Wednesday 22 March 2017

NOT Roarkes Drift (The men who woul be kings)

Sorting out each players units
WelL at the Skirmish show Craig the organiser wanted a Zulu game. so I had to do some improvisation. Firstly to balance the scenario for the rules I improved the British defenders. Firstly I gave them a cannon and then I gave them some Cavalry support. This was enough to bring the game up to a more balanced outing. For the Zulus I increased the unit size from 16 figures a unit to 24 figures a unit!. This would make tem much deadlier in combat and harder to break. But did It work?


Gentleme start your engines
Initial deployment.

I did hear about 4 comment in the day about
 it being set in Spain!
I was just using the buildings I have and NOT spending more money
Maybe that's  frugal.
For me though it was just common sense.




































The Zulus approach the compound









And Just manage to break in but are kept at bay by the British
 intensity of fire.

bob Happy to have defended the compound.
Graham and Bob playing British Winn
 

Changing the players round.
This time the Zulus
Swarm the compound as fastr as possible.

 









































Despite a solid defence by Tim
The Zulus manage to enter in a few turns



GAME2













Inside the compound the British
Sourounded fight on.
















But Numbers are against them














The relief column arrives but not in time to prevent a massacre!
















Conclusion!

A minor victory for the British in the first game. And a Crushing defeat for them in the second. This meant that Bob was happy to have won twice! As I am sure Graham was. The British defence in the first game was better organised and the Cavalry relief was able to do better, In the Second Game the Zulus were much more aggressive and it served them well. They had taken the compound before the cavalry could make any impact on the game.

Overall the rules worked well and the first outing for MY Zulus (Miniatures) was a success in that they looked good and there were enough. Ok when it comes to Zulu armies enough is NEVER enough.

Overall I think the additional figures in a unit worked well as it did make the Zulus far more potent which in test games they were not ude to the fragility of the unit sizes. If you play "The men who would be Kings" Rules I would recommend either a LOT of cover for the tribal forces OR to increase their unit size.

THanks for stopping by. More again in a few days.





22 comments:

  1. Top stuff. And very interesting to read that the rules worked with the 10mm and how you based them - It looks like the units had 12 bases each, so you had each base being the equivalent to 2 figures to make the 24 figure units? I only ask to make sure I've got it correct, as I'm quite keen on the Zulu idea in a smaller scale and if these rules work, they're easy enough to get to sort something out.

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    1. Thanks Roy. I use 3 miniatures to a base. Each Base represents 1 figure (In game terms). So Zulus have 24bases or 72 miniatures in a unit. Which may seem a lot but at 10mm (1/200th scale) is quite affordable/manageable.

      British Infantry only have 36 Miniatures in a unit and 12 bases though. But the firepower does make so much difference UNLESS there is LOADS of cover!

      IF I was doing 28mm I would have 24 miniatures to a Zulu Unit, and 12 to a British Infantry unit!

      I simply mount everything 3 miniatures to a base to get a mass affect.

      I hope that clarifies it!

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    1. Thanks Roger. I feel Zulus are best at small scales where you can get lots of them on the table.

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  3. Great to see your Zulus on the table Clint and two cracking games. I imagine going fast and furious as a Zulu commander is the only way to go.

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    1. Thank you Michael. It was not without risk, but this time the risks paid off. The game was over pretty quickly, but given the time in the day it was a good time to end.

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  4. Interesting post. I have yet to get these rules but like the look of them.

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    1. Thanks John. Most of this series of rules are simple and effective. They are not bad. Personally I prefer them to say "Black Powder"

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  5. T'was a great looking game Clint!

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    1. Thanks Ray. A typical club game. Good enough, but nothing so very special.

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  6. Bromhead and Chard had better luck with their dice rolls than I did. Even buying new dice on the day had little effect. However we had two good games, chatted to the public, over spent as usual
    all round a good day.

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  7. Good looking game Clint, just have to agree with you, you can never have enough Zulus

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    1. Thanks Andy. I remember talking to a guy at the show and saying "When you are painting Zulus and you think you have done 3/4 of the army you already know you and not even 1/2 way to having enough!"

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  8. Nice looking game Clint hopefully a successful day 😀

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    1. Thanks Matt. Yes a successful day. Nice conversations with people and a pleasant atmosphere.

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  9. Excellent battle report mate. I imagine it was down to the props department getting mixed up :)

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    1. Thank you Simon. I am not blaming anyone. But being decisive with the Zulus is always a good tactic!

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  10. I don't imagine it's possible for the Zulus to score a minor victory in such a game, right? Either they are held off or the British are slaughtered!

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    1. Thanks C6, I think you are right it is all or nothing for the Zulus!

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  11. A simple looking game, but with two diffring outcomes, you obviously balanced it well. It must have been very satisfying too, to see your Zulus in action - they do look impressive!

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    1. Thank you Joe. I did enjoy seeing the Zulu's at play and I hope to see them in action again reasonably soon. I do think though I will need to pick a very different battle next time though, this was a bit too predictable>

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