This scenario is primarily based around the action at Lucknow in 1857, part of the Indian Rebellion against the East India Company, but it could equally be adapted to several other sieges in the colonial period.
BACKGROUND TO LUCKNOW
The British possessions in India were controlled by the East India Company. Militarily, there were some 300,000 indigenous Sepoys from various provinces and some 50,000 British soldiers.
The Indian Rebellion of 1857 sparked an uprising in several provinces against British rule. Some of the causes lay in over-taxation and the imposition of British social reforms on Indian society. One of the main causes was a rumour that the paper cartridge ammunition of the new 1857 Enfield Pattern rifled musket contained both pork and beef fat, simultaneously offending both Muslims and Hindus. Further rumours claimed it was deliberate, to convert Sepoys to Christianity. Unrest escalated into open revolt, with some Sepoy units mutinying and many others joining. The rebellion was
