1st Devonshire Regiment

The Devons are finished and based ready for action. There are 24 riflemen plus the usual 3 officer figures to make my standard British infantry unit establishment. This brings the total number of British infantry regiments to four which must surely be enough to beat the Boers?

That’s probably it for the British forces now but I will add another Commando to the Boers at some point just to be fair.

I’m hoping to play a solo game of Talana Hill soon but just need to complete some scenic items first.

EDIT***updated photo***

Talana Hill

Below is a scan of a map I drew of the Battle of Talana Hill for my 4th Year school history project back in 1970. I can’t remember where I copied it from, or in fact where I got the information about the course of the battle, but it may have been Montgomery’s A History of Warfare which is the one book listed in my project bibliography that I no longer have.

There are four pages of my hand-written burb on the battle and I was fascinated to re-read it 50 years on. I’m not sure why I wrote so much about this engagement but in my text I declare "I have decided that Talana shall be one of the battles that I describe, not because it was the first engagement but because of the lessons it taught". And in my summary, I concluded, "The lessons that it taught were, firstly, a steep-sided hill occupied by the Boers offered no sound defence owing to the dead ground between its base and the summit. Secondly, officers holding swords and wearing marks of rank were easy targets for Boer marksmen. Thirdly, a frontal attack was no way to deal with an enemy armed with the Mauser rifle". Hmm, possibly I plagiarised that but whatever, it sounds authoritative – possibly I will need some rule amendments!

So, it makes sense to have Talana Hill as the starting place for my re-fights in miniature.

British Reinforcements

As is common to all commanders who have just lost a battle I have called for reinforcements to my British army. I felt during the test game that if only I had one more infantry unit, I would have swept the Boers from the field!

I have completed the first batch of figures for the next unit; these are more from the superb Raventhorpe Miniatures range. The British ‘standing at ready’ are BO19 and the officer is BO21. At the same time, I couldn’t resist painting the very nice Boer Commandant figure BO08.

When finished the unit will be nominally designated as the 1st Devonshire Regiment who fought at Elandslaagte.

Methuen on the march – part 2

The Suffolks move forward to relieve the Gordons who have been reduced to the point where they must retire.

Lord Methuen can't quite believe what he is seeing, how can these Boer farmhands be holding up the soldiers of the Queen?

Finally some luck for the British as the Commandant of the right-flank Commando is hit forcing a 'flee' test - drat, the Boers pass the test.

Time for some different tactics - the Suffolks lie down as soon as they get to medium range and return fire supported by the maxim.

It works - after a poor morale roll (of 2) the Boer right-flank Commando decide they've had enough.

Methuen orders the 5th Lancers forward in the vain hope that the Boer army will retreat.

What's left of the Suffolks look on as the enemy to their front retire.

I called a halt to the game after turn 10 as the British had lost over half of their force and had little chance of any real success. It was some consolation that one Boer Commando had been forced to retire but I had to concede that it was a British defeat.

I like the way the rules played out, but it did seem that things were quite heavily stacked against the British, so I have made a few further tweaks and additions in the interest of balance. In fact, I am so enthused that I have placed an order for one more British unit from Raventhorpe Miniatures.

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!