We had a trip to Stirling castle today, never been before and I highly recommend it - it's a much bigger site than I thought and you could easily lose four or so hours there. The castle is the home of the Regimental Museum of the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders and this monument to the men who fell in the Boer War is right by the entrance.
No Boer wargaming going on at the moment but I hope to return to it in the autumn.
While the troops catch a bit of a breather I thought it might be a good time for a parade. First up the Boers.
The army totals 95 pieces. They are a mixture of Newline Designs, Jacklex, Raventhorpe Miniatures, Strelets and Scruby. They have all been painted by me except for the Scruby figures donated by Ross. There are:
And now the Soldiers of the Queen...
The army totals 259 pieces. They are a mixture of Newline Designs, Jacklex and Raventhorpe Miniatures. They have all been painted by me except for the cavalry and the firing 'Guardsmen' painted by Matt G. There are:
Take a bow lads!
The British lost a total of 45 figures during the battle which was quite a way under their break-point of 67. The losses to the Boers, whilst smaller, are probably more critical including the Long Tom and a Pom-Pom wiped out. The breakdown of casualties is given below:
I carried out die rolls for casualty recovery and then redistributed figures from disbanded units to other units as follows:
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| 9 figures from the King's Liverpool were added to the Gloucesters and the remaining 6 to the Manchesters. |
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| 3 figures from the German Corps were added to the Boksburg Commando. |
Having totted up all the VPs for both sides incredibly it stands at a draw of 15VPs each!
I hope to return to the campaign in the future but for the moment I will be taking a break. Thanks for your interest and all the comments as these really do help motivate me in a solo project like this.
GOD SAVE THE QUEEN!
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| Turn 3 and the Boksburg Commando come under shrapnel fire for the first time. Their 'flee' test saw the maximum 6 figures take to their ponies and together with casualties this reduced them to break-point. One Commando down two more to go! |
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| Heartened by events French pushes forward urging the Manchester's on. |
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| Meanwhile White's command fails to activate for a third turn although they are taking a steady stream of casualties. |
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| The two British Brigades that have managed to activate are gradually closing the distance with the Boer lines. |
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| At the foot of the kopje the Manchester's come under heavy fire that forces them to stop and lie down. |
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| Hamilton's Brigade are also out of steam and have ground to a halt. |
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| But on the plus side the Naval Gun and British field artillery have knocked out both Long Tom and one of the pom-poms. |
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| The Utretch Commando are reduced to break-point and withdraw. Two Commandos down and one to go. |
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| Although reduced in strength Hamilton's men are hanging in there and delivering withering rifle fire back at the Boers. |
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| The Black Watch have now passed through the prone ranks of the Manchester's and are within striking distance of the Boers atop the kopje. |
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| A round of firing from the German Corps fails to inflict any PINs on the Black Watch. |
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| And then it happens! The Commandant of the Pretoria Commando fails his 'fallen leader' test by rolling a 1. Because their Commandant is down the whole Commando must take a special morale test - another 1 will see them all flee, well you guessed it! Three Commando's down and a British victory. |
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| As French's men were so close I couldn't resist playing the Melee phase of the next turn and a die roll of 6 meant a spectacular bayonet charge by the Black Watch cleared the kopje of the enemy. |
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| A great victory for the British although you have to feel a bit sorry for the lads in White's command who failed five activation die rolls. |
I had some time this afternoon to play the first two turns of the game and it is shaping up to be a good one. Here's what's happened so far:
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| Hamilton and French both activated their brigades on turn one and moved forward allowing the supporting off-table regiments to come on. They immediately came under fire as the Boers let rip with everything they had. |
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| White's own brigade failed to activate so could only stand where they were and take it. |
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| The Gloucester's paid a heavy price for being the lead unit of Hamilton's brigade as the men fell under fire from rifles, artillery and the dreaded pom-pom's. |
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| One bit of luck for the British - Long Tom fired at the 4.7" Naval gun rolling 10 dice needing a 5 or 6 to hit and not a single one was successful! |
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| The Pretoria Commando on the kopje were able to fire over the heads of the Boksburg Burgers in the trenches below adding double the weight of fire on Hamilton's line. |
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| Turn two and the British artillery zeroed in on Long Tom and some excellent shooting reduced the gun's strength to just 1SP - one more hit and it will be out of action. |
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| White's men failed to activate again but at least they could shoot. Some good dice rolls plus supporting fire from the 18th Field Battery killed 2 Boers of the Utrecht Commando and forced 2 more to flee. |
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| The Manchester's leading French's brigade were forced to check morale and the Major-General put himself at risk to stop them picking up a PIN marker. Fortunately he survived the Fallen Leader test. |
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| The situation at the end of Turn 2. French and Hamilton are making progress but the casualties are starting to mount particularly in Hamilton's already depleted command. |
I'll keep you posted on developments.
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| The Battle of Dannhauser - British on the left, Boers on the right. The town of Dannhauser is just off table behind the Boer right flank. |
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| The British deployment. The King's Liverpool Regiment is off table behind the Gloucestershire Regiment. The Black Watch are off table behind the Manchester Regiment. |
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| The Boer deployment. The Boers had a choice of units to field but some of the full-strength commandos had never been in action before. In the end I opted to field just one 'green' unit and the under-strength German Corps to help stiffen morale. |
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| The 5th Lancers finally make it on to the table. |
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| Long Tom is here, I'm already nervous... |
