AAR by David Maltman.
A game of Dan Merseys rules "The men who would be kings" in 25mm.
Players
British : Paddy.
Boers : David Maltman.
Umpire : Phil McGilton.
Miniatures and terrain all from Phils collection.
Orders of battle:
British
2 Regular Infantry.
1 Elite Regular Infantry.
1 Regular Mounted Infantry.
1 Regular Artillery, mountain gun on mules.
Boer
3 Irregular Mounted infantry, sharpshooters with fieldcraft.
1 Regular Artillery, light gun being manhandled.
The objective for both sides is to be in control of the railway station and still be a functioning army and not likely to be destroyed by the enemy if a further couple of moves were to happen.
For those not familiar with these rules the first thing you have to do is dice for the leadership value and traits of the officers who lead each of your units.
The leadership value is the number you must roll above with 2d6 to allow you units to carry out the action you want them to do. Lower is better, 7 being a little better than average, 8 being a little worse than average.
The traits are effectively how the officer behaves in certain circumstances. For most of the officers the traits were fairly innocuous and did not get in the way. However, the British came out badly on the traits with 3 of their officers :
Idiot : Rolls a 1d6, on a 1 the opponent chooses, with some limitations, what the unit does this move. This muppet was in charge of the mounted infantry. Daddy probably bought his commission.
Drunkard : There are 2 types of drunkards and this is the worst one "The gentleman has a bottle". He is drinking on the job and must roll each turn and has a 50/50 chance of his leadership value for that turn being 6 or 8, so sometimes good, sometimes bad. This lush was in charge of the artillery.
Sporting umpire : A nice chap who thinks its unsporting to fire or attack a unit which is currently pinned. What a numpty, he has no real concept of war, you should always hit them when they are down. Must better to fire at people who can't fire back, or as Edmund Blackadder would have it are only armed with sharpened fresh fruit.
The final thing you need to know about are which actions are free to do and which require an initiative dice roll. The main free actions which decided the course of the battle were :
Mounted infantry ( most of the Boer army ) : Move.
Regular infantry ( most of the British army ) : Fire.
The sleepy railway siding of Ladyjones in the Transvaal, just 10 miles from the de Beers diamond mine, before the belligerents arrive to shoot it up.
The British deploy their mounted infantry and artillery on the left ( from the Boer viewpoint ) side of the table looking to outflank the Boers. The British infantry deployed in the centre to come straight for the station. The Boers deployed 2 units around the station. Both sides identified the small white ruined house to be crucial at an early stage. The third unit was over by the hill to stop a right flanking attack.
The next series of moves followed the same basic pattern, dependent on what free action the units had.
The Boers, able to move without an initiative roll got into place quickly. The British infantry moved more slowly due to failing their movement initiative tests.
The British artillery were likewise slow to advance on the flank due to being commanded by a Drunkard who had to roll for his initiative level every turn and got more than his fair share of poor initiative causing the move actions to fail.
The British Mounted cavalry got even worse luck. Being lead by an Idiot they had to roll each turn. On a 1d6 rolling a 1 give the Boers the choice of action they did. Over the first 6 moves there were 3 1s rolled. So Paddy would advance them and then I made them turn around and go back. By the end of the 6th turn they were back to the baseline where they started from. It was like playing a game of pong with them.
Boer positions, poor quality picture, my camera was running out of battery juice and playing up, but you can see the 3 Boer infantry : among the train trucks, in the station and on the hill.
The British positions. The infantry in the center are getting there, the Artillery in the foreground are slowly getting there. The poor old mounted infantry are stuck back at the baseline and have been told to dismount which will lose them a half move next time they try to move.
At this point the Boer general made the mistake that will eventually cost him the game. The unit on the hill was moved from their nice safe, covering position down to the water butt in front of the hill. I was hoping to get some shots of at the British unit making its way to the barn. However, it did not work out like that. The British entered the barn and started firing at the Boer unit sitting in the open, causing casualties and pinning it. It subsequently failed to rally forcing it to retreat back to the hill, a good thing at this point as it got the unit out of range and allowed it to rally.
The British artillery deploy and drunkenly open up against the Boers amongst the railway trucks.
In the center there are 2 British infantry units the one in the ploughed field is free to fire at anyone, but no one is in range. The one on the road can not fire at pinned units and only a pinned unit was within range, in the ruined white house.
The battle then took on the form of the British firing and getting a small number of hits on the Boers who are in hard cover, so difficult to kill, and the Boers either being pinned and having to rally or mostly failing their initiative test to fire.
The Boer artillery arrive and start to move slowly along the road to get into range of something.
On the left flank the British artillery continue to bombard the Boer unit in the trucks. The idiot has several moves of sanity and the mounted infantry finally get themselves into position where they dismount and start to advance towards the station, the Boer unit in the trucks.
The Boer artillery deploy and open fire on the central British infantry unit, in the open beyond the tree, causing casualties.
On the right flank the 3rd British infantry unit start advancing on the 3rd Boer unit forcing it to fall back behind the hill and eventually to take up position within the railway station.
The left Boer unit are under fire from the artillery, the mounted infantry and the left side British infantry.
The Boers in the ruined white house are coming under fire from the 2 central British infantry units.
The Boers are very much getting impaled on he Horns of the British bull.
The Boer artillery turns its attention to the British mounted infantry, much to the cheer of the Boer infantry who had been having a bad time from them. The British are reduced to 3 men and an officer in a couple of moves.
The infantry keep exchanging volleys and the Boers generally come of worst even with being in hard cover, they are just getting outnumbered and losing too many firing initiative throws and getting pinned. The unit in the white ruin failed a rally test and routed, so the Boers are down to 2 infantry nits, one of which only has 3 men.
By this time we were on move 26 it was time to pack up. The 3 Boer units were all within the bounds of the station, so technically they won. However, with the infantry down to about one third its original strength it would be unlikely they could hold the station, so Phil called it for the British which I agreed with as the remaining Boers mounted up and scarpered into the Transvaal.
All in all an enjoyable game.
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Editors Comments
Patrick developed back stories for all his leaders. As the game went on they got more involved and he recited them every time the unit moved. It took him longer to recite the back stories than to do the actual moves. Eventually the Boers, the Umpire and the Editor got thoroughly bored with them and Paddy got an earful from 2 grumpy old men.
The Editor turned to the most famous poet of the time to compose a piece to immortalize the momentous battle of Ladyjones. Not many R Kiplings in the Victorian phone book. However, when we got into details I found it was Rudyards cousin Ronald, the baker, who does make exceedingly good cakes. Rudyard currently being on one of his foreign trips at the time was not available. But Ronald said he would have a go at plagiarizing some of his cousins work. This is what he came up with.
IFFY, Ronald Kipling 1901
If you can keep your head when your officer
Is getting drunk as a lord and blaming his mistakes on you;
If you can trust yourself when your officer is an idiot,
But make allowance for their idiocy, as his daddy is filthy rich;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being denied the chance to shoot cowering enemies;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss;
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds worth of aimed volley fire;
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
Especially if it is owned by someone else.
And which is more, you’ll be a Soldier of the Queen, my son!
The Young British Soldier, Ronald Kipling 1901
When you're wounded and left on the Transvaal's plains,
And the Afrikaans women come out to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains
An' go to your Gawd like a soldier.
Go, go, go like a soldier,
Go, go, go like a soldier,
Go, go, go like a soldier,
Soldier of the Queen!
Our thanks to Ronald Kipling who spent a bit more time on one of the poems than on the other one.
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Photos curtesy of Phil, Gary and the Editor.
