Last night at the club we had another 28mm Zulu game, this time using The Sword and The Flame, a set of 30 year old set of rules which generally have been unavailable in the UK.
Scenario – Seek and DestroySet out from Kambula on the orders of Colonel Evelyn Wood, commanding No 4 column, to deal with two renegade Zulu bands which have been raiding locally and preventing Uhamu, Cetshwayo’s half brother from bringing his people into Natal – he is currently in hiding near the Swazi border.
The raiders are Mblini, Swazi freebooter with a band of renegade Zulus and Manyanyoba a petty Zulu chieftain. The raiders have been attacking isolated kraals and homesteads for miles.
Take 2 platoons of the 13th Foot (Prince Albert's Regiment of Light Infantry) with sufficient wagons and mules to carry supplies, seek and destroy the renegade Zulus. Nominate 1 player to be the ranking British officer.
British Forces2 Platoons with a sergeant, commanded by a Lieutenant. (Each totalling 20 figures, all ranks)
Company Sergeant Major
Captain, Officer Commanding.
Zulu ForcesEach Zulu band (Ibutho) comprises 3 Iviyo let by a minor Induna and let by a Senior Induna (Mblini or Manyanyoba) (61 figures)
I in 6 of the Zulu warriors are armed with antiquated muskets, they may fire from the front of their units, there are insufficient numbers to form a skirmish unit.
The BattleThe previous post gave the scenario for last nights game, we grabbed some terrain tiles, lichen, some rocks and a few trees and put together a 6' x 6' table. The two British platoons entered from this far table edge. Here Stu and Mark are discussing possible tactics.
The Zulu players, another Mark and myself decide to put 4 of our units in plain view on the table and have the other 2 hidden in cover ready to surprise the British. No plan survives contact with the enemy as one platoon of British advance down one table edge and blunder into a Zulu Iviyo. The Zulus unable to declare a charge, move out of rifle range.
With the Zulus now seemingly committed the advance against the thin red (and blue) line.
Half a platoon of the 13th commanded by the sergeant climb the hill to gain better firing positions, the Zulu unit in front of the hill has charged the one end of the Naval Brigade but has left stragglers and wounded behind. Meanwhile the units of renegade Zulus advance.
The Naval Brigade easily beat of the attack, as the survivors flee, another Iviyo advances on the sailors.
It was at this point the Zulu players decided "Hey we should let them advance on to the table some more, maybe we can split them up" then proceeded to ignore that excellent idea and instead try to break the Naval Brigade with a whole Ibutho.
To take some of the pressure off the Zulus facing the Naval Brigade, Zulus attack the section at the base of the hill and inevitably lose.
No this is getting to the point when you start to think that the Zulus can't lose this melee.
The Zulus charge in and the British roll lucky, and turning back to back fight off the natives. .
Breaking the Zulus who flee, ready for the next unit to attack
Now a fresh unit starts to charge home led by Mblini, the renegade Swazi.
But lucky British shooting kills Mblini, the leader of the attacking Ibutho and his followers are stunned with shock and fail to charge home! They stand before the British and take a withering volley after which British victory was declared and this part of Zulu land was declared tamed.
Overall the rules worked well, clearly a couple of things could have worked better for us. The Zulus can't penny packet their rifles as they are needed to thin down the British before the attack, I have some questions regarding wounded figures and of course we probably should have remembered to throw spears on the way in - next time we will remember.
Paul
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April 28, 2024, 09:58:39 PM
March 30, 2010, 04:42:10 PM