Run for the Hills Redux

For the Saturday evening game at Fall In with Rob, I brought out my 10mm Anglo Zulu War stuff for a game using Dan Mersey's The Men Who Would Be Kings rules (TMWWBK). It would be a refight of the same scenario I games with Alex earlier this year. Essentially a British force gets points for crossing the length of the table and editing off the board. The Zulus are deployed on either flank and will try to stop them. The British have 3 infantry companies (A, B and C) and a unit of Natal Native Horse. The Zulus have 6 regiments, half are married veterans (better leadership) and half are unmarried (better at stabbing). 

The table layout with the British on the left. The gaming mat is from Cigar Box and the mountains are from Monster Fight Club. I purchased more of the mountains at the convention and you will see them in more battle reports (most likely TMWWBK and Krapistan).

My rather spiffy artistic rendering of the tabletop above, I've been making these for scenario printouts which contain units, game-specific special rules, etc. It helps me remember.

 

Some of the Zulu regiments (above and below) on display at full strength before the British Martini-Henry rifles punched holes in their masses. 

Of course when the Zulus did manage to make contact, they out their spears to good work. Early on, one of the infantry companies took massive casualties (above).

 

The NNH raced across the table and nearly made it across but we're caught by the Dust Raisers and wiped out (above).

The game played out very similar to the game with Alex, the British got bogged down in the first third of the table as the initial Zulu regiments forced them to stop moving and start shooting. Shaking off pinned markers, the Zulus ultimately overwhelmed the plucky Redcoats. No units made it across the table this time. 

We had a blast with TMWWBK, it was fun rolling buckets of dice and seeing mass casualties. It's a good ruleset if you want to push lead, roll dice and have a good time without thinking too hard (excellent for a Saturday night convention game). Rob and I both agreed it's a tough scenario for the British. Unless they blast away most of the Zulus, they won't be able to cross the table. 

I need to get more scenery (farmsteads, kraal, baggage) to play other scenarios. I also want to pick up some Boers and Pathans to allow me to game other conflicts like the First Anglo Boer War and 2nd Anglo Afghan War. 

TMWWBK: Run for the Hills!

Tonight, Alex and I met up over at Huzzah Hobbies for our scheduled game. This time we would be playing some The Men Who Would Be Kings (TMWWBK) in 10mm. I chose Scenario E "Run for the Hills", where our 22 points British force was tasked with making it to the other side of the table. A 24 point Zulu forces would be coming from both sides to stop them. 

(The Leopard's Lair regiment...they would cover themselves in glory and blood this battle)

I was commanding the British and had "A", "B" and "C" companies of the 24th along with a contingent of Natal Native Horse (NNH) starting out on the right side of the table. Alex's Zulus had 3 regiments on each side (top and bottom) of the table. 

I began the game with the horse in the lead and the 3 infantry columns in March behind them (top to bottom: "A", "B" and "C"). Since the British have to roll leadership to move (shooting is their free action), there was some sputtering about. 

Alex inched his closest regiments forward as they (ineffectively) tried to skulk behind cover. Meanwhile, the Horse decided to run the gauntlet, make for the hills and leave their redcoat friends in the dust. This turned out to be a mistake. 

(The Sharp Points regiment looking for an opening to strike...they wouldn't find it)

The unmarried regiment "The Leopard's Lair" lurched forward and released a disorganized blast of muskets dropping some of the horsemen to include their commander Burt Lancaster Colonel Durnford. Leaderless and pinned, The Leopard's Lair closed in for the kill and wiped out the NNH to a man. 

Wishing to strike back, "C" company stopped moving and starting unloading hot lead into the Black Mamba regiment. After a few turns, the Black Mamba were no more. 

A company was attempting to follow suit against the Sharp Points (an unmarried regiment). "A" company didn't find quite the same success although they did drop some of their enemy . 

The other Zulu regiments closed in on the front of the British force and it was the Leopard's Lair who managed to shrug off the Martini-Henry rounds and crash into the thin red line of "B" company. The Leopard's Lair washed their blades in blood and drove back "B" company. C company attempted to come to their rescue and moved forward to cover "B" company's withdrawal. 

"C" company fought valiantly but were ultimately cut down to a man. The Zulu hordes would be cut down and pinned from rifle fire but would ultimately rally against the odds to surge forward. Soon "B" company was also wiped out, leaving just "A" company to continue the fight against the decimated Zulu regiments. 

Ultimately, :A" company managed to fend off the last desperate attacks of the Zulus and wipe them out to a man but they were left with just two bases of the original 12 from their company. As the remnants of "A" company marched off into the sunset, a tally of victory points showed the Zulus won 6 VPs to 1VP. 

(Remnants of  "A" company dispatching the last of the Zulus..or the other way around?)

The rules were incredibly simple and easy to play, especially with the various game aids (unit cards, QRS, etc). With units fighting to last man, it certainly felt cinematic. I think both Alex and I enjoyed the baskets of dice and the resulting carnage.

People passing by remarked that they liked how the 10mm made the tabletop feel like a real battle. I agree, the 10mm with TMWWBK really changed the look of the game and made it feel much more "grand". All in all, a fun time.

 

Game preparation: TMWWBK

This coming Wednesday Thursday, my gaming buddy Alex and I will be playing a game of The Men Who Would Be Kings. The armies will my my 10mm Anglo-Zulu War stuff that I painted up several years ago for this very ruleset. This will be the first time playing the rules for both Alex or myself.  

 

To make things a bit smoother (hopefully), I watched a few YouTube videos on gameplay and I have printed up some game aids: quick reference sheets and unit profile cards. The cards are from the Shed Wars blog site, I ended up making one in the same style for the Natal Native Horse that will be on the table. I will probably make some game counters to reflect when units are pinned, close order, volley fire, or gone to ground. 

I have read some battle reports and reviews that mention native forces can really get bogged down when they are pinned. To help motivate this potential issue, I will add some terrain to break up the lines of sight for the Martini-Henry rifles and offer both cover and concealment for the Zulu forces. 

Here are some representative stands of the six Zulu regiments that will be on the tabletop (L-R): 

inDlondlo aka “Black Mamba” (Married)

InGobamakhosi aka “Bender of Kings” (Unmarried)

amaPhela aka “Cockroaches” (Married)

uThulwana aka “The Dust Raisers” (Married)

iNdluyengwe aka “The Leopard’s Lair” (Unmarried)

UmCijo aka “Sharp Points” (Unmarried)

The six Zulu regiments total up to a 24 point force. Our plucky British will field 3 companies from the 24th Regiment of Foot, the South Wales Borderers and a small unit of Natal Native Horse totalling up 22 points. The majority of the figures are Old Glory with a few Pendraken mixed in. All of the Native Horse with the exception of the English officer (Colonel Durnford perhaps?) are Pendraken. 

When I was initially planning this out, I thought I would paint up a small Zulu kraal and play out Scenario B: "Seek and Destroy" where my British would need to raze the native village to the ground. Real life intervened and that kraal was never built. Instead, I think either Scenario A: "Just Passing By" or Scenario E: "Run to the Hills"  might be a better option. In both of these, the British will have to be moving, so they will be less likely to deploy in close order firing lines. If it is the latter scenario, I will have to ditch the Native Horse to get down to the 18 points for the defender. 

Regardless of what scenario, I'm looking forward to getting some lead on the tabletop and rolling buckets of dice! 

10mm Zulu

 A project that I embarked on prior to the Pendraken Painting Competition was a smallish Anglo-Zulu War project for Daniel Mersey's The Men Who Would Be Kings (TMWWBK). I vacillated between 6mm and 10mm but opted to go with the latter. Almost all of my figures are from Old Glory's 10mm range supplemented by some Pendraken. In TMWWBK, a Zulu unit is comprised of 16 figures. I decided to use the rules as-is but with several smaller figures on a base that would normally have a single 28mm figure so I could get a nice massed look. I decided to base them on 20mm rounds and movement trays (all ordered from Litko).

Anyway, I am finished two married regiments, here is the uThulwana regiment also known as the Dust Raisers (EDIT: upon closer review of the image, this is actually the amaPhela regiment aka "Cockroaches")

Here is a closeup of one of the Litko movement trays I custom ordered. The uThulwana regiment had a white shield with brown spots.

The second regiment is that of amaPhela or the "Cockroaches". I decided to go with this regiment because I like the brown shield and their nickname. 

The two regiments massed in all of their glory. 96 total figures. I have one more married regiment and three more unmarried regiments to complete my Zulu army. Then its on to the British and their native contingents.

I have to say I really enjoy painting the Old Glory Zulus. They are relatively simple sculpts but they are incredibly easy and quick to paint and have about 6 dynamic poses. This project is all about speed painting to a wargames standard and getting them table ready. Look forward to the next regiment!