Zulu: the Battle of Nyezane

 

This week I played the 1st game of the year with my friend Andrew and we decided to go with something different.  After a bit of mulling over a selection of ideas we settled on a colonial game, pitting Zulus against a British column.  My armies haven't seen the light of day for years so I was pleased to get them out.

As well as my main armies which are Baccus 6mm figures, I discovered several bases of Brits and Zulus which are (I think) Heroics and Ros.  I have no recollection of buying these (oh, come on... we've all done it!!) but it was immediately obvious that they look like tiny hobbits next to the Baccus figures!  They're very nice but not compatible at all so these will be off to eBay asap.

The next decision was which set of rules to use.  The choice was Black Powder or The Men Who Would Be Kings and after a bit of thinking I went with BP and one of the scenarios from the Zulu supplement.  I opted for the Battle of Nyezane as this seemed a nice, relatively straightforward scenario.  Coincidentally I discovered later that I'd already played out the same scenario at Eric the Shed's  7 years ago

On 22nd January 1879 Col. Pearson's column was slowly making its way into Zululand, heading towards Eshowe.  Crossing the Nyezane river, they were attacked by somewhere between 4-6,000 Zulus.  The scenario stipulates that the British must begin with around 1/3 of their troops on the north bank of the river, and finish with more than 1/2 across the Nyezane.  

The Zulus are hampered by only arriving on an odd dice result, but have the advantage of a bitnof cover behind a couple of sours which partially screen their advance.

The NNC bravely cross the Nyezane ahead of the main force

I began with the Natal Native Contingent deployed across the river with the Naval Brigade and regular infantry marching towards the bridge.  The Zulus had a patchy start with only around half of their commands arriving.  I, rather foolishly, decided that there was a chance to protect the north bank and not leave the NNC to claim all the glory.  

In my defence I may have been adopting the spirit of Col. Pearson and dismissing the chaps with pointy sticks as not much of a threat (the battle took place on the same day as Isandlwana)... or maybe I was just a bit over enthusiastic.  In hindsight I should have formed up along the edge of the drift and used it as a defensive line, but I was too mindful of the need to get troops onto the north bank.

The Naval troops hauled their 7 pounder and a gatling gun across the river and were joined by 2 squadrons of mounted infantry.  Incidentally this battle is believed to mark the 1st deployment of a gatling by the British army.  The Zulu horn swung rapidly across the flank and hammered into the artillery.  The gatling gun opened up at point blank range, shaking the Impi facing it but the whole Brigade was quickly overrun and broke.

The Naval Brigade ford the river

But the Zulus swarm around them

The regular infantry had pushed forward and eventually managed to form a firing line on the Zulus other flank and the NNC fell back rapidly to form up alongside them.  The Zulus decided at this point that they'd probably achieved as much as they were going to without incurring heavy casualties and decided to withdraw. 

The desperate firing line forms up

 They'd lost 1 out of 5 commands but had wiped out the Naval Brigade and a third of the British column... there would definitely be questions asked in Parliament!  We thought it would be interesting to refight this at some point using TMWWBKs to see how it plays out.