Fourth Battle on the Nile

So this last weekend's Club meeting I put on another Gunboat battle for the members that didn't get a chance to play in the last three.  I mixed it up and changed it a little.  The battle got a little crowded with boats but only because Mr. Bill Daniel delivered an awesome Mud Fortress terrain piece.  It was beautiful at over 3 feet wide and about 20" deep.  I had to put it out there!  It worked out pretty well and of course next time I will provide a little more maneuvering room...or not.  So here is a short  AAR from the battle yesterday at the Colorado Military Historian club meeting.

The Battle

The background is that the last battles had the British retreating and the Dervish advancing slowly downriver toward Khartoum.  So at this point, at an intersection of a tributary running into the Nile is where this one is set.  The British are raiding the area and are at their deployment areas.  Unknowing to all was a lost company of Camel Corps who have made their way here hoping to be rescued.  But that was just a side show the battle raging on the North Point and on the water.  Well it didn't seem like a side show to Major Roberts of the Camel Corps.  Let the battle begin.

Thanks

I wanted to thanks all the players who played in the battle.  Special thanks to Bill Daniel who makes all of my terrain including that new mud fortress in this AAR.  And thanks to Dwight for the flicker candle fire marker idea.  He used one at Colonial Barracks and thought wow, its the little things that can bring some realism into your tabletop battles.  

Third Battle on the Nile (Sudan Gunboat battle)

So I have to say that the last two gunboat battles were a lot of fun.  Both Colonial Barracks V and at our Colorado Military Historian (CMH) club meeting a week ago I can say that everyone again had a great time.  As we local's know our CMH President Doug Wildfong had some very serious surgery a few weeks ago.  I am not sure if they let him out or he escaped the hospital but he can be seen moving around pretty good these last few days.

Doug was also hosting his very good friend and long time wargamer Larry Armin.  Larry was on his last days of visiting Doug here in Denver so I thought he would enjoy playing in a gunboat battle.  The same for Doug who missed Colonial Barracks and our last club meeting.  So without missing a beat I setup a slightly smaller but action packed scenario which resembles the CBV and CMH battles.

In this battle, the sister boats of the Kadesh and the Giza are both present in the British force.   The scenario has the British going after the Pointe again.  The same objectives to destroy the mud forts and occupy the Pointe were in effect.  So this time the Grenadier Guards have been disembarked onshore and the Camel Corps along with a Screw gun battery making a flank move inland who will join the battle a little later.

We used the old school TSAF (Brom) rules alongside Boilers and Breechloaders (Wilson).  This should be interesting.  This battle flowed very well with all players playing TSAF before.

And back in Wadi Halfa Capt. Lucas (ex-Giza I Capt.) of the Giza incident, is still awaiting his court martial and the proceedings should be starting very soon.  He has been seen hanging around the boatyard, head down in deep thought.

Colonial Times announcing the Giza incident

In other parts of the Southern Sudan, the word is that the dervish warlords are rattling their sabers and calling for another holy war.  So far the hostilities have been focused in this area but a breakout is inevitable.  Outside of this battle area down stream British and Egyptian Command are mobilizing Egyptian forces into the region to protect many of the towns and villages so hard fought for in the last campaign.  The British have taken a support role at this point.  Stay tuned.

Last Stand Dan's Project table
I am starting to build out my Egyptian forces along with some cavalry units.  In fact, cavalry units on both sides will come into play in the next Sudan campaign (2016).  The next campaign will be similar to the Khartoum River dash or Nile campaign but in southern Sudan.  So that means new gunboats and dhows to be built. And I also have some requests to build a couple of boats for some gamers out there.   I better get to work.  More on this later.

Well back to the battle, enjoy the pictures and embedded AAR.

Last Stand Dan

Colonial Barracks V - Gunboat and Dhow Battle

Well it was so nice to see old friends and meeting new friends for life at the CBV event.  And of course it was bittersweet that we lost Larry Brom just before the event.  But I have to say overall it was a celebration and it was a very nice time.  I heard many stories about "Dad" from Lori and Christy and others.  I am glad I was able to make it this year.

On to the game I put on last Saturday morning.  As you have seen I have building those dhows for this event and upgrading my gunboats.  And putting on a game with all this stuff you of course have to drive.  So from Denver to Metairie I went.  It was a very nice drive with a stop in Tulsa (for work) and then in Shreveport before I met up with my friends to hit the WWII museum on Thursday.

So spending the first evening going out to Bourbon Street and having a great dinner the rest of the time was spent playing in various battles.  The two I played in and had a great time in both was the Zanzabari must go! by Dwight Jones and Charasiab by Ethan Reif.  Great battles and a lot of fun. I am sure they will both be putting out an AAR soon.

A word about terrain.  I wanted to thank Bill Daniel at Gamer Garage here in Denver who makes some pretty amazing terrain.  The mud forts and hills you see in my game are from him.  If anyone would like to order anything let me know.

The water I used were Lowes 18" adhesive floor tiles (Aspen Gray) stuck down on 3'x3' MDF boards.   A little heavy but still very easy to transport.

The rules we used were the 20th anniversay TSAF (available at http://www.sergeants3.com) by the late and will be sorely missed Larry Brom and Boilers and Breechloaders by Patrick Wilson (available at http://fauxtoys.com/tvag/).

We all know TSAF so I will not comment on those.  I would like to say a few words about Boilers and Breechloaders (B&B).

When using both TSAF and B&B for these sort of battles the sequence of events has you doing all the water combat first then moving to the land battle.  In B&B you use a separate activation deck as you do in TSAF.  The difference there is that you have a sequence you must follow when your boat or ship is selected.  You basically perform all of your actions then move to the next card.  Gun combat uses a d20 but the gun combat charts are little different than TSAF.  You have three ranges that will change your chances of getting a hit along with some modifiers.  Ships morale can also be effected and as you take hull hits you roll to see if a critical hit is scored.  When you get on the Critical hit table then things can go very wrong.  A whole lot of fun.  All very easy to learn, they are fast and I think they provide a good feel for the period. Oh by the way I did received the most Hollywood like game at the Con!  Pretty cool.

And be sure to go to Historicon next year (2016).  They are planning a TSAF event in dedication of Larry. I will be there!

Well let's get on to the battle.  I have captioned all of the pictures.  I hope you enjoy them.  Thanks to Jeff Baumal for taking so many pictures.

Last Stand Dan