Greetings fellow adventurers for Empire. I recently acquired a 15mm Anglo-Zulu force and have had 3 enjoyable forays into Zululand so far, using Black Powder. The most recent was based on the opening action at Sihayo's Kraal on 12th January 1879. This saw General Chelmsford attacking a Zulu stronghold with 4 companies of the 1/24th, 1/3rd NNC battalion, plus mounted troops. The British outnumbered the defenders but the latter held broken, high ground and their fire at one stage broke the lines and forced the NNC to flee until rallied (see "In Zululand with the British Throughout the War of 1879" by Charles L. Norris-Newman, Chapter V, for a detailed account).
My game saw the British regulars on the left-flank roll a 'blunder' right away and charge forward spiritedly, revealing a hidden unit defending the kraal. The lead compamy became repeatedly disorderd under fire from the Zulus on the cliffs above, whilst the Mtd Infantry got into trouble on the right-flank. The NNC resolutely refused to advance at first, but eventually joined in the assault up the mountain.
There was lots of spirited close-quarter action along the whole battle-front, for the kraal, cliffs and main mountain track. Eventually the British infantry stormed the kraal and left cliff-top, capturing half the Zulu cattle-herd. But meanwhile the NNC had been pushed back and the Mtd Infantry had broken. This left both sides overall forces army-morale 'broken' and inclined to mutual retirement. with the Zulus escaping with the remaining cattle.
I found 'Black Powder' did a great job of capturing the shifting morale states of the forces and the drama of a close-quarter assault. Plus the fact that casaulties are abstracted into morale results means losses for this level of historiacal action are not off the scale of realism.
Zulus:
Brigade #1 of 5 skirmisher units
British:
Brigade #1 of 4 regular infantry, Steady rule (I did not use Stubborn rule as I felt this is more appropriate to defending against the odds situation, not one where they were in superior force and attacking)
Brigade #2 of 1 NNC skirmish unit + 4 NNC warbands, with Unreliable and morale 5 /stamina 2 (though one warband were exiled Zulus, so had standard morale)
Brigade #3 of 1 Mtd Infantry Unit, Steady when dismounted (alas they got into a right pickle and never got to deploy properly before retiring...Doubtless bad ground...officer killed...several horses shot and a number of wounded).
The cliffs and the ground below were described as very broken and caused the British difficulty maintaining their formed lines so I had a roll of 'D6 giving a disorder result on a '6' anytime a unit moved in non-skirmish formation.
Usuthu!
30 September 2009, 05:10:35 PM