Mad Dogs, Mughals & Marathas review Ian Cluskey casts his expert eye over this in-depth tome. Who could fail to be drawn to the saga of a crumbling, once-mighty Mughal Empire, that had long cast a tall shadow over the emerging European states, now gambling its economic and military resources to survive? The bold new upstarts were the Mahrattas - an emerging Hindu military caste from Maharashtra, the central-western area of India. They were horsemen, adept at raiding on a massive scale, and at their peak, they were capable of set-piece battles, disappearing to their inaccessible mountain fortresses when needed. Their great leader was Shivaji whose guile, intelligence, and resilience challenged and weakened the Mughal Empire to the point that it became incapable of standing against the growth of the East India Company, and of the emerging Sikh states in the Punjab. This is where Jon Sutherland’s first Indian Scenario book on the Mughal -Mahratta Wars jumps in. It provides a readymade resource for gamers who are drawn to the spectacle of warfare in India, but who lack the time to research it. There are 36 scenarios with introductions, full colour maps, orders of battle, objectives, and aftermaths for comparison. They vary in size from skirmishes like Wedding Crashers at Poona, which pits 40 figures against another 40, in groups of five or more, to much larger battles like Satara, 1690, which featured elephants, camel gunners, and, of course, really big cannons. The skirmishes provide insight into the guile, treachery, and audacity of the characters of the time while the larger battles showcase the spectacle of Rajput death rides, elephants, and fortresses. Certain groups of scenarios are designed to link into a small campaign, such as the actions around Vellore and Arcot, 1695-6. These groupings use larger contextual maps, and lend themselves to map movement to generate flexible tabletop clashes. The orders of battle are geared for Jon’s hugely entertaining Mad Dogs and Englishmen, War in India rules, with units of approximately ten figures. However, if you have an existing rule set you love, the larger battles will translate easily to any units with multiple figure bases. I use cavalry on large oval bases to represent a unit, and usually multiples of four infantry to a base (unless they are fanatic swordsmen or rabble) and these also end up on ovals. With my choices no problems of compatibility present themselves here. The smaller skirmishes will look better with single figures, but a base of four figures will play just as well as the groups of five mentioned. The smaller scenarios look so inviting, and I can see myself dismounting figures, and adding yet more for the joy of it all!
