The Battle of Ronshin 1884 - A Sudan batrep by Postie

Posties at it again, he doesn't want a blog himself, "Computers give me a headache" he moans. So another guest post it is then!

The Battle of Ronshin 15th March 1884 using  UP EM Rules by me Postie!

Yes its me, Postie, doing another guest post on Ray's blog, helped and typed by my son Ray, (whenever we go out, everyone thinks Ray is my boy????)

Part of the Gordon relief force under General Graham is advancing towards Berber on the Nile 100 miles away, running low on water the relief force has made a small detour to try and find water at a small village called Ronshin. Enemy scouts have sent word the Mahdi of the columns progress and position, will the Mahdi's force intervene or just watch the columns as they grow weaker with thirst and then attack.

The Game
The only forces on the table that are visible are the British and Egyptian columns as they head towards the village of Ronshin, can the British find water, if so can they secure it and hold on to the precious (my precious?) supply, Will the enemy attack, how confidant will they be after the defeats suffered already. Watch and find out????

  Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum

How longs an inch???

The village of Ronshin

Some units of mounted Fuzzy Wuzzy's guard the oasis. My precious.....

More Dervish troops have been spotted and have now deployed from their hidden movement card. 

After spotting some hostile troops, the British begin to deploy.

A very lucky long range shot from Richard's hidden Krupp gun severely damages one of the camel mounted artillery pieces and is then destroyed the following turn.

A small unit of Egyptian Camels try secure their rear and flank.

A good job too as they spot Dervish Cavalry advancing onto the rear of their lines.

Sujit manages to throw a 10 on a D10 and spots a rather large force of Fuzzy Wuzzy's by the

 village, I think "Oh Damn!" were his words!! But obviously that's not what he actually said!

The British Cavalry did quite well spotting more Dervisher's and have now withdrawn back to

 the relative safety of the British Infantry.

British forces advance and give the Dervishers a taste of lead!!

Masses of Fuzzy Wuzzy's head towards the British and Egyptian position.

Meanwhile in the rear, the Egyptian Camel unit has dismounted but receives a ferocious onslaught from Richard's Dervish cavalry. Richard wins the melee and routs the Egyptians, he then follows up and destroys the retreating unit.

The situation looks pretty dire for the allies????

A dervish assault is temporarily halted, they then decide to go to ground, so they are not

 such a big target for the British to fire at.

Yes Surjit DID place his Gatling gun in a nice position, so nice that he couldn't fire the bloody thing!!! Idiot!

Dervish force continue to press the attack with mush vigour.

Due to good British fire power the Dervishers were forced back.

Smiffy's Egyptians were taken over by the Dictator Supreme Sujit and what a mess he did make!!! Unlimber the gun, limber the gun , unlimber the gun and so on........................

Dervish camelry attempt to take out the Egyptian artillery but receive close range fire support

 from an Egyptian line battalion.

The British Cavalry are sent out to attack the enemy, a poor group of Jihadiya Riflemen

 receive a charge and get wiped out.

After destroying the Rifle unit a Dervish unit surprises them in the rear with a ferocious charge!!!

The Cavalry are wiped out......

John's forces manage to finally reach the British line, with 1 unit of Dervish infantry, they charge the flank of a British line unit. The Dervishers are destroyed for their troubles!!

Meanwhile at the rear, Richard never one to give up, sends more units of mounted Dervishers to

 attack the vulnerable Egyptians, who have been fighting on 2 fronts.

British and Egyptian troops have secured the sand dune

and palm tree?!?! Yipee! 

I think they forgot they were supposed to be advancing to the oasis??

Richard's forces start to pull back so as not to suffer too many casualties from British fire power.

Most assaults by the Dervishers were repulsed but they amazingly carried the day as night had begun to fall.
It was a close game, the Dervishers only needed to lose 3 more stands of troops and they would have been forced to retreat from the table. They lost 13 stands in total, roughly 30% of their army, but they still won a victory, mainly I'm afraid due to the British Commander being a bit of a plum!

Well done to the Victors Richard & John, I know you were both sweating and it wasn't just the heat!! Mark and Sujit.....what can I say?????

The Skirmish at Bald Wood - A FIW batrep

Back at the end of February, after some of the Rejects had been to Cavalier in Tonbridge, we played a smallish FIW skirmish game using Posties homemade rules. BigLee did post about it here, but here's the British side of the battle, what I can remember of it anyway????

The game was set in 1759 somewhere in the Wilderness around the Great Lakes. A small party of British have been sent to cut through a road in the forest. Ian and myself were the Brits, Lee, Richard and Richard's son James were the French.

We were making short work on the trees..

while old Dobbs made the tea in the camp...

I was doing a good job, making sure the lazy sods kept at it, (that's me in the red jacket)

When we heard a shot....

I ran to the edge of the woods, to see what was going on??

Oh crap....Injuns hundreds of 'em!!
OK, 20 odd then..

I'd posted some men out in the open, with the order to give fire as soon as they saw the enemy.

and I'd sent out some scouts to the north and gave orders to leg i
 back to the camp if you see any Indians.

At the road, we used logs and brush to make a rough defensive barricade.

Then all of a sudden a group of French/Canadian trappers fired out 

of the other end of the woods...

the few men we had stood their ground and gave fire.

The local Militia were on patrol and heard the commotion they came to lend a hand, they were led by 

the Mayor Thaddeus Pettman.

The Civilian work party were getting a little worried so I sent them back to the camp.

With no thought of the danger to myself, I joined the boys out on the front line.
Poor Eagleye, our halfbreed scout and best shot in the camp, caught one right between the eyes dropping down dead before he could even fire.

We kept up a good rate of fire...

Damn them Rangers are good shots....

The local Indians and French Militia led by the dastardly Jacques de Elders

were pushing our men back, there was even a little hand to hand combat.

The Canadian trappers came screaming out of the woods firing..

but we seemed to be holding our own...

The work party were a little calmer now, after a nice cup of tea!

The Canadian Trapper leader, Lee Inutile dés Lanceur looked rather miffed as we shot several of his men, 

who then proceeded to run back to the woods they'd come from, they never troubled us again.

Their leader was later seen with his pinny on making tea and sandwiches for the lads as 

he now had nothing to do???

This helped us out no end, we could now move our troops up and concentrate on the Indians and Militia.

While I was out of the flank Mayor Pettman, took charge of our defences and promptly 

charged out of them, towards the enemy.

It looked like the enemy were losing heart, there didn't seem to be as many
of them as there was a while ago??

Utter confusion ensued, nobody knew if they actually hit anything because of all the smoke.

Elder the Younger and Elder the Elder, the Devil incarnate and Mayor Pettman

We then fought a messy melee in the woods, men were dropping on both sides.

My 2nd in Command Ranger Rodger led the attack

Welcome to wargaming James, he needed a 16 and above on a D20 and missed 4 times!

Doh!

Ranger Rodger and Pistol Pete double teamed  Screaming Elder the Indian Chief

And slaughtered him..

With his Indian allies either dead or fleeing Jacques de Elders continued to fire at us

but it was all too late. They soon joined their Indian allies and skulked back off into the woods

leaving us to continue building the road.