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TSATF rules coverThe Sword & The Flame is probably the most popular set of colonial wargaming rules ever published. The rules are easy to grasp, play fast, are highly suitable for large group games, and most important of all, are a lot of fun. Using units of 20 infantry, 12 cavalry, or sections of one gun, each player can command a fairly large force as the movement, firing, and melee systems are well designed for ease of use. You can also purchase specific action and event decks for the period through The Virtual Armchair General that greatly add to the games.

28mm Northwest Frontier

 

Skirmish Warfare in 19th C. Afghanistan

Victorian Colonial skirmish actions have long been a favorite of our club's members, going back well over three decades now. When the switch to the larger 28mm figures was well under way in the hobby, we got rid of our large collection of 25mm Ral Partha Sudan figures and moved to a different part of the world, namely the Northwest Frontier in the late 1880s to satisfy our need for colonial skirmishing. The NWF offers a wide variety of scenario possibilities, ranging from large, set piece battles to raids and reprisals. Large British and Indian forces fought numerous wars against a collection of Pathans and frontier tribesman for well over a century. The terrain was as varied as the many actions that were fought there, from river valleys to treacherous mountain passes. With units of Highlanders, mountain gun batteries, Gurkhas, Bengal Lancers, and more, it is a colorful and unique period. We decided to forge ahead in the 1880-1898 era, as there were a large number of actions fought during that time with most figure ranges catering for that time period in 28mm. At this time we are still expanding our forces and terrain as well as looking forward to running a campaign or two for this exciting period. Our goal is to get somewhere around 500 Pathans for some really large battles, plus all of the accompanying British-Indian units that saw service on the NWF. There are several very good figure ranges in this scale, so we are slowly and surely adding a unit to the overall collection every now and again. We also need to develop more rocky areas, an Afghan watch tower, expand our tribal villages, and create some mountain passes for future scenarios.

Resources

Although difficult to come by, this is an outstanding book on the NWF, covering the early British actions in the 18th century all the way to the early 1930s.

Churchill served on the NWF and this is an interesting account of one of the major campaigns of that era. Often packaged with the excellent The River War about his experiences in the final Sudan campaign in 1898.

One of the better Osprey books for the Colonial period with a good selection of uniform plates and campaign information.