Little Wars Little Men Part 1
Little Wars Little Men Part 2

I had played most sets of Colonial rules over the years and all had strengths and weaknesses and all but one were sets involving the skirmish or one on one variety. I needed a set that would cater to larger actions. Although I would ultimately need a skirmish set that would settle the smaller engagements, I thought one of the commercial sets would do, however I ended up with a homegrown work that I named “Hollywood”.

Without going into detail Bob Corcoran’s Solo Sudan in issue 140 is exactly what a solo set of rules should consist of to be playable. Surprise, uncertainty and an unpredictability that will hold the players interest to a conclusion is all that is needed for a solo set to be successful. In many ways Solo Sudan and “Hollywood” follow the same guidelines.

Moving on to a set of rules that I could use to solo the large actions with 6mm armies I began gleaning ideas from all sets of rules and began forming an outline for the resulting work. Here are some of the systems and ideas that were used for the grand tactical rules.

For the size of the figures the ground scale was surprisingly aesthetic, 300mms representing 100 yards. Melee results would be flexible as combat factors could fluctuate drastically representing troop quality but not over – emphasizing superior troops nor overburdening inferior ones. Casualties were removed by bases as the sheer number of figures necessitated a logical way of tracking morale status, strength and leadership. Victory conditions did not have to rely on a body count, as success in battle now depended on objectives attained, final positions on the battlefield, loss of leadership or personalities and conditions of troops to carry on for the duration of the campaign. This rules system I began to use was christened The Sun is Setting.

The Sun is Setting

I had intended to include the strategic system ideas for solo play but will omit them for a later date for two reasons. Bob Corcoran’s system is well organized and presented while my set is not there yet and because my system is still in flux, I have junked my Boer War guidelines and are redoing them while adding a little chrome to other sections. (I cannot deny they may be in a constant state of flux).

Instead I will offer a dreaded Battle report that will let the reader “play along”, in the system, an encounter that took place in my first mini-strategic campaign. The theatre being the ever-popular Zululand and my pre-empted invasion heading straight for the Zulu capital, Ulundi. Suffice to say this particular column consisting of the usual, Imperial redcoats, two battalions of the 90th Foot in this case, 1 battery of 4 12lb guns, 1 battalion of Natal Native Contingent, and ten troops of cavalry represented by the Natal Police, Frontier Light Horse and Natal Carabineers. The slow moving wagon train was bringing up the rear.

My orders as stated were to proceed to Ulundi but eliminate any possible Zulu rally points, rest areas and in particular leave no Zulus behind me. And, so we now pick up the column as it diverts itself to go destroy a small Kraal seen a short distance to the right of my march route.

Initiative plays a major role in The Sun is Setting and my rather lethargic advance begged of native action, and so on a small hill to my right making themselves visible were a group of Zulu warriors almost too numerous to count. It seemed they had no intention of advancing so to my right I ordered the battery of guns to unlimber and scatter the enemy with their fire. I ordered the column to continue on. This move however was not enough to gain the initiative as soon after a small group of Zulus made themselves known with some rather accurate rifle fire from some elephant grass off to my left at some distance. To deal with this nuisance I dispatched the cavalry less a few troops as my personal escort. Into the grass they galloped in a confused and swirling melee and pursuit. It seemed as though by retaining the initiative the Zulus intended on defending their kraal.

With both flanks secure and holding I decided a quick dash to the kraal just ahead would put an end to the resistance. Even with a quick decisive move I failed to gain the cursed initiative again. With typical British arrogance my two battalions advancing in line one supporting the other were forced to roll on an ‘unscouted terrain table’ designed to give advancing infantry a bit of uncertainty in unfriendly territory.

To my surprise a donga appeared 100mm ahead with an initiative roll filling it with Zulu warriors! The ‘unsure action’ table with modifiers indicated that it was their kraal and they intended to keep me away. Out of the donga swarmed the Impi, engulfing the first battalion of the 90th. The NNC battalion next took the brunt of the Zulu tide. Back the survivors of both battalions fled around and to the rear of the 2nd battalion of the 90th. An effective volley slowed but did not stop the onslaught. The ensuing melee was quick and indicated both sides to retire a distance to reform and consider a next move.

At that point I decided to call off the attack (good thinking eh!) as my artillery was flanked and my cavalry who were still playing in the grass were being cut off. I could also see the classic charging buffalo forming as the two Zulu flanking forces were indeed slowly moving forward each turn in what I interpreted as the horns. A very hasty retreat with my remnants was acknowledged by the Zulus with a war cry as they too retired back to the donga.

In campaign terms I retired further, built a fort, mourned the loss of several officers and a personality and sulked in defeat.

The solo system was successful containing the three maxims of a game mentioned at the start of the article.

Since the conclusion of this smaller campaign another is planned not only encompassing Africa, India, Afghanistan and China but beyond including naval actions. It will again take advantage of solo gaming in that it can proceed at a pace of my own choosing, that is no club deadlines. In conclusion soloing was very successful and though I still play multiplayer games, I plan to expand soloing to other historical eras. I’d also like to thank Richard for including my ranting and I do plan to further explore 6mm colonials, solo gaming ideas and other related subjects for future issues.

Another Terrain Piece

We have added another terrain piece to those already constructed. This piece, a 4ft by 6ft desert wadi, started life as a 4 by 6 foot convention game board for Siege of Augusta several years ago. I had forgotten about the piece until it came back when cleaning up a storage shed. I know that this is going to be a storage problem but I currently did not want to cut it into 2-foot squares to match the rest of the terrain boards. The piece was three half-inch thick blue boards glued together and somewhat sculpted on the surface as a minimalist desert.

To reform this piece I determined that I wanted at least one largish wadi, two would be better, that could hold enemy troops that would not be visible to troops on the table. When at eye level with the table a mounted figure’s lance tip can be seen in the deepest part but nothing else, certainly not a foot figure. To make the desert aspect of the piece more obvious there is a ¼ inch height difference, which could have been trimmed down on the edges, that changes and slows the rate of movement once troops march onto this piece.

The first construction step was to ensure that the pieces stayed glued together, since this had been out in the weather. Next I outlined in marker pen where I wanted the branching wadis to go. Then I considered how deep they should be. The main branch of both needed to be full depth while the offshoots would be shallower and in some places inaccessible from the main branch (too steep to climb up but not down by a foot figure and totally out of mounted accessibility). While other branches were easy access to foot and mounted. Also two of the shallower wadis had to be able to hold at least 20 foot figures, so the cut would only be one layer deep with a flat area of 2 by 8 inches or greater. The remaining branches could only hold prone or at most kneeling figures that could be invisible.

With the decisions made and sketched in I got out the trusty hot wire knife and started cutting and gouging. One wadi has 4 and the other 5 branches, each with a flat bottom branch. I used a sawing motion with the hot wire knife to cut the deepest part of the wadi as I did not want the sides smooth but more weathered looking. In some places I cut the top layer out with an x-acto knife.

A few places in the deepest parts I left small areas where I could fit a kneeling figure to fire over the rim, there’s only 3 or 4 of them. With the cutting done I went over the area with course sandpaper to remove cut marks and make it all look more natural. The sanding worked really quite well. I then gave the whole thing a base coat of flat black then when dry a brown, sprinkled heavily with sand including the sides of the deep parts. When that was dry I used light brown and tan spray acrylic paints to lighted the brown. In some places I dry brushed the sand to make it stand out more and on the deepest sides of the wadi. Then we gave it a heavy spray (a whole can) of dull coat Krylon to seal it.

To keep the piece light and easily moved I did not add a masonite base to it, especially since this is 4 by 6 feet. The base and three-ply thickness would have made it too tall for other terrain pieces on the table as well as making it difficult to store. Now it can sit on a chair against the wall when not in use.