Some chaps were doing Isandlawhana in 28mm with Black Powder but Billy and I decided to do a Zulu War game in 15mm using FOB in case BP game was oversubscribed.
Billy has Anglo-Zulu troops in 15mm (really nice with excellent basing) and so he provided those and I brought rules, terrain, game mat and a rough scenario.
Terrain was sort of rolling grassland with a Rorkes Drift style Mission Station/Farmstead in middle with a dry riverbed straddling the table.
British (played by Simon and Dave) set up in defence around the Mission Station with Zulus (Billy et moi) attacking.
We essentially used the traditional Zulu 'horns of the buffalo' attack with 2 Horns and a Head with the Loins remaining off-table (had things gone awry for Zulu early on I planned to recycle their destroyed units in the Loins as reserve).
Zulus fielded 40 units of Warriors and 6 Units of Riflemen divided into 5 Impi with D10 Leaders and a D10 General (I made all Leaders in game D10 for simplicity).
British had 2 Battalions Groups of 4 British Infantry with a 7pdr cannon each a third 'Battalion' with 2 Companies of Naval Infantry a Gardaner Machine Gun a unit of Natal Mounted Police and Boer Mounted Horse.
Four additional Boer Mounted were divided into 2 more Command Groups (again all Leaders and General were D10)
Both forces had Average quality decks but I did add in a few period cards (and took the Arty firepower cards from Zulu deck) in form of Sneaky Heathens into British Deck (this proved very useful) along with 2 MG and 1 Breechloader firepower cards whilst Zulus had 2 Fanatic Action 1 extra Melee card 1 less Inf firepower and 1 extra Move 1 Command Group card.
Not much in way of special rules beyond those in FOB except a rule (from a chap Chris Velas on FOB Bakebook site) wherein if British fire rolls even the Zulus are 'Pinned' meaning they must Rally to move a sort of 'Staggered' effect.
This proved a nice addition as Zulus in Mass formations cannot interpenetrate each other.
I made the British mounted troops as sort of Skirmish units for Movement but with minuses when targeted or shooting but being C8 D6 types and using Musket ranges for shooting.
Most Warriors were C10 D6 with a few (5 units) classed as Veterans at C12 D8.
I made Zulu rifle units 'proper' Skirmish types but C8 D4, in hindsight they acted at times a bit too like Voltiguers so may teak in future to just Line type units.
British Foot were potent C12 D6 with Rifle ranges and both Cannons and MG were C10 D6.
British had a beefed up 30 Army Morale Level and the Zulus 50.
For speed of play we used the 28mm ranges which actually worked well on our 6'x4' set up this gave British rifles a whopping 15" range which they used to good effect.
Game developed as only a Piquet type game does (so much better than a set sequence of play) with Zulus getting initiative and a couple of Move cards which saw the 'Buffalo' advance right into British faces (the British players said it really felt like a wave of Zulus descending on them) with Horns heading to flanks.
British volleys however proved deadly with their Commanders electing several times to fire twice and be unloaded, crossing fingers (and maybe sphincters!) for Infantry reload cards.
They did manage to get 1 reload in their Initiative meaning Zulu waves subjected to 4 Volleys !!
The 'Stagger' rule came into play on a couple of occasions with 2 or 3 Zulu units Pinned and they stayed that way for ages as we failed to pull Leadership cards (a re-shuffle not helping).
This meant Zulus had to spend several Move segments getting around these 'road-blocks'.
Appearance of Sneaky Heathens card assisted greatly.
However sadly for the British they remained unloaded on next a key Initiative won by Zulus who then managed (Fanatic Action helped) to get into contact with their Foot and Even rolls saw several Immediate Melees followed by a Melee card allowing supporting Zulus a second blatter at the British lines.
Lots of Routing Zulu and British units was result with the Mission Station being overrun.
On Horn flanks thew Boer Horse done sterling service holding up the Zulus especially around the dry river bed (some awesome rolls by Dave routed 2 units of Veteran Warriors !!) managing to survive initial contacts and evading.
But eventually both flanks were simply overcome by Zulus and the Horns closed around the stricken defenders with a couple of heroic last stands at the Mission and a knoll to its rear.
Despite this ultimate outcome the game was incredibly close at one point with both sides on zero Morale simultaneously and a real chance of Army Morale Card ending game, but none appeared for either side however phew !!
Overall the Zulus took a lot of casualties (likely more than they would have been prepared to sustain in reality, but we Wargamers are a bloodthirsty lot caring not a jot for the 'lives' of our little tin men !!) and British foot may have been better forming Square in some places but they did come close to a win via their fearsome firing alone.
All in all a great game showcasing for me so much of what makes FOB a proper 'Battle' rule set, and as Dave said the Combat Dice can be very unforgiving, but I like this as it is usually definitive as to who wins or loses and makes actions such as firing and melee decisive (peak effects as original Piquet designer Bob Jones termed it) aiding to fast play.
All in all a great nights gaming in good company, I have no idea how BP went as so engrossed in this one as player/ref (as no-one else has or uses FOB).
By heck I am enjoying being retired !!!
Zulu left Horn advances the unit at front right is 'Pinned' (green marker)
Good view of the Buffalo formation
Naval Infantry issue fire
Bravo! I think FoB and Piquet work especially well for these indw iof asymmetric games, where a set sequence really decreases the tension of the game.
ReplyDeleteVery enjoyable! Thank you. FOB delivers the goods once again.
ReplyDeleteHi uiduach, yes great fun and all in less than 4 hours including set up Billys figures and basing made it a bit of a spectacle as well
DeleteHi Peter, yes most certainly and feel that holds true for any period or match up as FOB always delivers an exciting unpredictable fun experience full of tension and frustration (where is that damn Leadership card !!!!) combined with decisive plausible combat outcomes. I get why some dislike as too many random factors and less feeling of control over toy men and the extremes of dice rolls can indeed be unforgiving, but for me that has always been the PK way and a much better balance of game vs history. But as my Blog attests I do like a smidgen of variety in rules I play. PK/FOB would be my desert island set if HMV ever sends me there :-)
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