Khartoum - Turn 3

 

Desert Colum - the watering hole

The Desert Column was once again short of water so sent troops ahead to secure a local watering hole that they would use. Mahdist forces moved to attack them so a race ensued between them and the relieving troops moving to support the troops at the watering hole.

The Imperial forces placed their Egyptians and the Gatling forward with mounted troops looking to relive them. The numerous Mahdists, mostly Beja, pushed forward at the water hole whilst their mounted forces raced ahead.   

Camel Corps advance 

The British Lancers intercepted the Beja mounted, and then went on to cause further damage before they were inevitably destroyed themselves.  

Lancers take on the Beja cavalry

Egyptians lead the defence

The defenders held firm as a tidal wave of Mahdists approached. They poured fired into the approaching hordes but were not able to slow them much. The Mahdists swept over the Egyptians and took the watering hole.    

The approaching storm

British losses were light but the game was lost. Mahdist Win.

Watering hole falls

Nile Column - Kirbekan

The Nile Column found it's way blocked by a Mahdist force occupying high ground in their way. This game was somewhat based on the real battle of Kirbekan but tweaked for the figures we had available.  

The Mahdists placed riflemen on the two hills and also a capture Krupp gun with pressed crew. The Imperial forces split with the British attacking close to the Nile and the Egyptians looking to outflank the hills.      

Mahdists positioned on the hills

The British engaged in a shooting duel with the Mahdists and were able to eventually eliminate them and advance up to the hills. On the other flank the Egyptians attacked more vigorously in the hopes of drawing Mahdists reinforcements away from the centre, which worked fairly well.      

British take the heights

The final turn was very tense - the British had a unit on the low hill that was the objective, and a second within a move. Three dice rolls proved decisive - the Mahdists threw six "6's" to push back the British on the objective, the second British unit threw "3" to move and so failed, and finally the Mahdists got another "6" enabling a unit to double onto the objective. So a last-gasp Mahdist Win.

British take the objective...briefly

The Campaign Position 

After 3 turns both columns have expended their current supplies. The Nile Column will have to halt and be resupplied. The Desert column are further advanced and have the chance to capture some Mahdists supplies and get supplies from a handy supply dump.

     

General Wolseley is worried by the speed to the advance so both Columns will get an additional 6 next  points turn.    
 

5 Parsecs - Operation Crysalis

We're deep into the current campaign which has mostly been set on the prison moon of Tybos. In turn 17 the Hermes crew receive a tip-off from their long term patrons The Pale Accord that their nemesis the Ossian Veil are conducting experiments on prisoners to develop adaptive biotech armour. A source reports there may be secret underground labs on Tybos where the work is being done.

Turn 17 - search the camp 

Their first break comes when a warden hires them to investigate a remote work camp where prisoners have been disappearing - something that matches the alleged MO. So the team set-off to search the camp but encounter a large group of Tech Zealots holding the facility.  

Tech Zealots tooled-up and ready 

With time essence, and a stand storm restricting visibility, the team decide to attack through the front door and hope to surprise the defenders.   

Let battle commence

Resistance proves very stiff as they fight their way into the compound and begin a rapid search. Shots ping in from all directions felling three of the crew. Having found a clue to the next possible location they beat a hasty retreat before more Zealots arrive.  Ivarr is wounded but will be back in action soon.

 

Clue found - time to leg it 

Turn 18 - search the other camp 

The clue from the previous mission pointed to a second camp in the same region as the first, so the next day the team set off to push through that and look for further evidence of Project Chrysalis. This camp was slightly larger and defended a Corporate Security team. They had also hired a Merc to beef-up the defences.   

Hired Merc supports security staff

The defenders were on the alert following the earlier attack and so were ready when the team arrived. Luckily they had not defended the perimeter itself so the team were able to force an entry under heavy fire.   

Behind you

Moving cautiously they used classic fire-and-manoeuvre tactics to sweep through the complex engaging targets as they went. Trusty bot PDP-11 was damaged before the Corp Security were driven off and a proper search undertaken.        

Compound secure

There was evidence of research activity on the site but the rooms used had been cleared out recently. Careful cross-referencing of flight data and timing material indicated a ship had headed into the asteroid belt in the last few days, likely carrying the unfortunate victim's of the experiments, so next stop the belt...  

          

Khartoum - turn 2 part 2

This report finishes off the action from Turn 2 by looking at the Nile Columns second battle. Fearing attacks on their supply lines the column sent troops a little way from the river to scout the country and supress Mahdist activities. As (bad) luck would have it they ran into a Mahdist force heading in the opposite direction looking to make it through to the Nile. 

In this scenario the forces start in opposite corners and are looking to exit the table through the opposite corner. Points are awarded for getting units off, killing the enemy and being the first to get a unit above half strength off the table. The game would last 15 turns. 

The Nile Column deployed with the British on the left and the Egyptians on the left. They set off in broadly those directions with the Egyptian cavalry looking to skirt around the Mahdists or delay them through skirmishing.  

British forces

The numerically larger Mahdist force deployed with riflemen in the centre and melee troops on the flanks. The hope was to pin the British with the rifles and sneak around the flanks with the fast-moving melee troops, picking off targets of opportunity.   

Mahdist forces

The British advanced cautiously through a building and surrounding scrub land. They quickly spotted some advancing Mahdists who they pinned and then pushed-back.  

British centre advances 

The terrain on the Egyptian's side was much closer, allowing the Mahdists to get closer and launch a series of attacks against them. There was a too-and-fro that left all the Egyptian units routed. The artillery was lost in counter battery fire with Mahdist artillery, who also succumbed.   

Egyptian cavalry attacked 

The last few turns saw the Mahdists able to sneak some infantry of the table in the area occupied by the now routed  Egyptians. The British also got off but being slower were unable to get the first unit off the table.  

British march off the table 

The game ended with a 10-7 win for the Mahdists. With 4 points for getting the first unit off that proved the difference. Notably the British Infantry only lost a single figure.   

 

Shoguns and Jarls

A busy time this week, with two midweek games in addition to the Sudan campaign on regular club nights.  

Never Mind The Billhooks - Samurai style

A trip over to Fishponds saw us playing NMTB using Samurai forces rather than the Wars of the Roses troops it was originally written for. A version of the oft converted NMTB for Japanese warfare is due out later year, so this was really a chance to try the basic mechanics and use the figures.   

I (literally) blew the dust off my 30 year old Dixon Miniatures to bulk out the forces and provide decent number of units per side. The armies are structured into commands (Wards) which activate in turn as decided by cards. Commanders can order units to act based on their quality but you never have enough  to do all you want, creating some friction.     

Fireforge plastic samurai

Classic Dixon samurai

Its a fairly simple game and our main takeaways from the first go were; big Pike (Yari) units are nasty doing lots of hits, the very limited ammo (6 shots / unit) means you need to not waste shots at long range, and the morale is pretty brutal with dice a big factor as a 4 or less (on 2D6) is always a rout.     

 

I've dug out the ECW version (Never Mind the Matchlocks) as that could work well for larger games.  So one to work on as a background project as I've not found a decent set of ECW rules.  

Pillage

I also managed a game of Pillage dark ages skirmish. In our third game we threw in several new elements; fire, javelins, war horns, banners, war hounds and Irish troops. The Irish are very cheap as they lack armour or the best weapons, so do get about a third more figures then the Anglo Saxons or Vikings.    

Viking leader and his body guards 

Anglo Saxon attackers

We played the St Brice's day massacre scenario with Anglo Saxons and Irish attacking Viking defenders, the aim being to set fire to the church. Sheer numbers gave the attackers an edge as the Vikings could nt plug every hole in the perimeter and so the Irish were able to get troops to the church in round 4. We played the fire starting slightly wrong but I suspect attackers would still have managed to set the fires in turn 5.  

War hounds are a mixed blessing as they can attack your own troops if things go wrong - so hit and miss but potentially quite funny. 

  

Irish war hounds run riot

 

Khartoum - turn 2, part 1

Sickness in the Nile Column camp meant we just did the Desert Column's second battle this week, a gamer inspired by the battle of Abu Klea.

A British force has marched-out of their camp towards the wells at Abu Keal when they are surrounded and attacked by a Mahdist force. The game lasts 10 turns with the British looking to survive and maximise Mahdist casualties.  

Beja cavalry ready to attack

More Mahdists advance

In the early part of the game the British had good success with pinning the Mahdists and chipping away. The Lancers charged and destroyed a unit but inevitably got attacked and succumbed themselves.   

   

The British form a hollow square

Mid-game the pressure grew on the British as there were too many targets and some of the charges started going home, causing damage to the Camel Corps. Eventually it became too much, and after losing most of the infantry, the survivors tried to run but were cut down by chasing Mahdists.       

Mahdists attack

So a Mahdist win on turn 8. The Column advances but is now on 6 supplies. 

     

Abensberg 1809 - a Blucher battle

I recently hosted our latest game of Blucher - its Sam Mustapha's grand battle rules played with 2-3 Corps a side. Like his Lasalle rules it uses momentum (MO) as a currency you spend each turn to motivate your units. The twist that your opponent roles for your MO and keeps that secret so you dont quite know how much you can do each turn. 

Abensberg was fought in Germany with a French / Bavarian attacking  the Austrians in attempt to rout them and capture some villages. Both side start with some units on the table and reinforcements arriving from opposite flanks.

Initial French attacks

Austrian garrison

The French opened their attack in the south and it was fairly slow going as the Austrians launched several spoiling attacks.   The various garrison units of the Austrians proved to be an annoyance - they were hard to shift and had to be watched in case they became activated.  

French attack up hill

As the game progressed the Austrians became fragmented and so had several rounds where only limited activity was possible, giving the French a chance to launch several attacks - some where rebuffed but all wore down the Austrians and forced them to withdraw before they routed.  

Both sides reinforcements arrived at roughly the same time and raced towards one of the villages in the centre of the field. The French had further to go and so timed-out before they could launch an attack. Both sides had lost roughly the  same and the French had no broken through so the Austrians did better than historically, where they endured a major defeat.  

View from the French left, with the flank marchers left foreground