Game was semi-skirmish style with a set of rules 'Front Rank Fire' (from an old Wargames Illustrated mag) and scenario had a bunch of stragglers from Isandlwana trying to escape across a stream (via 2 fords) after defeat on front slopes of the mountain pursued by a horde of victorious Zulus.
Stragglers comprised of disparate groups of British and Natal Native Contingent.
Billy commanded a group of 10 (?) Brits commanded by a superior NCO (Bob Hoskins), Ivan in middle commanded another group of 10 Brits (with a couple already wounded and therefore slow) and I had control of 14 NNC natives (2 of whom carried boxes of ammo) with a Boer commander and a Boer marksman.
Phil and Jeremy commanded the Zulus
We set up about 18" from table edge 3 turns before Zulus would appear as busy killing of Burt Lancaster, sorry Dunfords lot but with proviso that the Zulu horns may outflank us from either table edge.
Zulus were in large units of 30 or so figures (with each figure signifying 2 warriors so 60 man units !)
Whilst straggling back for several turns (we could run for 5" then walk for 2.5" whilst Zulus could always run 6") we had to try to form nominal lines/units to try to delay Zulus until we crossed table center line when it could be every man for himself.
Great game ensued as we manfully tried to conduct a fighting withdrawal in face of every increasing numbers of Zulus some of whom inevitably appeared on our flank (thankfully Billys not mine).
Ivan did manage to form a couple of 5 man lines and volleyed his pursuers, a hit would cause a casualty but more importantly force a morale test which could halt a Zulu unit for 1 turn (however a roll of 12 on a D12 would allow them to surge forwards an additional 8") but lost too much time using ammo reload I had sent him (very much a red herring) and then had half his force killed in 1 devastating shower of Zulu throwing spears (thankfully only 1 such 'volley' per unit).
We soon realised that single men could delay the Zulus as much as a group and once across the center line that is what we tried with single figures trying to sell themselves dearly whilst mates fled.
I had a single NNC warrior hold up a Zulu unit for a glorious 4 combats (each combined turn roughly 8 secs only but still some sort of native Ninja character to last 16 secs !) allowing bulk of my chaps to outdistance warriors, in contrast my Boer marksman fired 3 times only hitting once with Zulus passing tests and indeed surging forward to overwhelm this Dutchman instantly.
Ivans remaining 5 Brits got caught by Zulu swarm but again held them up before being wiped out.
Meanwhile Billys bunch were heading for ford hell for leather with couple of blokes similarly delaying Zulus on his flank with shooting and fisticuffs.
At the end I was defending a ford with NNC whilst covering Billys survivors and sending some of my natives to safety.
All came down to a last gasp volley of spears as our rearguard was crossing the ford with Zulus achieving 5 hits on 8 target figures with Boer commander and 2 British figures surviving to cross ford, loss of either the Brits or the Boer would be an outright win for Zulus (not that they could really lose as such). In the end we managed to 'save' a mere 6 NNC, 2 British regulars and the Boer leader from initial force.
Super fun and many thanks to Phil for providing every thing and running such a entertaining game .
The dispersed stragglers at start with Dunfords camp to rear. My NNC in foreground
Also at club the usual suspects had a FOGR game with Spanish Armada force that having not sunk dare to invade English soil (no idea how this ended ?)
Sounds like a really exciting game. Great to have a fighting withdrawal being played out. They can be good fun. Good looking combat.
ReplyDeleteWas indeed good fun game which is really what its all about :-)
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