Sunday 24 October 2021

isAngqu

 The fourth (and for the time being final) Zulu regiment of my current The Men Who Would Be Kings project (giving me 128 warriors in total) is a second married regiment, the isAngqu (the White Tails).

Again a mix of Perry and Warlord plastics, the isAngqu having white shields with some red spots.

Next up should be a couple of supporting groups of Zulus armed with firearms. Whilst some figures in the main regiments have firearms I have a handful of points left to get me up to the planned 36 points so some Irregular Infantry with poor muskets will use them up.

After that I need to crack on with the Imperial forces...

Saturday 23 October 2021

inDlondlo

 Having painted two unmarried Zulu regiments for The Men Who Would Be Kings, next up were a married regiment (with their distinctive head bands), the inDlondlo - the Black Mambas!

Whereas (most of) the unmarried troops had predominately black shields, the married guys had more white cow skin ones, the inDlondlo shields being a pleasing red and white design.

I am pleased with the look of the figures on the Warbases sabots which, even for big games with Washing The Spears or Black Powder, avoid the straight lines of regular bases which always looks a bit odd for "natives", "barbarians" and the like...

Thursday 21 October 2021

uNokhenke

My next Zulu War regiment for The Men Who Would Be Kings is another unmarried unit the uNokhenke (which may mean Trotters or Skirmishers). They have plain black shields...

Again I have gone with a 32 man regiment which splits into two units for TMWWBK...


Although not historically accurate I have added some of the more ceremonial uniform items to one figure from each regiment to identify them as the leader.


Next up some married regiments.

Wednesday 20 October 2021

umCijo

It has been some time since my base coated Zulus have seen daylight (almost three years) since we refought Isandhlwana and Rorke's Drift using The Men Who Would Be Kings but with Ellen at Bristol Independent Gaming asking for some regulars to become 'BIG Champions', promoting rules and/or periods for local gamers looking to try something new I thought that getting some of my Zulu War plastic mountain finished would be a good idea.

As stated back in 2019 my idea is to create some 32 figure Zulu regiments that can be used for larger game rules like Black Powder or The Washing of the Spears, and split into two groups for TMWWBK. Over the last couple of weeks I've been beavering away so expect a tranche of Zulu posts over the next few days!

First up are the umCijo, The Sharp Point, an unmarried regiment with black shields with some white dots. The figures are a mixture of Perry and Warlord. If I was starting from scratch I would only buy Perry Zulus but with 'Plastic Mountain' having over a hundred Warlord ones (curse you eBay habit of yore) I found they mixed ok.

Panting wise you may be surprised that I did not 'dip' the figures. These were undercoated with a dark Sepia Brown spray, drybrushed Flat Brown and then with loin cloths, spears etc painted, washed with Agrax. The white money tails were then based painted white and then white Contrast painted on which gives a nice shading and (IMHO) looks better than drybrushing white over black.

Sunday 10 February 2019

Isandhlwana - the Refight

So following our recreation of the heroic defence of Rorke's Drift on the 140th anniversary (plus one day) we rolled up at BIG the following Sunday for an all day refight of Isandhlwana!

Using The Men Who Would Be Kings again, we upped the force levels to 48 points and decided to use the Zulu regeneration rules that had worked well enough during the Rorke's Drift battle.

The 'Horns of the Buffalo' looked very intimidating to the thin red (and undercoat white) line...



I decided to try and get into stabby hand-to-hand combat as quickly as possible and advance At The Double, but some of my units were not too keen, notably on the left flank...


And those that advanced soon found themselves under fire by the 24th and George's Irregular Cavalry...


The attack on the left flank had turned into a bit of a mess with units getting Pinned.


Meanwhile the right flank was advancing more successfully...


...but the cannon fire and rifles of the 24th cut down many brave Zulu warriors!



On the left one unit managed to get in stabby assegai range...


...as did one on the right!


But both were repelled by the sharp bayonets of the 24th!


The Zulus drew breath and charged in again!


And managed to overrun the cannon which had been causing havoc in the Zulu ranks!


Whilst the left and right flanks of the Zulu attack had been badly whittled down by the accurate fire of the 24th (although the Zulu rifles Pinned the Natal Native Contingent after one round of fire), the "loins" in the centre were now in a position to bring numbers to bear...


...crashing into one of the units of the 24th in the centre...


...and pushing it back and Pinning it after inflicting six casualties!


Next turn more Zulus rushed in on the Pinned survivors...


...and wiped them out!

Suddenly the British line was split into two parts as the Zulus poured through the centre.


The battlefield was looking a lot emptier than when we started!


The Zulu rifles skirmished forward and managed to inflict two casualties on a unit of the 24th who then failed a Pin test (this made me smile as George's Mahdists do this to me all the time!)


This allowed a unit of Zulus to charge into the Pinned unit and inflict eight casualties!


On the left the Zulus charged in again...


...winning a round of hand to hand combat three to two!


The British defence was now badly compromised and the NNC kept failing Rally tests...


...before bottling it and running off completely without doing anything in the game!

Fortunately for George this didn't affect the remaining British who passed their Pinning tests...


...not that it made much difference for the two survivors of one unit who went down under a flurry of assegais!


As the battle entered its final phase, George had just two full units of the 24th left, the remnants of two others and his Irregular Cavalry....


The Zulus charged in on the right...


...and managed to kill nine of the British, Pinning the survivors, who went down next turn.


On the left the remaining full strength unit of the 24th faced another round of hand to hand combat against the Zulus...



... and forced them back following a drawn round of combat!

However by now it was just a numbers game and more Zulus charged in reducing the unit by another three...


Leaving just six brave soldiers facing the remaining Zulus...


...who killed another three and Pinned them.


Now it was just a case of mopping up the remnants of the British Army for the Zulus....


And one small group...


... after another fell to the might of the amaZulu!


George's Irregular Cavalry decided to retire from the battlefield, leaving it to the remnants of the Zulu army! (it is worth comparing this shot to the opening one of the game...)


So, as happened historically, Isandhlwana was a mighty Zulu victory, but not one without losing a lot of Zulu warriors.

This was the casualty table at the end of the game and doesn't show the units originally wiped out that were regenerated!


Overall this was a lot of fun to play and showed that despite being designed for smaller games, The Men Who Would Be Kings is a robust set of rules than can handle larger battles outside its remit with ease and, as both battles have shown, gives a decent historical result (and is just six quid currently in the Osprey sale!)

Saturday 9 February 2019

Rorke's Drift - the Refight

 Apologies for the delay in posting our Rorke's Drift battle George, Steve and I fought at BIG to commemorate the 140th anniversary of the battle using The Men Who Would Be Kings, but better late than never...

George and I are still in the process of building and painting our Anglo-Zulu War armies, but we were determined to get a game in as near as we could to the anniversary, and fortunately Steve had a large number of Zulus already painted. I'd managed to make the buildings but we had to use some generic stone walls in place of the melee backs and biscuit tins.

We both started with 36 points but the Zulus could regenerate badly mauled or destroyed units on a D6 roll of 3+.



My Zulus advanced through the long grass en masse...


 Whereas Steve spilt his force to attack both buildings...


Steve managed to get one of his units into hand to hand combat against the 24th Foot in the hospital but was beaten back...


Likewise my Zulus reached the melee bag wall....


...only to be beaten bag with several casualties.


Steve's Zulus attacking the Commissariat came under rather accurate fire and were Pinned (we used some spare shields as Pin markers).


My attack wasn't going too well either with many casualties and two units Pinned.



Half of Steve's force was getting annihilated!



I decided to switch tactics and take a leaf out of George's Mahdist tactics book and use my Zulus with rifles to pepper the defenders. As they were firing at long range and against a target in cover they needed three hits to inflict a casualty but did manage to draw blood - but not Pin a unit.


George's dice rolling all evening was very impressive, he clearly had been saying prayers to the gods of dice before the game!


With most of the first wave having been wiped out, the second wave emerged from the long grass!


And charged towards the hospital...


...into heavy fire from the 24th Foot!


Meanwhile Steve's second wave charged in on the Commissariat building, again suffering a number of casualties.


My dice rolling was not as impressive as George's and even when my Zulus got into hand to hand combat they found the dice let them down (needing three hits to inflict a casualty).


Meanwhile the 24th Foot showed the were as adept with bayonet as they were shooting!


My second wave was pushed back...


And Steve's Pinned! Things were not looking good for the brave warriors of amaZulu!


Once more my Zulus rushed the defenders...


...only to be defeated by my own poor dice rolling!


However, despite being Pushed Back, the Zulus had chipped away at the numbers of defenders... 


....and eventually they breached the barricade!



Meanwhile Steve charged in once more against the few remaining defenders in the Commissariat building...


Faced with the prospect of his defences being breached, George's 24th fell back from the external barircade...


...whilst a unit of my Zulus stormed into the Hospital!


Outside the hospital the Zulus who had breached the barricade rushed in to stab the few remaining defenders there with their assegais!


Only to be embarrassingly beaten back over the defences and Pinned!


Surely though Steve would at last manage to storm the Commissariat defended now by a small number of the 24th?


Unfortunately not. The round of combat was tied and the Zulus forced back...


Meanwhile the 24th waited for the Zulus in the Hospital to charge out!


Which they did, bundling into a unit of the 24th...


...and pushing them back! 

Unfortunately they were now looking down the barrels of twelve Martini-henrys!


The remaining warriors of my second wave rushed to try and support them...


But found themselves under heavy fire!


One last unit managed to engage the 24th in hand to hand combat...


But despite inflicting some casualties was defeated and Pinned!


And pretty much wiped out by a volley of rifle fire...


As the gun smoke cleared the Zulus found themselves left with a handful of surviving warriors and rifles, the 24th Foot still having a number of units intact. The Zulu izinDuna decided that fate was against them and admitted defeat...


Overall a resounding British victory that in many ways repeated history and was a lot of fun. The rules worked pretty well and George's dice rolling certainly made a difference - or maybe it was both Steve and my lamentable dice rolling, who knows?

Next up though time to turn the tables - the Isandhlwana refight!