The Relief of Wadi Zoum-Zoum

Finally after more than a week, I'm able to post the pictures and report of my Victorian Colonial game at the HMGS-Gulf South Bayou Wars convention.  The game went well from my game master's perspective.  I hope that the various players had fun.  I didn't take as many pictures as I normally take but my friend "Electric" Ed contributed two to this report, the first and the last ones.

The scenario involved a small Egyptian force protecting a supply base at Wadi Zoum-Zoum along the Green Nile River (the least well-known and explored branch of the river in the Soudan).  The Agandar of Karres decided that raiding and destroying this base would garner him much support from the scattered remnants of the Madhi's and Khalifa's armies.  But he had Egyptian spies in his camp who passed along his plans.  The British immediately sent a riverine force to aid the Egyptian garrison repel the Agandar's attack.

As usual, please click on the pictures for larger images.

Photo by "Electric" Ed

Here we have yours truely, Col Campbell, giving pre-game instructions to the players.  The zariba enclosing the supply base is in the center, manned by its garrison, and part of the native attacking force is on the right.

The mighty native players (from left): "Beja" Clay, "Dervish" Paul, "Agandar" Mark, and "Arab" Michael.  This was Michael's third Bayou Wars convention.  During the first he had the "misfortune" to be a British player in my massive and ill-conceived Zulu game.  I think his role in this game was more to his liking.

The stalwart Imperialists (from left): "Egyptian" Martha (actually "Agandar" Mark's wife), "Lord Sterling" Jay (who gave up his position as Egyptian cavalry commander to "Cavalry" Rick after a couple of turns), "Steam Launch" Jeff, and "Gunboat" Phil.

The action commences in the distance as "Cavalry" Rick (right) enters with three troops of Egyptian and allied cavalry.  "Arab" Michael begins to maneuver against him.

"Beja" Clay and "Dervish" Paul launch their ansars against the walls of the zariba and the artillery emplacements.  The zariba is a tangled mass of thorn bushes that can only be penetrated after it has been burned.  The attackers will begin that process at the end of this turn.  In the distance are part of the skirmishing riflemen of "Agandar" Mark's command.

The troop transports of the British relief column arrive with "Steam Launch" Jeff's two Gatling armed launches on their shoreward side.

The Beja warriors succeed in lighting the zariba which the Egyptian irregular tribal levies cannot extinguish.

The HMS Shilleleigh of "Gunboat" Phil's command begins to fire its Nordenfelt machineguns against the Arab attackers.  In the background, "Arab" Michael's and "Cavalry" Rick's forces meet in some furious cavalry/infantry melees.  Rick was successful and defeated Michael's troops although it was a hard-fought series of engagements.

With part of the zariba burned and another part burning, the Beja warriors are ready to close with and destroy the tribal irregulars.  But unfortunately, "Egyptian" Martha's die rolls were much better than "Beja" Clay's and she repulsed several of his attacks.  "Dervish" Paul couldn't persuade his ansars to close with the Eyptian gun in the the emplacement just beyond the Beja since a lucky ball had taken his leader's head off.  Without the leader's encouragement, the ansars just wouldn't continue.

Photo by "Electric" Ed

The final actions with the British Naval infantry and Royal Marine Light Infantry, accompanied by Gatling guns, advancing through the base toward the luckless native attackers.  Even though they penetrated the gate and overran one artillery emplacement, the Agandar's force just didn't have the punch left to deal with the British.

I called the game at this point.  There was no hope that the native attackers could succeed in their mission, not with two platoons of British infantry and two Gatling guns, backed up by four naval machineguns.  Also it was drawing close to the end of game time and I still had to drive back to Jackson to see my wife who had broken her leg the preceding Friday night and was having a pin installed about the time we started the game.  (By the way, she is doing fine but still cannot put any weight on that leg for another almost two weeks.) 

Georgiana Militia Co #1

The 1st company of the Georgiana Militia has been completed.  I did everything except the matte varnish sealer before I departed for Bayou Wars last week.  With my forced absence from work due to my wife's broken leg, I put the sealer on earlier this week and glued them to their bases yesterday.  The bases were painted earlier today.

Here are all 18 of them.  This company is primarily in lighter browns and tans.  The 2nd company will be in darker colors.  They are being outfitted at the present.

The company commander, drummer, and six militiamen.

The other ten militiamen in a rough firing line.

These are RSM95 American Revolution militia that I got as a pack of 36 figures, thus the unit size of 18 (or 1/2 the pack).  These figures have minimum equipment as befits a militia organization - basically each man provides his own weapon and accoutrements.

They will join in the first engagement of my upcoming mini-campaign against the Ibernians and Gallians along the coast of the Capitania General de Florida next month.

P.S.  Thanks to all for your kind thoughts and well-wishes.

Bayou Wars - Quick Report

Just a quick report on Bayou Wars.  I'll post pictures later.  Con was great and my Colonial game went well.

But I had to leave early because my wife fell at work and broke her leg.  I've been rushing around since then.  She is doing as well as can be expected (had a pin put in the femur).

More later,

Jim

Murican Militia

Finally, with all the preparations completed for my Victorian colonial convention game this Saturday, I can return to painting tricornes instead of topees and turbans!

Here is part of a company of 18 Murican colonial militia from the southern colony of Georgiana.  This colony borders the colonial lands of the Capitania General de Florida and thus it maintains a standing militia to guard its southern borders.  A second 18-figure company is already primed and will be started soon.

These are RSM95 American Revolution militia which I've completed the basic painting.  Tonight I'll apply the Future coating and when it is dry tomorrow, the wash of walnut wood stain, followed by a matte shellac.  They will be mounted individually on 3/4" square bases.

Tower and Emplacements Finished!

I've finally finished the watchtower and the artillery emplacements for my Relief of Wadi Zoum-Zoum game at the Bayou Wars convention on Saturday, June 12 in New Orleans.

The tower was painted grey and then dry-brushed in desert tan while the base was sprayed camouflage sand and then dry-brushed in desert tan.

One of the three artillery emplacements (from the front).

And from the rear showing the wood revetments inside the emplacement.

All the figures are 25mm Ral Partha Egyptians and the gun is a 25mm Ral Partha Krupp in Egyptian service.

With the exception of repairing and repainting one of the river bank sections, I am finally finished with my game preparations!  Whew!!

Test of Black Powder Rules

My gaming buddy, Jay Stribling, and I went down to Columbia, Miss. yesterday to visit our gaming friend Mark Stevens at his new house, complete with his own dedicated game room.  It was nice, with a 12' x 6' table and plenty of room to maneuver around it.

Mark had a Sikh Wars game set up so we could play test the Black Powder rules.  An army of British and Honourable East India Company troops (6 or 7 infantry and 2 cavalry brigades) assaulted a ridge line of three redoubts held by the Sikh Army, which had about 5 or 6 infantry and 2 cavalry brigades.  Mark and I commanded the Anglo-Indians and Jay commanded the Sikhs.

As usual, click on the pictures for a larger version.

The Anglo-Indian right flank, commanded by Mark Stevens.

The Anglo-Indian left flank commanded by yours truely, Col Campbell.

Although Mark had a copy of the rules and had read through them several times, none of us were familiar with them so we blundered through the first several turns.  By the third turn, we were becoming comfortable with them but we were sure that we missed things - such as being able to roll saving throws for melee casualties as well as fire casualties.  Anyway, on with the story.

While the Anglo-Indians slogged towards the ridge (although some brigades moved rather fast), Jay's left wing Sikh cavalry attacked one of Mark's guns.

And here is where we encountered a portion of the rules with which we were not comfortable.  The artillery units, according to the rules are very fragile.  At first (before we read more) we were loosing artillery units on both sides at an alarming rate.  Then we realized that the gunners could ignore the first morale failure.  But that still meant that the second failure saw the gunners fleeing for their lives.  Later, Jay discovered that the morale table for gunners might have an error in it which would have benefited the gunners tremendously.  Further reading of the rules will also probably change our opinion of this characteristic.

Here is my left flank infantry brigade and supporting artillery advancing steadily.  The allied cavalry is moving up behind them to counter the Sikh right flank cavalry.  The next turn the Sikh cavalry would move towards the center and my cavalry would follow them.

The armies were Mark's magnificently painted troops of MiniFig, Foundry, and others.  On the battlefield (and in separate units) the differences of the figures disappeared.  By the way, the British gun and crew in the above picture are actually Perry Carlist Wars figures of the British Auxiliary Legion (BAL).  They were "drafted" for this game.  Mark also "drafted" 1870s/1880s British limbers and crews (in khaki) for the game.

As my center brigades ascend the slope, Jay moves his Sikh troops forward and we begin to exchange fire.  The center Sikh redoubt is in the background.

On the other side of that center redoubt, another of my brigades encounters Sikh infantry.  But this time they are backed up by a Sikh cavalry brigade, who .....

... in a swirl of dust come galloping around the flank of the infantry and try to overpower the supporting artillery.  Although I didn't get a picture of it, part of my allied cavalry brigade came to the rescue and forced the Sikhs to retire.

Meanwhile, two Indian infantry battalions assault the center redoubt, occupied by an 18lbr and the Rajah of Ranjipur, the Sikh commander, gaily mounted on his elephant.

A closer, though slightly out of focus, picture of the Rajah.  The two Indian battalions clambered over the revetments, drove away the gunners, and occupied the redoubt.

On the left flank, two Indian battalions assault the far right Sikh redoubt but were flung back in disarray since it was garrisoned by two guns and a battalion of infantry.  Here is where knowing we could roll saving throws for melee casualties might have helped the Indians.  Oh well, such are the fortunes of war.

The fighting continues in the center over the redoubt in the background and for the ridge to its right (the viewers left).  The white rings denote casualties in units which weren't removed until the entire unit broke and fled.

Meanwhile Mark was not lazing around.  His infantry and cavalry were in close combat with Jay's left flank commands, including this stalwart line of irregular Sikh infantry.

Finally, as darkness began to fall, the Anglo-Indians had only taken the center redoubt while the Sikhs had kept control of both flanking redoubts.  Both sides had been bled white.  The Sikhs even took a British gun!

As I said earlier, there were points we missed in the rules, but we will be giving them another try later this summer.

More Zariba and a Dry Streambed

In the post before last, I described making the first of the zariba pieces (link) for my June convention game, The Relief of Wadi Zoum-Zoum.  But I wasn't satisfied with the way they developed even after I sprayed them with a watery white glue.  The vegetation was just too dried out to stand any type of gaming handling.  So I went to the local Hobby Town and bought a large bag of "spring" lichen.  The resultant zariba pieces were more durable and even, to my eye, looked better.

Here are four 2" sections, two on either side of one of the artillery
emplacements and manned by some of my Ral Partha Egyptians.

I also needed a short section of dry streambed to connect the oasis to the rest of Wadi Zoum-Zoum.  Taking a piece of Masonite, I sprayed both sides with camouflage sand paint and then glued on more sand, added fine gravel for the backs, and glued in larger gravel and small rocks to finish it off.  I painted Future floor wax on the streambed to give it a wet appearance but that is not readily apparent in this picture.

The dry streambed is 12" long.  The white splotches are glue that hasn't dried yet.

I'll be posting some pictures of the second play test of the game later and you can see these pieces in situ, so to speak.