North West Frontier - week 3, Action at Maidan

This weeks game saw a familiar theme with the British once again launching a punitive raid against the Pathans. In this case trying to destroy not capture some Pathan villages. The houses could be destroyed either by melee or artillery fire. Once again we did a small game (1 village) and a large game (2 villages and some sangers).

The small game (1 vs 1)

With only one village to attack the British deployment was pretty simple - the artillery set-up to hit the village and the infantry prepared to attack up the middle. The Pathans deployed all their shooters around the village with the fighters coming from the base edge.  

As the British moved-off the Pathans pushed forward some of their shooters so they could fire on the artillery. The British focused on movement which meant the artillery was routed in two turns, making it much harder to destroy the village. 

The British advanced into Pathan fire and were unable to prevent themselves being flanked on their left side. A couple of fierce Pathan charges from cover left them reeling back and the village unmolested. A tricky day for the Imperial forcers with all units routed. So a Pathan Win.   

The Large Game (2 vs 3)

A larger table meant more choices for attacker and defender. The Pathans put most of their shooters in the defences and split their Russian allies between the two villages. This left their fighters and some shooters to reinforce the position.    

 

Western village

Sangers

Eastern village

The British put 1/3 of their infantry and both their guns against the western village looking to bombard that into submission. The balance of the infantry and a single cavalry unit deployed to attack the eastern village with only a small screen opposite the centre. 

 

The initial attacks from the British went well with heavy damage to the western village and damage to the defenders in the eastern one. In both cases the defending artillery was quickly eliminated by the Brits. In response the Pathans put most of the fighters around the side of the eastern village hoping to out flank the British.    

Eastern village

The midgame was more tricky for the British. In the east they needed to relocate their guns to seek new targets but a mixture of threats from the Pathans and poor activation led to several crucial turns of inactivity. In the east the Pathans manage to work around the flanks and launch a series of attacks that pushed the Imperial forces back onto the defensive.  

 

Western village

Eastern village

The British eventually got their artillery deployed and tried to move forces to attack the weakly defended sangers position on a hill between the two villages. The attack quickly bogged down as the Russians in the western village hit the advancing Brits with fire.    

Western village

The game ended with the Brits having mostly destroyed one village but for the loss of 3 units and so it was a Pathan Win.  The scenario scoring meant though that if they has been able to completely destroy the village and take out one of the sangers (without losing any additional units) they would have won narrowly.