Sharp Practice Sudan Dervish v British

Game two of Dave and I's mini-Sudan campaign saw the British, having been thwarted in their efforts to rescue the missionary and his daughter in the first game, attempting to fall back to their supply base on the Nile:

Not having a paddle steamer, we just used a baggage camp instead guarded by a detachment of the Naval Brigade supported by a maxim machine gun. Dave took the British again while I had the Dervishes. The British start on the left of the map and the Dervishes from the top left.

The British column arrives:

They are so far uninterrupted:

Not for long though as a mass of Dervish warriors attempt to cut them off before they reach the Nile:

Buoyed by their victory in the last battle and leaders who are figures not counters the Dervishes are full of fight: 

Another mass of Dervishes arrives while the British deploy into the palm grove to meet the attack:

The Dervishes rush forward, with hardly any firepower overwhelming the British in a charge is the only way forward for them:

The British open fire cutting some Dervishes down and reducing their fervour but not really slowing them down:

The rest of the Dervish army has been a bit split up having further to move and the British have turned to face it. The British cavalry have been scared off by a few Dervish skirmishers surprisingly accurate fire removing one dangerous risk to the warriors:

Dervishes storm into the palm grove! Hopefully their numbers and fanaticism will overcome solid British defence:

 The British are forced back with heavy casualties:

The Dervishes follow up to finish the job:

The remaining British flee taking their force morale down to zero and ending the battle:

The Naval Brigade have been exchanging fire with some Dervish skirmishers and watching carefully as camel riders attempt to outflank their position. How many of the fugitive British column will make it back to the Nile?

Another victory for the Dervishes, achieved I think with fewer casualties than last time. In the post-game chat we both felt it seemed very difficult for the British to stop the Dervishes despite the firepower of the British. 

With the addition of 'fervour' to the Dervish warriors they move faster and absorb shock very well allowing them to contact the British in one solid group, exacerbated by the fact that I had noticed the Dervishes could 'step out' for a single command card giving them the potential to move huge distances so long as they can stay in a single group of mobs.

However, I'm not convinced yet things are hopeless for the British, when we first started playing CoC it seemed impossible to attack but gradually we worked out the tactics to overcome most of the problems and produce a more balanced game.

In this case as the British you'd need to try to break up the Dervish mobs in some way and make sure they can't rush you easily from terrain (easier said than done of course!). One thing I did notice was that the British can fire a 'crashing volley' for only one command card which might be worth doing for their initial volley at least to try to reduce Dervish fervour before contact. 

The third and final game of the series has the British landing a force to try to rescue the missionary held captive in an old fort on the Nile by the Dervishes. For some reason the Dervishes get less units in this game so perhaps they will have a tougher time!