.  The Royal Dragoons` Lieutenant Charlatan Heston was an utter poltroon.  The Regular Cavalry were not allowed to charge.  They would have to use their carbines.  The effectiveness of my force was under serious question!

Quincy Pasha had some effective Officers in his Anglo Egyptian Field Force.  Two groups of Fellahs and the gun were all commanded by stalwarts.  One of his units however was commanded by... a coward.  A man likely to run off at any moment. 

Placing this group in reserve the Pasha declared that he was resolute and keen to face the enemy.   

The Dervish appeared behind my British force.  I had planned to advance the Cavalry to take the objective, but my first attempts to move my force into a defensive formation failed.  Major Pyles advanced  and then realised that he was alone.  The RMLI had refused to move, as did the gattling gun.  With a cry of glee the mad Khalifa let loose a horde of Dervish Spears, from behind me!  

 The Pasha had that dry donga in front of his position.  His line advanced well, all except for Ali the coward, who clung to the base line.

The Dervish swarmed in the donga to the front, and even worse a group charged from the shrubbery to wipe out the gun and its crew.

 The exact same thing happened to the British.  The Dervish charged out of nowhere and wiped out the gattling gun and it's crew..  Lesson learned.  Keep the crewed weapons in the centre.

To the front of the Pasha the Hadendowah camelry charged from the donga into the left hand group of fellahs.  The other unit had been pinned by those pesky Dervish riflemen and was unable to help. 

The Pasha however was up to this challenge and saw them off.  Still things were looking dodgy on the right.
  

 To be quite honest things were looking bad on the left too.  My Royal Dragoons, commanded by Lt Heston the coward, were having to use their carbines to swat away enemies from the isolated Queens own.  More and more Dervish appeared over that hill on my flank.  The RMLI were down to eight men.  
    

 The Anglo Egyptians were holding out, but that donga gave the Dervish an advantage. 

At this point I had something of a revelation.  I had to stop moving.  We had to get to the objective but there was no point in my trying to get into a proper defensive position, since that only brought down more Dervish upon me. It was up to the Royal dragoons and Charlatan Heston to get to Jaksi and save the day.   Looking at it objectively it seemed like a long shot!

  

The Pasha was in even more trouble than me.  He had lost over half his force, and he himself was the only survivor of one unit.

With our new tactic of standing still the Dervish attacks had quietened.  Even so we were only just hanging on.

The only moving unit was the Royal Dragoons and Heston quickly double timed them towards the town.

With the Khalifa howling threats and swearing vengeance the Pasha and I declared ourselves the victors.   This was a somewhat hollow claim however, since we had each lost well over half of our men.  

The only unit not to have casualties was that of the cowardly Ali, who refused to move from the baseline for the whole game.

Lessons learned:  

• Hold fast and move as little as possible,
• Let one quality unit rush to the objective,
• Deploy in square, or at least defensively, from the outset,
• Keep crewed weapons in the middle of the line rather than isolating them.

The Sneak of Paphos

A long, long time ago, when I was but a lad, I used to collect wargames magazines. In those pre-internet days this was the main way of keeping abreast of what was going on in the wider world of wargaming and each magazine was eagerly scoured for ideas and inspiration. With the onset of the digital age, wargames magazines seem to have become less relevant and it’s easier and quicker to get ones ‘fix’ via the internet. It also became apparent that I was disappearing under a mountain of paper, consisting largely of magazines that I no longer read. So, five or six years ago, I decided to just get rid of them. However, being possessed off the ‘collecting gene’ I couldn’t bear to ditch all of them, so kept only those that contained something potentially useful (probably only about 20% or even less).

One magazine article I did keep was my favourite ever article – I think it was in ‘Wargames Illustrated’ but can’t seem to lay my hands on it at the moment. The aforementioned article was entitled ‘The Sneak of the Sudan’ and was a humorous account of two friends' exploits wargaming the Mahdist revolt. One of the themes running throughout the article was how their friendly rivalry and attempts to outdo each other led to a sort of arms race, resulting in the building of gunboats and the secret painting of armies when on holiday – aka chalet painting.

The Mahdi - the original Sneak of the Sudan?

The idea of the two gamers egging each other on still makes me chortle; that is until I realised that I have been the subject of a ‘sneak’. So consider this. About this time last year I was happily painting 28mm Napoleonic figures for my Sharp Practice project. Then I went on holiday and came over all ‘Bronze Age’. Now this wasn’t helped by a certain person who shall remain nameless, but we shall refer to him as Uriah, challenging me to paint up an army by Easter. Well Easter has come and gone and I did in fact paint up 2 armies, although the second one is not quite finished. So it’s back to the Napoleonics then? Hmmm…………..not quite. I’m now painting Late Romans for a Barbarian Conspiracy campaign; suggested by a certain Uriah no less.

The Sneak of Paphos

To make matters worse, whilst I paint up the required figures, Uriah has suggested we try out ‘The Men Who Would Be Kings’ colonial rules – and jolly good fun they are too. So far we have had about 3 games set in the Sudan; can you see a theme here? Uriah has also shown how the required forces can be assembled fairly cheaply using a combination of 1/72 scale plastics and 20mm figures. Not only that but he also pointed out that Newline have a summer sale on. So here I find myself, the day before I go on holiday, having just ordered myself a 20mm starter force for the Sudan. OK I may be weak willed but what sort of sneak would take advantage of that?

The Forces of the Red Sea Protectorate

The members of the Marshal Petain Gentlemen's Club may well suspect that I have gone Colonials crazy.  It`s a fair assessment.

One of the promises I made myself when I downsized my wargaming collection for the move to Cyprus was that I would never again collect the same army in more than one scale.  It sounds ridiculous but it's what I was guilty of.  In fact I had World War 2 figures in at least four different scales.  I suspect that I`m not alone in having this problem. 

Back in Pathos I have a very nice 15mm collection for "The Men Who Would be Kings."  Peter Pig figures for the most part.  I kept them at sensible proportions too, a pair of matched Field forces, Dervish and Anglo Egyptian.  On moving back to the Uk and finding myself distinctly army-less I considered which games I would like to do here.  The focus on this was rules, and very swifty I decided on  "The Men Who Would be Kings."   The solo rules were a large part of that, but mainly I think because they are tremendous fun.

Interestingly however I found a cheaper way of building the forces I needed by switching to 20mm, as well as a way of making them expandable into other periods.   Collecting a 15mm Field Force cost around £25, for the five packs of Infantry and the gun and crew. 

Lovely figures, although I went a little mad and painted them as Redcoats.  The first figures I bought for the 1/72 were Indian Infantry.  At 48 figures to the box they make up four groups of regular infantry.  They cost me £8, including the postage.   

I`m not someone who obsesses about details of uniform.  To me these guys look like they could fight on the North West Frontier, at the Suakin expedition against the Dervish, or even against the Turks in Mesopotamia or Gallipoli.  Being HaT 1/72 the plastic is softer than I would like, but mounted on metal disc bases, with a good coat of dip, and they look like they mean business.
Better still, since I bought some Officer figures from Newline Designs, I can convert four of these figures into the crew for a mountain gun.



For opposition I was intending to look to the North West Frontier and Afghanistan.  The "Waterloo 1815 Miniatures" Dervish (what an odd name for a company) changed my mind.  These are hard plastic, and have a nice mix of figures.  They also do a corresponding Anglo Egyptian box for my unenthusiastic Fellahs.  This altered my original plan, and my collection will now reflect the (Fictional) British Red Sea Protectorate circa 1880.  It`s sort of Imaginations colonials.   
Anyone criticising the uniforms of my figures or acerbically pointing out incorrect details of buttons or cuffs will be told that these are troops representing the various campaigns around the Red Sea Protectorate.  

Two boxes of those Dervish cost around £10 each, and make up most of my Mahdist forces.  I later added some Ruga Ruga riflemen and Hadendowah camelry, HaT figures costing around £6 for each box.  The single Anglo Egyptian box  gave me enough Fellahs to make three groups (36) plus some British Officers and the start of my Royal Marine Light Infantry. (I added the rest of this unit using metal 20mm figures from Newline, also using this opportunity to add a field gun and gattling gun.

My last buy was a box of HaT Zulu war Dragoons.  Painted in khaki they make up the two squadrons of my Royal Dragoons (taking some of the mounted Officers from the Anglo Egyptian box to make the numbers up to 16 figures)   These are some of the most powerful units available in Men Who would be Kings, and generally only one is allowed, however in the Red Sea Protectorate the Royals will be able to use a full squadron of two groups!


The Dervish of the Red Sea Protectorate are not historical.  The "Mad" Mullah Mustapha Liek is the local tribal leader, always revolting.  His deputy is the former bandit, slaver and chieftain Bungdit Din.  The Dervish have taken control of the hilltop fortress of Handjub (its on the map), whilst the British languish on the coast, sending patrols inland.  
At some point in the future I may add more African Colonial forces.  The Free Orange Republic of the Boors may well revolt against Her Majesty due to the British insistence on taxing their oranges...  The Zulu, Ashanti, even the Berber may put in an appearance.  Eventually however I wish to bring the Germans, the French, or worse the Belgians, into play, fighting the natives but also each other.  I would enjoy campaigning an Imaginations World War in Africa! 

Leaders, 2nd Lt. Farthingdale's Suggestions:

A Field Force has two Officers, a Captain, Lieutenant and one Sergeant.    The Field Force follows the leadership of the Senior Officer, unless and until he is killed.  Thereupon the Second Officer takes over.  

Units in the Field Force within an at the double move distance of the Senior Officer will follow the Captain's orders.   Units outside this distance act as leaderless.   The Lieutenant  will use his command characteristic for his own unit only.   

The Leader's own unit uses his leadership value and is affected by his trait. All other units use his leadership value, but are unaffected by his trait.

If your Leader is killed, all units count as leaderless.

If both the Captain and Lieutenant are killed the Sergeant takes command without characteristics and with a LV of 7+.  If he too is killed all units revert to an LV of 8+

The MF Plan

Gentlemen, it’s been a while since I contributed anything to the MPGC blog. To be honest I think I burned out on the Trojan War project but hopefully, what follows, will be the start of few diary type posts chronicling my latest endeavours.

So, let me introduce you to the 'MF Plan'. No not another fad diet but a strategy to get some of my oldest war gaming figures on the table. Yes these boys are Minifigs, circa. 1970 something, in all their nicely proportioned but smooth featured glory.

It all came about after our 3 month stint of Bronze Age action on the plains of Troy. After such a Herculean effort to put on the Troy game at WorLad III, it seemed a good time to try something a bit different and more ‘lightweight’. Also, with my hols looming I didn’t feel inclined to invest too much time and effort into a new project – yeah right!

As an aside, for my aforementioned hols, I shall soon be jetting off to Paphos, in Cyprus to catch up with my old friend, Uriah the Hittte …………or at least that was the plan. As it turns out, Uriah will be here in Durham when we’re in Paphos. Sod’s Law or what! You travel thousands of miles to see a mate and he’s not even there – typical. [Only kidding – honest]

Incidentally, according to Google, Paphos is 2,875 miles away and you get there via the A3!

So back to choosing the next game and the consensus was that we fancied a spot of Dark Age gaming. Now Dux Britanniarum is a firm favourite at the club but, having just played the Bronze Age variant for 3 months solid, we thought we would check out the opposition, namely Dux Bellorum.

At first we just wheeled out our Dux Brit armies and put them on sabot bases. So my Gripping Beast & Foundry Romano-Brits, with Saxon allies, faced off against the Captain’s Irregular Miniatures Picts and pseudo Picts (Corvus Miniatures Welsh), whilst Uriah (who was meant to be in Paphos – did I mention that?) watched from the wings. And a jolly time was had by all. Mind you, the Captain’s parting shot was the rather dangerous comment that, ‘it would look better with more figures’. At that point the Pandora’s box, that is the combined stash of the MPGC’s stockpile of old Minifigs figures, was unleashed upon the world. To cut a long story short, the Captain has been painting hordes of old Minifigs Picts and I rediscovered my long forgotten Minifigs late Roman army.

A quick figure count revealed that I had almost the right amount of figures to represent the complete Dux Bellorum Late Roman army list. Now these boys are almost certainly based upon the old WRG ‘Armies and Enemies of Imperial Rome’ and faithfully reproduce the illustrations therein. However, times have moved on and they are now looking a bit dubious, in terms of historical accuracy. Nevertheless, they do have a certain charm of their own and they were my first ever 25mm army. As individual figures they’re not great but based up in units they don’t look so bad. So the plan is to base up my old 25mm collection for unit based games and keep my more recent 28mm figures individually based.

So my four point plan is as follows:

1)    Repaint and base up the Dux Bell Late Roman starter army.

2)    Repaint and base up my remaining Late Romans

3)    Repaint and base up my Saxons

4)    Repaint and base up my Romano-British.

I have already completed phase one and have made progress with phase two and hope to get to the basing stage before my holidays. Stage three will have to await my return but I’m keen to crack on with this as Uriah has suggested that we do a ‘Barbarian Conspiracy’ campaign. As it happens my original Dark Age collection grew from just such a project back in the 1970s – serendipity strikes again!

Unfortunately, I didn’t think to take any photos before I started the project but I did manage to get a snap of some bits and pieces that illustrate just what I’m working with here.

The figures were still based up for WRG 5^th edition on some very elementary bases and with the worst possible flock ever sold by Beatties model shop. Why I ever thought a ‘chunky’ flock in a dark bottle green would pass muster I don’t know. I also seem to have glued it on with the stickiest substance known to man – 40 years later and the bases are still tacky to the touch.

I would have liked to just rebase the figure but the paintwork is truly appalling but I guess does show the evolution of my painting technique (or lack of it). The early figures are in Humbrol and Airfix enamels, later moving to artist’s acrylics; all finished off with a nice high gloss varnish. I think the brilliant whiter than white tunics are particularly fetching! If truth be told, I can’t be arsed to repaint all these so am just painting over the worst bits as it were. Unfortunately, in a few cases this is most of the figure – ho hum.

So far they’re not looking too bad but I will save posting any pictures until I have finished the project.