Colonial River Boat "Hesperus"

The latest theme round at the Painting Challenge is Nautical, for which I submitted the Hesperus below.  Go check out the other wonderful entries which put my humble scratch bodge to shame.

Capt.  puts the crew to work on the foredeck.

This is the stern wheeler Hesperus which has been over 15 years in construction and is/was  intended for my Colonial North West Frontier campaign (aka Wascanastan).  II suspect that she can serve equally well in Pulp/Cthulu games.  She is roughly 28mm scale and it unapologetically intended as a flat out toy soldier bodge of a generic river/lake steamer, not a scale model of any particular vessel.   The dorky home made look is all part of the plan and hopefully the charm.

Construction details are spotty since it has sat in a 75% finished state in my basement(s) for over 15 years.  The superstructure appears to be foam core board with the main deck and sea base from sturdy corrugated card board.  The gunwales, upper decks and wheel look to be artist board and light card.   The vessel survived it's dormancy intact except for damage to the blades of the paddle wheel.

Major Campbell puts the Seaforths through rifle drill.

Full speed ahead to  the kitchen!

Over the last two weeks I have added the following

• replaced the missing paddle blades with card (from Perry plastics boxes)
• added light armour cladding to the superstructure and pilot from light card.  Gun slits and a window for the pilot house were cut out with an Xacto.
• The funnel was created from a penny roller with a plain white paper to hide the spiral seam.
• The single mast is a bamboo skewers mounted in a plastic tube from a paint brush.  The mast can be removed for safer travel.
• I then painted the beast in the classic white all over scheme that appears in just about every picture I can find of a Victorian paddle wheeler.
• I attempted to make bow and quarter waves with white paint and acrylic gel but don't think this was especially successful.
• I added a Red Ensign and name boards printed on the home PC.

Some officers have a gentleman's wager over target shooting with pistols.

Meanwhile the "Civilian" passengers are in an animated conversation.

FYI the figures are from my Wascanastan collection and are mostly Rafm, with at least one Minifig for good measure.  These were painted in the last millennium for the most part so don't count for the challenge!

Good shot old boy!

Hesperus is the evening planet Venus in Greek mythology, and a ship named Hesperus is the subject of a well known Longfellow poem.  I know about the poem not because of a fine classic liberal arts education or because I come from a very literary family.  Rather my knowledge comes from two sources.  First my retired Navy Office dad teasing an old ship mate would have served as an officer on HMS Hesperus during WW2.  And also because an image of the Wreck of the Hesperus apparently appears prominently on the anatomy of Lydia the Tattooed Lady.  As the song say, you can learn a lot from Lydia!

Action in Wascanastan

End of the action, Bengal Lancers and Indian Mountain gun cover the retiring baggage train.

We had my colonials on the table for the first time in at least 10 years with the CS Grant ambush scenario.  Curt took the Natives and Sylvain the Imperial British.  As is typically with colonials, the key is the balance given the disparity of abilities.  Given memories of many Imperial victories in past games, I may have erred on the side of making the Natives too strong.  More precisely, Curt would have had trouble getting more troops to the fore but an extra unit of Imperial infantry would have really helped Sylvain a lot.  However, we had a good game which walked the knife balance of Imperial Triumph against the odds and Imperial disaster!

Forces were as follows
Imperial

• A unit of 12 British Infantry (Rosshire Buffs)
• A unit of 12 Ghurkas
• A unit of 12 Sikhs
• A mountain gun in pack
• 4 baggage train of 4 camels and civilians (2 nuns)
• A unit of 6 Bengal Lancers

Natives

• 4 units of 12 irregular tribesman
• 1 unit of 16 native regulars
• 1 unit of 9 irregular cavalry

Curt was his typical aggressive self and positioned his cavalry closest to the enemy and charged with everything as soon as possible.  As a result, the Imperial column was boxed in and unable to deploy properly.  Even worse, both the dice and the card sequence were against Sylvain.  The local Iman must have out prayed the Sisters!

Having withstood multiple charges (and seen off half the native forces), the Imperial infantry finally cracked and routed off board.  The Bengal lancers (the column's rear guard) arrived just in time to rescue the Nuns.    We ruled that the Lancers and mountain gun could get the camels back to camp, with the Natives being too weak to follow.  A tactical victory for the Natives, but a strategic draw.

Native horse (RAFM) charge Gurkhas and Scots (Minifigs)

The infantry turn to face, but are not able to fire.

Volley fire!

Natives close in on the imperial force.

Natives advancing in mob.

 

The british leave a gap in the line, which the natives exploit

The hole in the wall.

The Bengal Lancers counter charge to save the Sisters' Honour.


  

With MacDuff to the North West Frontier

This Friday night we are planning a NWF frontier game.  Here's the sit rep and map from Charles S Grant's Scenario book (a must have for any miniature gamer).

The rules I am proposing are Ross Mac's "With MacDuff to the Frontier" which can be found on his blog.  A few notes on troop types.

1. British Infantry carry Breech Loading Rifles (BLRs), in this case Martini-Henrys.  They get the +1 for BLR firepower but the range is the same as the MLRs (16", 8" short) as confirmed with Ross.  They also count as Elite.
2. Better Indian infantry (Ghurkas, Piffers etc.) count as British, other Indian infantry aren't as well trained so lose the +1 for firepower and Elite status.  These guys carry Snider BLRs.  
3. Afghan or other Native Regulars carry BLRs but aren't as well trained so don't count the +1.  They might count as militia or regulars depending on the scenario.  They also carry Sniders or equivalents (often surplus British army ones).
4. Pathan or Afghan tribesmen count as irregulars, and carry as mix of weaponry counting as Jezails on average.  They make guns over open fire pits, so get the -1 for inferior equipment.  An evil GM might rank a unit or two as Elite or fanatics, but most are just interested in loot.
5. Imperial Cavalry are regulars and carry carbines (count as MLRs as firepower drill was not great).  Many count as Veteran and lancers obviously carry long pokey things.
6. Mountain guns count as light guns, travel as pack and take a full turn to unpack and set up and prep for fire.
7. Other Imperial artillery counts as rifled (or in some cases smooth bores where forced to improvise older weaponry).  
8. Afghan regular artillery use BLRs (Krupp and Armstrongs that were better than anything the Brits used) or smooth bores.  They get the inferior equipment -1 modifying to shoot.
9. Tribesmen with artillery have smooth bores and get the -1 for inferior equipment.

But it's thin red line of 'eroes when the drums begin to roll....

The Wasanastan Field Force

Ok, now that I have a working computer, I am able to blog again back on track.  Here's what I was able to find in the rubbermaid.


Colonial Forces Painted

• 29 Gordon highlanders including officers and piper
• 13 78th Highlanders (Rosshire Buffs) including officer and piper
• 15 Seaforth Highlanders (in trews) including officers and drummer
• 5 riders from the 9th Lancers including officer
• 26 Sikhs (all painted as 15th Sikhs but half in khaki and half in scarlet) including fifers and drummer
• 13 Madras Pioneers including officer
• 6 Bengal Lancers including officer
• 14 Ghurkas including officer and bugler
• 2 British artillery crews with 7pdr MLR
• 1 British artillery crew with Gatling gun
• 1 Sikh gun crew with mountain gun
• Various adventurers, loose (sorry unattached) officers, sailors and nurses
• Transport units including mules, camels, heffalumps and water bearers

Native Forces Painted

• 3 units of 12 regular infantry regiments including officers and musicians
• 7 units of irregular tribal infantry with mixed jezails, muskets, rifles and spears including officers and musicians
• 2 regular artillery crews with Armstrong BLRs
• 2 tribal artillery crews with ancient smooth bores (ex dwarves bombards with faces on the muzzles)
• 9 mounted tribesmen (on horses)
• Various tribal elders and women folk
• Camel transport

Unpainted Figures

• 17 highlanders including piper (hello afghan highland guard!)
• 6 Bengal lancers
• 25 pathan tribesmen (a 50:50 mix of minifies and foundry so two units)
• 32 egyptian regular infantry (set to become afghan regulars or Bengal infantry in Kilmarnocks)
• 12 Fuzzy-Wuzzies (uhh... ghazi fanatics?!?)
• 1 gun team with limber
• 10 mounted tribesmen (foundry figures thanks to Rossmac)
• More transport camels!

Wascanastan - The Forces

Ok it's memory test time.  Let's see what I can remember about what's in the rubbermade...


The Imperial Forces
The dream list goes as follows

• Highlanders (have 2 regiments in kilts and one in trews)
• Sikhs (at least one regiment, possibly two)
• Gurkhas (one unit)
• Bengal lancers (none painted as yet)
• Sikh mountain battery (at least one)
• Other Indian infantry (a unit of Pioneers)
• British cavalry (one unit)
• Non-Scottish British infantry (none as yet, the intended regiment got trews instead of trousers and I'm not sure they are needed)
• British artillery (yes)
• Exotic transport (elephants, camels and mules)
• A steam boat and train

Native Forces
Again the list goes as such.  This is based on readings of the Sikh and Afghan wars.

• native regular infantry (2-3 regiments, using Partha Egyptians and Sudanese, plus it turns out I have enough Highlanders unpainted to add a Highland guard unit as the Imperials certainly don't need more Scots!)
• regular artillery (should out gun the Imperial forces)
• a few regular cavalrymen (I'm eying Perry ACW plastics for these)
• scads of irregulars on foot (check!)
• mounted tribesmen (check!)
• tribesmen with artillery (an ex Partha dwarf bombard!)
• A fortress and walled town

Wascanastan

Ok time to think what I need for Wascanastan (my imaginary nation subbing for the 2nd afghan war).


Geography
Wasacanastan is a independent state Northeast of Peshawar vaguely in the same area as Chitral and Gilgit.  There is a British Imperial polical and commercial interests, requring a residency.


Obviously it's a mountainous country with some swift running rivers and some lakes.  We tend to think of this area as being arid semi desert but Wikipedia articles show that there's some forests and greener pastures in the mountains (Peiwar Kotal was fought in a forest for instance).  The GWR (greater Wascanastan Railway) poerates but the mountains and lakes require a steamboat to reach teh residency. My model here is as follows.

This is Waterton Lake Alberta, no where near the Northwest Frontier but part of the Nowest Territories 100 years ago!  A big long lake in high mountains close up on arid foothills in the middle of a large continent - sounds familiar doesn't it.  The far end of the lake is in Montana and there was a steamboat that used to run rich Yankees up to a very post hotel from a Great Northern Railway station the other side of the border.