The Men Who Would Be Kings: They Marched to Death...

Amongst my numerous attempts to liberate the Thirteen Colonies from the oppression of the dastardly George III we managed a brief foray down BIG back to the baking deserts of the Sudan, sadly once again stained by Imperial blood...

George suggested we play the 'It's Awfully Quiet Out There...' scenario from The Men Who Would Be Kings,  me forgetting that it was not a scenario I've managed to do very well in! The Madhists had 36 points (including a cannon),  the Imperials 27 points, strung out in column of march, surprised by the appearance of loads of screaming natives on their flanks!



Who promptly surged forward towards the thin khaki line...



...into the crashing fire of the 66th Line who pinned two Beja units!



Mad Mullah George then opened fire with his (rather lovely Perry Miniatures) cannon with its captured Egyptian crew (wearing manacles)...



... killing five of the Bazingers and Pinning them! :-(



Suddenly things started to look a bit tense for the Imperials with Beja charging in from one flank and River Arabs from the other.



Steady rifle fire inflicted a number of casualties on the Mahdists, Pinning two units of Beja and one of the River Arabs!



However one of the other Beja charged through their reticent comrades into the 1/66th...



...and whilst a number fell to the polished bayonets of the brave Brits, they cut down a number of them forcing the Imperials back.



The 2/66th suddenly found itself alone facing three units of Beja!



Who charged in, in turn, Pinning and reducing the noble Berks...



...before a final assault...

...wiped them out!



The River Arabs then charged into the 1/66th...



...and with the help of the Beja destroyed a second unit of British regulars!



The Madhists scented victory on the blood soaked battlefield and followed up...



...smashing into the 3/66th, killing four and Pinning them!




Under attack by Fierce Beja and River Arabs, the pluck Brits tried to fight back, but failed their Morale role and remained Pinned reducing their melee dice by half...

The result was inevitable, leaving the 15th Sikhs to face the Mahdists. Unfortunately they failed a Morale check caused by the destruction of the 3/66th and whilst there were a lot of dead natives scattered across the desert sands, there were still enough live ones armed with stabby spears to guarantee a Native victory!

A sad tale to report to GHQ... I've yet managed to win this scenario (3 defeats out of 3) and to be honest I'm not 100% sure it is winnable for the defender when the attacker has more units than they are able to target with rifle fire. Sure a lot of casualties were inflicted on the Mahdists but they always seemed to have one more unit to charge through into hand to hand combat were they excel. Perhaps the scenario might work better if the attackers entered via the short table sides, or the forces were balanced? That all said it was still an enjoyable game.