Strategy & Tactics issue no. 224

Game Title: Variants for Previously Published S&T Games

Date of Publication: September 2004

Decision Games, PO Box 21598, Bakersfield, CA 93390

Decision Games hereby grants permission for its customers to download and/or print copies of this file for their personal use. Discussion folders for this game are located on Consimworld.com's discussion board.

S&T MAGAZINE GAME VARIANTS
by Joseph Miranda

FIRST AFGHAN WAR VARIANT (S&T 179)
Scenario 2: Rebellion & Retribution Additional Forces
(1) Wild’s Brigade: the British player places the “Wild” HQ and 30, 53, 60 and 64 regiments on Peshawar as part of initial deployment. However, if the event “Rescue Mission Dispatched” occurs, the British receive three (not seven) Bengal/Bombay infantry regiments. 
(2) Bamian Garrison: place the Pottinger HQ and the Shah Shujah Gurkha regiment on Bamian instead of Kabul. The Shah Shujah 5th Regiment is placed in Kabul. 
(3) The British Cantonment Marker. This marker is initially placed on hex 0611. The cantonment counts as an entrenchment for defense and a town for supply. It is eliminated if at any time there are no British or British allied units in the hex.
(4) Army of Kabul: the British/Bengal/Bombay units listed as being “at Kabul” are placed in the Cantonment hex during initial deployment instead (Elphinstone, etc.). Shah Shujah Division units are placed in Kabul normally. Additionally, these British/Bengal/Bombay units begin the game demoralized. 
(5) Victory Points: the Afghan player receives three victory points at the end of any British turn that there are one or more British/Bengal/Bombay units located in Kabul (that’s three points regardless of the number of units). This does not apply to Shah Shujah, Prince Timur and mercenary units.
Variant Scenario Notes:
	Brig. Wild was in charge of some units in the vicinity of Peshawar when news of the Afghan rebellion broke. Quickly responding, Wild and his men quickly marched into Afghanistan but were held up by enemy resistance as well as a lack of support. While Wild failed to link up with the withdrawing Kabul garrison, his mad dash across the frontier still has to go down as one of the more remarkable accomplishments of military history, being one of the few times that the Khyber Pass was forced against resistance—and this in the midst of winter. 
	Bamian was actually held by the Gurkhas under command of Eldred Pottinger, one of the more remarkable political agents of the era (he had previously held the city of Herat against a Persian-Russian siege). Pottinger and a handful of the garrison escaped Bamian following a ferocious Afghan assault.
	The British Army at Kabul, along with families and camp followers, actually were encamped outside the walls in the “cantonment.” For political reasons, the British command had decided not to set up shop within the city of Kabul itself. The initial demoralization of these forces represents the abysmal leadership of the army there, which precipitated the disastrous Retreat from Kabul. In game terms, it was a British Attrition random event applied against them.