Will Victoria be Amused: Sudan British v Dervish

Another game of WVBA, this time with Jerry and Dave. In this one Jerry and Dave held a position on the Nile while I had the Camel Corps attempting to bring supplies to the garrison.

It looks a long way across some dangerous terrain for the Camel Corps. Hopefully the garrison will quickly come out to meet them:

The Camel Corps begins to march towards the Nile:

A random event sees some unidentified natives approaching the column. Luckily they turn out to be some goat herders whose goats are quickly added to the baggage train!

The first Dervishes approach, moving towards Jerries command:

More head towards the Camel Corps:

The Dervish attack on the garrison is disjointed:

They are repulsed with heavy losses:

The Dervishes attacking Jerry have more success, almost breaking through:

The Camel Corps also comes under attack:

The Hussars and infantry withdraw firing:

It's those Camel warriors again!

Rifles blast away as the column is assailed on all sides:

There is no let up by the Nile either:

The Camel Corps desperately fights on, many Dervishes have fallen but more are on their way!

The battered Hussars launch a desperate charge into the rear of the Dervish camel warriors:

A moment of calm, the baggage has made good progress but some of the Camel Corps units are at the end of their strength:

The calm does not last, yet more Dervishes appear:

The Hussars make one last charge to keep the Dervishes back:

While the Hussars are dispersed the infantry manage to repel the Dervish foot:

With this we ended the game, the baggage would get through to the Nile but the British took some losses (much of Dave and Jerry's fight I didn't take pictures of).

Dave's officer ended with the highest reputation again, partly based on his ability to 'kill steal' units from Jerry and to a lesser extent me! As the Camel Corps commander I felt there had been a lack of support from the Nile garrison in general and, in Dave's case, a distinct tendency to fail to advance on the enemy. I wouldn't use the term 'lack of moral fibre' myself but others may do. Words would certainly be exchanged in camp afterwards! 

Certainly a bit different from our usual games, I guess the big disadvantage for me is that I can't be the Dervishes!

Will Victoria be Amused? Sudan British v Dervish

Having enjoyed our Sharp Practice games with the 15mm Anglo-Egyptians and Dervishes Dave found a new set of rules for us to play called 'Will Victoria be Amused?'. 

They are (slightly) unusual in that all the players are the British/Egyptians with the Dervishes being controlled by what these days is called 'AI' (or in effect, a dice throw and table which mostly results in CHARGE for the Dervishes).

The desert the British have to pass through. The Dervishes will arrive either on the flanks or at 'ambush points', the red counters in terrain:

The British column arrives. I am commanding the Highlanders and Sailors plus the cavalry while Dave has the English foot and artillery:

A few Dervish skirmishers observe the column from a distance:

Egyptian lancers charge into a Dervish horde:

The lancers push the Dervishes back:

The Dervishes are arriving in numbers now, some camel mounted warriors appear:

British infantry form line to repel the camels attack:

More cavalry move up to support the lancers:

One group of camels is thrown back but the other fights on:

The British line stands firm and repels all of the camel riders:

The cavalry continue to try to hold back Dervish warriors:

They are succeeding but becoming worn down:

The overall position, the British have pushed ahead well but the baggage is at risk from some recently arrived Dervish cavalry:

The reckless advance of the baggage results in it being attacked:

Remarkably the baggage guard defeat the first Dervish cavalry group but get attacked by the second and fall:

At this point we called it a day with the baggage lost and most of the Dervishes being dispersed. The rules are very generic but good fun with a number of cards with special abilities for the various officers and a system of gaining (or losing!) reputation determining which of the British officers has 'won' the game. As a result there is some competition between earning individual glory and ensuring that the whole army does not collapse! 

In this game for instance the cavalry commander held off a load of dangerous Dervish foot but didn't actually break any of them earning little glory while Dave's infantry commander shot away a few skirmishers and destroyed the camel warriors earning a much enhanced reputation!

At some point I'll try out the rules with my 10mm Zulu wars armies as they should suit solo play quite well.

Sharp Practice Sudan Egyptians v Dervishes

After four games with the Dervishes taking on the British we thought we would try something different so I used the Egyptians and Dave took over the Dervishes. 

We basically replayed the second scenario in which an Egyptian column is attempting to return to it's base on the Nile, probably after an unsuccessful attempt to locate and punish a recalcitrant local tribal leader or preacher.

For the same points as the British had in the scenario the Egyptians mustered eight groups of Fellahin, two of scouting cavalry and a medium gun all with appropriate leaders.

The battlefield set up. Scouts indicate the Dervishes approaching from the lower table edge (the Black and Green flag deployment points):

The Egyptians send their cavalry forward while half the infantry follow in column. The remainder of the infantry form a firing line to cover the advance:

A smaller force of two groups of Fellahin and the artillery defend the camp on the Nile:

The cavalry swing round to scout the hills and palm grove while the rest of the Fellahin form into line with surprisingly effective drill on display:

There are Dervishes in the hills! The cavalry draw their fire with one unit deciding discretion is best and retiring to the infantry line:

The Dervish skirmishers drawn out by the cavalry are forced to withdraw by accurate Egyptian fire. Meanwhile the main Dervish horde arrives and begins a rush towards the Egyptian lines. The Egyptians hope that they will get enough shots into the Dervishes to weaken (or ideally stop) them before they can contact the Egyptian line:

The Egyptians open fire and knock over numerous Dervishes, while in the distance the remainder of the Dervish horde arrives on table:

The Green Flag Dervishes suffer numerous casualties (but not so much shock) due to Dave's remarkable ability to throw sixes for his casualty rolls! 

The other Egyptian cavalry unit attempts to intercept a Dervish cavalry group that has worked it's way onto the flank of the Egyptians guarding the camp:

They don't arrive in time and the Dervishes hit the flank of the Egyptians:

Surprisingly the Egyptians fight back furiously and turn to face the Dervishes:

Further combat sees the Egyptians cut down to a man while the Dervishes also break after huge losses:

Meanwhile both the Green and Black Flag Dervishes begin to rush the Egyptian line. They have a considerable distance to cover over open ground though so speed is of the essence for them:

The Green Flags have taken heavy casualties and split up badly:

The Black Flags have also split up but one group manages to contact the Egyptian line with a second in support:

The Egyptians are wiped out but once again the Dervishes in combat take sufficient losses themselves to break and flee:

The Green Flags also manage to get a unit into combat but again the Egyptians fight off the weakened Dervish unit and break it:

Close range fire drives off the last of the Green Flags breaking the Dervish army's morale:

Another great game and I'm really enjoying these Sudan modifications to SP, with the Dervishes having to get into close combat it makes it a very different game from the usual SP shooting match. As with the last two games this one was quite close with the Egyptians ending up on 5 morale, a couple of Dervish close combat wins would have taken them over the edge. I also think Dave was a little unlucky with his movement rolls when trying to get into combat as some poor throws lead to the Dervishes making scattered attacks rather than charging in one mass.

As for how the Egyptians compare to the British (which was what I was most interested in) they lack the British special abilities (Sharp Practice and easy Crashing Volleys), fight much worse in close combat and tend to have a lower starting morale. However, they have numbers and more officers on their side which I suspect more than makes up for the disadvantages, six groups of Egyptian infantry with two Lvl III leaders and breech-loaders puts out an awfully large amount of firepower hardly affected by them being 'bad shots' at all.

Finally it has also been great to get these veteran (probably 20 years old plus) figures into action again! They are certainly not some of my best painting, having been done quickly with colours just blocked in and a wash of dilute black oil paint (aka 70's and 80's 'quick shade'!) but I think the overall effect is nice and they have something not all armies I paint develop, a bit of a personality!