One Hour Wargames Scenario 26 "Triple Line" - Setup and Game

So as promised, for the first time in seven years (😏), the Sudan troops have been deployed..

A return to my trusty side kick "One Hour Wargames", showed me I am now up to Scenario 26, so I chose that for the battle. This scenario is supposedly based on the real battle of Bladensberg in the War of 1812 and posits a situation where an ill prepared defender (of 4 units) has to try and stop a determined and overwhelming attacker (of 6 units) who has suddenly appeared. 

In a colonial/Sudan setting I think I would almost always make the defenders the Imperial side, it just seems right, so rolling for each side gave the Imperial/defenders 3 regiments of infantry and a small piece of artillery, and the Dervish/attackers got 2 rubs of rifle armed Ansar, 3 rubs of sword and spear armed foot and a rub of camel mounted sword and spear.

The tricky issue for the Imperials (and that's in addition to being outnumbered) is that they are also assumed to be so disorganised that, although they are allowed to fire, none of their units can move until an enemy is within 6", and one of their units is very exposed and deployed far in advance of their other units, despite being theoretically safe behind a river bank.

Move 1 and Table Set Up (following):

Table as follows..   

• defender edge to the left, attacker comes on from the right, and to the right of the river
• river is impassable except by the crossing
• the hill, the area of scrub, and the two rocky areas are bad going
• the road runs the complete width of the table, and is also the only crossing over the river

The defenders start deployed, and given the forces they had randomly rolled, their positioning was a bit of a no brainer - their foot was all of an equal quality so were deployed as per the scenario - the Sikhs defending the bridge, the artillery deployed on the hill for both visibility and range. Also on the hill were the  force commander and Captain Lucien Verbeek [clicky] (and his horse Teufel 😊). Verbeek is on attachment to the British army as an observer for the Belgian army to report back on the tactics and weaponry of the Dervish (in the event they coincide with any Belgian expansionist policy in North Africa), but also the tactics and weaponry of the British (because, well..... you never know..😏).

..and so the game started...

Now the Dervish commander (me 😏) had come up wth what he thought was a cunning plan, which was to bring up both his rifle armed Ansar units to the bridge and by a 2:1 majority destroy the "accursed Sikh's" before unleashing the faithful on the rest of the "infidel dogs". For the Imperial commander, the decisions are far easier, but no less frustrating, as his hands are tied (which makes this a very good solo scenario).

The Dervish commander kicks off his plan and the Ansar riflemen open fire with what can only be described as the most lacklustre shooting seen this side of the Irrawaddy in the last 20 years (poor dice throwing!), and while the Sikh's don't seem to be doing much better, the artillery on the hill is smashing the cricket ball out of the Oval. Very soon one of the Ansar units is destroyed, and with much froff'ing at the mouth, and howling of curses, the Dervish commander orders his camels forward to finish the Sikh's, which they do in short order...

Honours even at this point - the Dervish have lost a unit of riflemen, but the camel unit has destroyed the Sikh's - note black dice for recording hits, and blue dice for Dervish initiative/activation - I used red for the Imperials

The Dervish commander finally has a clear path across the river and orders his three sword and spear armed units to attack the foot on the Imperial left flank (Egyptians), the camels to attack the Imperial unit on their right (a Home Counties regiment), and with the battered but still available rifle unit to support the camels.

 

As the Dervish close to contact they are of course subjected to volleys of rifle fire, and the imperial gun on the hill is doing shocking damage.. 

... but they can't shoot everything, and in the end the camels smash home, and on the other flank, two units of sword and spear crash home on the Egyptian foot. With both forces engaged closely, the Imperial artillery falls silent, they cannot fire with their own forces so close...  

Dervish superiority in hand to hand contact is matched only by their lack of superiority in small arms and first the Egyptians are broken and sent packing (but not before they destroy one of the Dervish sword and spear units attacking them), and then the brave boys from the Home Counties also break and run.

With his force all but destroyed, and the artillery about to be overwhelmed (following picture), the Imperial commander orders the gun to be disabled, the gunners to escape by any and all means, and then orders his staff, and a certain Belgian staff officer, to do the same...

His troops spent, and his camel riders reporting their camels are blown, the Dervish commander has no choice but to let them escape...  no matter, the infidels were defeated, he has a rich haul in better and more modern rifles for his Ansar, and his mission has been overwhelmingly successful..  his master will be most pleased... 

Post match analysis:

• In hindsight, the Dervish commander (me! 😏) should have realised that the Imperial gun effectively nullified the 2:1 odds he was hoping for on the bridge.. mea culpa..   with the Dervish (as with the Zulu) their shooting is not their best suit, far better to get them in close with hand to hand weapons - I should have sent the camels in straight away.  
• The Rules [clicky] used were these.. v2 as I made some slight changes straight after the game based on observations made at the time.. 

Laters, as the young people are want to say...