Hello,
and now as the Tactica is over and many skirmishes and battles have been fought on dessert ground here is the promised report. Part 1
First of all I like to thank Thorulf ( Jerome ) for his pictures.
I also like to thank the gamers who played the small campaign with me. That was not easy on Saturdays because the hall was so overcrowded with people and the room was filled with noises and some bad air.
And all around was the sound of trumpets, drums and firing guns. While the Sergeants were shouting "Volley Fiiire "
Anyway... thank you guys for making the game entertaining. We were also filmed by a German online gaming magazine called Magabotato. Thanks for that too.
Let me switch to the report now.
You can see the besieged city. The Mahdist charge the walls and are driven back. Gordon stands on the city roof in the center beside the flag. Life goes on at the harbour. Slaves are driven along the piers and some civilians try to escape with small steam boats.
The city is a mix of scratch build and commercially build houses. Most of them from Jens Najewitz. There is also an Italieri building ( beside the tower ) and two buildings are from Ziterdes I think. They belong all to Frank Beckers collection.
The civilians who fill the city with life are from my collection. Foundry and Eureka I think.
Dont know what company the small steamer is. HLBS ? Maybe some of you guys know. He usually has a sun protection on aft.
As written earlier above I wanted to play a 5 game campaign on this board. Fits better with the Triumph & Tragedy rules and is more comfortable for a convention.
The British player had 4 white feathers. He had to win a mission to discard one feather. If he was able to discard all feathers Khartoum will be reached on time and Gordon would be saved.
Mission one was played in and beside the ravine. The British player had to break through the Mahdist lines and install the Heliograph on top of the ridge.
His available forces were the Camel Corps, four Units Infantry ( one Naval Unit ) and a Gardner Gun a supporting Gun Boat ( beautifully scratchbuild by Michael Immig - unfortunately no picture available yet ) plus our hero Dick Blunt. He knew there was an ambush and the Camel Corps Job was to find the ambush.
Soon enough Mahdists were swirling through the dessert and first shots were fired into the storming masses. The Mahdists had four 20 men strong units. Although the British fired volley after volley into the Ansar warrior and shells from the gun boat struck into the enemy the combined fire could not prevent that one British unit was overrun and wiped out.
The game lasted full 7 rounds and it was a very close game. A few more inches and the British would have won. Though it was a Mahdists victory.
I think the British lost the game because they were too carefully but I might be wrong. In the end it could have been poor dicing ...
The second Mission was to defend the Heliograph against charging Mahdists. This was a very static game but also fun. it simulated perfectly what happens to charging Ansar when they attack a British firing line supported by gun boat and machine gun fire.
The British had three infantry units, one Gardner gun and the supporting gun boat. The charging Mahdists had cavalry, four large infantry units, one rifle unit plus a hero.
The picture shows the charging cavalry. The game was a bit different. The Mahdists sent the infantry into the attack first, the cavalry was trying to outflank the British while the rifle unit was sneaking up the river bank.
It was a honor that Plynkes from this Forum played this game. His British accent and stubbornness gave the game a big portion of fun. Its a difference if a German wargamer says : "Ok this unit plays a volley Fire action " or a British guy shouts " Volley Fiiire " with a certain accent that would make a Victorian army sergeant blush. But even Plynkes keep calm and carry on attitude didnt help to stop the masses. The Heliograph was captured by the Mahdists. Gordons chances running through the hourglass...
It looks like everything works fine for the Mahdi...
As soon I have more pictures available I continue the report. Thanks for reading.
Björn
12 January 2025, 08:52:43 PM
