"Rorke's Drift game in 54mm" Topic

2024 marks the 60th anniversary of the release of the movie Zulu. Seeing this film on the big screen on its initial release helped spark my lifelong interest in British colonial history. I have run Rorke's Drift games in 54mm before, but after the surprise gift of a set of Conte Collectible buildings, I decided to run a game based on the movie and not history. As it turned out, using the movie defense layout made it more difficult for the British with a larger area to defend, which worked well for the wide screen shots of the movie but handicapped the British as the distances made it challenging to plug gaps. Victory conditions for the Zulus were to capture two out of three: the hospital, the storehouse/church and the redoubt. Victory condition for the 70 British was to score 150 kills, approximately half the historic number, which would stop the attack. Rules used were The Men Who Would Be Kings, with special rules for the fight in the hospital. Following the movie, I even had cattle in the kraal, ready to stampede the unsuspecting Zulus. The Zulu players were limited to three units per side in the initial assault, with recycled units being placed randomly. There were nine units of sixteen Zulus in the first assault. The British were allowed to use one unit, spending two turns, to construct the redoubt. The Zulus centered their main attack on the northeast corner of the defenses, which were lightly defended. They managed to climb onto the roof of the storehouse/church and infiltrate into the redoubt and the church. Progress was slower for the Zulus on the west and northwest, but poor fire dice rolling allowed the Zulus to come over the south wall and from then on the British were doomed. When I have run the game before, using the historic layout, the result was a much closer game, but, even though the odds were against the British players this time a good time was had by all.

P.S. The British had to roll any pair of doubles once a turn to release the cattle. They finally made the roll on the last turn, too late to affect the outcome.

Looks great!!

Nick, that is just amazing!

Two thumbs up, Nick! Doncha love those A Call to Arms Brits?

That is very cool.

GREAT looking game – the figures and terrain are very inspiring!

Breathtaking!

Nick, you appear to have based your figures on 40mm rounds (?); I am beginning to rebase my 54mm figures the same way, having found multiple figures on a base too limiting.

English Thegn, Thanks! Yes, I like the weight they add to the (mostly) plastic figures. I recently switched from white glue to E6000 because the figures kept popping off the washers.

Great looking game. How do you feel the rules worked in the game?

Der Alte Fritz,

Thank you! I've still got a long way to go to reach your level.
I have run Rorke's Drift three times now and I feel the rules work well. The big question is whether you should give the defenders the ability to use Close Order on the rampart, which makes their to hit 4+ instead of 5+. That makes them almost invincible.