Indian Mutiny - A Sharp Practice Tale

This Sharp Practice tale is set in the 1857 Indian Mutiny where a group of civilians are trying to get to safety. However, the game quickly changed into a rescue mission, where a group of loyal natives ended up trapped in the building.

A group of sepoy rabble deployed on the road...

whilst a group of civilians raced along the riverbank hoping to help their comrades in the building.

Two groups of badmashes headed straight for the building.

The sepoy rabble continued along the road along with support from some skirmishers. Where were the British?

The sepoy rabble deployed into line and poured fire into the building, causing casualties.

 

The civilian skirmishers almost managed to reach the building but were being harassed by the mutinous skirmishers and were soon driven from the field.

 

The badmashes continued their advance on the building.

Hooray, the main British force had arrived and immediately deployed into a firing line.

The best sepoy troops however, had advanced too far and came under a murderous fire from the British line. Soon they were broken and running from the field. At this point it was looking like the British mught pull off a victory.

However, the badmashes charged the few remaining loyal natives in the building, wiping them out. 

Meanwhile, the mutinous skirmishers turned their attention to the British line.

A firefight now ensued between the sepoy rabble and the British line. It was a race to seen who whould break first. Unfortunately for the British, their luck wasn't in and they retired from the field leaving the victorious mutineers to lick their wounds.

 

Infamy Infamy: Plunder & Pillage

This is the Slave revolt scenario from the 2024 TFL magazine where a Slave force is out to pillage a Roman farm, hoping to murder the local landowner as well. The landowner has a group of ten family/overseers to help him defend the farm whilst awaiting a relief force from the local town.

The slaves deployed en-mass ready to cross the river. 

 whilst the landowner readied to defend the farm.

The Roman relief force still hadn't shown up and the slaves were advancing rapidly on the farm. Things could get dicy very soon.

Hooray, shouted the landowner, as the Roman relief force finally turned up.

Unfortunately the slaves used their best troops to break down the farmyard door and sent their Gallic allies on a tour around the farm. The Romans charged in, resulting in a very protracted fight with handbags.

 However, soon the might of Rome was evident and the slaves started to break.

Back at the farm, the Slaves managed to break down the farmyard door with the landowner and remaining family retreating to one of the farm buildings, chased by a pack of hungry dogs.

The Roman force was now being distracted by the Gauls who had now circumvented the farmyard whist the herdsmen and their dogs broke into the farm building and murdered the landowner, thus winning the game.

Chain of Command 2 – Home Front

 

This was the first Scenario from the excellent (free!!) Pint Sized Campaign, from Bad Squiddo Games, “Home Front”. The fast moving German landing forces, are pushing down toward Romford, after landing near Clacton. Scenario 1 sees the German platoon attempting to push past a weak Home Guard screening force.

The Home Guard were controlled by Simon and Phil. The German platoon was controlled by Rob & Dave. Support rolls were average, with the Germans electing to take a Red Dice, an armoured car and a shabby Nazi trick, of 2 nuns concealing an LMG team! The Home Guard had rather more support points to play with (the platoon rating being -4), so they took a pillbox, a roadblock, some milk churn mines, some Land Army reinforcements and a Beaverette car. This all proved to be a mistake, with only 4 Command Dice to play with!!

The Germans opened with the Nuns walking down the road, shadowed to the South of the road, by a section of infantry and to the North of the road, by the Riflemen of the section who’s LMG team were disguised as Nuns. The German armoured car, skirted around the North of the woods flanking the road, in order to engage and neutralise the pillbox.

The Home Guard, only having 2 pre-located Jump Off Points, were forced to deploy a section to contest the Jump-Off point just West of the orchard. While Sgt Wilson waited, the Germans slipped through the hedge at the far side of the orchard and crawled forward. As soon as the Germans crawled into view, the 8 Home Guard rifles opened fire, inflicting the only casualty suffered by the Germans in the entire game (the Germans being in light cover & Tactical). The return fire from the MG34 and 5 rifles, was rather more effective and shock & casualties soon started to mount, but Sgt Wilson’s section was made of stern stuff and they grimly held on, delaying the German advance.

The German disguised Nuns, after a short detour into the woods (for no clear reason!?), infiltrated down behind Sgt Wilson’s section and pulling the MG34 from beneath their robes, opened fire on Sgt Wilson’s section, from the flank! Dirty tricks indeed!!

However, the Nuns had been spotted and the Platoon Sergeant had sent out a section, to escort the Nuns to safety. However, as these brave lads moved out to help the ladies, the German armoured car hosed them down, as they ran for the woods, fortunately only inflicting some shock!

These brave Home Guard lads burst out of the trees, behind the Nuns, only to discover that they were really Nazi machine gunners! The horrified Home Guard lads surged forward, to capture the traitorous Nazis!

Back on the North flank, the Platoon sergeant called forward the Boys Anti-Tank rifle, to deploy into the Estate buildings. This managed to get a couple of hits on the German armoured car, but to no serious effect and the deadly cannon fire soon silenced the Boys.

The German commander was by now getting frustrated, so he personally led the third German section, at the run, down the entire length of the road, not even bothering to hide! Hearing the jackboots closing on their rear, the Home Guard troops on the road, ran back to man the road block, but the Germans were too close on their heels. The Germans caught-up with the Home Guard lads at the roadblock, and the brave Home Guard lads were forced to surrender!

An interesting game and I would recommend the Bad Squiddo PSC. Production quality is excellent and there are some nice ideas in there. Having only 4 Command dice was a killer for the Home Guard, especially as the Germans had 6 (with their Red dice). Next time, the Home Guard need to take more incorporated support options, or more support options not needing Commands!!

As a fill-in, we then decided to use the same table layout, for a spot of early war What a Tanker. The Germans had a Panzer III, a Panzer II and the Panzer 38T. The French had a Char B, a H35 and an R35. The Germans quickly lost the Panzer III, to a flank shot from the H35. The Char B played a game of ‘squash the Panzer II’, in the central wood. That left the Panzer 38T playing dodge with all 3 French tanks! Eventually they managed to box it in, at point blank range and finish it off!

Sharp Practice 2 - ACW Railhead Raid

 

Union forces had pushed a railtrack up from the coast, but their protective covering force have been decoyed away from their task of protecting the railhead. A Confederate raiding force moved toward the railhead, intent on destroying the buildings and the supplies accumulated there. The Union forces, realising they have been decoyed, were moving back up the rail line, to protect the railhead & the supplies there.

The Confederate forces would win by either driving the Union forces from the table, or by burning down two, of either; the railhead supplies, the station, or the Water Tower (each with a Task Roll of 11). The Union forces would win, by either driving the Confederate forces from the table, or by preventing the Confederates achieving their objective.

The river & marsh areas count as ‘Heavy Going’ and the supplies area counts as broken ground, but provides Light cover for foot troops within Supplies area.

The Confederate forces were led by Mal and the Union forces led by Dave.

The Union forces opened with a bold cavalry move, straight up the road, while their infantry moved up the road and rail track, to provide a covering force. The Confederates pushed their main infantry column up the road, while the cavalry, skirmishers and second infantry column moved along the river bank, directly toward the railhead.

The Union cavalry very quickly reached the supplies area and were feeling pretty pleased with themselves. However, the main Rebel column surprised them, by equally rapidly moving up the road and then smartly deploying into line! The Union cavalry promptly sheared off the road, trying to take shelter behind the cross-rail fence, to the North. However, the cavalry didn’t manage to get out of the Rebel volley firing arc, only managing to dismount and take cover behind the fence. However, this did them little good, as the massive volley from the Rebel line killed 4 of the Union cavalry.

Back at the railhead, the Rebel skirmishers and 2^nd column were closing-in on the station building. Sadly, the rapid movement of the main Rebel column, left the Rebel cavalry in a bit of a predicament, being blocked to their front by the main infantry line. Before they could unravel this mess, the Union skirmishers rather roughly handled the Rebel cavalry, shooting into their rear.

As the shocked Rebel cavalry retired behind the main Rebel line, one group of Rebel skirmishers moved up to the station building, to try to fire it. Sadly, it seemed rather unclear as to who had brought the matches!?

The other group of Rebel skirmishers started to exchange fire with the Union skirmishers, much to the annoyance of the commander of the 2^nd Rebel column, which by now was deployed in firing line, but their firing blocked by their own skirmishers!

After a bit of stumbling, eventually the Rebel skirmishers cleared the Rebel firing line and a couple of good volleys sent the Union skirmishers scurrying back behind their own infantry firing line. Both lines then started to blaze away each other, but it was the Rebels who were suffering most!

Back on the supplies side of the track, the Confederate main line was now trying to wheel around, to bring the Union infantry, located on the road, into their firing arc, but it was all happening too slowly. The Union line, supported by a flanking skirmish group, was plucking big holes in the main Rebel line.

Back at the station, the Rebel skirmishers, now aided by the second Rebel skirmish group, had fired the station, now they were moving into the supplies, to fire them too. This left a rather ‘target rich environment’ for the Union forces, into which they sent ball after ball!

The Rebel skirmishers, sheltered by the supply crates, were not faring too badly, but the main Rebel line was suffering. Realising that he could no longer win the fire-fight, as his left flank group was now retiring, the Rebel commander called for his troops to join the efforts to fire the supplies. These supplies were then quickly burning.

Having achieved their objective, the Rebel forces were now retiring, if not ‘in good order’, leaving 14 dead on the field, but they had won their victory, if at rather a high price!?