2nd El Teb

 When one hasn't posted on a wargaming blog for weeks and weeks then what better way to return than with a bit of nineteenth century symbolist poetry in the original French? Indeed. However, I think we'd all agree that the second best way would have been with a report from a large, visually impressive game in a new period using toys which are hitting the table for the first time.

James's Sudan project has been in hand for a couple of years, without seemingly getting very far. However the series of unfortunate events which has meant virtually no wargaming so far this year has allowed him to crack on and paint enough figures to game 2nd El Teb at a scale of 1 to 15 (*). We therefore gathered in the legendary wargames room and gave it a go.

The rules were Black Powder in, as James put it, the absence of anything else. They worked reasonably well and provided a really fun game. I think the strong consensus was that categorising the Mahdists as 'fanatics' as specified by BP made them too strong and that British regular infantry would probably not have been as unnerved as the rules imply. Just to remind everyone, in the actual battle the British lost around one hundred men - mainly cavalry I think - and the Mahdists many thousands. That didn't happen in our refight, where the British lost significantly more than historically, albeit with some fairly heavy losses on the native side as well.

So a good time was had by all participants, who included a new (to me) opponent in Michael. I'm afraid we are now going to revert for the foreseeable future to not gaming at all, but at least that will give James to rewrite the rules in his own style.

 * I feel obliged to point out that I on the other hand have done no painting whatsoever during all this extra free time.