On the North West Frontier....Part 3

It has been a grim week so far. Not in a health way - everybody is hale and hearty in that respect - but on the job front. My contract is up tomorrow and thus far I have nothing else lined up. It is not the end of the world but sadly having to deal with agencies, make a thousand phone calls, send untold numbers of emails and worse of all, listen to the same old drivel over and over again from the aforementioned  agencies! It is soul destroying and so I have been more than a little tetchy as a result.

Still, by way of light relief I thought I would share the details of what has thus far been acquired for the 54mm project. The cornerstone of the collection is the fort.

Fort Kandahar with a few reinforcements

The fort comes in a set with 20 each of British, Indian and Afghan infantry and by way of a bonus my set actually contained 25 Afghans and 24 Indians! In addition I have three extra boxes of each of the infantry sets; two each of Afghan and Indian cavalry and two boxes of British artillery. The infantry have 20 figures per box whilst the cavalry have 5. The artillery sets contain a gun and 5 gunners.

My plan is to organise the infantry into companies of 16 figures and an officer, the cavalry will be in squadrons of 8 with an officer and a gun battery will have two guns and 8 gunners plus an officer. Gamers of a certain age will probably recognise the organisation as being based on that used in Charge! Initially there will be four companies (the Afghans will be organised similarly) per side with the Imperial force having two companies each of Indian and British infantry. For the size of playing area I have (soon to be expanded to 6ft by 4ft) the set up I am planning will fit quite comfortably. There will be some spares earmarked for future use and the inevitable conversions for personalities etc.

I was also pleased to note that you are able to fit four infantry, two mounted or a gun and crew on a single Hexon tile so this opens up lots of possibilities in respect of rules - I am thinking various permutations of Command and Colours for a start, with a dash of MoB. The possibility of using a Victorian version of Charge! (which if I remember correctly are in the files section of the Old School Wargames Yahoo group) is also one to ponder but first of all, I need to plan the painting.

I am undecided as to the approach to adopt in respect of painting - currently I considering either an 'old toy soldier' style or flat colours with a an Army Painter dip. What I will do is to paint up one of each and see which looks better before taking the plunge. The Afghans will be painted first simply because they will be more varied in respect of clothing colours and so will be more fun to do, pure and simple!

A further cause for celebration arrived this morning courtesy of Ebay. The following two books have been added to the library and both are welcome, and in the case of one in particular, timely arrivals.

Happiness is a new, or nearly new book!

The Malakand Field Force by Winston Churchill (ISBN 0850522609) is the story of the Pathan Revolt in 1897 and is one of my favourite books. I have an electronic copy of this on my reader but not a 'proper' version so this was very welcome. I also landed a copy of Byron Farwell's The Great War in Africa (ISBN 0670802441) which covers operations both in East and West Africa during World War One. East Africa during WW1 is a fascinating theatre of operations and has lots of potential for campaigns and certainly the exploits of Paul Von Lettow-Vorbeck formed one of the sources of inspiration for the famous Madasahatta campaign organised by Eric Knowles.

So aside from the ongoing job dramas things have not been too bad on the ongoing projects front!