Rorke's drift.

Rorke's drift, The Zulu War 1879.
Using Front rank fire rules in 25mm.

Using terrain and models by Phil.
AAR by Phil.

Players
British   : Leslie.
Zulu      : Adam.
Umpire  : Phil.

The Zulu War 1879

Battle report for Rorke’s Drift. My favourite period for Wargaming is WW2 followed by the colonial period. I have been planning to replay the battle of RD for over a year but a delay in finishing the roof of one off the buildings, couldn’t get planning permission, I mean time slowed things up.

The game was played by Adam (Zulu),Leslie (British )and myself umpiring. Everything on the board was from my 25mm collection mainly Minifigs, Ral Parthia and Warrior miniatures. Rules Front Rank Fire, a super, free to download, set by Jim Walkman with some changes.

The terrain was set up as close to the historic battle as I could make it. I have around 600 Zulu in my collection and in the game each miniature = two Zulu. The British is 1/1 and had 90 men manning the walls, 5 Boer and ten wounded in the hospital. The Zulu are in units of 30 (60) with 6 units deployed in turn one to the east of RD. After a roll of a D6 this decided how many turns the Zulu player had to wait for reinforcements. Adam got a 4 so after 4 turns the Zulu got two units each turn that could be placed on any table edge but the west. This would also include 2 units of 15 (30) Zulu armed with rifles/musket’s on the Oskarberg hill.

Right from the start Adam pressed hard with the 6 Zulu units at the East wall off RD using the rough kraal for cover. Leslie was having none of it and with one volley using the aiming rule caused enough casualties to run off the board!

As Adam’s Zulu started to get reinforcements he continued to keep the pressure on East wall including the small kraal and the rampant between it and the store building. Leslie was just about managing to keep the Zulu back with volley fire. Zulu morale is good in the rules with controlled fire more likely to stop the advance than make it rout off the table. The Zulu units were slowed but other units were able to continue the advance.

Leslie started to redeploy more troops to the East rampart this in turn left large gaps in the North wall. Adam deployed his next two reinforcements to take advantage of this!

With Adam trying to get his Zulu force into Melee at the Eastern rampart and Leslie just holding them. Adam deployed his rifle and musket armed units on to the Oskarberg their fire proved to be ineffective against soldiers in cover. Adam continued to send more reinforcements to the south. Leslie now had 3 Zulu units pressing forward on the Eastern rampart but with heavy casualties. Two Zulu units closing in from the North and a further two units threatening the hospital. Leslie’s response to this was to contain the threat to the East by continuing to reinforce  that area. Slow down the Zulu advance in the north with a few Boer sharp shooters and move more infantry into the hospital.

If the Zulu are to stand any chance of winning they need to get into melee. Adam had decided not to waste time throwing spears but get into hand to hand as quickly as passable. The picture shows how depleted his units were becoming on the Eastern rampart. We use a simple and quick method of dealing with melee. Due to the British player being outnumbered for example 3 to 1 the British players if he wins the first round kills a Zulu after that on this turn he can only block the attack. For the next three turns the British Infantry fought the Zulu units but were steady pushed back losing 30 men.

The Zulu units break in. The British soldiers at the Eastern rampart are all but wiped out only a few making it to the relative safety of the store house. The two Zulu units coming in from the North made it into the compound almost intact. And one unit from the south got into the compound between the store house and the hospital. British casualties had reached 50 men the rest now holding out in the two buildings. We had decided that the Zulu player would roll a D6 and this would be how long it takes to smash through a door. Some bad rolling delayed the last stand. Sadly time was up.

Leslie believed he had done enough to get a draw. Adam thought he would have got into the building or set fire to them, which I believe he could have done. But considering that British casualties were already 3x higher than the real battle I believe it was a hard thought Zulu win.

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Photos curtesy of Gary and the Editor.