A New Year, an Old Battlefield

 Recycle, reuse, right?

I'm all set to try out the same scenario in a different setting: A Gentleman's War in the French Revolution.

But first, I replayed the Zulu game. It seemed to me that my last minute reversion to the old Square Brigadier play sequence had been a mistake. So I brought back my Model Major General sequence with a shared fire phase and played it again. It worked like a charm.

2nd to last turn.

This time the game lasted the full 15 turns and victory or defeat came down to the last die roll. The Zulus had over run the wagon laager and the Brits were down to 1 company of sailors, 1 hit away from extinction. The third wave of Zulus was just crossing the river but the Zulus still had one unit in melee. They scored the necessary hit but Col Hill once again stepped forward to steady them. (5,6 =cancel 1 hit, 1=leader wounded.) This time it worked. 

Damn close run thing! Maybe he will get that medal!

Prologue: Rider from the Column!

South Africa: January 1879. 

In response to a British ultimatum, the Zulu King, Cetshwayo, has ordered his armies to mobilize for war!

Traditional opening dance scene.

A small British garrison from the 58th Foot has been posted at a border trading post to guard the ford and assist convoys hauling supplies to the front. One such convoy is currently laagered on a hill overlooking the river along with its escort of two companies of the 92nd and a Naval landing party.

"Sir! Messenger from the column, riding hard!"

Shortly before midday, a rider is seen approaching at a gallop, hotly pursued by Zulu warriors. What can it mean? Better safe than sorry, the order is given: "STAND TO!!"

.......................................

Last Stand: Scen#30 from One Hour Wargames.
Each 1 foot square on Thomas' map has become a block
of 4x4 hexes on the left and right, or a 4x5 block in the center
 and the compass revolved 180 degrees so that the hill is to the south. 

 

Preparing for the end

 Of the year!  One last game to be played.

It was time to choose what to pick for my traditional Last Game of the Year. A quick review showed that of my 12 Active and Reserve collections, only one has not yet made an appearance on the table this year. OK, that part was quick but somehow I ended up enjoying 2 hours reading posts from the last decade. Anyway, the period, forces and scenario have been chosen. In the process I was reminded that the commander for one side had been transferred to another theatre of operations and had not yet been replaced. 

Oh bleep, I meant to replace the miscast horse ears and reins before priming. Oh well, there will be time tomorrow to do that and paint him up. .

A dig through the boxes of raw castings and spare parts soon turned up a candidate and a suitable head. Tuesday I'll paint him and maybe base up a few more of the enemy then set the table for a Thursday game.

Zulu's? No mostly I won.

Every time I get the old Britains' out, I seem to get the urge to paint more of them and to play another game. It occurred to me that by expanding the One Hour game to full table size and using double the number of units to maintain the ratio of unit foot print to battlefield, I was robbing myself of the opportunity to have a simple, clear, distinction between really quick, simple  OHW scenarios with  a handful of units  in a corner of the table and longer, more complex Grant Teasers with larger forces on the full table, all while drawing from the same armies with the same campaign background. By adopting a scale of 1 square per 4" on the OHW table instead of 3" as in the previous game, I could use a 1:1 ratio of units equating to the smaller 4" frontage suggested by Thomas for his scenarios.

I reset the table using 81 squares instead of the previous 144.

"Zulus sir! Dozens of them!"

 Since only my Zulu War units are set up for my planned 6 figure infantry units, and haven't been out in over a year, I decided to go to South Africa.

The shrunken layout with hippo instead of a cat.

 Once I got the troops out I remembered that I hadn't gotten around to adding spearmen and the like to the Tin Army and decided that I was over due for a Portable Wargame anyway.

One unit of Lancers tried to deal with 3 Zulu units but they zoomed past them and bounced them and, well, I think they did manage to stick one Zulu in 5 rounds of melee before they were surrounded and cut down.

The line gets pushed back but thank heavens there was a Taboo preventing the Zulus going into the woods. The British are also grateful that for 4 turns the Colonel single handily held off 2 units of Zulus in hand to hand combat after the Naval Brigade was cut down. 

Turn 15 of 15.  A desperate, last half of the last turn  British counter attack got the Rutlandshires to with 6" of the road thus earning a technical but cheesy win.

As usual,  the Portable Wargame  served well and the game came out at roughly an hour so the whole thing can be considered a success.

Now I want to play a full Grant game but I need to get back to bringing the armies up to scratch since a few of the existing units are short a few figures  or are temporarily mounted on slightly wider bases which won't allow 6 figures in a 5" square and I need to add a few more units to both Canadian and American armies.

We have work to do!

The Published Portable Wargame Pt 3a: Zulu!

I enjoyed the first Zulu play test but I also spent some time last night and this morning thinking about the game and about different game options and the old question "More units or bigger ones?". The upshot is that I reset the table this morning and played it again using different options.

Zulu: The Rerun. 

A. The Scenario. The Scenario I used as a test game was Scenario 13:Escape from Thomas' One Hour Wargames. The scenario has two equal forces each of 6 units, one side trying to break past a blocking force to escape from the table before doom arrives, presumably due to an overwhelming enemy force approaching or perhaps the need to catch the last ferry. In any event the escaping force has 15 turns to get at least 1/2 their units off the table by road.

The blocking force has 1 unit deployed on table and 3 groups of reinforcements that come on at predefined turns in predefined locations. I decided to play with a British force trying to return to the main column before it gets cut off and overwhelmed by pursuing Zulus. I also decided to count all units as equal for scenario balance purposes. I introduced one house rule that Zulus with firearms only hit on a modified score of 6. This was to reflect their lack of quality firearms and ammunition and their lack of training.

B. The First Game: Sudden Death or Small Units/Big Board.  I wanted to try the Sudden Death option but wasn't sure that 6 units aside would be enough as a few bad rolls could be decisive early on. I decided to double the number of units. Since I had only based up a dozen stands of Zulus, I decided to use each stand as a unit and a 12x12 grid of 3" squares.

Game One Turn Three. The British were still marching on when the first Zulu flanking force arrived. Each stand is a unit and the big 6" squares have been divided into four 3" quadrants by a small dot or cross.

The game started well as the British pushed ahead as rapidly as possible against minimal opposition. That soon changed as Zulu reinforcements appeared first on one side then the other. (The Horns!)  Soon the British found themselves with no room to retreat if hit. Under the Sudden Death option it only takes 1 hit to destroy a unit so if there is no room to fall back, any hit is lethal. The Zulus on the other hand, had plenty of room to fall back but since stationary British are more deadly shooting than they are in melee that didn't help as much as it might have.

By turn 7 out of 15 both sides were reaching their exhaustion point and the British hadn't even crossed the center line. It was close but the dice determined that the British would falter first. They had one hope left, there were few Zulus between them and escape, most were behind. If they could shoot one more Zulu unit then they had time to use their artillery to clear the way and then escape up the empty road. The last Zulu reinforcement had just arrived behind the centre (the Loins!) and there was no real choice but to roll a double move, charge into contact with the gun and eliminate it. So they did! Now the Zulus could fall back out of range and wait.  It was game over.

Midgame c Turn 5. The British are about to start feeling the pinch as units are forced to retreat and start colliding.

The game had moved as quickly as expected, taking just under an hour to play. There was a little added tension as each die roll meant the potential elimination of an enemy but also resilience because of the numbers of units. The scenario set up with enemy appearing on three sides made it hard for the British to keep a space available for retreating from combat and the hope of a quick kill led to firing at the halt too often when there was room to manoeuvre. With hindsight it seemed to me that the British General  needed to have been more aggressive at pushing ahead and out, despite the loss of the stationary shooting bonus .

Given the quick pace and short time it seemed like a suitable game for introducing someone to the rules but the more I thought about it the more the low margin of error worried me. The look also wasn't quite right., a little too crowded. I finally decided to try it with 6 units each of 2 stands on a bigger grid but using the standard system with multiple strength points. The table should have been a 9x9 grid of 6" squares to meet the minimum requirement and allow the map to be reproduced properly but my table is only 4 feet across so I went for an area of 4ft x 4ft giving a minimum sized grid of 8x8 6" squares and fudged the map.  Why didn't I go for 8x9 allowing the width at least to fit the map? It didn't occur to me till right now!

However it is late and there is a blizzard blowing in so that is it for tonight. Part 2 will cover the slightly longer and enjoyable "big but portable" wargame version of the same scenario as seen in the top picture and the pros and cons of each approach.

Zulu Preview

Just a quick peek mid-game. The OHW scenario is called "Escape".

The question is "Did they"?

Write up tomorrow if all goes well.

Zulu Noon or A Playtester's Work is Never Done.

Compulsory  opening shot of  Zulu ceremonial dance involving  bare chested Zulu girl.

After the NW Rebellion game I was content with how the irregular riflemen were working (I need a better game term, sharpshooters isn't quite right, just simple.)  but the rules for spearmen hadn't been tested at all. It so happened that my eyes fell on the Zulu shelf and I thought, why not?  Some of the changes done on Sunday were as a result of some quick partial tests that showed that 2 units of Zulus could over run 1 unit of British pretty much every time, even if the Brits were defending a lager. Only if the dice were bad did it take 2 turns. So, a movement penalty for attacking was added meaning a charge would have to start within rifle range thus allowing at least 1 shot for the defender in open ground. I also allowed tried letting the British roll against each attacking unit. That seemed to work but I was uneasy. Only a game would see if there was reason.

Overview at the end of Turn 1.

I wanted something quick and not too big but not exactly the same. Some quick shuffling resulted in a wagon laager on a hill defended by a Colonel, a field gun and 4 companies of infantry with superior firepower against a Zulu Impi composed of a  General and four ibutho each with an Induna commander and 4 units one of which had rifles for a total of 12 units and 4 leaders vs the British 5 and 1. The wagon laager was deemed to be cover vs shooting and an obstacle in melee. The Zulu mission was to eliminate the British. The British mission was to defend to the last and they were immune to army morale.

The Left Horn probes and is repulsed.

 The game opened with the Zulu horns working around the British position covered by a smatter of ineffective shooting. Once they had moved in the open into charge range, Left Horn rolled a 1  for orders while the General rolled 3 allowing 2 instead of 4 units to charge in on the Gordon Highlanders who handily repulsed them.

The Right Horn makes a more committed attack and is repulsed more bloodily.

While the left horn fell back to rally covered by its snipers, the right horn charged in on the Victoria Rifles and were repulsed after causing a few casualties. Rallying was proving ineffective so the Old Man threw the Loins into the battle as well as sending both Horns back in with what they had left. 

They've broken in!

 The artillery and rifle fire managed to drive back part of the attack but not enough. Attacked on 2 sides at once  while the left worked around to the now unguarded rear, things were tense. The heaviest assault fell on the gun crew and despite inflicting grievous harm as the enemy closed, the last gunner was forced to flee into the square pursued by Zulu warriors. On the British turn  as reinforcements rushed across to fill gaps and the men faced back to back the battle continued. It was a bad time for the British across the table to roll a single 5 or 6 on something like 12 dice. On the next Zulu turn the Guards and Rifles were wiped out. As the Zulus closed in from 4 sides on the last remaining Ghurkas and Highlanders, I was tempted to close my eyes. Good thing I didn't or I'd have missed the swing in dice which resulted in 2 hits from the mass of Zulus, 1 canceled by Col Beaver, vs about 5 from not very many British dice.

"Not as many of them as there were before". "Nor of us sir!"
(Yes I know, wrong movie but that's what it felt like.)

Pheww!  OK I hadn't pictured a situation where 3 British units in 2 squares  fought 5 Zulu units in 4 squares, there were ALOT of dice flying around! It was fun and exciting but too much. I went back to 1 die per figure period rather than 1 vs each enemy but reduced the number of dice a 2nd unit gets. I'll have to play the scenario over but I think I can handle that. The 10 turn game took about maybe an hour to play.

Assault on Kinch's Drift (Pt 3) The 1st Wave

The Brown Shields move rapidly to surround the post while the Black Shields move up the middle from their position in reserve. Most of the White Shields have either "gone to ground" behind whatever cover they can find or are lying wounded on the field.  

Once the witch doctors had rattled the bones and determined the appropriate sacred deployment of the Prince's army, the battle progressed quickly. The long range fire from the relatively large number of  Nku Khu firearms was no more effective than could be expected but every now and then a shot got through and the slow drain on the Scots was soon getting worrisome. 

The first charge provided a tense moment as it looked like the center section of Highlanders was going to be defeated and forced to retreat leaving a hole (they took 1 hit and inflicted none)  even though the White Shields as a whole were also defeated having taken 3 hits and only inflicted 1. Luckily Lt. Caine had joined them and came through. The White Shields fell back behind their skirmishers but had trouble rallying until they voluntarily pulled back out of sight of the British. Their poor riflemen tried to keep up the fight but were unable to rally and were eventually eliminated one after another. The Scots, with 3 hits now, also had trouble rallying despite the Pipes and MacDuff was forced to pull them back to a safe spot and bring across fresh troops from the other side. 

The Brown Shields moved around and charged the far wall which had been left momentarily undefended but the Scots got a section their just in time. A devastating volley was followed by some equally devastating  melee dice against an almost complete whiff and the Brown Shields drew back to the board edge to rally. They should probably have gone farther but rallied well. The next volley brought down their leader and they milled in confusion long enough to be almost completely destroyed by rifle fire. 

That left the Black Shields. They moved up the middle and renewed their attack on the wall. Led by their Chief they rushed in and inflicted 3 hits on the poor replacement section. It must have been a weak spot in the wall! These had already been hit by fire and were removed. The first British stand loss of the day. The over all result was a tie though so the Black Shields fell back an inch, ready to renew the fight on the next turn. Before they got a chance to do so, MacDuff brought the Volunteers across at a run and a rapid and effective fire reduced the Black Shields by a stand bringing the Nku Khu Army morale to 0. The first wave was repulsed. 

The QM is keeping track of ammo issued from his stores to the garrison. 

Black Watch are recast Britain's (+ 1 of my original toys). Officers,piper, drummer and volunteers are from Reb castings molds. I forget who made the QM. Maybe Tradition but i have a feeling he was from one of the smaller companies, Little Legion maybe? or Imperial? ) 

The defenders only lost 1 of their 7 stands but 2 others had been nip and tuck with 3 hits and only poor shooting ability and good rallying during a brief respite saved them. If they had lost 3 stands, I doubt that they would have had any chance of repulsing the 2nd wave. As it is, the game is still in the air. 

The rules worked well despite the low level of the game. It was fast paced with just enough to do and some tension at several points. Having the figures as singles rather than based was neither here nor there though I did catch myself occasionally thinking that having 1/3rd the number of bases of Nku Khu to move might be nice although that would have to be balanced against the ease and fun of knocking them over. It was nice being able to play a game without thinking, "I need a 100 more Zulus".... MacDuff is actually a little worried about all this. 

The only down side is that I am now wondering why I want to do 40mm native spearmen when I already have these? Needs some thought but the time might be better spent refurbishing the old Britain's including some Brits in helmets and adding some more Nku Khu based on my one original Britain's Zulu, fixing the bases, painting up some NKMP and so forth so  that it is already to go when I get a Colonial itch.  

An overview of the end of the first wave. the White Shields have rallied in cover and despite heavy losses were working their way around to a weak spot when the command came to retire.

Alas, the British relief force is approaching and the Nku Khu have been forced to call off the attack.

(or in other words, George called to see if I was up to host a game tomorrow so I need to reset the table and come up with a good scenario with some maneuver options for both sides. But do I go with 20mm ACW again or 40mm Atlantica? George isn't keen on cavalry so maybe I'll go for the latter heh heh heh.) 

      

Kinch's Drift Pt2 Setting the Scene

The White Shields, forming the left horn of the army, launch a probing attack on the walls. (The regimental name sounds much more impressive in the Nku Khu tongue but I'm not fluent in it.) 

Lacking any reference to the defense of Kinch's Drift by the Black Watch, I turned to Rorke's Drift for inspiration. The garrison there was around 150 men. Taking that and the rough size of the post, I decided to use 1"=10 yards as the scale for this game. My 40mm figures are on bases 2" wide or potentially 3" wide  for irregular light infantry and cavalry.  Since my 54's were/are mounted with a 1" frontage this works rather well. So the Brits have 2 figures on a 2" frontage representing some 20 men in a single rank while each 3" base of natives  represents some 100 men in several ranks. Due to a shortage of figures as much as anything else, the Nku Khu stands are also 1 rank deep of actual figures.

I figured there was no reason knocking my self out to make the layouts the same so stuck a thatched hut in the middle of the table, added some stone kraals and a wagon, an out building, hill and some shrubbery, plus of course the irrelevant  river and called it that.

My CTA 24th Foot was long gone but I do have some Highlanders, old Britain's Gordon's iir in pith helmet but only 5 or 6 and their paint has suffered badly in the 80 or so years since they were first played with and I have been reluctant to refurbish them. I will though, and add to them!  The 93rd was next on my list since they are in firing positions, suitable for defending walls but then I realized that 24 spelled backwards is 42 so the Black Watch is now vigorously charging the walls from the inside.

After some pondering, given the small area and the need not to have 1 bad die roll spoil the whole thing, I decided to treat each stand as a unit with the whole garrison being treated as a Brigade.  There was also talking of setting up a field hospital but the stretcher bearers and nurse were buried in a box at the bottom of the cupboard while a piper and drummer were close at hand and the same effect under the rules. An officer on foot, the company commander, Lt. Caine is being treated as the brigadier while Colonel Hector MacDuff with his trusty sidekick Cu Mhor seemed worthy of the attributes of a Officer Commanding or General. All infantry are stubborn (4 hits per stand) and armed with breechloading rifles with an effective range of 40". The walls count as cover, the building as a fortification. (forgot, there are 6 stands of Highlanders plus 1 of local volunteers - the latter since they were at hand but I had already buried the remaining highlanders back in the closet).

Once I got the Nku Khu out of their box and sorted into their regiments, incorporated the New Britains' who were acquired after the hey day of the NkuKhu wars, and re-allocated the now shieldless figures who were resisting glue anyway, I ended up with 22 stands arranged as follows: OB:

• General: Prince Kwanabee
• White Shields: Brigadier, 2 units @ 2 stands of riflemen, 1 unit @ 4 stands of spearmen. 
• Brown Shields: As above
• Black Shields: As above but only 1 unit of riflemen. 

All are irregular light infantry. I was going to treat the fire arms are inferior muzzleloading rifles but I seem to have removed that option so decided to just call them muskets. This does make it somewhat impossible to shoot down from the hill so I may just surreptiously slip the words "or inferior" in after the words "or firer is mounted". Since the stands can take 3 hits and there are 3 single figures representing each, I'll mark hits by knocking over figures unlike the Brits who will use the little dice.

Each Nku Khu "brigade" rolled to see what turn they arrived and at one point on the table edge. Once the army is reached, the table will be cleared and the next wave brought on if my morale holds.  The Brits are immune to army morale and will fight to the last man. If they beat 1 wave, it is a draw, if they beat 2 it is a winning draw, if they beat 3 then it is a victory and the Nku Khu will salute them and go away.

   Turn 3, The first charge goes in.

STAND TO!

Nkh Khu Land, Dawn on the Ninth of March, 1872,  

The Supply Depot at Kinch's Drift garrisoned by B company 42nd Foot.

As the strains of "Hey Johnny Cope" fill the air, the voice of the Sergeant Major can be heard "STAHNNND TAE!" 

Down by the river, a Hippo answers.

_________________________________________________________________________________
OK, ok, Relax. This isn't actually 3rd rate ripoff of General Pettygree. Its just been a long week with more than enough non-hobby distractions but the house appraiser has been and gone, the results won't be in to the Credit Union till next week and its time to relax.

As I have mentioned, I want to do a bit of Colonial gaming in North Atlantica, but I don't have enough native Atlantican forces painted up yet. Now, there are many things that Hearts of Tin is NOT designed for. Fighting detailed very small colonial actions like, perhaps, an attack by "natives" against a garrison at some post named after some Irish fellow, is an example of such a thing. However....... as luck (or good planning) would have it, I may not have my 40mm Atlanticans ready but I still have my 54mm Nku Khu (standard or small 54mm not the new BIG brutes) and some old Britain's including the 42nd Foot. (24th? 42nd? Never been very good with numbers. )

_________________________________________________________________________________

 Meanwhile, back at Kinch's Drift.
From behind the Stactpyne Hills comes the sound of drums.....

MacDuff To The Rescue

Since the table was set up and with one of the original periods that With MacDuff To The Frontier was written for, and I was working on the 2010 revision, I decided to reset the scenario and try them out. Some of the units were a little small, especially the cavalry, but I decided to work with the units as is.

The game started out in similar fashion with Top Hat and his rebels sniping at long range while the convoy trudged forward. Col. MacDuff deployed B company of the Black Watch to return fire while A company pushed across the river and deployed. One of the first figures to fall was MacDuff himself, grazed by a bullet (6 to hit, 6 to hit an officer, 6 again to hit the senior office present!). By turn 3, Prince Kwannabe and the main body of Nku Khu warriors arrived and moved to the edge of the rough ground on the hill and started to work their way through the cover towards the wagons. Captain Britain of the 11th Hussars, responding to orders to advance and protect the flank of the cavalry, spotted the warriors and being too far to request clarification, decided that his duty was to engage the enemy  (i.e. he was beyond control range and rolled 6 on the control chart). The 1st troops drew their sabers and charged but the enemy was thicker in the bush than suspected and the rough ground disrupted the charge. Badly mauled, they fell back behind the 2nd troop.  

   Despite orders to hold their ground, the victorious warriors swarmed after the cavalry and were met by the 2nd troop.  Unable to work up sufficient impetus (that's their story) the Hussars were swamped by stabbing shouting warriors and broke to the rear. Without orders, both companies of Highlanders stood and fired on the elusive enemy, Captain Fraser went down then private after private until at last Sergeant Herald pulled the remnants back (were broken technically) as Top Hat urged his men to constantly close the range. Given a brief respite, the sergeant pulled the men together and then to his great relief, the stunned Colonel awoke and with his head bandaged, resumed command. (MacDuff and 2 privates rallied)

By now,  the Nkh Khu flanking force had arrived and were creeping up the hill, later than expected but welcome. Rapidly Brigadier Steele deployed first the Victoria rifles and then the New Durban volunteers to hold them off. Behind them, the remnants of the cavalry fell back covered by the fire of the Black Watch. Sensing that an opportunity was slipping away, Kwannabe ordered his warriors forward but the disciplined fire of A company broke the right hand band while the lancers, supported by the light artillery, drove back the center.

As the light started to fade, the head of the convoy neared the edge of the table. One chance remained, the flanking force surged across the ford, Black Shields leading and crashed into the Volunteers. Every shot told as the warriors closed and after a brief struggle, the Black Shields broke and fell back.  Kwannabe still had  warriors in hand but he was not one to throw their lives away lightly and the odds were now too long to offer any real hope of success. He waved them back into the brush.

This was the first play test of the 2010 edition of MacDuff and so far it was just what I was looking for. The game, admittedly a small one, took about 2 hours of playing time and about 10 turns.

 The major change was separating the  movement and firing into two phases, hardly original but I had been so pleased  with not having a separate fire phase, something I had only seen suggested in a Courier article at the time, that I beat my head against the wall to keep it that way although it was the cause of innumerable headaches over how to handle reactions, limit the ability of one side to fire multiple times without reply due to the random sequencing and so forth. Of course, having now met Morschauser who also didn't have  a separate fire phase, well its nothing new!

A draft of the 2010 edition  which covers North American wars as well as Victorian Colonial warfare is available on my website. I know there are some formatting issues and it is inevitable that I will have missed some anomaly but it is ready to be read over and, if anyone is brave enough and interested, to be tried out. All and any feedback is not just welcome but actively sought.

Like an Ox on the Run

Turn 1, The rebel advance guard shows up, the British deploy and score a hit,
 while the train rumbles on.

I was planning to write this game up but frankly it wasn't worth it so I'll let the captions tell the story and concentrate on comments on the rules. The original teaser is designed for much slower moving rules so I advanced the possible arrival times, essentially counting each turn as 3.

Turn 2. The main force arrives and surges across the table while the advance guard cowers. The shooting 1 die per Zulu unit proves deadly with the 1st company of the Black Watch with its flank exposed becoming disordered as well as suffering a hit and the Lancers also being disordered. Luckily for the Brits, the 2nd company was able to come up and cover.

Turn 3, the Zulu flankers miss a chance to come on and the Main Body refuses to charge the open flank. The Brits shuffle and the wagon train charges 3 moves forward. The 4.7" gun team was able to leave the table but since it is standing in for 3 wagons in the original, I just stopped in on the edge to let the Nku Khu have a go at it. On turn 4 the Zulu main body charges in and begins a prolonged melee while the flank guard rushes madly forward and manages to snipe a wagon into disorder. On the British half, the gun moves off table, 1 wagon moves to safety while the other gets screened and 1 unit breaks out of melee while the other falls back. 

The 4.7" heading for safety.

Black Powder is aimed at a table full of troops but since they include a low level Zulu War scenario with a handful of companies, I thought I'd give it a go. This is a rare outing for these troops, they haven't seem much action since I fell for 40mm glossy toy soldiers. I still like the old Britain's style and the Call To Arms Zulus are a good fit for them but having picked who was going on table, I'll admit to still not being keen on the larger new style plastics and metals. Since I am able to base my old Britain's (inc recasts) on 1" bases, they don't actually take up much more space than 28's and I could easily have fielded 20 man British units (2 deep)  if I'd had enough Zulus to face them. However, one of my old problems cropped up, the wagon train just takes up too much space so instead of the 8 wagons that the scenario calls for, I settled for 3.

Each side had 3 brigadiers plus a general. I was hoping that this would be enough to prevent 1 or 2 command rolls dominating the game. It didn't work. Even though my table is 6 ft by 8 ft, by using inches, the wagon train surged across the table too fast for the natives to have a chance to catch it. Having variable arrival only made it worse. In the event the game moved quickly but too quickly, it lacked the suspense and the build up to a dramatic finish which I am used to in this sort of scenario and I felt fairly superfluous, the whole thing seemed to hinge on 1 or 2 command rolls.

With hind sight, a rule saying that the oxen can only move once per turn might have helped the scenario develop but I doubt it, the moves are so long that the natives are in contact in no time then its all down to some dice rolling. The stop/start feel of the command system and random feel of the combat, especially, the paralyzing disorders was only exacerbated by the small number of brigades and the small numbers of units. If I had more Zulus or decided to fudge, disregarding looks, I would double the ranks on the Brits and halve all distances but double the number of companies on each side. This would make the rifle fire feel very short and make the artillery more or less irrelevant but might make the game flow better with command decisions seeming more important and with the game not balancing on the 1st couple of command rolls for the wagons.

However, after an enjoyable run through of the Alma river scenario today at Jeff's place using 15mm Nappy's as stand ins, I've had enough Black Powder for 1 week. The table is still set up though and I've just run through the 1st two turns of an original Colonial MacDuff game. Feels good so far but then this is the sort of thing they were written for..

Nku Khu War Unit Stats

Billy Russell observes an Nku Khu marriage ceremony officiated by Prince Kwannabe on the Royal Rock of Nmuphin when a messenger arrives with news of the approach of the British column.  

(54mm figures by A Call To Arms, W Britain, Trophy of Wales and unknown possibly Imperial?)

NKU KHU

Nku Khu Warriors: Musket & Spear  Melee: 6  Shoot: 1  Save 4+  Hits 3  Warband, Brave
Nku Khu Skirmishers: Musket,           Melee:5  Shoot: 2   Save 4+  Hits 2  Skirmishers
Rebels: Rifled Musket, Melee: 4  Shoot 2 Save 4+   Hits 2  Stubborn, Skirmishers, Sharp shooters

BRITISH


Highlanders: Rifled Musket  Melee 6  Shoot: 3  Save 4+ Hits 3  Steady, Stubborn, 1st Fire, Tough Fighters
Victoria Rifles: Rifled Musket Melee 6, Shoot 3, save 4+ Hits 3, Sharpshooters
New Durban Police: Rifled Musket Melee 6, Shoot 3, Save 4+, hits 3.
Volunteers: Rifled Muskets Melee 5, Shoot 3, Save 4, Hits 3 Unreliable, sharpshooters, Irregular skirmishers
17th Lancers: Lance, rifled carbine, Melee 8, Shoot 1, Save 4+  Hits 3 , Steady, Stubborn, Lancer
11th Hussars: Sabre, rifled carbine, Melee 8, Shoot 1, Save 4+ Hits 3, Steady, Stubborn
Rocket battery: Melee 1, Shooting:  2  Save 4+, Hits 1, pack animals, rocket min range 6" max 60"
* All British units may skirmish.

Special Rules:
Brave: Shaken units rally on 4+ if >12" from enemy,
Lancers: -2 to enemy save in melee.
Sharpshooters: may re-roll 1 miss each turn
Steady: Pass 1st Break Test of game
Stubborn: Re-rolled 1 failed save each time hit
Tough Fighters: Re-roll 1 missed melee die each turn
Unreliable: No move if orders roll = commanders CV.

Drums, Drums, the lion is not asleep tonight! Black Powder meets Britain's

Well, May is supposed to see the launch of the Lydian Campaign and it may happen yet, but while the Persians are just about ready, but the Lydians aren't. Meanwhile some discussions and a test game of Black Powder has me curious as to whether it can really give a decent  Colonial skirmish. My 54mm Sudan troops are all gone but for a few stragglers but I still have my handful of Nku Khu warriors (aka Zukus) and enough 1860's British troops to set some thing up. I was tempted to pick an old favorite but its time to try another as yet unplayed scenario from The Battlegames Table Top Teasers, Vol 1.     Now where in this mess of a 1/2 moved into house, are my  54's and what do I still have 5 or 6 years after their last game? Since the number of figures per unit doesn't really matter other than relative size and looks, I'll skimp a bit and use 6 or 8 Brits in a single line as a standard unit and 10 or so natives as a warband or 6 as skirmishers. OK, a planned OB from memory then, when I clear the table and break out the troops, we'll see what troops can actually  make it!


New Durban has enjoyed peace for a decade now (see New Durban Times) , but with peace has come an influx of settlers and pressure to expand the boundaries into Nku Khu Land. A new settlement on the Kenabekhazi River has led to some minor violence and threats and Fort Belmont has been established to over awe the natives. It is the end of May and to the normal resupply convoy, a 4.7" naval gun has been added to beef up the fort's defenses. The aging rebel, TopHat hears of it and convinces Prince Kwannabe to take steps to stop the gun from arriving.  

Nku Khu under  Prince Kwannabe CV 8

Advance Guard under: Top Hat CV 9
2 units of rebel skirmishers with rifled muskets
1 Nku Khu warband

Main Force under Dhatawayo CV 8
1 unit skirmishers with muskets
3 Nku Khu warbands

 Flanking Force under Ngoharonde CV 8
2 Nku Khu warbands

British under Colonel MacDuff CV9

(Picture lost)

Convoy escort under Major Dasher CV8
1 company Victoria Rifles
1 company Highlanders (Black Watch or Gordans)
1 company Naval Brigade
Wagon train.
1 troop of Lancers

(Picture lost)
Reserve at Schlafenplatz Farm under Major Livzere CV 8
1 company of local volunteers (skirmishers)
1 company ND Police
Rocket Battery  gun and crew
2 troops of Hussars