Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Colonial Adventures => Topic started by: DintheDin on May 06, 2018, 05:54:05 PM
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22 January 1879.
130 British soldiers have made improvised fortifications between two buildings, in a place known as Rorke's Drift, facing about 4.000 Zulu warriors. Both sides fought with passion and heroism. After the British victory in Rorke's Drift the prestige of the British Army was restored, after having suffered a bitter destruction in Isandlwana, a few miles away.
Strategically, Rorke's Drift was a grave mistake from the part of the Zulus. The battle was a result of the strongeadedness of prince Dabulamanzi, leader of 4.000 warriors of the reserve, who had not taken part in Isandlwana. Not obeying to the orders of king Getshwayo, they crossed Mzinyathi river and attacked a small border station. Rorke's Drift.
The rest, is written in history.
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The game was played with Miltiades' colonial rules. We decided not to play it as an antagonist game, but to test the rules and see what could be the best strategy for the British player, how he could check the waves of the Zulu hordes, coming from all directions.
Nick, offered to play the part of the British player.
Here are the initial dispositions of the British soldiers
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Miltiades had even taken care to provide casualty figures, representing the invalids to be evacuated from the hospital.
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The game begins. The first two Zulu Impis, appear!
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Wow, really nice! Where is the Drift terrain from? The figures look like Eschi/Italeri. Nice buildings & barricades!
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Many Zulus fall, but they manage to come in close contact! The hospital is besieged...
One more impi appears from the side between the small kraal and the storehouse!
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The Zulus remain more than two rounds in contact with the hospital.
They set fire on the thatched roof! The sick and wounded must be evacuated!
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Wow, really nice! Where is the Drift terrain from? The figures look like Eschi/Italeri. Nice buildings & barricades!
Thank you! Buildings are Hovels, painted by Miltiades. Figures are from ESCI/Italeri and some metal.
Ground is from Pedion Terrain http://pedionterrain.blogspot.gr/
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The fight becomes intense and Zulus break the perimeter!
The British player managed to evacuate the hospital without casualties (each figure remaining inside needing 4,5,6 to survive)
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The fact that we do not see many more Zulus on table is because for two consecutive rounds the Zulu player brought a one.
However, British casualties start mounting...
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Some sick and wounded are attacked... Also, the "fort" is in peril!
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Hmmm, with the perimeter broken I think Tommy may be in trouble. The whole thing looks great and sounds like a lot of fun; I've always thought Rorke's Drift is one of the perfect little wargames: a very dramatic situation (if the English lose they die), colourful uniforms and types on each side, fun modelling opportunities, and of course the chance to paint hordes of Zulus! It also plays well with all the players on one side, which I like (we've always had the natives controlled by the rules, but it could be reversed).
Thank you for sharing!
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Hmmm, with the perimeter broken I think Tommy may be in trouble. The whole thing looks great and sounds like a lot of fun; I've always thought Rorke's Drift is one of the perfect little wargames: a very dramatic situation (if the English lose they die), colourful uniforms and types on each side, fun modelling opportunities, and of course the chance to paint hordes of Zulus! It also plays well with all the players on one side, which I like (we've always had the natives controlled by the rules, but it could be reversed).
Thank you for sharing!
Hi! I think you said almost everything! We've played this scenario 4-5 times and every time the result was different. In any case, the British player needs to use very witty tactics to survive
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The British player made a classical mistake: Instead of falling back and shooting, opening some distance from the attackers, decided to stay and fight hand-to-hand. As a result, some groups were isolated, encircled and perished...
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Yet, more Zulus are coming!
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...when he finally decided to consolidate, falling back to the "Fort" it was too late...
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The last stand. when the British lost over 48 figures, we decided to call it a Zulu victory.
The Zulus lost 100+ figures, but were far from 140, this number giving victory to the British.
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Bravo! An old favourite here, this one. We've seen it many times, but we never get tired of seeing it again.
Situated as I am, here in the Welsh Borders, not too far away from Brecon; they'll probably skin me alive for saying so, but it's nice to see the Zulus win once in a while. :)
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Really looks good! Richard
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Bravo! An old favourite here, this one. We've seen it many times, but we never get tired of seeing it again.
Situated as I am, here in the Welsh Borders, not too far away from Brecon; they'll probably skin me alive for saying so, but it's nice to see the Zulus win once in a while. :)
I'm glad you enjoyed it! I hope you won't have to walk around wearing dark glasses and a false beard after all what you said lol
We have played this scenario at least five more times and I have taken both parts. The result was never the same.
Two oddities happened in this game:
The scenario provides that on the hills, out of the table, Zulus with rifles are sniping at the British.
They throw 4 D10 each round and on a "0" the British has one casualty.
In every scenario the British could count at least five to seven casualties, in this one they lost only one.
Second, after the hospital being set on fire, the British have some casualties from the soldiers and the sick and wounded defending it. In this game, all escaped safe, but some wounded were hacked down by Zulus that broke the perimeter while trying to walk for refuge from the hospital to the storehouse.
We saw one different game one more time and I think we'll be coming back to play it again!
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Really looks good! Richard
Thanks Richard! The biggest effort belongs to Miltiades who provided all the stuff and is the author of the rules.
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I had a feeling that would happen. ;) Simply superb AAR and photos, Din! And it is fun to see the Zulus win sometimes. In fact, seeing all this tempts me to do such a project myself, and I really, really don't need that just now. Many thanks for the report and pics!
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I had a feeling that would happen. ;) Simply superb AAR and photos, Din! And it is fun to see the Zulus win sometimes. In fact, seeing all this tempts me to do such a project myself, and I really, really don't need that just now. Many thanks for the report and pics!
You're welcome! Thanks for your kind words! Glad you're tempted for such a project, scenarios such as this have given us hours of enjoyment!
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Hi guys... Dinos you posted too many pics but you missed this one here ... it's nice to see us fighting on the same side... lol
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My wonderful boys ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
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My wonderful boys ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
He he! Next time, you'll try the British!
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Great fun to have pictures behind the names! :)
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Great fun to have pictures behind the names! :)
...and useful to tag names behind the pictures! lol
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Hi guys... Dinos you posted too many pics but you missed this one here ... it's nice to see us fighting on the same side... lol
Ha ha... Yes, I took many pictures but this one is taken by Nick, we thank him for coming to play.
I have also to thank you, you have all the stuff needed for playing a good colonial game, figures and all.
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Great game!