Call To Arms Isandlwana Demo Game

Well I finally managed to put a Game on with all the models painted for Isandlwana so far. As things went it did not take long for things to go the Zulus way after a long build up. I wrote a timetable which was based on the Osprey title of British Red Coat verses Zulu which has a map and quite a good description of the battle.

Here is the Initial setup. The British started in line but with two Companies off table to the Left which were initially involved with the Zulu right Horn. My opponent Tyrone won the Dice off to choose sides and chose the British. (It would be fair to give him the British for the next game in the series at Rorkes Drift). I actually like commanding the Zulus so no problem there. The Zulus started off the table and arrived in dribs and drabs until the whole Army came on and assaulted the British. A few of the Regiments were brought to a standstill by casualties and shock which enabled the fresh units to come in and take over.

Some of the issues of using Zulus is I got the Head and Body mixed up and got confused over who was commanding what. I need to mark out the Commanders and have some activation markers as some turns just blended into each other. I suppose Black Powder might handle this better than Sharp Practice.

I took a photo of the finish of the first day with the Zulus lined up in front of the British. We called it a day there as things looked like they were about to get nasty.

The photos below are at the end of the battle. The Artillery managed to get off the table as did Captain G Wardells Company. There was one Company left to fight it out on the left flank Commanded by Captain Mostyn and Pulliene but everything else was wiped out.

The Zulus lost one Regiment and half sized unit, also a half sized Unit was running away. About half of the remaining Regiments were at about half strength and several were just about at breaking point and just managing to keep going. My notes say that only one regiment was intact. If I had some more troops on the British side with some Lancers and Gatling Guns the game could have turned the other way, especially if they were to form a large square. I will have to try this out another day.

I hope my opponent enjoyed the weekend as I did. I also had quite a few compliments on the painting  and a number of conversations. At one point we had a laugh about drinking a nip each time someone made a quote from the Movie. My one regret is that I did not print out a copy of the Movie Poster of Zulu Dawn and put it in the plastic holder I have to explain the game a bit better.