"Rourke's Drift" Topic

Alright, I admit it. I had so much fun running the game at Recruits I've already been plotting what to do for the spring show. Now that I have plenty of time to prepare, I've decided on a little British on Zulu action, and I have a few questions.

First, does anyone know how the A Call to Arms figures stack up to Conte Zulu stuff? In 1/32 of course. I want the officers from the Conte sets, but they're a little pricey for me to build the whole game from.

Second, where can I get a good diagram/some pictures of Rourke's Drift? I plan on doing a lot of terrain for this and I'll need some

Last, does anyone know of a good set of fast play rules for 54mm figures in this period?

Thanks in advance for your help guys..

I'd say go with The Sword and the Flame for rules. Though an early issue of Wargames Illustrated had a nice fast play set of rules for re-fighting Rorke's Drift. I can scan it for you if you want it. Drop me a line at mike40k@shaw.ca

As for the Call to Arms 54mm minis, form the pics I have seen they are quite decent minis, and certainly cheaper then Conte. Nice to see another 54mm colonial gamer!
As for a map, here's what I found using my Google-Fu:
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link

OH! I know the answer to this one. Call of Arms is smaller than Conte. Really Conte minis are very large 54mm. Closer to 60mm in height, while Call of Arms are more like 52mm in height.

Of the two Call of Arms makes a much more accurate Zulu figure, and British too, while Conte is all about the Movie and thier buildings and figures are not accurate at all.

If you want more information of Zulu's feel free to ask me.

Drop me an email at mike@blackhat.co.uk and I can send you the photos I took at Rourke's drift in April this year. They show some of the ground and the barricade outlines, etc

Mike

If you're going to be running a convention game then one good first step might be to spell the name right. If you bought a book on the subject it would give you the correct spelling, and also include pictures and plans of the action to help your project, too.

Try this site for a copy of Chard's map of the buildings:-

link

Hope this helps

Beware of modern photos of of the Drift. Those building are not the ones that stood on the battlefield in 1879, but are built on the foundations of the original dwellings. And for gods sake do not use the movie for how the building looked or pictures in the turn of the century. The witt home, which was used as a hospital was burned down, the storehouse used later as the hospital after the loss of the first building during the fight has gone thru a few changes and a rebuild.

What modern photos should show you is the nature of the terrain. Jim's place set on a rise with a very rocky outcrop to the front of the dwellings. This gave the defenders in that area a real height advantage.

Men at arms series of booklets has a very good intro-booklet for your subject. I suggest you buy it. Good diagrams and pictures of the buildings and terrain.

Ian Knight has a couple of books that include the Drift and one totally devoted to it, they are good reads too.

Yep, that Men at War series booklet is done by Mr. Knight also!!

Note that there is a 2-yard gap in the mealie bag wall in front of the hospital veranda, spanned by a single board. (Ian Knight's "Rorke's Drift 1879" describes this as "shored up by planking". See Mike Snook's "Like Wolves on the Fold" for a more careful description.) Also the mealie bags were 3 bags high along the south wall and 4 bags high along the north wall, due to the lack of a slope to the north vs. the height of the slope to the immediate front of the south wall.

Rick

Fred, you're new here so I'll explain that when starting a new project it's often helpful to start a post like this one to find out WHAT books to buy, etc. And I don't know why I always want to add that extra U. In my defense, I had just worked a twelve hour shift when I wrote that, but I do it all the time anyway.

To the rest of you, great info thanks! I'm afraid it leaves me with a few more questions though.

If I can't get buglers, officers, sergeants etc. from Conte, who makes some that will work with A Call to Arms? I can do metal, plastic or composite as long as they're in-scale, but I do prefer unpainted.

Does anyone know where I can find some better pictures of the A Call to Arms figures? I can't find a shot of the British at all, though the 72mm ones are nice.

And finally, what about some Zulus with rifles? I would like a few of those if I can get them. Thanks again guys!

Here's a link to the Harfields site:-

link

Photos of the different figures including Zulus with rifles

Call to Arms has I know at least 1 pose of a zulu with a rifle. As for the buglers and such, I'm not sure. Buglers were used to help carry away the wounded, not to make bugle calls at the Drift.

So, no buglers either then. I must confess most of my knowledge, such as it is, comes from the movies and a couple of documentaries. Looks like I have a lot of studying to do.

For doing the drift, you do not need that much knowlege. Any one good book by Ian Knight on the subject will give you all you need.

Zulu rifle fire was extremely poor. Even though 80% of the zulus may have own a gun, they were not considered a main weapon type, due to the conservative nature of the Zulu culture. That and the majority of their weapons were either cap and ball weapons, or even flintlocks. IT is a myth that at the Rorke's drift, the Zulus were using captured weapons from the defeat of the British at Isandlwana. Not only that, but the Zulus did not have access to good gun powder, nor good ammo. Most were crude hand poored lead, and even rocks. The Zulus involved were mainly NOT engaged there, but were the Reserves. The Zulus were under the command of a Major Induna, who name is unknown that was killed in the opening battle at the Drift, and Prince Dabulamanzi (half brother of King Cetshwayo) The Zulu Impi (regiments) consisted of the uThulwana, iNdlondlo, the uDloko, and the iNdluyengwe. All this men were married men in the mid-40s exempt the iNdluyengwe who were unmarried in their late 30's. Total Zulu forces were about 4,500, maybe less because some companies split off to chase and raid elsewhere. More like 3,800 by the time they attacked the Drift (which was against direct orders of the King). The Zulus would have been fatigued by the time they started the attack.

Back to the rifles, they sent some of their so called sharpshooter to the ridge overlooking the Drift to fire on the British, while the fire was extremely inaccurate, it was gunfire that caused the most casualities to the British at the Drift, from there and Zulus firing from hidden positions under the rocky outcrop in front the British positions. While the movie is a fun watch, it is not a good film to base a historical gaming version of Rorke's Drift.

If you have more questions, ask. This is on of my more favorite subjects. If you want the Breakdown of the Zulu shield colors of the Regiments at the Drift, just ask. I have them all.

I couldn't resist! :) Here are the shield colors for the regiments involved. In order that I listed them in my early post.
1. White with small red patches.
2. White with larger red spots.
3. Red with white patches, some may have had white shield since they were recently brigaded with the uThulwana.
4. Black with large white spots on the lower half.

Zulu in battle did not usually were cerimonial dress. They would have been stripped down to basically the loin and buttock coverings, and not much else. Married men had a ring of polished gum woven on their heads. Unmarried men did not. That is really the only way in battle to tell them apart. Hope that give you what you need.

It's certainly helpful, thanks! While I'm at it, does anyone know if Irregular Miniatures 54mm Zulu war figures will work with A Call to Arms?

Mr. Hitch:
I wouldn't be too snippy about spelling the name correctly--even contemporary sources were inconsistent (Rorke's, Rourke's, Roark's, etc. etc.) What matters is a person's enthusiasm and the energy he brings to putting on a good game for others to enjoy, yes?

Thanks for the downloads guys! I'll keep checking back as this gets rolling to show you how it's going. I can already see I'm going to need a BIG table at Recruits!

On a related note, can anyone give me a heads-up on Irregular Miniatures? Are they any good? Is there somewhere easier to order online than Silver Eagle?

go to my web site and look rorkes drifts photos

link

sorry is in fench

best regard

Nice stuff G Vanier! Thanks for the link!

We did a Rourke's Drift Outpost recently

link

Little small for my needs, but nice none the less. Thanks!