Methuen on the march

Lord Methuen is on the march at the head of a column tasked with relieving Kimberley. The Boers, impudent fellows, have occupied a string of three kopjes dominating the road ahead. His Lordship wastes no time in deploying his force for a frontal attack.

The Gordons are on the left and the Guards on the right, between them is a battery of field artillery. The Suffolks (with attached maxim gun) are in reserve together with the 5th Lancers. The 4.7” naval gun occupies a small hill in the rear to lend fire support.

The view from behind the British lines at the start of the game. I'm playing longways up my 6' x 4' table with the Boer positions at the far end.

The Gordon Highlanders prepare for their first action.

The Guards are steady as ever, officers to the front.

The Boers are taking advantage of the cover offered by the kopjes. There are three Commandos supported by one field-gun and two pom-poms.

The Gordons advance but start taking casualties and pin markers that slow their movement rate. They're under fire from one of the pom-poms but grit their teeth and carry on.

Methuen decides to commit the Suffolks on the left as the Guards are taking a pasting on the right where the Boers have a field-gun as well as a pom-pom.

The 5th Lancers are ordered forward to provide some support for the Guards who are down to half-strength and finding it impossible to make further headway.

Methuen looks on from his HQ. The 4.7" naval gun only fires on alternate moves and is concentrating on trying to knock out the Boer guns.

The Boer infantry have taken very few casualties but the fire on the guns is taking effect. The green dice record strength point losses from the guns.

Turn 5 and the Guards have closed ranks and are now lying down under a terrible fire from the Mauser's of the Burghers to their front. The Lancers have come under artillery fire and the colonel is down!

So far the rules have held up well and its been an enjoyable game. The pin mechanism seems to work as it has slowed the infantry advance but doesn’t dominate too much. The British have had only one infantry officer casualty which has probably helped but both the Guards and the Gordons have failed 'bunching' tests which makes them more of a target.

With five turns played its already looking sticky for the British and all hinges now on the Suffolks!

Field Artillery

These gun batteries complete the British artillery for this project. The figures and guns used are all from the Jacklex colonial range. I removed the rammers from the hands of two crewmen as the guns in this period were breech-loaders.

The guns have crew seats over the axle on either side of the barrel which were a bit of a fiddle to fit. There is an illustration of guns going into action on the front cover of my dogeared copy of Pemberton’s Battles of the Boer War that shows two crewmen clinging for dear life to these seats as they charge forward. That must have been a terrifying ride in a real battle.

Now these guns have been added to the British OOB it will be possible to have a proper game at last.

The Gordon Highlanders

I’m quite shocked to see that it’s been a year and a half since I painted the first 6 figures of the Gordons but here at last is the completed unit. All the figures used are by Jacklex.

The main reason for the delay is that I painted a lot of Napoleonic figures last year but now that I have a permanent wargames table it has given me the incentive to finish the Boer War armies.

I’m very close to having the forces I need to refight the battle of Elandslaagte which was the initial aim for this project. The Boers are all finished but the British still need some more artillery and a unit of dismounted Imperial Light Horse. I hope to get these done soon but we’ll see!

Army commanders

I’ve just completed a couple of army command groups, one for the British and one for the Boers. These are mounted on 6cm MDF discs and I think they look quite smart.

I had a lot of fun selecting the figures and putting these mini ‘dioramas’ together. The British group is composed of a Jacklex mounted officer and figure with field-glasses, the horses and horse holder are by Newline Designs. The Boer commander is by Newline (from the pom-pom crew) and is flanked by two of the remaining Scruby figures Ross sent me. These command bases have no function in my rules, but you can’t have armies without commanders.

The 5th Lancers

Well, I see it’s been five months since I lasted posted here but then I did say this was a side project to my main interest and in my defence, I’ve been painting a lot of Napoleonic’s so have not been idle. Fortunately, due to Matt helping me out by painting the figures I’ve been able to complete the 5th Lancers taking me a bit closer to my goal of re-fighting Elandslaagte.

I rather stupidly decided to fit the lances to the figures after Matt had painted them. This turned out to be a big mistake as I had to drill holes and generally fiddle about to get these to look right causing some damage to the paintwork in the process. However, having touched them up and based them they now look quite smart, rather by luck than good judgement on my part.

The 5th Lancers famously charged the retreating Boers at the end of the battle catching many in the saddle as they tried desperately to get away on their slower ponies. The Boers were none too happy about the use of the lance which they considered to be unsporting.

The troopers are by Newline Designs and the officer is by Jacklex.

Rules Playtest

I had a couple of hours spare this afternoon so finally had a run-out with my rules Maxims & Mausers. It was a small affair with 2 British units trying to dislodge 2 Boer Commandos from a kopje, this is how it went:

The Boers occupied a strong position with the Scruby Commando on the left,
the Newline Commando on the right, and the centre covered by a pom-pom.

The British line - The Suffolks on the left with the Coldsteam Guards on the
right. To the rear is the 4.7" Naval Gun

The Naval Gun is a good bit of kit under my rules as you throw 8x D6 every
time it fires. To counteract this it only fires on alternate turns. Its first shot
actually took out 2 Boers (the only Boer casualties of the game) although this
was due to me applying the wrong saving throws rather than spectacular
shooting.

The Boer pom-pom was already in range at the start of the game and lost no
time in opening up and, rather unsportingly, concentrating fire on the Guards.

The Guardsmen starting dropping at an alarming rate but their stiff upper lips
kept them moving forward.

The Boers now opened up with everything they had. Those Scruby's look
like they mean business.

The Guards luck was running out. The white counter means that they have
closed ranks making them more of a target, the two red counters are pin
markers. In the next turn they managed to rally off both of the pin counters
which has led me to tweak the rule for this slightly.

By now the Guards were down to 9 figures and had to retire. Meanwhile the
Suffolks pushed on although they had taken one pin counter. This reduced
their movement by 2" and rendered a charge against the Boers impossible.

Commandant Ross is jubilant - his men have seen off the cream of the British
Army with no loss to themselves.

The Suffolks run out of steam and pull back. Their casualties have been
relatively light, just 5 figures and no officer losses. They are determined to
have another crack at the Boers soon.

Although the game only lasted 4 turns it was very enjoyable and I was able to tweak the rules further. I’m hopeful that I will eventually end up with a set of rules for the sort of solo games I have in mind.

Bringing up the big guns

I don’t actually need this for my Elandslaagte scenario however I couldn’t resist basing up my 4.7” Naval Gun. This is the last of the items I received from Ross last year together with a crew of Jacklex figures I’ve painted to go with it.

I doubt whether any of the gunners would really have worn blue during the Boer War campaigns but I thought they added a bit of colour. The straw hats do appear to have been worn judging by photos of these guns in action at the time.

This was a ‘must have’ item for me for this project and will certainly beef up the artillery on the British side.