Zulu War: First March on Ulundi

I thought my pre-Christmas game of Marengo was going to be my only game in December and my last for the year. But no! Not only did I get to push space marines around with a young relative the day after Boxing Day - yesterday, at short notice and unexpectedly, I played a terrific Zulu War game through twice!

The story is this. My good mate Anton (author of the fine collection of BBB Boer War scenarios as well as several more obscure African WWI actions) recently commissioned a ready-painted 6mm Zulu army. He wanted to blood these. Turned out he and I and a couple of the other guys were all free yesterday. Also turned out Anton had crafted a scenario for the ill-fated British invasion of Zululand that famously came to grief at Isandlwana.

We'd previously used BBB for a conventional Isandlwana scenario with Bruce's beautiful 28mm figures. (See report here.) Anton's game was a more radical zoomed-out one that encompassed both Isandlwana and Rorke's Drift, covering ~20x15 miles and including some days of pre-battle manoeuvre.

I've enthused before about how such higher-level games that draw the frame wider can present more interesting decisions and provide additional insights beyond what we can obtain from simply fighting a straight battlefield clash. This was no exception. I offer a number of Reflections at the end of this post. First, though, as is now traditional, let me give you some photos to look at.

What it's all about - Zulus! Figures are Anton's Baccus 6mm. This is just a fraction of the Zulu army. Those card sabots are 15-year-old veterans, first used while we were still developing the BBB rules ... each sabot is 3"x1" and represents 3 BBB bases; Zulu units (impis) all start 6 bases strong (two sabots); the Zulu force numbers 16 impis in total = 96 bases. These are organised into Left Horn (4 impis), Right Horn (3 impis), Chest (5 impis) and Loins (4 impis). The Loins are in reserve and only enter when triggered by 4 impis becoming Spent.

The impudent invaders. These are figures from Mark Smith's collection In the foreground is Number 2 Column: Natal Native Horse, some Natal Native Contingent, and a rocket battery. Behind them is Number 3 Column: two companies of the 24th, more NNC, Imperial Mounted Infantry and some other regular horse, and a battery of mountain guns. Top right is the garrison at Rorke's Drift. This mighty total of 17 bases means the British face 6:1 odds.

The theatre of operations. The lichen-lined Buffalo River at left is impassable except at Rorke's Drift and Fugitive's Drift (marked with discreet bridges). Isandlwana is the small hill in the centre nearest to the British. The Brits all enter from the left (west) edge at Rorke's Drift. Zulu Horns enter on the eastern half of the top and bottom (north and south) edges); Chest and Loins, east edge.

This was the first playtest of Anton's first draft. Unusually, the victory conditions don't include any objective locations. Instead, it is all about how many British units march off the east edge towards Ulundi, versus how many Zulu units march off west to invade Natal.

The first three turns are all marching and no fighting. Most Zulu units cannot enter before Turn 3 and only on a die roll thereafter. The British force therefore makes good ground unopposed initially. Our British commander was Mark J, up against me, Anton and Mark S as the three Zulus. MJ has opted to have his whole force bear north initially, wide of Isandlwana, onto the North Heights. (Superstitious, maybe?)

Contact! Turn 4: Chelmsford's cavalry scouts spot the first Zulus (one impi from the Right Horn; two more from the Chest beyond it). This shot gives a good impression of the sheer amount of manoeuvre space we had.

First volley! The British cavalry finds the Zulus lurking beneath the steep slope of the North Heights (indicated by the green pipecleaner). Note the British bases formed back to back: BBB doesn't normally bother with squares as a formation, but they're rather necessary for colonial actions, so Anton has a scenario special rule for them.

Wider view of the situation on Turn 4. At top of pic you can just make out three impis of my Left Horn who got lucky with their arrival rolls. Much good it would do them.

The battle develops. More Brits arrive at the eastern end of the North Heights and pin down the approaching Zulus with fire. (White smoke = Disrupted.) The NNH move south onto the plateau above Isandlawana.

Meanwhile, my Left Horn presses towards Fugitive's Drift, intend on crossing there and heading for Natal.

Almost all of the Right Horn and Chest have now arrived. Impis surge forward to confront the British on the North Heights. Note the impi top left that is charging up against a square of the 24th and the gun battery behind it. This charge will be repelled by fire with the loss of a second base, rendering the Zulu unit Spent (black smoke marker) ...

... whereupon the British invite calamity upon themselves. MJ decided to follow up his success by having the 24th come out of square to charge down at the Spent Zulus, hoping to complete their rout. He only pushed them back and was left in Line and Disrupted. The third impi of the Right Horn arrived, charged, got lucky and wiped out the 24th and the battery beyond, ending up atop the North Heights. Those NNC who also descended onto the plain are regretting it.

"They don't like it up 'em, sir!"

"No - but neither do I!"

Durnford responds by leaving the NNC to their fate, pulling back his remaining two regular units to form one large square with him in the middle of it. At this point MJ gave up on any idea of getting troops off the east edge for victory.

"And what of the Left Horn?", I hear you ask. Well, this was stymied by the British Wunderwaffen: the rocket battery. Anton's special rule for this was that it would automatically panic any Zulu unit it fired at, forcing it back 12" Disrupted, and also Disrupting other Zulus nearby. With some NNC also firing on my troops from Isandlwana, this made it virtually impossible for me to get across Fugitive's Drift. My troops basically just yo-yoed for the rest of the game.

The game was nominally 12 turns but we called it a draw on Turn 9 so we could reset, tweak the scenario, and play it again. This is the final situation when we stopped. The NNH (right edge) had actually snuck through the Zulus and had a chance of exiting, but no other Brits were anywhere near the east edge, nor were any Zulus likely to get close to the west edge.

For the second game, we changed a few things but the game structure was still essentially the same. This time, Mark S took command of the British. Benefiting from MJ's experience in game 1, MS kept his force concentrated and took the whole lot over the North Heights. This worked, in that he managed to get three units off the east edge on the last turn. The Zulus did likewise off the west edge and earned a point for threatening Rorke's Drift, but since we were awarding the Brits 2 VP per unit exited and the Zulus only 1 VP, the Brits sneaked a win. I don't think the Brits lost a single base, while decimating the Zulu army, but it was a much tougher challenge than that makes it sound and it was certainly a different and entertaining game. We still weren't happy with the victory conditions, though, so that will be the focus of our post-playtest attention.

Reflections

The Narrative. As MJ said, it's good if the game tells a story and if episodes within it can be rationalised in a persuasive narrative fashion. These characterful games certainly achieved that. In particular, when his company of the 24th charged down off the heights and incurred disaster, we could all picture the scene and imagine the excitable officer giving the order while veteran NCOs gritted their teeth and muttered "Gawd 'elp us".

Nothing Is Guaranteed in War. The special rocket rule was too much. Being able to guarantee that it could automatically drive off a Zulu unit with every shot made for some gamey play and didn't feel right. Besides, virtually nothing else in BBB is guaranteed success, so why should this be? We'll definitely change that so that the rockets can still be scary but can also fail to produce an effect.

Not Just a Thin Red Line. Although there was no shortage of the stereotypical Zulu War tabletop fare of Zulu charges foundering in the teeth of British volleys, there was far more to both games than that. The fact that the British needed to traverse the length of the table and also try to stop the Zulus doing so meant it was a game of manoeuvre, rather than just buckets of firing dice - the benefit of zooming out, as already mentioned.

The Big Picture. It was nice to have both Rorke's Drift and Isandlwana on the same table and to appreciate the larger situation - another advantage of zooming out.

What's the Mission? Both the big picture and our struggle with the victory conditions had us chewing over what Chelmsford was really trying to do and why he split his force. I think we have a better idea of that now and (hopefully) some better ideas for how to define the objectives for the game to give players the right historical incentives. We'll see.

New Toys on the Table! Anton's new army of massed Zulus did look good. New troops, a conflict I haven't dabbled in much, and a new scenario, all keeps the games fresh and fun.

More to Come. Anton is already working on the next scenario, the Second March on Ulundi ...