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