This is an open letter to tell everyone about the time I had at Bayou Wars. My wife and I set off for New Orleans from northwest Florida with a quick stop in Mississippi to pick up my partner in crime, Paul Trapani. The first game we played was a French Foreign Legion game hosted by George Carr. Fort Zindorff was being attacked by hordes of Arab irregular infantry while a relief column was about to be wiped out (I hope) by swarms of Bedouin cavalry. The infantry was assaulting the fort with dynamite, grappling hooks, and a tunnel underneath one of the comer towers. Paul and I launched our attack straight at the relief column that was marching towards the fort in two parallel columns. Our attack was heading straight at the left flank of the column. The legionnaires fell back into a firing line, two men deep with a machine gun at the head of the column poised to rake my section of cavalry while Paul's section headed straight into the teeth of the legionnaires volleys. At this point I noticed that the gate to the fort was wide open and decided to split my command. How's that Johnny Cash song go? (Well, the general split his men; he won't do that again ... ) Well, we missed our initiative roll and my troops were wiped out by canister and machine gun fire. My second group bravely weathered the legion's volleys and with my remaining men I struck the front of the column just as Paul's group (who had remained fairly unscathed) rolled into the rear of the column. At this point the whole game (or our part of it) disintegrated into a swirling mass of screaming Arabs, cursing legionnaires, slashing swords, and determined bayonet thrusts. In a matter of seconds it was over. Two of my Arabs ran away in one direction while two of Paul's ran in the other. The surviving legionnaires regrouped and headed for the fort. Using grappling hooks left in place by the attacking Arabs, they scaled the walls of the fort and with the remaining legionnaires drove off the remaining Arabs. This was a great game. George had grided off the top of the terrain sheet so that units moved by counting off grids instead of rolling dice for movement. The figures were big 54mm and looked great. Fast and furious from start to finish. On Saturday, I played Relief of Fort Majestic, which was a Zulu game hosted in part by Larry Brom, author of the rules Sword and the Flame. Mr. Brom was a riot. He was jovial through the entire game and was a fun person to be around. His daughter was at the game also and was gust as nice as she could be. I even bought 10 packs of her 1/72nd Zulus, even though I already had plenty. So now she only needs to sell 890 packs. The game started off by each participant selecting an envelope. Inside the envelope was a card that explained who you were in the game and what your job or position was. I had the horror of discovering I was in command of the entire Zulu impi. I had never played this rule set, so I was a bit over-whelmed. The game board was a huge display of typical South African terrain. There were hundreds of figures that were supplied by George Carr and his father, Mr. G. Carr, senior. The terrain was on two boards (4' x 9'?) with a river splitting the terrain in half, running between both boards the length of both. With the terrain on two boards like this, a person could easily reach the figures anywhere on any board without trying to stretch out 8 feet. The task of the Zulus was to destroy the fort and wipe out the wagons being escorted to the fort. The fort was on one side of the river and the wagons were coming down a road on the opposite side of the river. The right horn of the Zulus was deployed to attack the fort while the left horn and loins were deployed on the other side of the river to stop the relief force. My first decision as commander was to let the right horn act independently so I wouldn't have to worry about them. After all, they were on the other side of the river, so I doubt there could have been much communication. My next decision was to act more like the Zulu commander in the movie Zulu. Just act like I was on a high hill and point at which unit should move and that was about it. I thought everyone would have more fun moving and making their own decisions. The game is played by turning over cards. Red card, British move; black card, Zulus move. There was a deck of cards for each table to move by, so each table acted independently of the other. The main Zulu army was hidden in a ravine out of sight of the British. The left horn was off the board altogether, and the right horn was on board in full view. I had played a large Zulu game at Fall-In a couple of years ago, hosted by Author Ian Knight. With these rules the Zulus ran away quite a-bit. So, since that was my only experience with colonial rules, I made up (with everyone's input) my battle plan accordingly. The left horn would make first contact, which I figured would be pushed aside. The main attack would come at the river crossing with the reformed left horn taking the British from behind. Well, the left horn smashed into the British column, wiping out a company of Highlanders and a troop of cavalry, swept over the wagons, and was finally stopped by mass artillery fire. Since I had more troops than cards, I sent John Switzer across the river with his unit so he could use the cards on the other table for movement. He got chopped up by gattling gun fire. A group of tents that we thought would proved protection had been struck, so his units remained under galling fire until the game ended. My fiercest induna, Dave (9 years old), advanced with his units to attack the British left. Clay was moving his warriors to support, or really become, the left horn. Paul had arrived with his troops, both of them heading for the British center. At this point, the game was called. The right horn had taken part of the fort and had even wiped out a naval battalion that had formed square. But, they were a spent force and the British still held strong positions. The British on the left bank had beat back the left horn and were holding (albeit desperately) against repeated Zulu assaults on their left. The remaining Zulus were advancing on the center, but would not have been able to arrive before the British could form a firing line. Because of all this, the game was called a draw. It was a lot of fun. Conversation was encouraged and it looked like everyone had a good time. Medals were awarded for best British player and best Zulu player. Well, better wrap it up. I played a Dark Africa game with some of the best painted figures I've ever seen. My unit decided to pick on some pygmies and was almost wiped out to a man. There were many vendors with Old Glory, Foundry, and Redoubt being well represented. I saw a few people I had met at Fall-In: Chris of Outland Games and Tom Paneta of BP Castings. Vince Clyant was there, who has some of the best terrain. He's also doing Vietnam in 25mm. The figures look good and his jungle set-up was most convincing. There were also several people there I had met at Fuzilee & Muster. The last game I played was a castle siege game that was great. I single handedly destroyed any chance we might have had to win with some of the worse rolling I've ever done. The only good thing you can say about my rolling was that it was consistent; consistently bad. But, no hard feelings. Everyone shook hands and had a great time. Well, I'll close for now, and can't wait for next year; Bayou Wars 2000! PS: If you hear the thunder of guns erupting from south Mississippi, have no fear. It will be the start of a huge WWI game Paul and I have been working on using 1/72nd plastic and 20mm lead figures. Back to MWAN #102 Table of Contents Back to MWAN List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 1999 Hal Thinglum This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com