Zulu Wargame

   After getting my new British Camel Corps figures I started thinking of doing some Colonial gaming.  Ross MacFarlane at Battle Game of the Month came up with his own Battle Cry rules for the Colonial period. I have wanted to try them out so I played a quick game on my Heroscape board. 

  The game was to be a column of British soldiers guarding a group of porters moving supplies. There is known to be a large force of Zulus in the area. Instead of using the Battle Cry cards, I was going to use my average dice. As I set up the game, I started thinking there might be a problem with my scenario, as will be seen in the photos.

The British force. A squadron of regular cavalry, a squadron of irregular cavalry, two companies of regulars and two companies of highlanders. The commander of the column is with one of the regular companies. The porters can be seen behind the soldiers. To win, the porters must cross the board.  Here is where I think the scenario fell apart. The Zulus had to get to the porters before crossing the board. Half of the Zulus had no real chance to get at the porters.

The board as set up. After looking at the rules, I realized I shorted the Zulus 1 man per unit (melee armed units have 5 figures, not 4).

I added the extra figures to the Zulus.

The Zulu right advances to try to cut off the column.

The Regular cavalry charge the Zulu left.

They force back one Zulu unit and in their followup attack kill three more Zulus.

The Zulus on their turn wipes out the regular cavalry.

The British throw forward one company to try to hold the Zulu right off.

At this point the Zulus try to get their entire right wing in motion.

The British form a line on the hill.

The British fire drives back the Zulus. At the extreme left can be seen the irregular horse engaging one Zulu unit which is trying to get behind the line.

The irregular cavalry has killed 4 Zulus and driven the last back.

The Zulus charge the British line with three units.

The British suffer heavy losses. The company that the commander is with is wiped out, and the highlanders lose 3 men. Meanwhile the lone zulu on the right kills one irregular cavalryman and drives the other two back.

The British commander falls back on the other regular company and one highland unit retreats to the hill.

Heavy fire from the British line kills 5 Zulus and drives them back.

The irregular cavalry drives back the lone Zulu.

The Zulus kill two more highlanders.

The Zulus wipe out one highlander companies. The Zulus push forward another unit to make for the porters.

Between the infantry and irregular horse, the Zulu unit is destroyed. Meanwhile, fire from the highlander eliminates the Zulus on their right. At this point in the game the Zulus stood no chance of getting to the porters, and so conceded the game. The last couple of Zulu rolls they only rolled two's. I should have allowed the Zulus to double their rolls, which  would have given them a better chance against the long range fire of the British.