I'm looking at doing the Indian Mutiny but dont have the foggiest where to start... :-\
Can anyone recommend any good source material on the protagonists, uniforms, general info?
Is gaming the mutiny possible using PD ranges?
Sorry to be a bit vague - coming off the back of four consecutive night shifts... (:|
For a good background see Flashman, and Flashman and the Great Game. Uniforms cant help on, although basically the same as Crimea for the Royal troops. Most of my other sources are buried in the bookshelves so just general notes. battles of the Indian Mutiny in the Pan British Battles series (I'm at least the 3rd owner) is good for the battle histories.
IanS
There's several titles in the Osprey series directly concerning the Indian Mutiny and some that are partly usefull on the subject. If you want I can get you the titles?
I find the Osprey series usually good for starting into new periods especially on uniforms and equipments.
Though the official uniform for the period indeed was close to those worn at the start of the Crimean War the rigors of campaigning in the Indian climate made adjustments and ad-hoc changes quite frequent. Also the bulk of the troops were of course 'Indian' army and a lot of the ethnically 'Indian' regiments were partly equipped with outdated and/or obsolete weapons and uniforms as far as I know.
Cheers,
Rob
If you have a Kindle then for background reading
Our Soldiers Gallant Deeds of the British Army during Victoria's Reign [Kindle Edition] William Henry Giles Kingston
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0082YVM12/ref=pe_385721_48724741_TE_M1T1DP
A bit jingoistic, i think it was written before the Boer War, but the section on the IM covers most of the battles
Also The Last Mughal: The Fall of Delhi, 1857 [Kindle Edition] William Dalrymple
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Last-Mughal-Fall-Delhi-1857-ebook/dp/B00394UCMA/ref=la_B000API5E8_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1408373278&sr=1-1
Pretty good coverage of Delhi during the IM
As to any suitable Pendraken figures then provided you don't look to closely
- Afghans from the NWF range and maybe the turbaned ones from the 2nd Afghan War
- use the South American Pacific War as British
- maybe some Indians from the ancients range
- the Artillery from the Canadian Militia
However there are no proxies for Highlanders and the East India sepoys used on both side
In my opinion it is a bit tricky to do the IM with a standard set of rules. The Indians are a bit random and rarely worked together - see the attacks against the British camp on Delhi Ridge - one decent coordinated attack on the front and the flanks and that would have been the end of the siege. We have tried a couple of games where the players are all on the Brit side and the Indians are controlled by an umpire but it still needs a lot of tinkering
Alan