Rorke's Drift 28th January 2023 - 156th anniversary of the fight on 22nd January 1879

Rorke's Drift 28th January 2023 - 156th anniversary of the fight on 22nd January 1879

I have been a keen wargamer for a number of years and have always loved the South African theatre of operations, in particular the Zulu wars.



The game was played using the rules “The Boys from Isandhlwana” by Chris Pagano, a simple effective and accurate set that play well, especially in respect to Rorke's Drift.

I had made some minor tweaks for having characters in the game...

Lt CHARD

+1 Morale within 6” / 1x re roll shooting dice / 1x re roll Morale dice if fail within 6”

Lt BROMHEAD

+1 Morale within 6” / 1x re roll shooting dice / 1x re roll Morale dice if fail within 6”

Cpl SCHEISS

+1 table Melee when in fight

PIP the dog

+1 table Melee when in fight

Chaplain “Ammunition” SMITH

+1 Morale within 6” / 1 re roll shooting dice

Lt ADENDORFF

1x re roll Morale dice if fail within 6”

Pvt HOOK

+1 Morale within 6” / 1x re roll Morale dice if fail within 6”

Commissariat DALTON

+1 Morale within 6” / 1x re roll Morale dice if fail within 6”

Colour Sergeant BOURNE

+2 Morale within 6” / +1 table Melee when in fight

Sergeant WINDRIDGE

+1 Morale within 6” / +1 table Melee when in fight

Surgeon REYNOLDS and Medical Orderlies Cpl ATTWOOD and Pvt McMAHON

Any wounded with 12” of their figures are moved to hospital for recovery check in sequence (5) At this point wounded are rolled for 1-7 incapacitated or Dying of wounds, 8-10 light wound, patched up and sent back to barricades... they are deployed back at Reynolds and move off from there next turn.

The game was set for six of us to play, 4 Zulu, 2 British, but we had one short so had 3 Zulu, myself, Mike B, and Lawrence, 2 Brits being Ian and “Jammy Dice” Paul, more on that later...

The British had the 10 Characters and 8x6 figure squads, deployed for the defence of the Drift, the Zulu had 8x16 figure units x 3 commands, each player having an Induna so over 384 Zulus on the board, the Zulu units, being allowed to be recycled 1 for free, and then possibility of 2nd recycle on a 10 on a D10 the next turn available, then 9 and so on...

The British command set up their defence around the perimeter of the Drift and allocated 1 squad to build the redoubt from a pile of mealie bags, they would through a D10 each turn requiring 24pts to complete, they didn't know that though... they chose not defend the hospital or loop hole the store house either.



The Zulu commander deployed one Impi on the South end, and two on the North, however the British had significantly more squads covering the Southern ramparts...



And so the onslaught began, the Brit players took a gulp of tea, a deep breath and we began, afterwards they expressed their dismay initially on how many Zulus there were approaching them, but after the first round of shooting and Zulu morale took place they seemed slightly calmer. Almost too calm...



The rules have a clever sequence of play, at first glance you think, mmm not sure but then it all makes sense when you get in the flow of things happening...

SEQUENCE of PLAY 1) Zulu Movement 2) Brit Missile Fire & Zulu Morale 3) Zulu Melee & Brit Morale 4) Brit Movement 5) Brit Hospital 6) Zulu Missile Fire 7) Brit Melee

Basically Zulus move 6” plus D6, British fire power is devastating, usually hitting on a 4+ on D10 out to 48”, I don't think Paul had less than 90% success rate with his shooting dice, and Ian was near that, needless to say the Zulu ranks thinned rapidly.



Charge after charge tried to get to melee with the defenders, but when they did they were met with fire and bayonet, causing a few casualties here and there but the Zulu dead were piling up high, we were testing there guns alright, Lawrence had basically used his regiments in short time and was starting to recycle units which started to break up his attacks piecemeal, however in the British turn is a section called Hospital where they roll for casualty return, at one stage we thought we had done good with the Brits having 5 casualties, but on a roll of 8-10 they come back around surgeon Reynolds as fighting fit and may return to the lines where needed in the next move and you guessed it “Jammy Paul” rolled that all 5 came back!

We tried and tried to break into the compound area...



Attack after attack ...



Attacking different areas...



We managed to get in a couple of times but were forced back over the barricades...

But again and again the Brits either fought back and won or took step back and fired again, at one point we broke in killing Dalton and Bourne, casualties were mounting on the defenders but yet they still hung in there...






Unfortunately we had run out of time gaming at the club, this could have gone either way at this point, the defenders were dwindling, but managing to fall back in areas to form second lines in strong positions, and the Zulus well, I had just about recycled my units, I know Mike was near end of recycling and Lawrence was into his third batch! So there were not going to be many more Zulus, although we had plenty on table without casualties it would not be long before they were blooded and washing their spears.

All in all an excellent but very tense game so many times I thought we had them only to be thrown back, helped with great company and great banter thank you gentlemen Ian, Mike, Lawrence and even Jammy Paul, may we wash our spears again soon.


Nathan