SUDAN 54mm Three Battle Campaign Game #1

Date: 16 October 1898/2018
Location: Sudan Seacoast, Bebara River, Mafrica
Situation: Imperial Naval Landing Opposed By Dervishes

Rules: Batailles de le Ancien Régime/Colonial
Miniatures: 54-60mms
Weeknight Game --- Two Hours Duration
Players: Jim P. Der Alte Fritz, John B., Greg B. and me Bill P.

See previous post for set-up explanation and photos
https://generalpettygree.blogspot.com/2018/10/sudan-54mm-three-battle-campaign.html
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PRELUDE

Imperial forces commenced a naval landing on the Sudanese Coast at the mouth of The Bebara River on the imagineered continent of Mafrica. Local Dervish forces immediately launched a counterattack to throw the Imperials back into the sea. This is what happened.

IMPERIAL EXPEDITIONARY FORCE {IEF}

Morning Of The Landing

Northern Flank of the IEF Along The Bebara River

Royal Marines Assemble On The Beach

Naval Detachment Prolongs A Gardner Machine Gun Forward

To Support A More Forward Royal Marine Section Covering

The Most Forward Imperial Position Within A Stone Enclosure

Southern Flank Of The IEF

Dismounted Camel Corps Assembles On The Beach 

And Pushes A Screen Forward

Camelry Moves Inland

Left: Gatling Gun.    Right: Dismounted Camel Corps

NORTHERN FLANK --- DERVISHES APPEAR 

Load

Volley Fire --- Present --- FIRE!

Reload

Independent Fire

HOLD THEM!

Royal Marines and the Gardner Quick March

To Support The Highlanders

Left: Hand to Hand At The Wall

Right: Dervishes Recoil Back 

 Royal Marines Move Forward Firing Into The Dervish Flank

Meanwhile More Dervishes Arrive To Overcome The Highlanders 

And Flank Them On The Left

Will The Oncoming Royal Marines Scare Them Off?

It Doesn't Look Like It!

Both Imperial Flanks Are Lost

Only The Center Holds On

SOUTHERN FLANK--- DERVISHES APPEAR 

The Camel Corps Is Rushed By Dervishes

Heedless Of Losses They Charge Forward

After Initial Melee Successes

They Become Surrounded

Survivors Defiantly Fall Back To Recover

They Fought With Fanatical Ardour!

THE END?

This Looks And Is Dreadfully Bad For The Enclosure

Dervishes Are Within And Behind It!

But....

Our game time was up at 9:20 pm. Many Dervishes had routed from the front of the enclosure and surely (?) the nearing Royal Marines, Gardner and surviving Highlanders would cause the winning Dervishes within to logically retire.

Kudos to the Dervishes (John B. and Greg B.) for putting a huge scare into the two Imperial commanders; Jim and I! Somehow we survived. 

The landing area is secure for the moment and the Dervishes are retiring to regroup and summon hordes of reinforcements for Battle #2.

CLOSING REMARKS

(1) I am gravitating toward issuing game mission orders in the briefest way possible. It seems to help and allows players to use their own wits and intuition a bit more. And it is fast so a game can get underway without more than a few minutes of conversation. In recent years it seems as if lengthy game orders and speeches are not productive. Hence, this is all I gave to our four players.

(2) It helps enormously to use Quick Reference Charts. They are fast and each section has a number.

If you click on the above to make the image larger, notice that each little section is numbered. Thus, during a game all we have to say is, "Charlie the answer is in #19 or #44, etc." It's fast. Fast turn resolution is very important to maximize figuring things out and getting in more game turns.

(3) The enclosure creates an interesting and fun game tension. All of us know about Roarke's Drift. We recreated it a little differently.

(4) Bill's Imperial Roll Call After The Battle:
We should cobble together dice throws for KIA, Lightly Wounded and so on.

Stone Enclosure:
Burnaby Officer Commanding: 1 -0 = 1
Black Watch 42nd. Highlanders: 24 -6 = 18
Gordon Highlanders: 12 -3 = 9
Naval Detachment: 3 -2 =1

Elsewhere:
Officer Commanding and ADC: 2 -0 = 0
Royal Marines: 44 -0 = 44 (a)
Gardner Gun: 9 -0 = 9
Naval Detachment: 5 -0 = 5 (b)

(a)  22 unengaged (beach defense)
(b) 5 unengaged (beach defense)


(5) Jim's Imperial Losses

Major Edwards: 1 -0 = 1
Camel Corps: 50 approx. -6 = 44
Gatling Gun: 3 -0 = 3
Naval Detachment: 7 -0 = 7 (c)

(c) Unengaged (Guarding supplies on beach)

(6) Dervish Losses = ?

(7) Thank you for looking in.

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