I put on this game a few weeks back at the club here in Perth, Western Australia. It was a bit of an eye candy game for shots for the new club revamped website and gave me and Rabbitz an excuse to dig out our home made terrain, buildings, try a few rules variations and most importantly use my train!!
The scenario is set in the Sudan at the time the British were pushing a military railway from the town of Suakin inland with the intention of relieving Khartoum .In this hypothetical scenario a depot and watering point along the railway has been cut off due to heavy flash floods. Seizing the opportunity a local emir has decided to try to destroy the British forces cut off there as well as seize their arms and whatever stores exist.
The scene starts three days after the start of the battle. The company of Black Watch holding the depot have been reduced to only a platoon and have around twenty wounded. They have a captain and a sergeant left amongst the able bodied. Most of the laborers have either run away or have been cut to pieces by the Mahdists. One notable exception is a small unit of Sudanese irregulars under the command of their leader Mohammad who have held steady and even earned the respect of the dour highlanders. A force of 20 Scots and 20 Sudanese in all. They have limited ammunition of three rounds per figure, though it was up to the British player how he apportioned this (he gave most of it all to the Scots who in theory could shoot better!)
The Mahdists have suffered great casualties but seeing the weakened forces are risking one last desperate attack. Word has reached the Emir that repair crews are patching up the track and relief is not far away. The Mahdists have a force of 20 cavalry, 10 camels and 100 sword and spear armed Ansar and Beja. To even out the playing field I had agreed that the Mahdists would have no rifles or we assumed they had used all ammunition up.
The train bringing the relief convoy (naval brigade) was to arrive on the gaming table on a roll of 6 from the second turn, 5/6 on the third and so on and so forth. The British were allowed to place defences anywhere on the table. I was then able to plot an attack based on the defences and allocate my forces to what I hoped would be weak points.
And so, as the sun rises on the desert a thin railway snakes through the wreckage of three days of fighting and many anxious eyes peer out from the depot buildings as the drums start one last time…
Sgt. McFarlane (who was later that day to become famous for head-butting a camel) looked out from the rooftops and sees the first sign of trouble as the Beja charge from cover to the south and south west.
Simultaneously a large band of Baggara Horsemen charge up the railway line from the west.
Captain Hughes surveys the scene from horseback and orders men to the sandbag defences while casualties are sheltered within the redoubt sited in the centre of the buildings.
More Ansar break from cover and charge across the oasis from the east this time, darting between the rocks and tufts of spinifex grass. Following on their heels come the Beja spearmen on camels. Clouds of dust are being kicked up all around the British as the Captain hopes the wadi to his north is still full of water and preventing attack from this direction..
The Mahdists roll well for movement and cross ground incredibly quickly in most cases. It looks like the British will only get one or maybe two shots in. The first firing rings out. Not volleys as ammunition is so short each man is selecting a target and firing at will. Six casualties get taken off the table…mostly from the irregulars who seem to be shooting more steadily.
The Emir at the head of his cavalry charges in to the town without a single casualty and a sea of white is closing on a defence that at this stage looks too spread out. The Beja are the first to reach the outer defences. Playing hopefully in character I chose a direct attack line which meant they were delayed a turn in hurdling the sandbags and not choosing the easier but more circuitous route. But this time the volleys proved more effective. Another ten casualties taken off the table, with many of those coming from the first Beja unit. The cavalry were also starting to take casualties.
Captain Hughes ordered a retreat into the redoubt and the rooftops and gallantly charges his mount over the top of the redoubt. Not sure how many casualties he squashed in doing this! The irregulars however were refused entry and had to stick behind their outflanked sandbag defences as hordes of Beja pounced on them. Some very bitter hand to hand fighting ensued where both Beja and irregulars passed every stand fast test and literally cut each other to pieces. But it was the Beja who were wiped out. The British cheered support from behind their ten foot redoubt while the four remaining Sudanese saw the next fresh Beja unit come swooping in.
Meanwhile the Ansar units had closed with the town. One was busy climbing the steps of the two storey house while the other had made it almost to the edge of the large redoubt. The crack of Martini Henry rifles from the rooftops was deafening as the cavalry finally entered the centre of town and were caught in a crossfire from the redoubt and every rooftop. Charging the redoubt almost half the unit were brought down immediately by accurate fire while the others that successfully jumped the barrier were brought down with bayonets as they landed. Only my Emir had survived!
Then things took a worse turn for the Mahdists. My fresh Beja unit failed a charge test and became pinned and confused. They never did recover and were last seen scarpering off the table edge completely unharmed! My final beja unit were now bottlenecked in the only entranceway to one of the houses where two Black Watch stubbornly bayoneted anything that moved.
Meanwhile the Ansar had broken through onto the rooftop of the other building. Finally some hand to hand. Very quick and very bloody. At the end only the sergeant and one other highlander stood on the rooftop, surrounded by dead Mahdists and irregulars. Those irregulars that had survived had jumped over the side and were running full pelt off the table…
At the redoubt it was hard bayonet and rifle butt work. Ammunition had run out and it was all or nothing with Beja swordsmen and Ansar swarming over the top. But it just took too long to get over and this gave the Brits the vital advantage. Even the Emir, screaming from atop the station platform could not get them over. Only six defenders killed dozens…Even the camels who all managed the jump into the redoubt only managed to kill a couple of orderlies before being cut down by the cutlass of the captain. Must have been a lot of dead horses/ camels in that redoubt by the end…
And then from the distance the sound of a locomotive… The naval brigade arrived on the scene to …not do much at all really. They peppered the last remaining beja unit with the Gatling gun mounted on the flat car and were just in time to see the dust from the Emirs horse as it whisked him away…
Casualties? Lost count of mine but I probably only had a third of my existing force fleeing the table at the end. The British only had four able bodied Sudanese irregulars left by the end (what heroes!) and had lost six of their own Black Watch dead, so were reduced to less than half their starting force.
Lessons learned? When faced with overwhelming numbers creating bottlenecks is the way to go. Then you even the score by fighting though doorways and windows and make every step hard won. This tactic certainly worked as if the British had stayed in their outer defences they’d have been cut to pieces (rather like the Sudanese…bad show chaps). The rule set (the Sword and the Flame) worked well even with so many figures on the table and the simplified rules we’d made for wounds and melee helped keep the pace going.
The game was a good excuse to get my highlanders on the table. I’d been putting off painting them as in a way they were a reward for getting though so many units of fuzzies!
My opponent, Rabbitz played in character with the Brits and hardly did I see the stiff upper lip tremble…Looks like I’ll need more Mahdists next time…
Anyone else hear those drums?
Cheers
TJG
Welcome, Guest. Please 
April 25, 2024, 12:00:42 AM
March 30, 2008, 11:28:58 PM
