2nd Boer War Action

Keeping with the colonial flavour of our games recently Myself, Brian Buskell and Dave Lowe decided to whip up a nice little 2nd Boer War game for the afternoon. This is a period you really see displayed at conventions or ever played for that matter at clubs or back yard gaming rooms, so we have been determined, of late, to paint more figures and expand the collections in order to show the world that this can be a great little period to game. 

I guess for most Colonial gamers the Boer War does not attract them simply because the enemy now shoots back with deadly effect and can certainly mess with your day quite easily.....no spears or massed targets of charging warriors anymore...and your brave officers can become targets for hidden Boer marksmen...hardly cricket. 

However we have grown to love this great period, which has always been a challenge for who ever is the Imperial player and our collections are still growing to hopefully cover the whole period. So our game yesterday was set around a 700pt game using a house set of rules we have named 'Breachloader & Rifle', written by Andrew Parr, and our scenario was for the British Imperial troops to find a Boer Laarger somewhere out in the hills......interesting times. The game went for seven turns with both side capturing their primary objectives however the good old British Tommy and his Colonial Australian Allies managed to inflict greater casualties on the aggressive Boer Commando and slip through with a small tactical victory...nice one Brian.

The British Commander searches the hills for possible Boer positions

A Highland Infantry company advances 

An Australian Infantry company advances in support of the Highlanders

Empress Miniatures Dismounted Frontier Light Horse, from their fantastic Anglo-Zulu range make fantastic mounted infantry.

Imperial Mounted Infantry take the high ground

Boer Pom Pom's fire in support of their Boer Commando Infantry

Well trained and drilled Boer Artillery

Mounted Boers painted by Chris Kendrick

The majority of my Boers are from the very nice Old Glory Miniatures range with a few old Foundry figures mixed in.

Brian's nicely converted Mounted Infantry Officer

Boer Commandos aggressively advance onto the Imperial positions

The Boer Laarger, which I made earlier this year and this is the first time I have been able to use it on the table. He occupied by the Foundry lads - painted by Gerry Webb of Cast Away Arts.

The final two turns of the game saw the Boers take their objective and the Imperials likewise 

Nasty stuff these machine guns. We spent most of our time trying to manoeuvre away around them.

However I did charge them with some brave Boer lads and managed to take the guns

Australian Imperial Infantry take the Boer Laarger

Sands of the Sudan - Second Game

Yesterday Myself, Brian Buskell, Dave Lowe and Young Will got together and played a second round of 'The Sands of the Sudan' by Carlo Pagano. Admittedly this time round we played the rules with a far greater understanding of how they worked and from the faces, regular banter and high fives the game played better far better then the first game. Carlo has put together a great set of rules for having a few rounds of fun, with a couple of the lads, either as demo game or participation game or just simply to have an enjoyable game.   

The rules are provided with a number of random events cards, which allow for the random arrival of the Mahdi forces and some really annoying cards for the Imperial forces like wheels falling off gun carriages, sandstorms, infantry columns wandering off in random directions and Mahdi machine guns!!...all of which makes for a fun game.

Our game scenario was for the Imperial forces to advance up the Nile, clear a small village on the river and then turn inland and storm a larger township....well that was the plan. 

However on turn one the Mahdist players (Myself and Dave) started to turn the random event cards. We turned a card for every turn of the game i.e.: Turn 1 - 1 x card, Turn 2 - 2 x cards, turn 3 - 3 x cards etc. This allowed for a steady build up of enemy forces from different locations. So Brian well thought out 'Master Plan' started to show a few holes.

One Brian's great Sudanese command stand

The first little river village was only held by a few units of Mahdist riflemen and proved more of an annoyance more then anything however they did manage to draw in the best British troops and a gunboat. But by a couple of turns the combined fire from the infantry and gunboat drove the riflemen out of the village, thus leaving it to be easily occupied by a company of Naval troops and a mountain gun.

Two companies of conscript Egyptians advance out into the desert to clear the second objective.

But as luck would have it these are 200+ mad Mahdi followers hiding in some rough terrain.

The Camel Corps dismount and engage the first enemy warriors 

More Egyptian irregulars move up in support of the Camel Corps lads

The Naval Brigade deploy the heavy guns and start laying down devastating covering fire.

Five companies of Imperial Mounted Infantry and regulars advance on to the first objective

The first objective - held by only a few riflemen

More Mahdi enter the table, closing in rapidly onto the Egyptian Battalion

Our gunboat shells the river village

After a rapid volleys from the Egyptians decimates the first few ranks of Mahdists they still charge on into hand to hand combat

The 10th Hussars out on the far left flank rides into a ambush

After a few rounds of continuous shelling the few Mahdists still in the village fall back into the desert and Objective One is now in British hands.......or is it?

By turn five the first objective has been taken, however pressure is starting to mount on the Imperial forces as more and more Mahdi arrive on the battlefield 

Camel Corps vs Camels......the Imperial Camel Corps manages to hold onto this position for at least five turns, repelling no more then three attacks but were finally forces to withdraw when they ran out of ammunition.

The mass guns of the Naval Brigade help defeat numerous waves of attacking Mahdi

Turn seven and the Mahdi are everywhere. The Imperial commander made of stern English stock keeps his calm and directs fire into their ranks

However still out on the far left flank the 10th Hussars are attacked in both the flank and front. With numbers far out numbering them they are forced from the field of battle with heavy causalities 

A charge on the Naval Brigade is defeat....close call

All was going as planned for the Imperial commander...until their was a village uprising and the natives slaughter the remaining British troops in the village

Then the Camel Corps lads are finally defeated

The Mahdi forces seem to great to over come today so the Imperial commander decides to call it a day and falls back to a more defendable position for the night.

Overall a great day for the lads and I would like to thank Carlo again for making such an enjoyable set of rules.