Well, so after only a year since I promised, I am finally submitting this little article to The Heliograph& I think it is not a record, if I know you, fellow wargamers, as we all are well used to think about ideas and, as Hal Thinglum (one of our grand-masters) says, "projects" for long time before getting anything done, whether we are talking about buying figures, painting them up or anything else in this hobby! Now that I finally started, I hope to go at a faster pace, though.

Like so many gamers in Italy, I started as an Ancients player. Using the current WRG rule set and building up several "armies" before realising I was stuffed of the most different peoples represented by very similar hosts, the only difference being the figures used, as happens when you use DBM rules, despite all the good ideas introduced in these rules. Again, the search for bits and pieces of information to get good looking figures was overwhelming, often resulting in a few lines buried in general history books& well, you all know what I am talking about. I talked about it with my gaming buddies but realised that the vast open field of untried periods appealed to each of us in different ways and everyone was afraid to go alone without a consensus. To start things moving, I would have to build both sides and hope that offering a ready-to-play battle would be enough to compel my friends to follow the lead.

I decided I was looking for something different and started to think about later periods, buying new rule sets, re-reading old magazines with articles I overlooked before, and consulting new books: Napoleonic battles, WW2, Russian Civil War, the Italian Risorgimento& After several false starts (that are now being reconsidered& one should never really trash up any figures, you know!), I understood that I craved for ranged weapons, solid historical references, small pitched battles, uniformed troops, a touch of egotism& in brief, the colonial adventure!

While the current vogue is all in favour of "Darkest Africa" skirmish games or the classical English conflicts against the Zulus or the Mahdi, I wanted more balanced confrontations and not hordes of natives hopelessly outgunned or tactically impaired! This further step in narrowing the available choices pointed me in the direction of the "jewel of the Crown": India, where princelings and warrior cults battled John Company, the ultimate prize of the Great Game. I had noted some wonderful photos in some old Wargames Illustrated depicting battles in India and others dedicated to the Sikh Wars and I knew I had found at last my theme, the Sikh Wars and, eventually, the Mutiny and generic Indian clashes.

Being in love with the idea of alternate history in particular and all above the idea of Victorian Science Fiction, I liked very much the idea of native potentates trying to cope with modern military issues, developing their own armed forces, finding sources for weapons, military advisors, and so on. Well, I was struck blind discovering that the militant sect of the Sikh, whose prowess we all heard of, in reference to their later service under the British colours, had tried to do just that and, to vast extent, obtained very good results. To this, sum up the romantic image of the Bengal lancers, one of those military icons, like the Highlanders, that goes beyond time and space to warm up the heart of any military history buff and you may well understand I simply had to play the Sikh wars.

The general survey of my magazines and some help that came (and still keep coming, thank to the good chaps of the Colonial Wars list, a place you should try to reach) in resulted in the following items:

Miniature Wargames issues 156-159, with a four part articles with uniform plates detailing the English Royal regiments, that is the regular army, the Sikh regular and irregular outfits and the Company armies of the various Presidencies, that is the Sepoys (all in all, a great help, with OoB and a little history thrown in for good);

Miniature Wargames issue 173, with an article on Sikh Wars colours, mostly dedicated to the English side as evidence is lacking for the Sikhs (this article and the previous mentioned series are by John Watts);

Miniature Wargames issue 183, with further notes by Greg Blake about the development of the Khalsa, the Sikh army, and several historical engagements against Indians, other Sikhs and the Chinese imperial army;

Wargame Illustrated issues 139 and 140, each with two pages of large, full colour photos of 1st Sikh War figures (they are better than a painting guide!) and issue 130, with photos dedicated to earlier Hindoos armies, a great inspiration for mercenaries, levies and house units of the various princes;

The Courier, issue vol.VIII, #4, with an article aptly named "Napoleonics and palm trees or the Sikhs, a splendid little war" by P. A. Koch, with details on the Sikh uniforms and various interesting notes (strangely, the cover shows a painting of Sikh artillerymen and supporting infantry standing up to a Queen's lancer regiment charge with the blurb "The Indian Mutiny, 1846"?!);

A By Jingo article, at the web address that our editor kindly supply, "Khalsa To Catastrophe!" by Chris Ferree, that also supplied a page of ready to print English flags available at By Jingo, with a brief history of the events leading to the war; An obvious source to check is Osprey, with their large offer of booklets. I found interesting information, mostly pertaining British uniforms, in MaA #67, The Indian Mutiny, #268, The British Troops in the Indian Mutiny 1857-59, and #219, Queen Victoria's Enemies (3): India. Funnily enough, I had not thought of this title up to some weeks ago, while it probably is the most indicated one, if small, generic and, obviously, good as an appetiser only!). I checked Bengal Cavalry Regiments 1857-1914 and Indian Infantry Regiments 1860-1914 but only because at the time I worked with the firm publishing the Italian version of the same. In fact, I found that despite the little time elapsed between the events of the Sikh Wars and the period considered in the booklets, the general reformation of British military structure and uniforms in India made them absolutely unusable but for some cavalry units, almost unchanged in their appearance in the 50's.

You may remember that this new adventure started for me with some photos, and, as it often happens, the figures depicted were 28 mm. (by The Foundry, if I remember well). Several motivations (space, money and painting skills& or should I say lack of the latter!) suggested that I use 15 mm& I was not going to change that for my Colonial battles, so I was stuck at the beginning: where could I find the figures?