HISTORICAL NOTE: After An abortive attempt to capture the Zulu stronghold on Inhlobane Mountain Brigadier General Wood has fallen back on his base at Kambula - his failure was due to the pursuit of a Zulu impi, 22,000 strong, from Ulundi, fresh from its victory at Isandlwana. THE FORCES: a) Imperial 18 men, 2 Officers of the 13th Foot. 18 men, 2 Officers of the 90th Foot. 1 Gun and 5 gunners Royal Artillery- 5 Commissariat. 15 Mounted volunteers and drivers. 2 Native servants. b) Zulu 403 men (approximately half the scaled down number, to make up for this deficiency the effectiveness of Imperial firepower was halved) organised into 8 regiments - uVe (104), umKhulutshane(10), indluyengwe (33), uDloke (66), uThulwana (50), inGobamakhosi (50), isaNgqu (50) and uNokenke (40). THE ZULU ADVANCE: Early on the morning of the 29th the Zulu impi appeared from the North Eastl already divided into Left, Centre, Right and 'loins' formation (see map) which it was to maintain throughout the battle. Seeing them, Wood called in the mounted scouts and positioned them, stiffened by a company (3) of Imperial infantry, between the main laager and the small fort (held by two companies) supporting the field gun and themselves supported by a company of men in the Cattle laager to their rear. The Zulu mass advanced steadily across the plain, taking few losses from the shrapnel of the Royal Artillery that played on each of their regiments in turn, and by the 7th game-move the leading Zulus were within extreme rifle range of the I.Pe r_ ial troops but their solid formation had begun to break up. Their centre advanced steadily against the mud and stone fort and the uThulwana regiment of the right 'horn' moved against the N.W. sector of the Main Laager but the entire left horn was held up by the slopes opposite the main ridge upon which the Imperial positions were established. The inGobamkhosi regiment was stalled by the small stream at the base of the Main Laager. This meant that the Zulu centre and left flank of the right horn attacked alone. The uThulwana regiment met the full blast of the Royal Artillery's grapeshot as well as heavy carbine and rifle fire from the Main Laager and suffered heavy casualties (so that the regiment checked its morale and fell back the next move). The centre was luckier, the fire of the Imperial companies in the Fort produced little effect on the massed ranks and even a blast of grapeshot into the flank failed to shake its morale. Parts of the regiment then engaged the fort defenders in melee while others stole round the Eastern flank and began to work their way towards the Cattle Kraal and some even turned right to help the uThulwana overrun the gun. While the uVe and uThulwana battled at the fort and the N.E.Wall of the Main Laager, the inGobamkhosi attempted to engage the front of the Main Laager and slip a party of warriors into the valley (behind the Imperial positions) to cut off retreat. This was a complete failure as all the warriors attempting to by-pass the Imperial position were shot down but the rest of the regiment flung itself against the laager walls and hung on, stopping the troops in the Main Laager from firing on the Zulus in the centre. Meanwhile the left flank, regiments had crossed the ridge to find themselves confronted by a native kraal which the uDloko wasted a whole move in burning and sacking. (It was not to be blamed too much, for a section of the uVe had chased the cattle released from the Cattle laager, thus depleting that regiment). THE IMPERIAL RETREAT TO THE MAIN LAAGER: Notwithstanding the defection of part of the Zulu left and the failure of its outflanking movements on the right, the Zulu centre was finally triumphant. The 8 defenders of the fort were overwhelmed by a rush of 50 warriors while the rest, outflanking the now dismounted volunteer's line, thrust all those troops between the Main Laager and the fort back onto the Main Laager's N.E. wall, the little cattle laager alone providing a refuge for those who reached it. For two game-moves the battle swayed along the laager walls, the Imperial troops in the wagon tops being particularly useful in their role as allround fire poin t 8, but the Zulus began to infiltrate into the Main Laager, reinforced by the uVe from the fort and wit h the left horn finally edging down the valley and the loins moving forward from their position in reserve on the opposite hill. THE END: On the 15th game-move Wood ordered all those to escape who could and then immediately fell to a group of 5 Zulus. The British and Colonials fought back down the Main Laager from its East to West face. The Zulus, however, overran the horse lines before many of the horses could be got loose and most of the Imperials fell fighting back-to-back amongst the tents. That any of the Imperial troops got away was largely due to the shattering of the inGobamkhosi earlier in the battle and the few soldiers who managed to get horses escaped off the western edge of the board. In all 4 Imperial troopers, 3 Colonials and 1 Native escaped. The Zulus, however, had little cause to rejoice as 164 were killed during the action, a disproportionate number falling on the regiments of the centre and the right (scaled-up this corresponds to a loss of 4,920 men). RULE ALTERATIONS: After this battle alterations are necessary to the rules I speculated upon in the February and March editions of the Newsletter. (1) When tempted with a diversionary target (kraal, cattle, etc., ) the Zulus throw a dice - 1, 2, 3 they attack said target; 4, 5, 6 Zulus push on. (2) If in a melee a defender is attacked by more than one attacker then, if the defenders dice throw is higher than that of some of his attackers it is concluded that he has 'taken one with him' e.g. Trooper attacked by three Zulus, Trooper die throw =4 Zulu die throws -= 6, 4, 2. It is therefore concluded that although the Trooper is killed, he has killed the attacker who only threw a 2. (3) Troopers can fire on Zulus once before the Zulus engage in melee, the Zulu throwing for morale before they close - 1, 2 - retire 811; 3, 4 - go to ground; 5, 6 - charge home. As can be seen by the above, the Imperial defences need a little more strengthening. Back to Table of Contents -- Wargamer's Newsletter # 117 To Wargamer's Newsletter List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1971 by Donald Featherstone. This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com