The latest edition of Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy features a scenario for The Men Who Would Be Kings on the North-West Frontier.
It is ‘The Battle of Saragarhi, 12 September 1897 – No fear of death’ by Eoghan Kelly.
https://www.karwansaraypublishers.com/wss-issue-117.html
Saragarhi is a famous last-stand of the Tirah campaign, when 21 Sikhs defended an isolated outpost against thousands of Afghan tribesmen.
With thoughts of playing a greater variety of wargames but with less investment in figures, time and storage space, I’ve come round to the notion of using paper miniatures. At the very least, they allow you to try out a game relatively quickly after reading it, to help you decide whether or not you want to pursue a project before it even begins.
I was rather delighted to see that an artist called Vyacheslav Batalov has released some magnificent paper miniatures for 19th century Central Asia on Wargame Vault. I have the two sets pictured above and they are beautifully illustrated. Vyacheslav has since released Afghan Tribesmen, Afghan Regulars and two sets of Indian Army figures – the first of which includes Gurkhas (set 1 and set 2).
Alternatively you can get hordes of paper miniatures for free from the Junior General website.
Maybe of interest to wargamers of the Indian subcontinent? Panipat is a new film about the Maratha/Afghan battle in the 18th century. Afghanistan fans will see Ahmad Shah Abdali (founder of the Durrani Empire) in action. The trailer even features zamburak camel-mounted swivel guns!
Oh my… What a work of art Pax Pamir is! Well worth the wait. It’s also suprisingly heavy. Probably because it’s packed to the gunnels with gaming goodness. Here’s some closeups of the coins which were a Kickstarter extra. I’m so glad I got these. They’ll definitely help create an atmosphere of intrigue.
Thanks to The Men Who Would Be Kings I’ve developed an insatiable fascination for the North-West Frontier. Recently I’ve been compulsively reading Khyber by Charles Miller and have been thoroughly captivated by the farce, tragedy and international intrigue of the Great Game. Khyber’s sub-title in the front pages of the book is “The Story of an Imperial Migraine”… says it all really! I got my copy of Khyber for £2.78 and I would happily have paid ten times that for the riveting read. If you’re looking for an entertaining traverse through the NWF then do pick it up.
Anyhoo as luck would have it, I stumbled across Pax Pamir on Kickstarter. It’s a boardgame I’d never heard of before, but it looks like it captures the spirit of the shenanigans of the Great Game in Afghanistan. If this sounds like your bag, you can find out more about it here: