Zulu Dawn !

Following the success of last week's colonial fight against the Mad Mahdi, I finished painting my Zulu Army pack for this week.

The British column has been ordered to capture the Zulu kraal at the far end of the table.  Thye must do this without losing their own baggage train.The Zulus are in hidden deployment.  There are numbered counters placed on the table in places out of sight of the Brits.  The Zulu impis are on the storage boards at the far end of the the table.  The Zulu players record their location by placing a corresponding counter next to each impi on the boards.

The Brits send their cavalry to scout to the right and advance each side of the train.  Zulu skirmishers appear on the ridges on each side.

Suddenly Zulus appear on  both sides of the head of the column. Defensive fire stops one charge but one British unit & the gatling gun are over-run. 

Desperate counterattcks have driven off some Zulus, but more swarm over the ridges towards the head of the British column.  The hussars are slow to return to defend the wagons from the skirmishers keeping valuable infantry doing the job instead. 

The head of the column has been destroyed & the Brits are in survival mode trying to cover the retreat of the wagons.  (We applied a small army break test rule = Brits divs don't take break tests, but the army has to retire on losing more than half units).

Martini Henry fire by the rearguard has blunted the Zulu attack breaking two impis & the hussars are finally in position to make the Zulus think twice about charging on.  They let the Brits withdraw with their wagons plus 1 infantry unit & their hussars unbroken.

The scenario included lots of terrain to help the Zulus, maybe too much.  But then the British plan was not good and gave the Zulus a big opportunity that they took full advantage of.  It looked awfully like Iswandala.  In any case it was fun game enjoyed by all.