Monday, November 11, 2013

Colorado Military Historians (CMH) Vet Wars 2013 - Black Powder Sudan Battle

I know I have discussed this before and it has to do with my favorite era of wargaming, Colonials!  It all started when I was very young and my Parents were taking us to see a "Cartoon!" so we thought.  Well it was "Khartoum!"  Man it was boring at first.  If you have ever seen it you know that the beginning felt like one of those National Geographic episodes.  What the heck my brothers and I thought.  But then, but then, it started, Bakers disaster, the Mahdi, Gunboats on the Nile, and yes the siege of "Khartoum" not Cartoon.  I have been fascinated since that evening.  Of course my younger brothers and Mom fell asleep because it is a looong movie but not me!  I must have been 7 or 8 years old at the time.  Anyway, sorry for the rant but you can imagine the excitement I have whenever I put on a Colonial battle.

So this scenario is based on the El Teb scenario in the Black Powder rule book.  We had a blast.  It was Matt V's first time he played in a Colonial game and it didn't go well for him but he had fun.  And knowing Matt, the next time we play his tactics will definitely be different.  Its not easy for someone that plays Civil War, Nappy and Ancients to catch on to Colonial combat.  Like the question he asked me said it all, "Dan, do you form square against these Mahdist?"  As we all know, squares work great against Cavalry but Dervish?  If your not used to it you have a way of learning quickly in the desert!  You will see what happens to his Sudanese troops in this battle.  It was very entertaining (lol).

Well again, I captioned all the pictures.  I had a great time putting this on for our club event.  Oh we also had Jeff G. join us for this battle.  I was glad he could join us.  Emir's Jeff, John "Mumbasa" and Aaron took command of the Mahdist forces and Colonel's Matt and Nate the British and Egyptian forces.

The mission was to attack and clear the sangars (defensive positions) and capture the Khalifa,the defender of the faithful.  So as they say, it so happened that the hunter became the hunted.  Take a look.

Dan




















1 comment:

  1. Ah yes, shades of Henry Newbolt here - "The Gatling's jammed and the Colonel dead, And the regiment blind with dust and smoke...etc" Inspires me to dust off my Zulus, it does.

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