I went to play a quick game with my regular opponent Speckled Jim last night, and he cracked open his 15mm collection for a colonial game using the Osprey rules.
I was playing the Beja or Hadenedowa, defending their village against an Anglo Egyptian force, and I didn't do terribly well, not actually getting anywhere near the enemy before being gunned down, so relatively historically accurate.
I learned a few lessons so if we play again I'll try and wait until I can charge him en masse so he can't concentrate his fire.
It was a fun game though.
Initial deployment. Some of my tribesmen in the village, the rest on the table edge nearest the camera.
The Anglo Egyptian force move forward and I try to outflank them with my camelry on the far right.... the Egyptian cavalry although inferior roll some damn lucky dice with their carbine shooting and pin me before I can contact.
Meanwhile I despatched a unit of tribesmen through the oasis , but they again get pinned.
Jim's firing line form a crescent facing the village so any Beja who stirs is targeted.
My casualties.... A sorry sight.
A fun quick game. Years since I played a colonial game, and I'm sorry my generalship didn't do the Beja justice.
As Corporal Jones would say
"They didn't like it up 'em."
Brits gunning down the natives is exactly how that would happen.
ReplyDeleteOften the case but by no means always, and in this game both sides were almost exclusively North African ( one unit of British Naval types in the opponent's force) who were quite capable of killing each other without any British help . Killing for land/riches/power is hardly exclusively British as the history of mankind demonstrates...the side with the strongest force/biggest teeth will usually win, whoever they were. Give it a hundred years or so and the British will be being crushed under the heel of some other expansionist empire and everyone can feel sorry for them instead.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly, one of the main catalysts for the Mahdist uprising in the Sudan, was the Egyptians overtaxing the Sudan and the British banning the slave trade , one of the Sudan's main incomes.
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