Thursday evening the Corlears Hook Fencibles played a scenario of the 1899 Boer War Battle of Colenso. We used my 10mm Great War figures, with British mid-East troops in sun helmets. In place of the Boers we used Australians with Turkish artillery. On both sides machine gun units stood in for the extra artillery we needed. If this hasn't repulsed you, read on. Rick took the part of Boer General Botha. I played Sir Redvers Buller with command of the troops on table at start, the 5th (Irish) Brigade, the 2nd Brigade and the cavalry. Ken commanded the reserve troops which arrived on the second turn, the 4th (Light) Brigade and the 6th (Fusilier) Brigade. I didn't use the usual smoke markers since this was the era of smokeless powder. Yellow lines on the photos show the direction of fire back and forth. Also, I have no 10mm corpses so the battlefield is tidier than usual.
My plan was to attack Colenso frontally to tie down the Boers there while Ken would try to cross the westernmost drifts across the Tugela River and roll up the Boer flank.
I moved up rapidly to the village of Colenso and was greeted with a storm of fire from the Boers. Two stands of the West Yorkshires/East Surreys were shot down. On the plus side, the Boers went low on ammo, giving Rick a headache. Even firing at half effect, the Boer riflemen nailed two more stands from my lead unit and routed it during the next two fire phases.
On the second turn Ken moved his troops onto the field, attacking both drifts. At the westernmost, Robinson's Drift, the Boer Ermelo Commando had deployed facing to the east. This allowed the Light brigade to fire into their flank at effective range. A roll of 10 saw two stands removed and the remaining one took to their horses and fled. The Middelsburg/Johannesburg/Orange Free State troops were gone, the road to Colenso wide open. At the next, Bridle Drift, the 6th Brigade was halted briefly by the Boer Ermelo Commando. British cavalry assisted and suffered losses from rifle and artillery fire. But then the British dice lit up (another 10) and one of the Ermelo stands was removed, causing the remaining one to flee. Another drift was wide open.
Meanwhile at Colenso British rifle fire silenced a Boer battery which limbered up and fell back. Another burst of rifle fire wiped out a small Boer battery. The Devonshires/West Surreys moved by the flank across the road bridge at Colenso. The Boers had a target-rich environment. The Light Brigade formed column and marched towards the Bridle Drift. There, the Welch and Irish Fusiliers moved cautiously down to the riverbank, not sure that the Boers were all gone. The Royal and Scots Fusiliers formed column and marched directly across, through the cautious front line. Fortunately for them, the Boers were all gone and missed the juicy target presented.
Rick took a good look at the situation.
He decided that it was time for the Boers to mount up and show how fast they could move away from this stricken field.
The whole table
We played 4 turns in about 90 minutes. British losses were about 1700 with some 333 quitting the field. The Boers lost 1333 infantry, 2 or 3 guns and 670 or so Boers fled before the retreat was ordered. The way to Ladysmith was open, no need for Lord Roberts to show up.
One of the Boer drifts was captured because the Commando was facing the wrong way. But the Bridle Drift fell because Ken rolled a 10. Those small Boer units are gone if they take a hit. True, they are hard to hit but one hit undoes them. There are a lot more British on the field. With middling rolls we would have stalled under Boer fire.
We had dinner and then played a series of fast Waterloo games using the W1815 board game.