"Battle Of Ginnis" Sudan 1885 Scenario

Greetings and my apologies for being gone so long. I don't know why these things happen, but they do. I am going to try to get caught up on everything that has been happening over the last year or so. To begin with, we did finally run the "Battle of Ginnis" 1885 Sudan scenario at HISTORICON last summer. It turned out looking really nice, and we had five very nice gents show up to play. They all loved the set up and the game. It ended up being very one-sided with the Brit side winning fairly easily, but I think that tactical decisions made on the Dervish side had a lot to do with it. In any case, it is a really good scenario. Everyone should be looking for this one when it gets published in one of the Skirmish Campaigns scenario books. The best guess is that this will happen sometime in late 2013.

Gunboat on the Nile

We are experimenting with an 1885 Sudan campaign scenario these days and I'm trying to incorporate the Old Glory Shipyard 28mm gunboat I bought a few years back. Dont have much time to write about it now, but here are a few photos for starters.

Colonial Wargames Convention Announced for 2011

News flash for all you colonial gaming fans. Lori Brom at "Sergeants3" has announced that the Brom's will be sponsoring a colonial gaming convention in either October or November of 2011 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Lori of course is the daughter of Larry Brom, the illustrious author of "The Sword and the Flame" rules for colonial wargaming which still rank as the "gold standard" for that genre' of gaming.

Zulu War 28mm hard plastics

Here is another development in the expanding availability of 28mm wargaming figures in hard plastic. The Wargames Factory is now planning to come out with hard plastics for the Zulu War of 1879. This a photo of what the British figures will look like painted.

New 28mm Italian Bersaglieri

Get a load of this! Here's something I never thought I would see! Askari Miniatures has just announced a line of Italian Bersaglieri figures suitable for colonial or WWII Western Desert games. They look really nice in the pictures. I have some of Askari's French Foreign Legion figures and I can tell you that they are nothing short of really beautiful! These look like they are just as nice, if not better. I would not be surprised if some of these "paisanos" make it into my collection.

Larry Brom, out of hospital, back home

Well more good news, Larry has been back home for a few days now and working on recuperating there. He has some figures to work on; Lord Chelmsford (see below) and his staff. Do a good job on him Larry, and have fun with it! And good luck with dealing with that big beard, that is going to soak up a lot of paint!

Latest news on Larry Brom

There is good news. Larry is apparently recovering well from the quad bypass operation that he had last week. He is still in the ICU unit, but only because he is waiting for a normal bed. He is sitting up and taking nourishment and last night he happily watched the LSU Tigers defeat the Ohio State Buckeyes on his TV!

I am re-posting a picture here because it is the only photo of Larry that I have. This is from Historicon 2005, Larry is on the right in the red hat. I am immediately on his right, and Larry and I are leading the Brits to "Death or Glory" in a large Sudan scenario; 1885 style. We are of course using "The Sword and Flame" rules which Larry wrote and published a few decades ago.

News about Larry Brom

A while back I posted some articles about Larry Brom the legendary author of The Sword and the Flame and many other great wargaming products. Larry is one of the grand old gentlemen of the hobby. His designs and products certainly have provided us, and a lot of people all over the world, with a whole lot of fun. Today I learned the Larry underwent a six hour quadruple bypass surgery this morning. His daughter Lori reports that it went well and the doctors are optimistic about his recovery. We are very sorry to hear that he is sick but we are also happy about the latest news. Lori is confident that his recovery will go well and that he will soon be back to working on all the unpainted figures that are waiting for him. Our thoughts and prayers are with you Larry.

Rorke's Drift Concluded

After a while, (quite a while actually, about 3 hours into the game,) the Zulus succeeded in setting the hospital on fire. They had set this as their highest priority over capturing the hopsital, or focusing on getting across the mealie bag wall. Well, they succeeded and all the Brits except two were able to get out before the roof collapsed. Now that the hospital was burning the Zulu side had to start focusing on getting across the mealie bags. In the lower photo above you can see that they focused about half their attackers on the line of bags connecting the hospital with the storehouse. This met with no success at all. It was especially difficult because I had stationed LT Chard at this spot. His presence improved British shooting to a significant degree.

In the top photograph you can see the other half of the Zulu attackers trying to swarm over the wall after flowing around to the other side of the hospital. For the very last turn of the game, the Zulus had managed to charge three units against only one British unit that was manning that corner. One after one we resolved the combats. The first two Zulu units were defeated but the defending Brit unit had been whittled down to only 3 figures. Then the third Zulu unit came on in. Zulu after Zulu fell while trying to get across the wall, but two more Brits went down as well. Finally, that was only one Brit and one Zulu left. This was very tense, because game master Roy Jones had said that since there was no time to play out all three Zulu "waves," it would be a Zulu "moral victory" if they managed to get anything across the wall. So it had come down to only one Brit left to "save the day." Well all I can say is that the dice rolling gods were with me because the last Zulu went down right on top of the mealie bag wall. That surviving trooper definately met the TSATF Victoria Cross criteria in my book! Nevertheless, if you look carefully in the top photo you will see that I had a Brit unit right behind the unit defending the wall. If the Zulus had managed to get across, they would have been fired on and charged by a fresh set of defenders; if there had been another turn.

At this point we had to call it "quits," not only had we run out of time, but we were all feeling a bit exhausted with the work, tension, and concentration of the stuggle. Maybe someday I'll try running the entire scenario. It won't be easy though, to begin with I have absolutely no scenery for this scenario and the way it is desiged you almost have to turn it into a campaign series to play out the entire thing. But, all that aside, we did have good time playing out the first "wave."

Yet More Rorke's Drift action

In these photos you can see the Zulus attacking the corral and store house areas. They did this only after the Brits had pulled troops out of this area to reinforce the hospital side of the compound.

Although it looked kind of "dicey" at first, the attack in the store house area was completely unsuccessful.

More Rorke's Drift Action

Here you can see the Zulu first wave concentrating on the hospital building and the line of mealie bags next to it. The Zulu players decided to focus on this objective. The hospital is a difficult buiding to defend because there are so few places to shoot out of. They eventually succeeded in setting the hospital on fire. I think that if I ever run this scenario myself I will allow the British troop to cut more fire loops in the outer walls of the building so they can bring more guns to bear.

Mega Rorkes Drift Scenario

When we were at Historicon we participated in a huge Rorke's Drift scenario run by Roy Jones, one of the authors of the new Zulu War 1879 scenario book. (see below) The way Roy wrote this scenario it could take 2 or 3 full sessions to play out. He designed it so that the Zulus can launch 3 separate "waves." Each time a wave is played out each side is free to re-orient their units and then it starts again. In the third wave it is assumed that night conditions prevail.

Roy has a really nice Rorke's Drift scenery set that he purchased from Redoubt Miniatures. (We have a link down below.) I took a photo showing the whole setup. The two buildings come with very nice thatched roofs that can be removed.

It took us about 4 hours to play out only the first wave. This really is a huge scenario! Every time a Zulu unit is reduced to three figures it is removed from play, BUT, all the Zulu units are recycled back onto the table. Only when a certain number of them are eliminated will the "wave" come to an end. But here is another catch, if the Zulus succeed in obtaining any victory points during the course of the "wave," the threshold for wave termination increases. For example, without any victory points, the first wave ends when 8 Zulu units are eliminated, but if they were to capture the hospital during the course of the wave that number would increase to 12 units. Get the idea? In other words, the Zulus keep coming and coming as long as they maintain momentum by obtaining certain goals. Very clever idea! Actually, if you look through the scenario book, you will see many clever ideas.

I'll have some action pictures on this game for you later.

New Zulu War Scenario Book

At long last Bwana is back on-line! It's a great thing when you buy a new computer, it solves so many problems that you used to have!

I'm happy to report that I have also just returned from Historicon in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. As usual it was a lot of fun. We played in some really good games and bought a lot of great stuff. Our best acquisition was the new Zulu War 1879 Scenario Book by Roy Jones and Mark Fastoso. I have been looking forward to this for two years. We even participated in a few playtestings that were held at the conventions over the past two years. If you want a copy there will be several dealers selling it at Fall In in Gettysburg. If you need to get one before then you can order it from Brigade Games. We have a link to that shop down below.

There is a lot of good stuff in this book, a total of 11 scenarios that cover all the well-known engagements of the Zulu War. I'm looking forward to having quite a lot of fun with it.

I'll have more later on the games we got in on at Historicon.

The Sword and the Flame in Africa

Bwana Bill has managed to get me hooked on this great game. I bought some figures last year at Fall-In, but hadn't been able to get to them yet.

This last week, I grabbed eight lads out and whipped out a quick paintjob on them. They are painted as Highlanders. I'll tell you, the sound of pipes just gets my blood boiling! 'Ave at 'em lads!

The Highlanders will be attacking (or defending?) tonight in another Fort Halai scenario. It seems the Zulus got the better of it last time, so we are adjusting the unit structure a bit.

The 17th Lancers will be on hand tonight, as well as the Scots, and they're "dead 'ard" lads. Perhaps with that combination, we will turn the savage tide and save the fort!

The figures were identified by Bwana Bill as Black Tree Design figures. They are wonderful little figures posed in a nice variety of poses.

If you are interested in wargaming the Victorian Era, I can also most highly recommend Brigade Games, one of my favorite suppliers. Lon is a stand up guy with great employees and wonderful service.

More Action from Fort Halai

Fort Halai (continued)

More action from the Fort Halai scenario

Fort Halai Scenario

I have been feeling a little frustrated lately with the lack of good Zulu War scenarios at my disposal. So until Mark Fastoso and Roy Jones start selling their new scenario book, I have been improvising. I took Mark's scenario book on the Italians in Abyssinia (Ethiopia) and adapted one of the scenarios for Brits and Zulus. This one was called the Fort Halai scenario. It worked out fairly well, I was rather pleased with it. A group of Brits are besieged at one end of the table and a relief force is trying to cross the length of the table to reach them. In the group of photos below the Zulus are seen launching their first attack on the redoubt which was fairly easy to capture. Then we see the first attacks on the relief force. In the last picture we see King Cetshwayo (in the leopard skin cloak) and the uThulwana regiment holed up in the rocks waiting for their chance to launch an attack.

Sihayo's Kraal Concluded

To conlude the description of this game let me just say that it was a good close game. In the end the British side failed to earn the required number of victory points, but not by much. The NNC units were only moderately successful in charging up the hill. Two of them took too much "friendly" fire from the British infantry units behind them and they evaporated. The two Brit infantry units continued on without them but they were not able to capture enough objectives before time ran out. I was able to get the NMP unit to the top and exit it off the table for two whole victory points. I thought I might have the game won at that point but I still fell short.

Sihayo's Kraal Opening Moves

Here you can see the NNC advancing toward the Zulu positions in the rocks and the hill sides. You can't see the British infantry that are right behind them in every picture, but believe me they are there.

Sihayo's Kraal Scenario (continued)

Today we'll get back to the Sihayo's Kraal scenario I brought up earlier. Here you can see my wife Teri, the worlds most recent TSATF convert, and scenario designer Roy Jones plotting the Zulu defensive strategy. In the bottom photo you can see the task facing the British force. They have to scale the plateaus, capture objectives, and exit troops off the table edge at the top. If you look carefully you can see clumps of boulders and caves in the side of the cliff, these are both objectives and places for hidden Zulu units. The path going up the middle is the only way for the British regulars to get up onto the cliffs. Their Natal Native Contingent (NNC) allies are the only one who can scale the cliffs at any point.

Speaking of the NNC, this was the most intriguing aspect of the scenario. There are only four NNC units, two regular Brit infantry, and one cavalry unit of Natal Mounted Police (NMP). The idea is to put the NNC out in front to attack uphill. As long as there is a British unit directly in their rear they get a -2 die roll bonus on all there morale checks, including "closing-to-assualt" and "standing-to-fight." This makes an otherwise totally unreliable force fairly effective. Just imagine the scene! The NNC are advancing toward Zulus who are waiting for them up above (and in this scenario all Zulus have muzzleloaders), they are of course reluctant, but because of the rows of British bayonets right behind them... Well, you get the idea! I thought it was a brilliant idea that really made the scenario something special. It was a blast! (pun intended, sorry) Next time I'll tell what happened!