Rorkes Drift: 28mm Black Powder Game

Here be a few images from a 28mm Black Powder game of Rorkes Drift, recently hosted by PWG.

Based on the scenario presented in the BP Zulu! campaign supplement, the game was played on a 6 x 8 table, with 48 figures representing the British, and 280 figures representing the izimbutho of the Zulu.

The British command was split between 5 players and the Zulus between 4 players. One club member volunteered to act as umpire.

In order to make the game playable and balanced, the British units were assigned excellent command and control, and layers of special rules that made them unlikely to panic, while the Zulus had poorer command values, but positive special rules that reflected their eagerness to attack, but which "degraded" after their initial assault.

The game played out to a plausible historical result, with the Zulu's defeated despite breaching the perimeter walls and entering the hospital building. In fact, even when assigned a second wave of attackers, the British held steady and made their superior discipline and firepower count.

Many thanks to Lindsay Hall for contributing the bulk of the figures and the terrain, to Simon Hall for contributing additional figures, and to all the players and umpire. Many thanks to Lindsay Hall, Simon Hall and Richard Trevor for the photographs.