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

Dan's New Wargame Table!

Well its only taken over 40 years of gaming and I finally have my own dedicated Wargame Table.  I still have a few things to do but its almost there!  Here are some pictures of the construction which was pretty easy after purchasing a workbench leg kit.  

So it only took about 9 studs and 3 sheets of plywood.  I picked out a pretty good grade so I had a nice smooth surface.  This set me up with a 4 x 8 foot surface just under 36 inches high.  When I finish off the last steps I will mount a ping pong table top to it.  This will increase the playing surface to 9 x 5 foot and give it some nice "lines." 

The 4 x 8 is great for most of the gaming that I do.  But, it is not quite wide enough for Naval or a good Knights Cross WWII Fighter battle.   Or even now that I have dived into 28mm Skirmish combat...I need some rooooom!

So the leg set is made of industrial strength plastic with the holes and shelf steps ready to go.  You can get the Work Bench Leg set from Rockler Woodworking store (http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=31136&site=ROCKLER).  They make it so easy!

So here is a better picture of my new Wargame area.  By the way, the table has some pretty good weight to it.  The next step is that I am going to stain the wood a darker color and add some slides on the 2nd and 3rd levels.  The slides will allow me to pull out large flat drawers to get to the terrain I will store on those levels.  I am also going to add some drink holders, pullout flat tables to put rules on, etc.   There is still much to do, but if I am going to take 40 years to make it happen, well I better do it right.

                                     

You might have noticed that a sink area went up at the same time in the background.  There will be more stuff to mount up, i.e., more cabinets, backsplash etc.  Always like to have some Coffee and cold drinks on hand for my gaming colleagues.  I had a cold water sink for coffee and tea making, brush washing, etc.  I also had to have a refrigerator installed.  I mean, like I told the Wife, "you can't be expected to leave the table in the heat of battle for very long!"

I look forward to inviting my friends in for many battles to come! I will post more updates in a couple of weeks along with a tour of the entire new "man cave."

Adelante!

Dan