Again we played with Robin's 15mm figures, and this time he took command of the 'un-British' forces... Pathans and Dervishes and Fuzzie-Wuzzies and the like. He had about 5 native units, I had three British companies. All units had 6 stands in them. The scenario came from THE SWORD AND THE FLAME (TSATF), Larry Brom's successful rules, published in 1986. The British objective was to march up the Chamla Valley and plant the flag on some lonely hilltop outpost. In the original TSATF, troops came in 20-man companies, and diced were tossed for each man firing. We scaled the game down a wee bit, using 6 multi-figure stands per company. Much less dice tossing... one die per unit. Each native unit of 6 stands was given an 'intrinsic' fire power... each unit was given one die, and if a toss of "1" appeared on a 6-sided die, one British stand vanished into the Rally Zone. British fire power was much stronger and definitive. The 6-stand unit tossed its die and referred to the following chart: Toss a "1" Every firing stand sends 1 target stand to the Rally Zone. Toss a "2" Every 2 firing stands send 1 target stand to the Rally Zone Toss a "3" Every 3 firing stands send 1 target stand to the Rally Zone. Toss a "4" Every 4 firing stands send 1 target stand to the Rally Zone Toss a "5" Every 5 firing stands send 1 target stand to the Rally Zone. Toss a "6" Every 6 firing stands send 1 target stand to the Rally Zone Note that with a low dice toss, a devastating British volley took place, and the target unit temporarily disappeared into the Rally Zone. Robin had dispersed his native units all over the field, and as my troops marched on, the natives dashed out to the attack. My leading unit was one of mounted lancers, acting as a reconnaissance unit; it was a wee bit understrength, consisting of 4 stands, and 6 native stands closed on it. In melee, we paired off the stands, tossing each stand's die, with the higher modified toss winning. The losing stand was set back and no longer participated in the combat, while the winning stand fought on. This continued until there were only stands from one unit left. Ordinarily, the die-tossing results were: Toss a "1" Opponent killed Toss a "2" Opposing stand placed in Rally Zone. Toss a "3,4,5,6" No effect If a side had an advantage, the table was modified: Toss a "1" Opponent killed Toss a "2" or "3" Opposing stand placed in Rally Zone. Toss a "4,5,6" No effect My lancers fought bravely, but they all ended up in the Rally Zone. The natives were given an advantage, having caught the lancers in march column, and so the natives used the second casualty table, while I used the first. This left me with two British infantry companies to continue my march up the Chamla Valley. Most of Robin's natives were still hidden. The ones that had been revealed kept up the attack, and my losses were mounting. Even my Gatling gun didn't help. About two bounds later, and Robin took pity one me. "Here," he said, "Here's a camel-mounted infantry unit to help out... it's a good thing they happened to be passing by." But reinforcements or not, the Pathans and Dervishes and the others were too numerous for the British to power through. End of my march through the Chalma Valley. We used the sequence found in the TSATF rules... a red card draw and the British move, a black card draw, and the natives move. After all the units on both sides were finished moving, the fire phase began... red card for a British fire, and a black card for the native fire. The phases ended when a joker was drawn. On one occasion, several native units attacked simultaneously. The end of the movement phase was signaled by the appearance of a joker. The fire phase began, and I was hoping for a series of red card draws, to pour it on the attacking troops. But the very next card draw was another joker, indicating that the firing phase had just come to an abrupt end! No fire! And what's a British force without its firing phase?... why, it's mince meat, that's what! All in all, a good game... lots of action, lots of movement, lots of surprises. I have to admit that I'm not really a fan of the red-card/black-card movement and fire sequence, but in this case, it worked out fine. Back to PW Review September 1998 Table of Contents Back to PW Review List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1998 Wally Simon 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