"Gaming Omdurman" Topic

With the 120th anniversary of the battle coming up, I am motivated to put on an Omdurman game, but aside from the charge of the 21st Lancers and Hector MacDonald's handling of the Sudanese brigade, it feels like too much of a massacre to make a good game. I think I will instead game the battle of Atbara, which at least presents the opportunity to start the game with the Ansar inside a zariba for a change. Have any members put on a successful Omdurman game?

To make it interesting, I think you need to do it at more of an ‘operational' level where the Dervishes have some opportunity to maneuver.

I'm also in a similar situation. I acquired all the figures to be able to do that, just haven't found a suitable set of rules I like. So many of the rule sets are aimed at 28mm skirmish (which is silly) instead of actual battles. A slaughter it may be, but there are players who enjoy a challenge. I keep searching for some serious rules that would let me play out Omdurman but haven't found any. My requirements aren't long, just no verbal orders, blunders or ludicrous movement (so that rules out Black Powder), no card driven craziness and I strongly prefer something published.

ThePeninsularWarin15mm, Have you tried Battles for Empire Colonial Rules by Chris Leach? They are my go to rules for large colonial actions. They use an activation chart similar to Fire and Fury and their movement and formation mechanics really make it feel like you're moving large bodies of men. I think I will use them for Atbara. They are available from: hotzartworks.com/bfe.html
There's a Yahoo group as well.

Take a look at Volley and Bayonet. Using it coupled with some hidden area movement would work well for Omdurman I think.

A second vote for Battles for Empire 2. The movement system gives the natives that "lava" like movement where their units ebb and flow towards the target. A few good die rolls at the right time can turn unpleasant for the colonial forces very quickly.

I have been fortunate enough to take part in a very successful Omdurman game using "Bloody Big BATTLES!" (BBB):
link

The game was run by Mark Smith. He hasn't published his scenario, but maybe for a special anniversary game he might share it with you.

Chris

Bloody Big BATTLES!
link

Nick, I was thinking on this, too, and I believe your thought of focusing on MacDonald's Brigade might be just the way to go.

Do the islamists of the time remotely stand a chance, to make it an interesting game?

They won when we played it!

I can recommend the BBB Omdurman scenario on the BBB yahoo group which is different to Chris' scenario

It starts after the failed assault on the Anglo-Egyptian encampment and requires the Anglo-Egyptians to clear the way to Omdurman and Khartoum.

See my AAR at twomarshals.blogspot.co.uk/2017/11/omdurman-using-bloody-big-battles.html

Omdurman is a big battle for sure. I'm not sure what your scale will be but I am still partial to Savage Wars of Peace. It is not a skirmish set and makes for a fun game. I think copies are still about.

According to Churchill's account (who was there, of course), the great fear was that the British position would be attacked at night, thus at least partially negating their firepower – might be worth playing that as a 'what if'.

I have mentioned them before at times, but the Victoria's Battles rulesets are very very good for larger colonial fights. We use 15mm and our Zulus are individual units based on 40 bases of 12 figures each and about 10 bases holding 8 Zulus each. That is a lot of "celibate man-killing gladiators" as I believe the Zulus were once described as being. Fighting these are British infantry and cav, which are 8 figure-units based two figs to a stand. My point is, the Zulus look scary based in big chunks of 12 figs with the thin red British line waiting for the massed charges. We have had many an excellent game using those rules. Simple but full of colonial flavor. You can find them at wargame vault in PDF.
There are three sets of rules, one of which is for the Sudan period, the other for Zulus and the third for NW Frontier.