Not dead

Just though I ought to report in gentle reader. Work and family matters have come first these past few weeks leaving me with little hobby time.

We hope to restore our regular service shortly.

Perhas in the meantime, I'll put on a photoshoot to tide you over!

Move 2, The Western Sudan

Foga. January 1882.

Slatins' men advance on Foga, methodically slaughtering all before them.

Having won the fight there and pausing only to liberate supplies, Slatin's men press on to El Fasher.

Slatin's force moves off to liberate El Fasher.  Remembering that the RI of the area remains 6, they will be attacked, no matter what. All that remains is to determine the number and kind of the enemy and the nature of the engagement.

I rolled a 4. El Fasher is a Garrison town, worth 5 VP, so I deduct one from my die roll, resulting in a three - the difference between this and the RI is 3 and therefore the number of basic units I will face.

Knowing this, I selected and cast three D6. A 5, another 5 and a 2. A quick consultation over the appropriate table: two Units of Ansar, then, and some cavalry (in my case this will be camelry!).

Dear reader, I then rolled a 2 for the encounter type:

Egyptian Attack on a Defended Town or Zeriba.
The town will be along the banks of the river or built around a well or standing pool. It will have defenses of some sort: rifle pits/trenches, a zeriba, or stone/mud walls. The Dervishes have one artillery piece per three basic Dervish units. These can be 12-pdr smoothbores or 9-pdr breech-loaders, at the referee’s discretion. The Anglo-Egyptians win by driving the Dervishes out of the town.

Hard fighting ahead for Slatin! 

Move 2 Begins

Good morning again!

Kicking off move 2, we need to rol only one revolt index - South Sudan has not yet revolted and thus may be rolled for this time. You will recall that there was a RI of 2. If I roll this or less the region will be in revolt.

I roll a 1.

Now I roll for suprise captures of Garrison Towns.

These are Khartoum, El Dueim, Jebeleirl and Fashoda.

The basic chance for a surprise attack to capture a garrison town equals the regions’ revolt index. This is modified as follows:

-1 per company beyond the first stationed in the town
-1 town is Wadi Halfa, Suakin, or El Obeid
-3 town is Khartoum

You will recall that only Khartoum is heavily garrisoned, but no troops are stationed in any of the other towns. Bit of an oversight, that. I will need to roll three or better for El Dueim, Jebeleirl and Fashoda.

I roll a 5, a 2 and a 3. Jebeleirl has been taken by surprise. Khartoum is beseiged. It has 5 Moves of Supply.

UPDATE: I have added a new Map to the "Maps" page showing the situation at the start of move Two.

Move 1 Wrap Up

Good morning!

AsI said before signing off yesterday, today I will be wrapping up this the first of our campaign moves.

We shall be examining the following matters: Supply, Revolt Indexes, Victory Points and Reinforcements.

So, first to Supply. When we started the move wqe determined which areas were in revolt and how much "Supply" was available to each of the beseiged Garrisons. we came up with the following:

Western Sudan
El Obeid. Supplies for 4 moves.,

Eastern Sudan
All Garrisons succumbed to surprise attacks when the revolt broke out.

Northern Sudan. 
Abu Hamed. Supplies for 7 moves So far so good, eh?
Berber. 5 moves of supply.
Atbara. I have 5 moves worth of supplies laid in.

Not too bad, eh? It gets somewhat better, too. After the incidents and accidents of combat:

Western Sudan 
El Obeid. Supplies for 6 moves.

Eastern Sudan
The newly-arrived British Expeditionary force brought 4 moves' Supply with them.

Northern Sudan.
Abu Hamed. Supplies for 10 moves So far so good, eh?
Berber. 8 moves of supply.
Atbara. I have 7 moves worth of supplies laid in.

Next we come to the calculation of Revolt Indexes.

At the start of the game they stood thus:

Southern Sudan, 4
Eastern Sudan, 4
Western Sudan, 6
Northern Sudan, 2

Now we apply the following modifiers:
+1 each garrison town in the region captured by surprise or abandoned by garrison
+1 each battle won in the region by Mahdists
-1 each battle won in the region by Anglo-Egyptians
+1 Khartoum fell this turn (affects all regions)
+1 any adjacent region’s index went up because of battles or captured towns
-1 any adjacent regions’ index went down by two points or more because of battles or captured towns

Southern Sudan, 4 all that can be applied here is a -2 for the battles won in East and West Sudan. RI is 2
Eastern Sudan, 4, +3 for captured garrison towns, -1 for the "win" at Suakin for the British.. RI is 6.
Western Sudan, 6, +2 for captured garrison towns, -1 for the Battle won at Foga by the Egyptians. RI is 7.
Northern Sudan, 2. No garrison towns captured. -3 for "wins" at Abu Hamed, Berber and Atbara. . RI is 0. South Sudan is pacified after an abortive revolt that garnered little support. East andd West Sudan must take their RI down a point as a result of the 2+ point reduction in North Sudan's RI.

Final Revolt Indexes:
Southern Sudan, 2
Eastern Sudan, 5
Western Sudan, 6
Northern Sudan, 0

A good result, all things considered.
Next we look at Victory Points.

The end of the first Move sees the Garrison Towns of El Fasher (5), Dara (5), Kassala (5) and Trinkitat (5) in the hands of the Mahdists. This gives them a total of 20 Victory Points. It's a long haul if they need to get to 400.

For the Egyptians, the game ends when all four regions are out of revolt or after 20 turns, whichever comes first.

Lastly we turn, faithful reader, to the matter of Reinforcements. Rolling a 5, I elect to have more British units from my pool arrive at Aswan to begin the long march South. They will consist of three infantry Units, a Cavalry Unit and a gun. Remaining in the reserve are the Naval Brigade and a Nordenfeldt.

Move 1 - North Sudan

There are five garrison towns in the North Sudan area; Wadi Halfa, Dongola, Abu Hamed, Berber and Atbara.

When the North unexpectedly rose, the commander on the spot, the wily Colonel Portphillip Bey determined that all of his garrisons would try to break their own seiges with sallies. The garrisons were quite strong and he thought they stood a good chance of success given the low Revolt Index of the area. Three of the towns actually had garrisons - Abu Hamed, Berber and Atbara. So then the proceedure:

A sortie is handled as if the units were entering their own space; a die is rolled, modified by the size of the garrison town (-1 per 5 points), and compared to the region’s revolt index. The difference determines how many units are participating in the siege. The garrison can call off the sortie after this die roll, but it counts as a lost battle. The Dervishes will have a fortified camp (zeriba, rifle pits) to defend and one cannon per four basic units. If the camp is captured, the Dervishes are driven away, but only temporarily. The garrison can gather 1d6 additional turns’ worth of supplies and settle back into its defenses or it can abandon the garrison, moving one space immediately (and risking another battle). If the garrison town is reoccupied while the region is still in revolt, the siege resumes.

Abu Hamed, 10 points. I roll a 3, -2 for the town size which yields a 1. Remembering the RI of the area is 2, the difference is 1. One unit is beseiging the town. I roll for type and it is a unit of Ansar. I am not going to bother with a game here as there are two units of Egyptian infantry present. I deem the Ansar decide discretion is the better part of valour and they move off, leaving the Egyptians to loot their camp for an additional 3 moves' of supply.

Berber, 5 points. I roll a 2, -1 for the town size which yields a 1. Remembering the RI of the area is 2, the difference is 1. One unit is beseiging the town (again!). I roll for type and it is a unit of Ansar (Again!). Likewise, I am not going to do a game here either as there are two units of Egyptian infantry present. The Egyptians to loot the enemy camp for an additional 3 moves' of supply.

Atbara, 10 points. I roll a 6, -2 for the town size which yields a 4. Remembering the RI of the area is 2, the difference is -2. No enemy units are beseiging the town. The Egyptians gather an additional 2 moves' of supply.

That concludes the fighting for move 1.

In my next post, I shall calculate Supply, Revolt Indexes, Victory Points and reinforcements. I suspect (hope?) North Sudan may no longer be in revolt after this move!

Foger Liberated!

Forces operating under Slatin Pasha today defeated a Rebel force which issued from the Zareba surrounding the small hamlet of Foger.

Led by their Sheik, Squali'id Ali, the three units of Ansar and one of Jehadiy'ya riflemen moved smartly to attack Slatin's two Egyptian Companies and his single gun. The Egyptian troops immediately deployed into a firing line with their gun between them and advanced slowly, making all the while a steady fire that bowled over the Mahdists in hordes.

Still, on came Allah's warriors until the point was met where human flesh and will could do no more against that storm of steel and lead. The last men on their feet among the human wreckage could do no more; and when they retired it was with an air more of injured dignity and one of terror-struck flight.

Upon entering Foga, two turns' supplies were liberated by the jubilant Egyptian troops.