A Wargaming Disaster

        I have been thinking of how to best use the army lists from Horde of the Empire and When Empires Clash!. While the lists might work well with the rules they are meant for, they may not necessarily work with Memoir of Battle. In the last game I had a unit of Natal Native Contingent. In the game I treated it as an irregular infantry unit, but it was basically a regular infantry unit. I could have made the whole army "irregular infantry"; it would have the same number of soldiers in a unit and the same fighting abilities and would have had more units.  There has to be a way to make it where it would not have the staying power in battle. One idea is to have one less figure in the unit, where it would only take 3 hits instead of 4 to eliminate. I have also decided to make the board larger. I find that the armies close too fast, and maneuvering is limited.

      I wanted to try some of the ideas so I once again broke out my Zulus and Brits. There were no terrain features. I chose to have both armies have 24 APs (I didn't charge for the generals). I used Bob Corderys' WHEN EMPIRES CLASH! army chart. The Zulus had 12 units plus their general. The British had 5 regular infantry units, 1 irregular infantry unit (three men in the unit), 1 artillery unit, one regular cavalry unit, and one irregular cavalry unit(2 horsemen), and their general. The irregular units had one less figure than the regulars.

The armies face off.

After the first move. The British try to give themselves room to retreat.

The british open fire, but it does little to slow the Zulu advance.

The Zulu "loins" hits the British center, pushing back the irregular infantry and one infantry unit. As can be seen, the retreat puts the units back on their baseline.

A disaster for the British! Three British units are forced off the board, including the British general, who was with the artillery! If the British loses two more units, they lose the battle. 

Another shot of the above. The Zulus "horns" start to work around the British flanks.

The British tries to consolidate their line and cuts off one Zulu unit. The lancers attack the isolated Zulu unit.

The surrounded Zulus hold on, but the British manage to push back some of the Zulus.

At this point the Zulu "horns" get behind the British lines.

The Zulus crush the last of the British infantry. All that's left of the British army is the lancers.

Another shot of the Zulu victory.

The lancers manage to fight their way through the Zulus and make their escape. The British haven't suffered such a disaster since Isandlwana!

I was quite surprise that the traditional Zulu battle formation worked so well in this game.  I wasn't paying attention during the British move and didn't see the threat.

For this game I used my original board. I think having a larger board would have benefited the British, at least in the short term. They would have had more room for retreating. I have some BATTLE CRY variants, including one for the Zulu War. Perhaps those rules will help in the organization of the size of the units.