The Other Partizan - The battle part 2 & loot.

As the day progressed the battle grew bigger with more Mahdist forces arriving around the table.

Major Kitchener found the camp commander, with news the  Mahdi had been sighted to the North of the camp !!

The ladies that have been with the Camel Corps had escaped along with the wounded and had raced back to the zariba 

with the sound of drums beating a host of Mahdists appeared ...

make ready lads!

At the village the Camel Corps remnants are forced out , the Australian gunners are cut down to man , but sell themselves dearly.

The Australian gunners are cut down to a man - they sell themselves dearly

The Camel corps camels are captured ...

A huge force heads across the wadi toward the Naval Brigade and the Royal Irish Fusiliers

As the sailors crank the handles on their MG's , nothing happens... that damned sand has caused them both to jam ....a roll of "snake eyes" for each one... ouch - it would be left to the infantry and their bayonets by the look of it

Its "mad minute" time behind the zariba - they drop swathes of the fanatics . One MG stutters into life at short  range , a royal engineer officer had been on hand with his wd40!

The horde pushed on by the Mahdi crash into the zariba ... would the line hold...

The sailors and the Royal Irish threw everything at them - despite being outnumbered they held the line - great dice roll from Martin hitting with every single melee dice - It was desperate stuff. 

The melee continued.. 

The Mahdist continue to press - but their ranks are thinning..

Half of the Naval Brigade fall as casualties , but they refuse to give ground... men of iron! There will be medals aplenty here.

The 15th Sikhs had double marched around and deployed into  line  pouring fire into the Mahdist  flanks.. 

The Mahdist begin to melt...

The Mahdi decides its time to leave with his bodyguards... live to fight another day...

It was a cracking game - a real spectacle - I had about 2/3rds of my total Mahdist forces on the table at one point . The game was played in great spirit by the guys. I was pleased with knock up rules overall - the core bits from Victorian Steel worked well for firing and melee. I am looking forward to next run out. There will be much mourning in the clubs of London.. the Guards Camel Regt  have been wiped out.. anyone want to buy some camels ? One careless owner?


And the loot I hear you say?

ponds for the 10mm stuff

Clump foliage to make load of 10mm hedges

Some ready made walled fields for the 10mm

and a clue to a future project - some cracking pulp miniatures

The Other Partizan -Part 1

This last weekend saw a run down to Newark for the second Partizan event of the year. This time I would be joined by Martin C (28MM heroes blog) and James M (Mad Tin Hatter blog) We had decided to make a weekend of it and went on Saturday and enjoyed  a few beers in the Prince Rupert pub while putting the world to right, followed by a visit to a local curry house.

Sunday saw us out early to set up for another dusting on the Sudan. This time I had another new mat I had made up by Tinywargames. A 12 x 6 mat with a mix of desert and arid design. We were also giving a home brew set of rules using bits from others , and using a chunk of the  Victorian Steel rules as well - I am getting near the simplest set I can for these big games.

We were running a scenario similar to the last one the involved the train, balloon , engineers etc , but I rotated in some units that have note much game time recently. This would see the Camel Corps added to the mix and the 19th Hussars.

the full table laid out

The main camp

Where did the Fuzzy Wuzzys come from , as they surprised the construction crew

the Camel Corp find marksmen appearing in the rocks and wadi

Baggara cavalry move onto the plain

The surveyors decide to try and make it back to camp , the Yorks and Lancs deploy to protect them 

Burnaby , leads two companies of Scots Guards out of the camp  to try and meet them

A horde of Beja decent on the camel corps position.. hmmm those dismounted camels look vulnerable 

Beja have the survey party in their sights .. but the Bengal Lancers are to hand 

More Beja appear on the other side of camp 

The 19th Hussar try to relieve the press and clear the Beja camels .. but the fighting is getting desperate in the village

The Beja storm the walls , forcing the camel corps to fall back, some units are overwhelmed by the spearman

Yet more Bagarra drive to cut the Camel Corp off from help

Who will get to the camp first the Beja or the engineers?

Indian army battalion arrive to back up the engineer stragglers

The Guard Camel regiment is routed and the village falls, the  Australian  artillery  is about to  be crushed too...

Drums can be heard beating across the battlefield !!  what was going on... 

Major Kitchener heads to the camp with vital "intelligence"

The Other Partizan - Sunday 20th August - Newark

If you are going - please pop by and say hi - The Sudan collection will be out in force again with myself and some of the guys from the "Old Guard Wargame" club. We are in the Demonstration zone end at table DG17

The May show was a great one - and I am looking forward to this one too.

ACW - First Game play test

Tonight saw two firsts - the first actual multi player game in the man cave on the new table. Plus it was the first ACW game. The ACW has become a a group effort for a bunch of us , and with troops and terrain  now being available it was time to chuck some dice .

James , brought over his Confederate Brigade and Steve a Union one - both realy well painted. I had completed another Union infantry giving me two and 3 guns.

We were using Regimental Fire and Fury , with the Union troops being Green and Confederates being trained. We were just testing out the game mechanics for a few turns , and finding out what else bit and bobs we needed to make up - more disorder , damaged gun markers mostly.  I need to finish up some ford pieices , and some bridges - so they have been added to the "to do" list.

Rebs defend the stream

Steves units deploy

Reb in the built up area

Steve Marches his unit down the road

Rebs prepare to fire. 

My units engage more rebs in the wheat field

It was getting bloody

So we played through a few turns , of maneuver, firing and a charge. It felt liked it worked as it should

Happy gamers - we even had Martin join us on video "Hangout" to see what he was missing

Great to get things under way - and plans afoot for a longer , more specific scenario driven game