"Sudan Battle Report" Topic

Last week, we ran a Sudan game, using the Perry Twins' oustanding figures. The scenario was a skirmish, set in 1884, involving a small British column sent to re-capture an old Egyptian outpost which had been seized by the Mahdists.

The Mahdists had approximately 80 warriors overall, divided into two groups – one to hold the outpost, the other to reinforce.

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The British column had approximately 50 men all together, featuring Royal Irish Fusiliers, Gordon Highlanders and Naval Brigade troops, supported by a Gardner, Gatling and Screw-Gun.

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We used a modified version of Lord of the Rings for rules. One particularly important twist was a power given to the Imam – any warrior "killed" within 30" of this figure could keep fighting on the roll of a 6+.

The Mahdists logically lined the walls of the outpost with riflemen, but were soon on the receiving end of platoon volleys and fire from the Gatling and the Gardner guns. These thinned their ranks considerably, and so they fell back further into the Outpost. The Fusiliers and the Highlanders were happy to follow, advancing in an orderly British fashion to the walls of the Outpost, while the line of Naval ratings and repeating guns moved to face the expected Mahdist reinforcements.

When the British reached the walls of the Outpost, the desperate defence began, with the spearman and swordsmen charging and trying to hold the walls. Anyone who has played Lord of the Rings rules where one side is defending a wall knows the entertaining heartbreak that can ensue from these situations. The Highlanders had better fortune than the Fusiliers, and started to hop over the wall once they created an opening. In particular, the Highlander Captain, confronted by a Khalifa on a war horse, simply carved him in two with the assistance of his NCO.

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The Mahdists' saviours in this instance were four riflemen who had fallen back and could now take pot shots from cover, preventing the Highlanders from attaining a clean break through.

At this point, the Mahdist reinforcements arrived, and made straight for the British. The Naval Brigade let loose with everything they had. One important development now started to alter the course of the game – the Imam was on the table, with his 30" radius, and this not only covered all of the reinforcements, but soon reached all the way to the Outpost.

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The Mahdist players started rolling "6"s and heavily wounded warriors would carry the fight forward. This was especially true of one particular camel rider, who made contact with the line of Naval Infantry after being "killed" twice, and started thrashing them. Also, one particular spearmen way, way at the back of the Outpost, would take advantage of this. The Fusiliers would "kill" him in three of the final four turns, only to see him spring back to life, and basically prevent those 20 or so infantry from cleaning out the Outpost.

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The game was very close, and as the 15th and final turn approached, the British had one chance to clear out the Outpost. They cut down many of the remaining warriors, while the Imam narrowly missed taking a direct hit from the 7-lb screw gun. Yet the heroic spearman, back from the dead three times, actually won his last round of combat (against seven Fusiliers). While the British column had piled a stack of enemy corpses, it was the rebellious Mahdists who carried the day!

I really like your painting technique and bases.

Also – apologies for the typo in the title of this thread – obviously I can't type this morning.

GB

Nice report Greg!

I had the honour of commanding the Fusiliers… and I beg to report that I only lost three men of my command in the fight. However, as Greg pointed out, the last combat round saw a single Mahdist warrior defeating seven of my men attacking him…

Great game all around!

w.

Great figs – clever idea about the Imam's bonus effect – well fought

Good stuff. Nice figures, clear photos and it sounds like a blast. Only thing I would have liked is a shot of the full table so I could have better followed the action.

Why are the British infantry wearing blue uniforms?

Great paint job. I notice that you couldn't resist giving the Highland officer a red coat.

Mike,

They were wearing the blue-gray serge uniform supplied to all in the Sudan theater.

Jim

"By the middle of August 1884 it was decided that troops proceeding up the Nile were to be dressed in their red and blue serge frocks. However the Camel Corps fared a little better. They were issued with a distinctive grey serge tunic. Khaki at this time was not the colour we are familiar with today; it varied from a drab grey through various shades of gold and ochre to a pink hue. However, all narratives clearly make the distinction between the grey serge as worn by the Camel regiments and 'karkee'. Troops sent out for the Suakin Field Force were most definitely clothed in Khaki which was specially made in the army clothing factory at Pimlico."
The Camel Corps and the Gordon Relief Expedition, 1884-1885, Marrion and Fosten, Military Modelling, April 1977.

Hi Mike,

All the references I had found for the British in the Suakim area pointed to grey and blue-grey colours of uniforms.

GB

"All the references I had found for the British in the Suakim area pointed to grey and blue-grey colours of uniforms."

Hmm. Seems there is some disagreement then. What were your references?

I used the Perry Twins site, and the Osprey campaign books for references.

I was about to give the link to the Perry Bros site.

From my reading there was a lot of variation including wearing of red coats at Kirkeban by the River Column.

I really like the paint jobs and think that they fit perfectly with my mental image of the period.

Post more battle reports!

From the Perry article on the web site:

"The initial force to operate against the Mahdi garrisoned in the Mediterranean (excluding the Naval Brigade) were supplied with grey uniforms."

Note grey, not blue-grey.

"The painting of the battle of Tofrek by C E Fripp shows the Berkshires in action in both [grey & khaki] uniforms."

"York & Lancaster Regiment
A battalion of this regiment together with others (Royal Irish and East Surrey) arrived from India wearing Indian khaki drill uniforms."

Definitely not exclusively grey and certainly not "blue-grey". In fact I can find no mention at all of "blue-grey" in any of the references I have.

The Mahdist Wars Source Book and back issues of Savage & Soldier concur with only grey uniforms and no blue-grey. Some units that came from India were in Khaki and as stated above there were reports of a few units dressed in Red for Ginnis(I don't have my books with me, but I'm pretty sure that was the last battle that British troops wore red). Helmets were stained, except for the Royal Marines who kept theirs white.

Grey vs. blue-grey? Maybe I will melt them all down, buy new ones, and start over. Or not.

Well, regardless of what it said in a mouldy 30-year-old back issue of Military Modelling, it was an awesome game with very nicely painted figures. I didn't hear any complaints from the Fusiliers that they were in the wrong coloured uniforms.

Please keep in mind that my camera (for it was I who took the photos) may not exactly reflect the colour of the figures. They may appear different on your monitor as well.

Gentlemen of tact will continue this sort of conversation via PMs rather than demonstrate their pedantry to the readers of the thread. The sad anoraks in question know who they are.

Regards,

w.

I think the figures have an excellent paint job. Well done Greg.
The shade of grey is darker than I would have expected but there was so much colour differentation between batches, I would not worry about it. After all, different colour plates I have seen from many sources (Military modelling magazine articles from 1980's, Osprey books) do not have a uniform shade of grey

Looks good to me Greg, thanks for sharing. Nevermind the uniform critics. It's a game that is supposed to be fun after all.

Did you play it IGO-UGO or did you devise some other play sequence? I like LOTR mechanics and their fit for this era but think it would benefit from something more interesting for activation.

DColtman – we used the same mechanisms as LOTR – roll for priority, IGO-UGO move, IGO-UGO shoot, and then the close combats. Officers were given varying degrees of fate points, might etc.

In addition to the powers of the Imam, we made special rules for things like volley fire from the British, rules for the Gardner and Gatling to jam etc. The bagpipes gave an extra attack to the Highlanders when they charged.

Although the British players were getting a bit frustrated watching those "dead" warriors come back for more, I think we were pretty pleased overall with the skirmish flow provided by the LOTR rules, together with the tweaks we made.

For more of a pitched battle, you are right – it would probably be appropriate to use a different rules set.

Greg, I think this sounds great for the game scale! I just wondered if you did something like TSATF where cards activate formations or if you ran it straight-up IGO-UGO. IGO-UGO has the advantage of being easy to keep track of and fast playing. I may try this myself.

Dave

Great Paintjob Greg thanks for sharing.

Paul

"Never mind the uniform critics. It's a game that is supposed to be fun after all."

Well if you really want to paint your British colonial infantry in pink tunics with yellow polka dot trousers who am I to stop you? OTOH I thought half the fun was in painting the figures in the right colours!

"Please keep in mind that my camera (for it was I who took the photos) may not exactly reflect the colour of the figures."

Well, they certainly look more blue than grey to me but YMMV.

Mike, everyone tries to be as accurate as possible when painting their models. I didn't see any pink tunics or polka-dot trousers in the pics Greg posted. Plus I had the blue filter on, so there.

What's uncalled for is the belligerent anorak trainspotter attitude.

w.

I love the figures! They are wonderfully done and the bases really enhance the effect. Most importantly, the game looked fun, thanks for sharing.

Yup, purty!

I have to concur, unless you were actually there or have seen the gray fabric at the time it was worn, I would guess you wouldn't know what the exact shade was. I am still trying to figure out what color "khaki" is….

Great looking figs, great looking game!

And the brightness and depth of colour at the beginning of a campaign compared to the end would be very noticeable as they faded etc.

Notice no one seems to be picking the Mahdists up for their wardrobe :)

THE batrep was nice, the figures were verra verra purty, and the terrain looked nice. obviously everyone had fun. who gives an anorak trainspotter damn about fantasy uniforms?

not me!

too much of this "brass buttons were in alternating groups of 3 and 4 with buttocks rampant cast on them" uniform detail in 28mm scale. do your best, and to hell with the rest.

this guys stuff is very nicely done, much better than i can do and i have 30 years painting experience behind me as a painter for myself and for other folks.

somewhwere, in the past, i have seen drawings of the ROYAL MARINES and other BRITS wearing mixed grey/gray, blue-grey/gray, and khaki uniforms during this period. in addition to the CAMEL CORPS uniforms, that is.

play the game! toss dice! push toys about! drink beer or soda pop! chow down on snacks! have fun damn!

DAWGIE