And so the day began, much like the day before it, but with the promise of relief. Dust clouds had been seen along the road toward the main force, maybe the good Colonel could see fit to send us some more men. Yesterday’s fight was bloody but at sundown, we still held the hospital, if only just.

-Memoirs of the Zulu War, Col. Reginald Heathe (ret.), commander of the Royal Oak Bay Volunteers 1875-1891

Sunday marked our second Zulu War game, the first to include figures from all five players who have bought in (myself, Malcolm, Dale, Bruce, and Nathan). Also debuting this game was my hospital, built on an imperial-ized version of Matakishi’s detailed plans.

The back story I concocted for this game was that my Royal Oak Bay Volunteers had found themselves under siege yesterday and had narrowly carried the day, but were holed in the hospital and required relief. This explained my single company on the table (my remaining British and Zulu are unbuilt). A large relief column was moving towards the hospital in an attempt to relieve it.

It all began well enough. Zulus appeared at one of six random locations under a blind, usually two blinds at a time. Luck meant that most of the blinds started in one of the two locations nearest the hospital, representing the forces from the day before coming back. The column moved slowly, but ground towards me. As our Zulus are “AI controlled”, the random stance they choose was to stand back and fire their muskets and chuck their spears against me. All was well, the Royal Oak Bay were holding.

At this point, it all went off the rails. The relief column got bogged down in heavy terrain and by the time any numbers of them could have arrived, Zulus were already attacking the front of the wagon train, leaving the Royal Oak Bay all alone. And then the Zulu’s charged. Given the difficulties both of us had in scoring any hits through the windows and doors, I lasted a surprising long time, outnumbered and worse in melee than the Zulu.

The action was hot and close. The Zulus pressing on all sides of the hospital, finally testing their spears against our bayonets. With many doors and not enough men, I was forced to step straight into the breach, holding the door nearest our relief. I parried their spears thrusts with my saber, finally driving them back. I could see the relief column, but it appeared swarmed under with Zulus. As I turned to give encouragement to my men, I saw not a single standing red coat. What I saw instead was a wall of black Zulu warriors.

– Memoirs of the Zulu War, Col. Reginald Heathe (ret.)

With the hospital fallen, the Zulus ground the British back, forcing them to retreat inch by inch. More Zulus appeared in the right flank of the column, but those Zulus discovered the pain of a gatling gun.

By nightfall, the British were tired and bloody. They retreated in poor order, leaving the hospital and this part of veldt to the Zulus for a little while longer.

As with our last game, we used Triumph and Tragedy, albeit heavily modified. Besides the aforementioned AI Zulus, the action is driven by cards which specify a certain command, either for the British or the Zulus. These include the basic T&T Fire, Fire and Move, Double Move, but also Zulu Charge, Zulu Command (which may change their tactics), and Hordes of Zulus (which puts new blinds on the table). In an effort to bring an end to the game, we decided that each player that had Zulus could lose up to four groups before they could bring no new groups on. Still, with over 250 Zulus between the four, we still didn’t end up with all the Zulus on the table at any one time.

All in all, an enjoyable game. Our rules are still in flux, but they appear to producing a good result. Now we just need to win. There are a few pictures that haven’t been seen here, they can be seen in my A hospital unrelieved Flickr group.

Zulus sir, thousands of them!

Well, dozens at least. We have recently decided to start down the Zulu War path, but haven’t made it very far down that path. In fact, I think we made it about 1/4 across the table today, our first Zulu Wars game.

As my Warlord Games figures have not yet shown up, we were quite light on the troops. I borrowed the 4th Coy of the 14th Fernwood, Malcolm ran his 3rd Coy, Bruce had a wagon train, and Dale another unit of infantry and a gatling gun. We pretty much all died.

I got to lead the whole day, an “honour” for which my slain commander, Captain Bromhead, scored our first Victoria’s Cross. At first, the Zulus were just a hazy sight in the distance (made hazier by Bromhead having lost an eye in the Indian Mutiny of 1857).

However, the Zulus very rapidly became not-so-hazy. Very distinct as a matter of fact. They were kind enough to remain at a distance, allowing me to very sportingly shoot them. (Later arrivals weren’t nearly so accommodating. Hence the VC.)

Bored at being out of action, our gatling gun decided to go and discover some Zulus via running to our extreme left flank. Shortly Zulus were discovered, and sent packing. The Horns of the Buffalo card meant that “sent packing” actually meant “gone to get their friends.” Amusing result on the right flank was a herd of cattle. Horn of the cattle more like.

The left flank went from “Gee, I don’t think they should be all the way over there” to “Oh crap, we are overrun” in very short order. Colonel Spiffer, shiny white uniform and all, quickly found himself surrounded. Being a hero, he was able to extricate himself. Our gatling gun, on the other hand… Let’s just say that rumours of the Zulus using a gatling gun a month later are totally untrue. Slanderous treason, in fact.

All this action to flank quickly evolved into action across the entire front as Zulus, hot off their success against our gatling gun, attempted a front assault. Flesh was pressed, personal details (and bodily fluids) were exchanged, and everybody got screwed in the deal.

In due course this wave of Zulus was sent packing, but the next wave sent both my brave 4th of the 14th, and Dale’s scurrying for the rear. Which leaves only the 3rd to hold the line. I think the next two pictures tell the story.

And so ends our first action of the Zulu War. We can only hope that better painted troops will fare better (although that is likely to hold true for the Zulus as well).

Our rules are based very loosely off of Triumph and Tragedy (from the superlative Lead Adventure forums) with a great deal of rules changed. First and foremost, we ran our Zulus as AI-controlled with dice to determine action. There are many on the fly changes to the modifiers, as we sought to get the right “feel”. We also changed from i-go-you-go to alternating half-way through, again to test rules.

We also experimented where the overall commander, in this case Malcolm, handed out two order cards (from the standard T&T deck) to each player at the start of each turn. This led to a lot of jockeying for a specific card, especially as our situation became more desperate.

Figures are mostly Warlord Games, with some Empress, Wargames Factory and Essex. Terrain is a mixture of mine and Malcolm’s.