The Men Who Would Be Kings: Unfaltering On Its Dreadful Brink...

It's been a little while since I managed to get a game in, so it was good to meet up with George again at BIG for another game of The Men Who Would Be Kings. This time around we decided to have a crack at the To The Last Bullet scenario, which we had not tried, with 27 points of brave Brits standing firm against 36 points of howling Dervishes!

The scenario starts with the defenders within one move of the centre, behind them a farmstead or similar within six inches of the defender's table edge and the attacker advancing up the board from the other side...

As you can see the hordes of Madhists look a tad intimidating for the thin khaki line and starting first they quickly began bounding up the board...

My cunning plan was to fall back as quickly as possible towards my table edge to give my troops clean lines of fire and if possible get them into Close Order to allow volley fire and put any hand to hand combats more on a level playing field.

Whilst most of my Field Force played game the 1/66th decided falling back was damned un-British!

As the Madhists advanced I managed to draw first blood with the 3/66th killing four Beja in one round of firing...

George's Irregular Infantry rifles had two turns of trying to hit the 1/66th (who kept refusing to fall back) on the left flank at long range but failed.

This meant that after five consecutive turns the Mahdists had not managed to inflict one casualty on the defenders and, according to the scenario that was the end of the game!

A quick check of the Objectives put the score at 0-0 as whilst my Bazingers had reached the farmstead, they had yet to enter and occupy it!

As this was the stage the game was at, at the end of turn five we decided to play on! :-)

On the right George's advancing Beja ran into a wall of fire from the 3/66th and 15th Sikhs (the latter have managed to form Close Order, the 3/66th ignoring an order to do so!)

 

Despite this George did manage to charge one of his stabby spear armed Beja units into the Skihs...

And a unit of River Arab Tribal Infantry into the 3/66th who were now no doubt regretting not forming Close Order when ordered to!

The Fierce Sikhs gave the Mahdists a shock with some deft bayonet work and in a bloody skirmish killed eight Beja suffering five losses themselves. Fortunately this meant they were still able to maintain Close Order and the pushed back Beja then failed a Pin test.

The 3/66th were unsurprisingly not as fortunate in melee with the River Arabs and suffered 50% casualties, were pushed back and Pinned.

The Sikhs fired a final volley at the Mahdists to their front killing several and Pinning another unit, before a third unit of Beja charged in...

More bloody work ensued but this time the dice favoured the Mahdists and all bar the brave officer of the 15th Sikhs fell under the spears of the Beja...

On the left flank the 1/66th, who I had given up trying to move tried to engage a unit of Irregular Infantry rifles that had foolishly crept within Short Range. Twelve brave Englishmen hitting on 5's and 6's? Surely there was only one outcome? Sadly not...

The Mahdist rifles survived their Pinning test and returned fire killing five of the 1/66th!

At this stage I think I could have been forgiven for thinking that things were taking a familiar turn...

The 3/66th gamely fought back against the Beja who had attacked the Sikhs reducing them to just their leader after being charged...

But their luck did not last as the River Arabs then charged in on them and left just their officer as the last man standing!

Things then turned on their head as George tried to Rally one of his Pinned Beja units...

A double 1 seeing them flee the table!

The 2/66th and the Bazingers then swung into action, wiping out the remaining River Arabs...

The officer of the Sikhs then calmly despatched the singular Beja leader with a pistol shot and the 2/66th polished off the nearest Beja unit to them with some more sharp rifle fire...

On the left the Mahdist Irregular Infantry rifles routed after another failed Rally test and George decided that for his remaining Mahdists it was better to live to fight another day...

Overall another enjoyable game, after we ignored the scenario conditions(!), and one that could have gone easily either way. The 1/66th's refusal to obey any orders was pretty annoying and some of my dice rolling shocking but on the flip side three Mahdist units routed on Rally tests and a number remained Pinned as well.

I must say that all in all The Men Who Would Be Kings is a cracking rule set and despite some quirks is well worth picking up and giving a go. The availability of plastic figures from the Perry's and Warlord and the relatively small numbers needed make this a good small project.

We had a quick chat after the game about future projects and next year should see some Zulu Wars action, as well as North-West Frontier and Indian Mutiny. In addition we both want to try Rebels and Patriots and Cruel Seas and I have a hankering for Mortal Gods! Roll on 2019...