On the road to Khatoum

A British column on the road to Khatoum has to reach the oasis or die of thrist.   Mike & Mark command the Brits, Mark on their right.  Jim & Chris command the Mahdists, Jim on their right.  The rules are Hail Queen Victoria our house modification of Hail Caesar for the era.

The Mahdi's army is formed up behind a ring of hills in front of the oasis waiting for the Brits to advance into the ring.

Mike advances with all the British cavalry on this flank.  Jim's cavalry counterattacks.  In the centre the Mahdi has sent skirmishers forward.

Once again my theory that the better looking the figures the worse dice they get was borne out as the hussars were immediately broken by the Mahdi horse.   This success emboldened the Mahdi generals into making a general advance.

Unfortunately for the Mahdi his victorious cavalry refused to advance to exploit the exposure of the British left flank and the Martini Henrys began cutting down the Mahdi's left.   On the far flank the Mahdi's infantry refused to advance off the hill.  The cavalry charged & came within a pip of breaking through the British flank guard, but once stopped, the Martini Henrys made them pay for that one pip. 

The Mahdi's right has melted away. Chris has finally got his infantry into the fight on the left, but it's too little too late. 
Mike's infantry has wrapped around the Mahdi's flank and destroyed another division Breaking the Mahdi army. 

I hindsight, the early success of the Mahdi's horse may have been a disaster for the Mahdiarmy as their attempt to exploit the success rapidly fell apart under the weight of bad command dice and so many Martini Henry dice.  It ended up a decisive British win, but the Mahdi had his chances. If either cavalry wing had broken through and followed up it could well have been very different.