Biweekly Battlecry or Dying bravely for Queen and Country

Somewhere near the Nile a thin red line braces itself for the Mahdist onslaught.
All figures and terrain by Ron.

This week's game was Reinforcements On Table from Scenarios for Wargamers. This week we played along instead of across the grain. It wasn't until I looked for a "tactical hex" (ie one on the divider line which can be either at will) to place one of my guns on that I remembered that when playing this way, there are no tactical hexes. The evil demon that has been dogging me this month whispered in my ear and I placed the gun in a good position near the road without any thought to sectors. Ooops.  It can be hard to predict what cards will be drawn but it usually pays to assign more than 1 unit per sector if possible so that they can support each other and so that a run of cards can be used as well as possible. I had a run all right, a run of right sector cards having between 2 and 4 in my hand all game but only 1 unit to use them!   Each time I did use one, I got another one back!

Take back the gun men!

Initially the British inflicted some hits driving back several units which later rallied. Then a Mahdist assault took the left hand gun. A counter attack retook it but then was over whelmed. At this point three things were going wrong for my Brits, they were missing easy targets, the Mahdists were hitting with almost every die and my hand was loaded with cards that didn't allow me to bring up reinforcements or use any of my troops in the center where I was being attacked!   If I had deployed the gun 1 hex to the right it and the right hand infantry unit could have supported each other and at least have done some damage.

The Mahdist Cavalry attacks as reinforcements finally come up

As usually happens with the Battlecry family, things turned around and the Mahdists had a few quiet turns while I finally manged to get my boys moving.  Then the Mahdist cavalry swept around my flank leading to a long ultimately indecisive melee. The Rifle Brigade finally arrived and put paid to the Camelry, apart from their leader who will reappear. Unfortunately their ammo ran out and they decamped, just when things were stabilizing!

 As more British infantry approached the ridge line, the Mahdists dug in and started bringing up more troops. The Camel Jockey leader without a name circled around, picked up  a unit of spearmen and headed back into the fray in the center. Nearly cut off, he was forced to retreat then worked around to my right flank.

We had decided to play once through the deck and then play out our hands unless once side broke. As the game wound down I managed to get one unit back up on the hill, in position to earn a draw. Alas the Mahdist gun which had finally managed to work its way up onto the ridge fired with devastating effect followed by a charge by the Camelleer which wiped out my unit. I reached my break point and was evicted from the hill as the last card was played. Argghhhhh!  Not again! What will the papers say?

The Black Flag waves in triumph from the hilltop.