I drove a six-hour round trip for a three hour game. It was 100% worth it. The occasion was the latest of Dr Mark Smith's legendary Christmas Specials, delayed to brighten up January, because that suited everyone's calendar better. (For previous Christmas Specials, use the label search here.)
I arrived to be confronted by a spectacular 12-foot table:
Mark informed us that this represented the Wadi Alqlilkabirbwq, a tributary of the Nile. The situation was an Anglo-Egyptian expedition in the Sudan during the Mahdist War of 1881-1899. The British were trying to capture the Khalifa after the battle of Omdurman. I was 'Al Marara', one of the four players on the Mahdist side, alongside Crispin, Phil and Will. Nick, Bruce, Dave W and Dave T were the infidel British.
Nick and Bruce were Captain Benjamin Young and a German guest, Major Count Betreffnein. Their substantial cavalry columns arrived near our right flank, where my camp was. Figures are Baccus 6mm from Mark's (rapidly expanding) collection.
Dave T was Colonel Armstrong, the British C-in-C, leading another cavalry column dashing along the heights towards the other end of our extended encampment along the river.
All I had on-table initially, apart from my herds, was one contingent of dismounted cavalry, well-armed with modern breechloaders. A couple of moves later I had mustered four units.
Similar story for my neighbour on my left, Maynum Hirsar (Crispin). Our initial mission prioritised defending our camps and our cattle.
Phil and Will (Aswad Nasr and Quadeem Dub) were further along the river, out of immediate danger.
Nevertheless, Dave T made rapid progress along the heights, so Phil and Will had to react.
The central British column arrives, containing all the precious supplies, commanded by Captain Dougalson (Dave W).
As Nick's camelry approached, I moved two units of rifle-armed dismounted cavalry to lurk in the vegetation along the river.
Allahu akbar! Nick duly sprang my ambush. My warriors fired a volley and charged. We drove the infidels back with heavy losses. We mustered more cavalry and followed up.
Taking a long view ... seen from the quiet end of the table, but not for long. Will's force will shortly ascend the heights to take on Dave T.
Order, counter-order, disorder - 3 or 4 turns in, we were each given a new set of personal objectives to replace the ones we'd had at the start. Initially, our Mahdist objectives had focused on defending camps and cattle, while the British objectives were about discovering and capturing these. Now it was all change: having found how strong we were, the British orders had changed to holding the heights, while we needed to take them. This generated a lot of radical changes of manoeuvre! Here we see Nick's and Bruce's columns trying to break contact, cross the ford, and head for Hills 1 & 2 at top right of pic.
Dave W's supply column had made steady progress to mid-table, but Dave was now feeling very much left in the lurch as everyone else hightailed it for the hills, while he was being harassed by Phil and Crispin in front and had the prospect of more Mahdists appearing behind him.
Fortunately for Dave, I and Phil now largely ignored him in favour of dashing across the river to attack the hills. "Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who is the Mahdist of them all?"
Apart from Dave W's supply column in the river angle top left, all the Anglo-Egyptians are now atop the hills, while most of our Mahdists mill about trying to ford the river to get at them.
The first layer of hills is edged by an escarpment, scaleable only at the breaks marked by small brown patches. You can see two of these right of pic, in front of Hills 1 & 2 (the crests with white labels). This presented me and Phil with a ticklish tactical challenge: how to get up these breaks, which were in rifle range of the hilltop defenders, and then mount a coordinated assault.
A glimpse of the action at the other end of the pitch. Dave T's camel corps was fending off Will's Mahdists OK. However, Crispin changed axis, ignoring Dave W's supplies, to turn up behind Dave T. Not only that, but a random event gave some of Crispin's men the latest repeating rifles! It went badly for the Anglo-Egyptians here after that.
A small victory for Will, too, as he overruns a stray baggage column ...
... capturing some splendid victuals. (It was supposed to be a Christmas game, after all.)
Phil and I had managed to negotiate the breaks in the cliffs and get our forces onto the scarp. With time running out, we mounted a massed charge on Hill 1. Note the British commander (the German, Betreffnein) who has fallen over. Random events dictated that he hit the schnapps flask hard and spent most of the battle drunk and incapable.
Our charge succeeded and swept the infidels from Hill 1!
Arguably, Dave W deserved another victory point, because he was the first to tumble to the fact that this was a disguised scenario. I think he spotted it when the objectives changed and the Brits had to bail out and head for the hills. Mark had taken the situation from the Battle of the Little Big Horn and transposed it to the Sudan. If only my Arabic had been better, I'd have realised all the Mahdists' names were translations: Maynum Hirsar = Crazy Horse, Aswad Nasr = Black Eagle, Alqlilkabirbwq = Little Big Horn, etc. There were clues in all the Brits' names as well: Benjamin Young = Ben-teen, Dougalson = MacDougal, and of course Armstrong was Custer's middle name.
Reflections
Disguised Scenarios. I'm well aware of the concept but I've rarely played one. This worked really well, for me at least: I wasn't familiar enough with either the Sudan or LBH to spot the disguise, but I know enough about them to appreciate the conceit. Had we all known it was LBH from the start, of course the Brit/US players would have acted much more cautiously and been better coordinated. As it was, the disguised set-up plus the divergent personal objectives created the right historical situation. Genius.
Changing Situations Mid-Game. The abrupt change of orders/objectives partway through was not only important to create the right situation, it also helped to throw spanners into works and force major new decisions on players. This is a great ingredient in a game and something I've discussed before in one of my "Reflections on Wargaming" essays, "Changing Situations Mid-Game".
A Unique Tactical Challenge. The endgame threw up this unique tactical problem for me and Phil of how to get up the scarp under fire and then assault the heights. This exemplifies how historical scenarios can produce the most uniquely interesting challenges, at least as good as anything I might be able to invent. This is one reason why we love fighting historical battles.
Camels Galore! Exotic troops always enhance a wargames table and camelry are definitely exotic. I don't think I've ever seen so many camels in a game. It was a treat.
Roleplaying in Wargames. Even in regular BBB games, people are generally happy to metaphorically don the right headgear, slip into role and talk like their historical counterparts. In Mark's Christmas games where we all have our individual objectives, it gets really personal and the banter flows. There were plenty of remarks about the infidels' malignity and confusion, aspersions cast on fellow officers, and the like. It all adds to the occasion and the experience.
Roll on next Christmas!
PDF editions of the BBB rules and scenario books are about to be published. As PDF is not subject to the same page limitations as printed books, Mark and I are discussing the idea of publishing his Christmas Special scenarios (which are each very long because of the many individual briefs) as a collected volume. Watch this space!
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