Glencoe - The Game

 

Turn 1 and both British brigades failed their Command die test but the Boers had no such problems and immediately opened up with the Long Tom.

The result was a spectacular hit on the Royal Irish Fusiliers that brought down 5 men.

No worries, I ordered the British artillery to reply, except that due to my brilliant generalship I had deployed them 1" short of the maximum range they needed to return fire on the Long Tom! Cries of 'bring up the limbers' rang out.

Hamilton's brigade finally move forward but start to take casualties due to some very jammy die rolls for the Boers.

The view from behind One Tree Hill at the end of turn 2. Both British brigades are now on the move.

The Boer Krupp gun springs into action while the Long Tom is reloading.

The British artillery try to correct their mistake by moving forward and while doing so, the 53rd battery take a hit from the Long Tom. Fortunately this only resulted in the loss of two guns.

Hamilton's lead brigade, the King's Liverpool's, continue to take substantial casualties and by now have two PINs slowing their advance to a mere 2".

The position of the British infantry at the end of turn 3. They are advancing but the boys are beginning to drop like flies.

The Boers on the other hand are yet to lose a single man. The German Corps on the right of the line have extended to bring more fire power to bear.

Ah, that seems to be the end of the Royal Irish. Damn those Boer dice rolls!

By the end of turn 4 the Boers are sitting pretty enjoying something of a turkey shoot (did they have turkeys in 19c South Africa?).

The King's Liverpool's have accumulated 3 PINs so can neither move or shoot this also forces them to go prone (blue marker). All their officers have been hit too!

The Gloucestershire's are moving up behind them while their supporting Maxim is about to go into action.

Things are looking impossible on the British right so I order the King's Royal Rifles to extend their line and lie down.

Everything now hinges on the Gloucestershire's as they pass through the ranks of the Liverpool's in an effort to get within charging distance of the Boer line. They receive devastating short range fire from the Mausers and Pom Pom collecting 2 PINs for their trouble. The British casualties have now exceed 48 figures so the game is called for the Boers. 

This is a pity as the Boers are just starting to show some shaky morale in places with a steady drip of burghers heading for home. 

And finally a few casualties as well.

But the day belongs to 'Long Tom' who thoroughly messed things up for the British.

The table at the end of turn 5 - the British attack has run out of steam. Yule orders the army to retire to Dundee.

The game turned out to be a bit of a shambles for the British and although I can partly blame this on some shocking die rolls, I have to take responsibility for some poor generalship too! My decision to move the artillery forward meant that they didn't fire a shot until turn 4. In reality the Long Tom was not all that effective (it only fires every other turn) but that initial lucky shot got me rattled. The guns could have fired on the Boer infantry from their initial position forcing tests for 'first time under fire' which would have weakened their line and possibly caused at least one Commando to flee.

The casualties for the action were as follows:

Next I need to roll for casualty recovery and then see how the outcome of the battle will effect the campaign.