Sihayo's Kraal Wargame Scenario

Well, my wife and I had a great weekend at the Cold Wars, gaming convention. I will start off by talking about the Zulu War scenario we played with 25mm miniatures and Larry Brom's classic "The Sword and the Flame" rules. I was looking forward to perhaps play testing another scenario from Mark Fastoso and Roy Jones', Zulu War 1879 scenario book. When we got there we found out that Mark ran a scenario called "17th Lancers at Zungeni" on Friday afternoon. I'm still kicking myself for missing out on that. However, we noticed that Roy Jones had another scenario listed in the addendum and we quickly scooped up tickets for it. The scenario is "Sihayo's Kraal" which was the first engagement in the Zulu War. Chief Sihayo, if you will remember, is the chap who obliged the British Governor with a pretext for war. He sent a party of warriors into the British colony of Natal to retrieve a couple of adulterous women from his kraal. They were brought back and promptly executed.

Anyway, to our great surprise on Saturday morning, my wife and I ended up being the only ones with tickets for the game! Let me tell you something folks, when you see these scenarios listed, you need to jump on them! You are guaranteed a good time! Well, your loss was our gain! The two of us had a great time playing the scenario ourselves with Roy Jones' providing his usual stellar performance as gamemaster.

Like the other scenarios from this collection I have played this one was outstanding. The situation was challenging and interesting and the balance seemed to be perfect. These guys really have talent for writing well-crafted scenarios and coming up with some really innovative ideas.

I'll write more about the scenario next time. In the meantime, check out these photos of Roy Jones and I setting up the scenery and the 25mm miniatures. In both these photos, Roy is the guy on the left and I am on the right.

Also, I was hoping that the scenario book would be available for purchase at this convention, but Roy says it is not ready yet. Hopefully it will be out for Historicon in July.