Colonial Wars: Arabs at the pass

The idea for this scenario was Maiwand in Afganistan but we used British redcoats and Arabs.  The Arabs had their advance guard of 4 divisions, 2 inf and 2 cav on the field at the start.   More Arabs were going to arrive through a pass from the west from turn 9.  The Arabs needed to keep the pass open for their main army to come on the table and deploy.   The Brits had to beat the Arabs and/or bottle up the pass before their army got too big for them to handle.

  

Most of the British army is marching down the road from the far edge.  Some infantry has been sent onto the ridge on their left suspected correctly that there were Arab cavalry behind it.
The Arab infantry is deployed blocking the road just in front of the pass (which is just off the bottom of the pic).

The Arab cavalry that attacked the British rear was soon dispatched by Martini Henry fire. Their only achievement being in disrupting the British advance.  The second Arab cavalry division has appeared on the Arab left.

One hussar unit was shot up by the Arab skirmishers on the ridge but the other charged 4 Arab cavalry units alone.  They broke one and pushed their supports back while British rifle fire made the other 2 units fall back though the infantry.  

The British infantry has finally got up close with the Arab line.  Their successful cavalry has swept around into the Arab rear.   It broke the Arab horse sent to meet it, but was shaken and unable to continue forward. The hea dof the main Arab army has come ontot he table in the pass on the right.

A British bayonet charge has shattered the Arab left.   Their right is hanging on, but there is limited room to deploy the main army army.

The Arabs are struggling to deploy their reinforcements effectively as the British squeeze the pocket.

The 3rd Arab cavalry div has made some progress against the Brit right, but the last of the advance guard has now broken.

The Brits have stiffened their right to hold the Arab cavalry & broken another infantry div.  The Arabs have now lost 5 divs out of 8 which have reached the table so fail their Army Break Test.

After 3 battles the Brits finally won a colonial battle.  Once again our house ruled version of Hail Caesar has given us a rattling good battle with a very convincing feel for the period.  It's a period where scenario design is particularly important, but the history of it also provides a lot of interesting situations to work with.