Last weekend I myself and two other lads from the club, Brian and David, got together and played a small colonial game using the Black Powder Rules. Our scenario was based on a small battle conducted during the Zulu War of 1879 called The Battle of Intombe, where a small British force, in the early morning, was ambushed by a large force of Zulus.
The British force for our game consisted of six regular companies of the 80th Regiment of Foot, who were escorting the wagon train. In our game and as per the scenario (from Battles for Empire II Scenarios for Colonial Warfare in Miniature, by Chris Leach) the British troops were required to roll some dice in order to determine their reaction to the Zulu ambush. In the first turn, Brian was able to alert four companies of the impending attack. The other two companies and the commander of the forces did not react until the following turn.
The British victory condition was to defend the wagons as best they could and try and withdraw at least one company off the table. The Zulus were to prevent the withdrawal. In most cases this may have been very bad for the British force however, in the spare of the moment, I forgot to move the right horn of the Zulu attack, which in turn allowed Brian to break contact with one of his companies and withdraw off the table, technically winning the game by turn six.
Though leading up to the successful withdrawal the Zulus hit the British hard. After three rounds hand to hand fighting the three remaining British companies on the other side of the Intombe River were overwhelmed and obliterated and the wagons were captured for minimal cost to the Zulus.
Thanks, Brian and David for a great game, and good to see the colonial troops are back on the table. All the figures are 28mm and from Brian’s, John’s, and my own collections and are from various manufacturers.
