Zulu War Bridge Ambush

Ambush at the bridge: Zululand 1879

Kati and I decided to take a break from ww2 and break out the Zulu war figures. We used Warlord Games Black Powder rules which is a rule set we both love and hate.  We love that its fast and very convention friendly, people can learn the rules in 10 minutes. We also enjoy to command system even if it can make you want to throw your dice across the room sometimes.  I personally also love that it scales very well and you can use it for any size army and basing.  We dislike the base movement distance (which can be changed) the support aspect in hand to hand  and the disorder rule.  Luckily we have been building up some forces behind the scenes to play Hail Caesar and while at its core it is based off Black Powder it looks like that changed a lot of what we dislike, but anyway on to the game!

The scenario we used (what I am about to say might be heresy to some gamers) is a black powder adaptation of an old The Sword and the Flame scenario that was free on boardgamegeeks.  The idea is simple; some Brits are building a bridge and a Zulu force ambushes them.  The object of the British was to repel the attack and the Zulu were out to wipe out the work detail.

The British are set up as follows: a company of naval infantry standing guard on the east side of the bridge and a company of regulars guarded the west bank. A third company was the poor saps that were actually stuck building the bridge. This third company would have to make a command check to organize into line once the enemy was spotted.  We had 2 officers on site each with a command rating of 8.

The Zulu were organized into two brigades of 3 units each with a overall commander, and all commands were rated 8.  The Zulu were allowed to enter the table on either the north side or south side with the ability to deploy on either side of the river.

Kati's Zulu had first turn and one of her brigades got within literal inches of my force right off the bat.  Luckily for me the other brigade didn't get the memo and wasted a turn off table.

The boys working on the bridge quickly grabbed their guns and formed up safely on the other side of the river while my regulars wheeled to meet the oncoming assault.  The sailors must have been in shock as they failed their command roll and stood in place.  

The first volley was spot on. I got 4 hits and a disorder marker, and the Zulu failed all but one save.  

Turn 2 saw the rest of the Zulu enter on the east side of the river and again stopped just short of the target.

Back on the west bank, the other two warbands leaped past the shaken unit and smashed into my company.  I was thankful for the Brits stubborn and steady rules as I failed to do much to the Zulu and was making a break test first round (which I auto-passed because of stubborn).

A couple of mediocre volleys are attempted that do nothing to stop what's coming.

The next turn sees everyone locked in melee with no one breaking.

My regulars finally fall back under the pressure.

Kati then has a unit break as well.

At this point it was still anyone's game

The Zulu renew their attacks on both fronts.

The first British unit to break is the bridge builders. 

The Naval troops break another Zulu unit and the Zulus that beat the bridge builders attacked them.

On the West bank the regulars repulsed another warband just to be flanked by the other.

They finally broke and run under the pressure.

The game ended with the withdrawal of the Naval troops. The Zulu were able to pull off a very costly ambush.  Overall a pleasant, quick and simple game.  If we played it again we would add more units to the table as it was almost too fast (we were done in an hour and a half).