Camel rockets! Battle of Laswari (1803), BBB AAR

I had a new experience on Monday. Never before had I commanded an army that included camel-mounted rockets. The contingent in question was the Maratha army at the battle of Laswari or Laswaree (1803) during the Second Anglo-Maratha War.

This game was the latest in Mark's growing collection of BBB scenarios set in India. What these battles generally have in common is very asymmetric armies; low troop densities (few troops, big table); fairly open terrain; and limited firepower ranges. All these factors combine to generate games with loads of manoeuvre and bags of flavour. The wars in India are mostly unknown territory to me, so I am learning a lot at the same time as having tasty wargaming fun.

 

Looking west across the Laswari battlefield 

Our Laswari game was notable in that rarely have I seen an opponent's dice so cursed and mine so blessed. Mark's sweeping cavalry manoeuvre was hamstrung by an endless series of duff rolls. His firing dice were consistently one short of what he needed to have an effect. Mine were consistently just the number required, including killing off a couple of his cavalry units very early on. Mark's last roll of the game, to try to motivate a British infantry unit that had done nothing all game because of poor movement rolls and get it to charge an objective, was snake-eyes. My last two rolls of the game, which stopped British units charging in on objectives, were 10 and, to finish off, 12. Summed it up really.

 

Killer dice! My last roll of the game repels a futile cavalry charge.

Capricious dice gods aside, this was a thoroughly enjoyable game with some unusual features. We did agree that the Marathas probably ought to be made Passive, to make it harder for them to redeploy (especially their formidable artillery, which began the battle chained together as defence against British cavalry), but otherwise it seemed spot on.

===

On Tuesday night I got in a bonus game, this time of Colin's WWII air combat rules. His Bf-109s and FW-190s took down 9 of my 24 B-17s as they straggled homeward. The game rocked along and was certainly swift and bloody. However I have some qualms about the firepower equation so we're working on a revised version. Expect a report on the next iteration in some future blog post, no doubt.

===

Leaving aside the air battle since that didn't have any victory conditions, my tally for the new year has therefore begun:

Played: 1
Won: 1
Drawn: 0
Lost: 0