We played an excellent game Saturday night of Blood River using 800 Fighting Englishmen.
Jim cobbled together every single wagon that could be cobbled between the both of us to form the laager. Then he used some "plashed wood" bits and barrels for between the wagons.
Everyone on both sides, Zulu and Boer, agreed that their own side didn't stand a chance. That's always encouraging. 
The Zulus were commanded by a player who always charges, a guy who was adamant we didn't have a chance, a guy who will play any side any time, and me. I'm convinced that there is a proper strategy for playing Zulus. I just haven't found it yet, but I'm optimistic. This is basically letting the unit that rolls poorly in the movement phase fall back and be the intact "loins" reserve. It can work! Honest! It can!
The table had few terrain features, other than bags of potato chips that obstructed player line of sight, but not the figures.
We argued a bit over how many times the charging Zulus had to pass a morale test. We finally agreed that we were having to pass too many. Not completing a charge was simply a fall back. We had enough to worry about with testing every time we lost a stand in a unit, and having to close.
About rolling to close….
I'm going to give my Box O'D20 to ISIS. ‘Nuff said. Suffice it to say that if you close on 1-15, we rolled 16 or 17.
I did make it to the wall! But I had to roll off against a 10 year old, with him getting a +2. Roles and rolls were reversed, though. I rolled the 5s and 6s, while he rolled the 1s and 2s on D6. I was on top of the wagons! The cards favored me next Turn for movement. And my whole impi, all 3 units, were inside!
That thinned out the Boer defenders on the other wall sections.
We spared not, but slew.
What a great game. Looking forward to Isandlwhana soon. Jim has a firm grasp on running excellent TSATF and 800FE games.
has been watching some documentaries lately set in the Western Desert, and was inspired to create this...
