A very Happy New Year to all our readers!

 Greetings!

Well, 2010 is almost over - at least in England! - Thats the end of the Naught-ees! - 2013 will be the beginning of the Teen-ees, then the Twenties, Thirties et al.
This leaves the problem of what to classify 2011 and 2012?
My thought is that perhaps they should be the one-tees, or (with the Tories alliance in power) possibly the Want-ees!!!

What do you think?

Well, Whatever - Make it a good New Year - and endeavour to be happy in it!

(One thing I have learned in my years is that all people really want out of life is to BE HAPPY - and have the likelyhood of being reasonably happy for the foreseeable future.
Of course, this means different things to different people, and we all have different conditions to meet to achieve said happiness!)


(Pics courtesy of Icanhazcheezeburger.com)
Ciao!

Colonial pacification game!

Colonial skirmish game (18th December 2010)

Situation:

The British force, consisting of a small group of Sikh regular infantry, a patrol sized force of British cavalry and some Askaris, are approaching a low valley, where dissident locals are thought to be gathering their forces to resist our benificent rule.
The natives are deployed hidden, represented by a random mix of dummy and real counters.

The aim of the British force is to ascertain the threat posed by the locals in this region and if possible to arrest any dissidents found. (Lexington all over again???!).



The Battle:

The British formed up with the Askaris on the left, attempting to clear some woods and rough ground.


The Sikhs formed in the centre, where they were to advance via a small ridge to their front.


On the right, The Cavalry moved off in line to attempt to outflank any natives defending the valley.


The Cavalry decided to split into two groups of five, and moved through and round a copse only to be confronted by a large group of natives further back.


The Cavalry drew their carbines and wounded two natives before having their officer and one of his men killed by accurate native archery.



The remaining cavalrymen charged the archers, but lost another man in beating them.


...despite receiving fire support from their comrades in the wood.
The spearmen behind the archers then charged, and chased the two remaining horsemen off.



In the centre, the Sikhs advanced over the ridge to be confronted by over seventy natives in its lee, including some archers.The Natives were surprised and suffered casualties from the Sikhs point blank firing.



Soon however, the natives recovered and began to surge up the ridge against the Sikhs, who seemed sure to be overrun.




The archers closest to the Sikh fled, allowing the spearmen to attack the Sikhs.



The Sikhs began to take casualties from this attack, and were in danger of being outflanked by more natives moving round their right flank.




However, the surviving other half of the cavalry appeared in their rear and fired into the outflanking natives.




...Before charging them...

Half the natives were soon fleeing from the Sikhs, who amazingly had survived the spear onslaught, which allowed them to support the cavalry.



The rest of the natives fled, but they and some more archers futher up the valley managed to take a toll of the rashly pursuing cavalry!




So what of the Askaris on the British left?

They advanced and were confronted by a force of natives in rough ground.


These natives initally stood, but unable to reply to the Askaris accurate fire were soon forced to attack.



This attack was doomed to failure and all but wiped out by the massed muskets of the Askaris!
The survivors fled back to the rough ground and were soon routed out by the fierce auxilliaries.


With their forces in flight, the natives scattered into the approaching gloom of evening.
However, the British losses, particularily amongst the cavalry and Sikhs, had made this a costly victory!


Players: Ian - Sikhs
             Lawrence and Phil - Askaris
             Me - Cavalry

Figures - Lawrences (Unknown manufacturer)

Rules: Our own - see http://tynesidewargames.co.uk/downloads.html   for free download!

To see our previous game visit: http://blog.tynesidewargames.co.uk/2010/05/colonial-skirmish-game-8th-may-2010.html