New Books and Plans

     Since finding HORDES OF THE EMPIRE  by Paul Potter, Blake Radetzky, and Terry Webb, and WHEN EMPIRES CLASH! by Bob Cordery, and their armies list, I have started work on my British colonial figures.  In a couple of practice games, the results seem that either side could have won the battle. I have started looking through my Peter Laing figures for opponents to the British. I have found several, and have ordered new rubber to make molds of these figures.

    I think anyone who has studied the colonial wars have come across Michael Barthorps' books on different campaigns of the Victorian period.  I have several of his books and went looking for more. I have bought several books  in the last week by various authors about British colonial wars and they have started arriving. In the meantime , I have started reading Donald Featherstones' KHAKI AND RED, which is a good overview of the period.

   When I started getting back into toy soldiers one manufacturer that caught my attention was William Hocker, who made a line of colonial British soldiers along the style of Wm. Britains. At the time I bought a catalog of color picture of his line. Looking at the pictures, I have been thinking of painting some of the Peter Laing figures using the Wm. Hocker pictures as a guide. I have already painted a unit of the Royal Berkshire Regiment.

This book covers the first Maori War.

My Peter Laing Royal Berkshire Regiment.

Another Zulu Wargame

   I wanted to try a couple of ideas for using my colonial troops. I came across Bob Corderys' WHEN EMPIRES CLASH! rules (I ordered the book online) and wanted to try his point system for troops. I rolled a 20D to decide on how many points the armies would have (what would I have done if I rolled a 1? Not the smartest system!) I rolled a 16. The Zulus would have 8 units, the British 4 infantry units, 1 Natal Native Contingent, and the Frontier horse. I used Bob Corderys' MEMOIR OF BATTLE rules.

The Zulus enter from the left, the British from the right.

The Zulus swarm over the large hill in the background.

The Zulus push back the NNC, the Frontier Horse, and two infantry units.

The British rally and push the Zulus back.

The NNC overruns one Zulu unit.

The Frontier Horse pushes back the Zulus left flank, but is now surrounded on three sides.

The Zulus now slam into the British line, causing heavy losses. One British unit is overrun.

Another shot of the slaughter in the British center.

The British, despite their losses, rally and eliminates three Zulu units. I was using Bob Cordery's rule where once an army loses 50% of their units, it can no longer advance. The Zulus have lost 4 out of 8 units.

For the British it looks like a victory.

However, at this point I realized that some of the Zulus were in contact with British forces. The British have already lost one unit. If the Zulus could eliminate two more units, the battle would end in a draw.

The Zulus strike! They manage to destroy one British infantry unit, however, their hopes of eliminating the Frontier Horse fails; the Frontier Horse retreats. At this point the British infantry can just hold back out of range of the Zulu spears and pick off the Zulus. Wisely, the Zulus retreat.

I find using the army point system makes it easier for me to make balanced armies when using native troops. I believe Bob Corderys system is better than the Hordes of the Empire system, as most of the HotE units are rated at 2; Bob Cordreys breaks the different units down into 4 different rating. In this game if I had used HotE, both armies would have 8 units. As it was in this game, it was a near run thing.