Honour and Fortune Warfare in India

from the Great Moghuls
to the Great Mutiny

Reviewed by Phil Jones

In the same spirit as "Science vs. Pluck: or Too Much for the Mahdi", Howard Whitehouse offers another slightly irreverent view of colonial warfare. This time the subject matter is India, from the early Eighteenth Century to the Mutiny in 1857.

This is more than just a set of wargame rules. In fact, the rules themselves only occupy 10 of the 40+ pages of this little booklet. The rest of the space is devoted to a description of the period, the elements of Indian warfare, vignettes of the main combatant nations, a listing of the major actions, and a brief uniform guide. In all of this, it is not unlike a miniature version of a WRG "Armies and Enemies..." volume. However, rather than filling the book with line drawings, Howard has included a generous number of reproductions of paintings from the period, which help establish the "local color" which he finds important in his wargaming.

Overall, this is excellent value. This reviewer knew nothing of the period (except the names 'Clive', and 'Plassey'), but came away with enough in formation to begin researching and planning an army -L- and, more import antly, the desire to do so. There are a couple of minor drawbacks that merit mention, but they really are minor - so let's get them out of the way. I'd have liked a little more "fleshing out" in, the battles section, particularly in terms of the numbers of involved. Second, while the major combatants are described, there are few indications of suitable combinations of troop types, unit structurs, etc., other than very general statements. I'm not asking for full blown army lists, but a little more guidance would have been useful for a newcomer like myself. Finally, related to the above, there is no real indication of what the scope of the H&F rules is intended to be. This is my one real gripe. From the figure ratio and ground scale it would seem that large actions are envisioned, probably with relatively small units (less than 20 figures, I'd imagine). The rules seem very quick and simple, which would support the idea of large scale actions. However, without guidance on the intended scope of the game, size of units, composition of armies, etc. - one is left to do much research, detective work and (effectively) playtesting all for oneself. Not that I'm against personal research, it's just that H&F may not be suitable for the novice or the casual gamer because of that, even though the rules themselves appear very straightforward, and admirably suited for these constituencies as well as for the more committed wargamer.

If all this sounds negative, don't take it too seriously (just like the game Howard is trying to promote). This is a fun game. The rules concentrate on "entertainment and risk; they are about routing elephants, drug-crazed Hindu fanatics, drunken Europeans, rockets that turn around in mid-air, and poor devils who only want to go home." Figure scale is 1:50 for regulars, and 1:100 for irregulars, representing "lots standing around in the rear'. Ground scale is also high, at 1 ':50 yards (or roughly 3:1 mile). The key to the rules is the "Spirit Level" of the troops (a combination of morale, training, leadership and luck), which impacts all activities. Movement seems generous, because each move is equal to 15 minutes real time. This will probably have the effect of cutting down on firing time; unless morale fails, hand-to hand combat seems highly likely, as not even the European regulars will have time to "blow away" the screaming locals before the latter are on top of them. Melees will be bloody and quick, which again suggests the suitability of these rules for large scale actions, and the 'fun' game I'm sure Howard is aiming for. The results of the melees will likely be pretty definite, too, as it appears difficult to reform routing troops unless they-are of very high quality (reasonably enough), and the victors can easily become fixated on the annihilation of their victims and pursue for lengthy periods of time (also reasonable).

The conclusion has to be that Howard has done an excellent jobof making accessible a period which was hitherto unavailable to the vast majority of us. More than that, he has given us something which will likely be tremendously enjoyable, and a welcome change of pace from some of the other more sober (take that any way you want) games which most of us generally engage in. Best of all, at $4 this represents excellent value for money and makes the decision to buy a, copy a foregone conclusion. If you have absolutely no sense of humor, don't buy these rules. Otherwise, no home should be without one! Honour and Fortune is available from Ulster Imports, Box 1748, Champaign, IL 61820.

More Reviews

Back to Table of Contents -- Courier Vol. VIII No. 4
To Courier List of Issues
To MagWeb Master Magazine List
© Copyright 1988 by The Courier Publishing Company.
This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web.
Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com