Sudan Game Battle of Tamai

Saturday 13th April, Devon Wargames Club Game , Exeter...

Sudan Game loosely based on the Battle of Tamai... using the Blackpowder Rules system...

The British forces (approx 3,300 men) fresh from their victory at El Teb (2nd) a fortnight later are advancing towards the primitive settlements of Tamanieb and Tamai, they are to be met on the field of battle by 9,000-12,000 Bija tribesmen...

The battle was fought on an 8'x6' board, objectives:- the British having to enter at one end and exit the other with the majority of the force intact, The Dervish, Kill the British...

"View from the British end, looking up at the Donga and the broken ground leading to the slope towards the edge of the board."

"View from the hill looking down"

 

The British forces GOC: Maj.Gen Sir Gerald Graham VC KCB (Gus and Vince)

1st Brigade - Brig. Gen. Sir Redvers Buller VC KCMG CB (Vince)

3rd Battalion The Kings Royal Rifle Corps (KRRC)

1st Battalion The Gordon Highlanders

2nd Battalion Royal Irish Fusiliers

6th Battery Scottish Div. RA.

 

2nd Brigade - Maj.Gen. J. Davis (Gus)

Royal Marines (RMLI)

1st Battalion The Black Watch

1st Battalion The Yorks and Lancaster Reg.

Naval Brigade with Gatling & Nordfelts

 

Cavalry Brigade - Brig.Gen. H. Stewart CB (Vince)

10th Hussars

19th Hussars

Mounted Infantry Company

Mahdists Forces Commanded by Muhammad Bey Musa Ibrahim (Chas, Steve, and Andy)               with 9,000-12,000 Bija Tribesmen...

Flag 1 (Andy)

6 x Bija Spearmen Warband Fanatics...

 

Flag 2 (Steve)

5 x Bija Spearmen Warband Fanatics...

2 x Bija Riflemen Skirmishers...

 

Flag 3 (Chas)

5 x Sudanese Spearmen Warband...

2 x Sudanese Rifle Warband...

 

Flag 4 (Chas)

4 x Sudanese Camel Spear Warband Skirmish...

1 x Sudanese Camel Rifle Warband Skirmish...

1 x Baggara Cavalry Rifle Warband...

1 x Baggara Cavalry Spear Warband...

 

The British arrive turn one, The cavalry are ordered to advance to the Donga and cover the advance, but fail, and only complete one advance, 1st Brigade advances onto the table one move in march column, 2nd Brigade fair better with a bounding move onto the table in Brigade square, reaching the Donga they realise its a bit steeper than they thought and will take one full move to cross next turn...
In turn one Chas's 3rdFlag was trailing the  British column on the left, this was determined by the players having to roll a D8 & D6 for their arrival point, but 24" away from the British forces...

Second turn saw Gus get some of his Brigade across the Donga, but landed in rough ground, and deployed into line with the most of his force, Vince deployed his gun and 19th Hussars covering the rear dust clouds, the remainder of his brigade advances on...

"Gus and the 2nd Brigade crossing the Donga"

 

"Vince and 1st Brigade"

 

It was at this point that Steve and his 2ndFlag arrive on the table 24" away to the front of Gus' Brigade... Steady Lads... mark your aim...
there were some shots fired across the open ground to no real avail... just getting the aim right of course...

As the next turn came on, the remainder of the Mahdist forces arrived on board, Andy and his Bija on the hill, accompanied by Chas's Cavalry Flag, it was at this point that Chas chose to bring on the Sudanese in the rear areas of the British advance faced by only a gun and some hussars...

"Andy arrives with the rest of the Bija tribe..."

 

"View of the Sudanese coming of the hill and the state of affairs of the front of the line"

 

"Gus and his RN & Marines firing line..."

 

"Steady... form your line... Are you sure you don't want to be in square?"

 

Vince manages to get his 1st Brigade Infantry back to his guns to meet the arrival of the Sudanese in the rear areas...

"Thats what caused the dust cloud..."

 

"Mmmm, what to do next... Good old Bullers..."

 

"Take aim... Fire!!!!"

 

Vince's firing line rips the Sudanese to pieces and halts their advance, however Andy's Bija are swarming over the Donga at a fast rate of knots...

"Advance in the heat of the day..."

 

The Mahdists players seem to co-ordinate their attacks in the next few turns, Steve's Flag charges, Gus firing line, Chas annoys the hussars and threatens the centre area and Gus's flank with his camels and cavalry, his Sudanese Infantry Flag are just bullet bait for 1st Brigade, and Andy's flag storms through the Donga areas, cutting through the dismounted infantry scouts in the Donga and manages to catch Vince's Gordons in the rear, can the British survive this onslaught...

 

"We may be in trouble here..."

 

"Tough fight along the line..."

"Bloody camels..."

 

With Bloody hand to hand fighting between Gus and Steve, Gus's line broke with the RN and Nordfelt falling to Spears, then the RMLI, leaving just the Yorks, holding the line with the Black Watch yet to feel cold steel...

"Yorks Hold.... Hold..."

 

Then the Yorks Break as well, allowing the Bija to swarm around the rear of the remaining line...

"Yorks break... Bija swarming..."

 

The 19th charge several times cutting through various Mahdist Cavalry and Camel units, pushing back the Cavalry flag by themselves, but the bell is tolling...

"19th Charge..."

 Meanwhile back at the 1st Brigade, Vince has been taken in the rear by Andy, to clarify  the Bija, hits the Irish and the Gordons in the rear whilst shooting the hell out of the Sudanese to their front, the Gordons hold their morale, but the Irish, just because Vince slurred their good names, broke and fled...

"Gordons left on their own..."

 

After another round of combat the Hussars were making short work of the Sudanese infantry, cutting them down with flank charges, but the Gordons then broke not withstanding the swarms of Bija around them and still being in line, leaving just the KRRC on the hill with the RA, however as soon as the Gordons broke the RA packed up and went home as well... Gus's Black Watch retired back to the Donda to take cover from the next onslaught, however the RN and gatling couldn't move, and were left as the rearguard, before being swamped by the remaining camels and Bija to their front...

"Bullers and his remaining troops on a small rise..."

"Black Watch fall back to the Donga, leaving the RN as rearguard..."

 

At this point the British realised their lot was up, and we finished the game, a resounding victory for the Mahdi and his followers, lots of British dead on the field of battle, did I mention squares???

 

Newspaper reports "Massacre at Tamai"...

 

However the Hussars are able to dine out on their exploits in the field, having made several valiant charges, all officers have been reprimanded and are confined to the Mess until the next time... 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Playtest of Chain of Command...

Friday 12th we (Jason, Gus and myself) playtested the new Two Fat Lardies WW2 CoC rules again... I say again because I was fortunate enough to play my first game with Panjo, under the supervision of Rich(TFL) at the Penarth Show earlier in the year (this show is really quite good and I would recomend it for a visit or any traders) these new rules for those of you have not heard of them yet break from the recent traditional TFL games, and dont have Big men as such, or blinds, there is a very interesting a fun mechanism for "patrol" phase, this is the pre set up phase, using 4 patrol markers each ... once these patrols meet and lock each other down, this then predetermines where you  set up your deployment areas, then you deploy your squads, fire teams, nco's and officer, such a simple but clever idea, and the game then runs on command dice each turn, 1's allowing you to command and fireteam/rifle team, 2's a squad without the nco firing as he is too busy co-ordinating the squad, 3's the junior nco and the squad actions, 4's allows a senior nco or officer to atake command, 5's grows your CoD dice by 1, this allowing you events once you reach 6 on your CoC dice, 6's now here is then fun bit, 1x6 nothing phase goes over to opponent once you have completed, 2x6 you get another go to throw your command dice after you have actioned these command dice, 3x6 you get another go and its end of turn after you have your go, 4x6 same as 3 but you get a special event as well, yeah, however these are good and bad as they can effect both sides positively and negatively, uh oh... 5x6 you win a car... no seriously...

and so to the game we played...

The table was layed out as below on a 6'x4' board

 

I wanted plenty of intervening terrain, cover and zones of fire...
The Germans deployed from the right and U.S. from the left, playing across the board as we wanted flanks exposed and opportunity to move and deploy...
The Germans had first move with their patrol markers, the U.S. following, but as can be seen the Gus soon leaped forward and pinned two of J's patrols, but failed to stop J entering the Chateau area, and equickly  getting his other two patrols pinned as well, leaving Gus with a patrol unpinned...
but forcing the placement of the deployment points, which have to be a minimum of 6" back from your patrol markers and in cover...

                                                        "German deployment areas"

                                                               "US deployment areas"

The Germans then have first go, Gus gets a decent command dice, which is determined by the quality of your grunts on the grounds, this being a play test they both had average platoons closing on each other, Gus rolls decent enough to get all three of his squads into play, taking cover behind the hedgerows, deploying there mg42's covering the road and crossroads, and preparing to advance, however his platoon sargeant and officer are still in the rear areas, smoking and having coffee, confident in their troops and junior nco's abilities...

                                                          "German deployment..."
The US on the other hand starts off with only two of his squads and his master sargeant on the board set up in their deployment areas, his LT remaining behind to bring up the assualt squad as reserve, his sargeant and a lead squad have been able to advance into the chateau area, the other squad deploy in and around the barn, the .30cal in a firing position covering the road and crossroads, can you see whats coming, very similar ideas from the commands...

"US deployment..."

The Germans first command phase, the mg42 opens up on the .30cal in an exchange of gunfire... and the german squads on the left move forward very timidly, as Gus stumbles over the wall and hedges of the French country side, his other mg42 firteam move off into the graveyard to get into a fire position of there own...
J's first bound of movement and action, and starts opening up with his .30cal down the road on the deployed MG42 in the triangle field area...

"German first bounding move..."

"Or not as it transpired..."

Gus's first squad and fireteam saty in position on the right but takes shock on the 42 from the .30cal firefight, and J entering the Chateau area, his move in there being as slow as the germans bounding advance, J then brings on his reserve squad behind the field on his far right trying to counter the german advance in the centre and flank, his centre squad advances out of the Barn to take up positions behind the fence at the crossroads...

"J contemplating his reserve platoons positioning"

 

"reserves on board and advancing, a rare smile from the Welsh Git..."

The exchange of fire between the 42 and .30cal escalates, the US taking hits and kills, where as the German only recieving shock and 1 casualty...  The german nco and officer have now arrived and the sarge is sent off to get the two units on the left sorted out and advancing whilst the officer sorts out the shock and takes command on his right flank covering the Chateau...

"Reserves arrive in time..."

 

"centre squad advance to crossroads..."

 

"and deploy in firing positions..."

 

The US get forward in the nick of time on the flank with the reserve squad being led by the Lt as the Germans are still struggling through the wheatfields, on the flank and centre, although the centre fares better and gets into a firing position in the centre field and in close range firefight causes casualties on J's centre squad and with the increase of casualties causes him to pull the centre squad and mg back to behind the barn so he can reorganise and keep them out of harms way...

"J gets there fastest with the mostest on his right flank..."

 

"shock starts mounting up, and the sarge has to come and sort them out..."

 

"casualties and shock mounts in the centre..."

 

Meanwhile the Germans continue their advance on the left and close range fire fights with the centre squad inflicts casualties on the US in the centre, forcing them back, then switches his fire to the US squad on his left flank who are chewing up the flanking squad and sargeant with withering fire, J getting some multiple plays firing like hell to cause  the german sarge to have to step in to sort out the shock but ends up getting lightly wounded in his efforts...

 

"shock and casualties on the german right mount and then sarge is hit WIA..."

The troops in the Chateau finally motivate themselves enough to get into firing postions at the wall and start exchanging shots at the german squad who have advanced about three inches across a hedge to a low stone wall on the road in this time, across the hard cover at each other shots are exchanged, and force the german squad back to their start point behind the hedge, this brings the US sarge to gather his mens strength and bravery and order them forward to the wall to take the fight to the germans, however on the right flank the fire on both sides is becomeing telling with casualties on both sides mounting up, the Lt takes a hit and is KIA, nightmare...

"US casualties mount, but then the LT is KIA..."

 

However the germans have had enough and have withdrawn this along with the wounded sargeant they bug out causing the german morale to fail, the engaement slips into the patter of small arms and the germans fall back leaving the US to count and bury ther many dead and prepare for the next onslaught...

"Sarge and squad bugging out..."

 

"What's left of the flank, and counting the dead..."

We all enjoyed the game, so much so that we are playing another game Monday night, I really like the prospect of the rules and will definitely be purchasing these when printed in hard copy, great game Lardies thankyou very much, thanks also to Gus "The Murchie" and Jason "Taffy" to entertaining me with your wit, humour and continuous bad dice rolls... may they stay like that when I play you both...

To follow the report from the Sudan game I ran on Saturday at the Exeter club game...

The Random Ramblings for my Blog...

Having played wargames for quite a number of years now since I was a mere boy, those of you that know me, know that was several years ago, I have finally decided to try and catch up with technology and some of my friends who have blogs, I must add that they are quite exceptional blogs (JJ's wargames & Welsh Wargamer in Devon) and please dont expect similar results from this I.T. iliterate fool, but I will try my best...

I try and game at least once a week with some friends on a Monday night, again this has being going on for some years now, and also I am an active member of the Devon Wargames Club gaming the second Saturday of every month in Exeter (Devon Wargames Blog), recently the woman in my life, "she who must be obeyed" says that I am allowed to have a semi permanent Wargames Room of my own, (unless the kids and the grand kids turn up) this allows me to invite some friends over to game at my house, I still have to pay them to come over, but monies are still to exchange hands and we are debating exchange rates... no really they are really like that... but joking aside I have some good buddies who enjoy gaming as much as I do, and we have some laughs and the associated jibes and friendly arguements over rules and our intereptations of said rules.

I love all periods of gaming, and have collections spanning most periods, but some of my favourite armies and forces are:-
28mm Sudan
28mm ACW
28mm Napoleonic
15mm WW2 Normandy 44/45, Early War British & Eastern Front etc...
28mm WW2
28mm Ancients
28mm Medieval
Boardgames etc...

Once we have a had chance to start playing some games in the room and I get the hang of this blogging jallopy I shall post pictures, scenarios, and some more ramblings...

So for now live long and game every spare minute you have...