It is always difficult deciding apon what subject to base a demonstration or participation game. The subject you choose should be as interesting and unusual as you can find as, after all, you may have to discuss it all day long. The game must be managable and easy to play as you may have to game it all year long. If eventually you decide on your subject its wise to investigate wheather it has been done before and if so how it can be done better.

For the Victorian Military Fair of 1995 the South London Warlords choose to do the battle of Isandlwana. This battle is perhaps the best known in British colonial history (certainly the most notorious), was chosen mainly for two reasons. The first that myself and fellow club member Phil Portway are both great Zulu War enthusiasts, the second that we wanted to try and do a large set piece game.

The problem that arose was that this battle was very well known and a straight demonstration on the battle may not be of enough interest. After much reserch one dramatic story started to emerge from this dramatic battle: that of Captain Younghusband and 'C' Company. That story is as follows...

It is about 1:15pm on the 22nd of January 1879, the British camp at the base of Isandlwana Hill has been under attack from the main Zulu army (about 20,000 strong), since about 12 o'clock midday. 'C' Company, 1st Battalion, 24th Foot under the command of Captain Younghusband have been left at the camp in support of the firing line. At 12:45pm they are ordered forward into the firing line to the far left of the camp, to support the other hard pressed companies.

At first all goes well and the Zulus are kept at bay, but the ammunition has begun to run low and the 24th companies are forced back towards the camp. At 1:10pm the N.N.C. units in the British firing line panic and run leaving a large gap through which the Zulus flood.

It had taken Just Twenty Minutes for the firing line to collapse. Captain Younghusband orders 'C' Company to fix bayonets and with the Zulus swarming all aroud manage to fight their way back along the base of the hill. With the help of his Subaltern Lieutenant George Hodson they manage to organise a stand at the base of the hill from which they witness the destruction of the camp. With there ammunition spent and no hope of escape, Captain Younghusband gathers his men and leads them in a desperate charge down the hill. Their bodies were later found in a little group at the bottom of the hill, a testiment to the last desperate fight.

So the basis for the game was to represent the period of fighting during which Captain Younghusband and 'C' Comoany fought there way along the base of the hill until there final destruction at the end of there charge. So now we had our game the real work had to start.

OVER THE HILL AND FAR AWAY....

One saving grace about choosing Younghusband's part in the battle was that it meant that we only had to represent the ground over which he fought, thus saving us from having to model the entire battleground. This also had a further advantage in that by choosing just one small part of the battle we would only had to represent one small part of the Zulu army (saving us having to paint thousands of extra Zulu figures). It would also mean that we would get away with not having to build the entire hill which in 25mm scale would be enormous, and almost immpossible to carry.

In the end, we decided to give an impression of the hill by building a cross section including the place where the last stand took place and a sizable portion of the hill's base so that figures could be stood on it.

Phil Portway is the clubs handyman and so he set about constructing the hill, while I set about mustering our troops. Phil started by cutting some polystyreme to shape and glued this together to form the cross section of hill. This was then shaped again and stuck to a plywood base and further bits of polystyreme were added and then painted with PVA glue. This was then covered with builders sand (the course stuff) and then, when throughly dryed, painted with sand coloured paint and highlighted in white. When finished and placed on the table the hill section looked fine but some what disjointed from the rest of the table. After some discussion a back drop was decided on, and this was promptly painted to represent the back end of the hill. Again it looked okay but again not quite right. It was difficult deciding what was not working until it dawned on us that as the hill was in 3D (so to speak) so should the back drop. Strips of cork were added to the back drop painted and shaped as per the hill and that was that, job done.

ZULUS THOUSOUNDS OF THEM TO THE SOUTH EAST

Next came the figures. The good thing about belonging to a large club like the Warlords is that you're never short of volunteers to lend things. Phil Portway already had about three hundred Zulus and with some help this was raised to seven hundred. The British came from various club members with myself and Phil supply the character figures. In the end we ended up with about one hundred redcoats and seven hundred Zulus, giving us a very loose scale of about one to five. For good measure, we decided to represent a small portion of the camp and this was done by adding a few tents and wagons for effect.

ON WITH THE SHOW...

As usual the Warlords have always enjoyed the V.M.S. fair, and this year was no exception. The Zulu War is a confirmed favourite with most people and so the game seemed to go down well. We received a great response which made the hard work seem worthwhile. The final effect seemed to work and the hill was recognised as what it was meant to be. One lesson was learnt in that never ever base your Zulus singly as it takes hours to move them all. The game worked well and many people visited the table to see Younghusband meet his sticky end, which as per real life he eventually did.

I would like to thank all those who passed us kind comments on the day, the Victorian Military Society for organising the fair especially Ray Boyles and Ian Knight whose books led to the inspiration for Just Twenty Minutes.

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