Now that I’ve been to South Africa and visited the country, I’ve gotten a much better understanding of its history and cultures…

With all the Voortrekker wagons and old gold rush towns, my first thought was that Dodge City had been transported to Africa. The other thing that impressed me was the diversity of microclimates within several hours, depending on a particular elevation.

So in Johannesburg, you could be in an area similar to Hays, KS on the Great Plains and then go to tropical forests in Nelspruit in the space of two hundred fifty miles.

Besides the climate, the humidity and ever-present threat of malaria in the lowveld would have been a real problem for both Europeans and native Africans living there (even today, South Africans need malaria medicine when they visit places like Kruger National Park near Mozambique). Ethnically, there are about 11 different languages spoken today ranging from Xhosa, Northern Sotho and Zulu to Afrikaans and English. I was told that most of the native Africans could understand each other’s dialects, though thankfully everyone I encountered spoke English. However, most South Africa histories only deal with British military campaigns against the Zulus, Xhosa, and Boers. The Afrikaners also definitely consider themselves native “Africans,” so I’d include the Anglo-Boer conflicts as “colonial wars.”

Zulu-Boer War of 1838:

In 1838 there were a series of skirmishes and battles between the regiments of King Dingane and the wagon laagers of Piet Retief and Uys, resulting from the Vlug Kommando (where a large force of Boers simply fled into the highveld from Natal) to the settlement of Pietermarizburg (some fifty miles away from Zululand). The resulting carnage at the Battle of Blood River lasted over two hours and resulted in over 3,000 Zulu dead with not a single Boer casualty… So, instead of the typical Brit/Zulu game, why not trying a Zulu ambush on a Boer wagon laager, or a skirmish game where a group of Zulus raid a Boer homestead in an attempt to run cattle back to the royal kraal.

Zulu War of 1879:

Being in South Africa and not being able to visit the major battle sites like Rorke’s Drift or Isandlwana was sort of depressing for me (one of my first passions as far as British colonial conflicts go). However, I can easily see how the Zulus were able to move large impis and ambush the British by using the terrain to their advantage. The rolling hills of Zululand are similar to the Transvaal and it would rather easy to hide troops in dongas (dried creek beds), escarpments, and tall grasses.

Likewise, it must of have been hell for the British to logistically supply 20,000 men their ammo, food, and supplies by slow moving Voortrekker oxen…

So for a tactical war-game, you might give serious consideration to allowing the Zulu player hidden movement or deployment of his forces and limiting the British player on his initial amount of ammo (with random resupply rules). Or having a scenario where a long British supply column is attacked in a Zulu ambush. And in a campaign situation, you could put any new British reinforcements at a disadvantage when first being deployed to represent the effects of malaria or disease taking its toil on a unit.

First Boer War of 1880:

This conflict is not my normal area of expertise, but I did find out that the 84th British infantry regiment was stationed as garrison troops in Lydenburg during the First Boer War. The 84th Infantry were never able to make it to Pretoria and endured a three-month siege before surrendering to the Boers after the Battle of Majumba…

So a skirmish game could be fought with a British garrison trying to hold off a Boer attack, while a relief forces tries marching to its rescue. The first battle could be fought at a solo game with the British relief column marching along a narrow mountain road with encounters randomly generated Boer attackers. If the relief force made intact, then they could be added in the second battle to lift the siege at Lydenburg. Otherwise, the British player could try a breakout scenario in an attempt to reach the garrison at Pretoria.

Second Boer War of 1899-1902:

Outside of the major battles like Kimberly and Colenso, my impressions of this conflict are a “turn of the century” Vietnam, where the British were forced to mobilize 250,000 men in order to pin down a 25,000 Boer guerilla army. The Battle of Long Tom Pass was named after the 155 mm cannons that the Kaiser donated to the Boers in their struggle against the British. The mountain pass between Lydenburg and Nelspruit became a killing ground in an artillery duel between the two sides (though the Afrikaners were able to pin down regular Imperial forces for a while)… Besides refighting the Battle of Long Tom Pass, you could also have a convoy scenario where the Boers raid a British gold shipment from Sabie or Pilgrim’s Rest in order to fund their next arms shipment.

Well, I’ve hoped you enjoyed these ideas and as always, please tell me what you think of them.