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- A great game. It took seven hours to play out what would have probably been a 30-40 minute encounter in real life. The rules system can still just about manage a game of this size, but really only just. Any bigger, and my Zulu War games will need another rules system.
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- He has also produced a series of wargames guides, such as this one, published this week, on the Anglo-Zulu War. Now, I am notoriously useless at looking at wargames rules and working out how they might play, however, as this is not a set of rules but a guide I can offer a few thoughts.
The Zulu War presents an opportunity for a highly colourful wargame between two very contrasting opponents. The battles that were fought show that whilst there was a certain sense of an inevitable British victory to the war, the Zulu army was certainly capable of inflicting a punishing defeat upon the British given an opportunity to unleash a co-ordinated attack using the classical fighting.
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- I made some modifications to Neil Thomas’s One Hour Wargames in order to play an Anglo-Zulu War game last week. The results were fast moving and fun, and felt, to me, historically appropriate. The scenario saw a British force split over a river, with their light cavalry—Frontier Horse and Natal Native Horse—struggling on their own while the British infantry and an Gatling (or a Gardner…which is what I had painted) had their own problems. The Zulus surged out of a couple of gullies, and repeated charges battered, but did not break, the British lines. The battle ended with a Zulu withdrawal in good order, and the British relieved to be alive.My troops are 1/72 plastics, mostly the old Esci stuff, but the mounted troops are newer HaT plastics. Sadly the Esci plastics are succumbing to plastic fatigue, and just handling them for this game resulted in about a dozen ankle snaps. I will be replacing them with new HaT plastics and Newline Designs 20mm metal.Here are a few pictures, thanks for looking.A great looking game. Your figures and layout are very nice, though it’s a shame about the plastic degradation. It’s surprising how flexible Thomas’s rules are – a short time ago I did a similar thing to yourself and used them for a conquistadores/Mayan clash in 16th century Yucatan, and with minor tweaks they worked very well indeed!NathanielGood looking setup! I would love to see the mods you made. I’ve noticed many gamers making local mods to OHW recently: good news for us NT Fanboys. ðŸ‘x8DðŸ˜x81More nonsense on my blog: http://battle77.blogspot.com/I have a lot of US Cavalry and Plains Indians in 15mm, and Thomas’ book landed on my doorstep two days ago.  I’d like to know what mods you made too please?  And which section of the book did you play to, Rifle and Sabre?The internet, the apex of human technical and intellectual achievement, means that no matter how dim-witted you are, no matter how fundamentally stupid your ideas are, you can always find someone who thinks the same way and can tell you that you’re right.Nathaniel,Fantastic table set up. Sorry to hear about the figures nearing their end of life.The NewLine Design ones are nice but you will need to drill each one.I managed 32 before giving up and moving to 10mm for my TMWWBK project.be interesting to see your rules mods for OHW.CheersIanThanks for putting your mods on here.  From my reading Plains Indians, and maybe other Native Americans too, had a very unique way of fighting (or not fighting).  They probably require a set of rules all of their own. I have such a set in Yellow Ribbon, but the space I currently have to play on prevents their use.  So I’m looking at other rules to see if they are suitable for modifying.The internet, the apex of human technical and intellectual achievement, means that no matter how dim-witted you are, no matter how fundamentally stupid your ideas are, you can always find someone who thinks the same way and can tell you that you’re right.Nathaniel,Thanks for sharing those ideas. They are great. One of the main reasons I like OHW rules.Are you part of the  AMW groups.io? If not you should join and share your rules plus there are loads of great ideas for all of NT rules.Group Email Addresses if you want to check it out:
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Help: [email protected]Cheers.IanCheers, Nathaniel. I recommend browsing AMW as Ian suggests. You might even find some of my junk in there.More nonsense on my blog: http://battle77.blogspot.com/Love the set-up, especially how you layed out the river and the dry donga/culvert.  Very effective.  Your variation on Neil Thomas’ rules are inspired.  I’ll have to get my copy out again.  Thanks very much for sharing!Ah, this makes me gush all nostalgic. Thanks for posting it.Self taught, persistently behind the times, never up to date. AKA ~ jeff
More verbosity: http://petiteguerre.blogspot.com/Great Mods, for some bizarre reason to had never occurred to me to use OHW for colonials. I like the retreat rule, I’ve been fiddling around with more subtle distinctions for the WW2 set and that is a nice idea.Right time to grab those Mahdists who have been languishing in their box for too long…I do like OHW, endlessly modifiable.'Mistakes in the initial deployment cannot be rectified' - Helmuth von Moltke
Wargamers Guide to the Zulu War
Dan Mersey
Pen and Sword
Reviewed by John Stallard
Dan Mersey
Pen and Sword
Reviewed by John Stallard
This is a 113 page soft back book that retails at £13. If you don’t wish to read further, it does exactly what it says on the tin, and is recommended.
Mersey is a well-known wargames writer and has been published before. He knows what wargamers want and in this book he delivers it in spades.
He sets the political scene clearly without a fuss or over complicating the story, this a wargamers guide not a thesis. The chapter ‘armies. organization and equipment, is of great use.
Ancient Wargame Rules
In particular, if you are a bit new to the period. Strangely enough one one my mates has just invested hugely into the Zulu war and it would have save me a good few phone call and emails if he had this most useful book. It lists the Zulu armies carefully including their regimental and company strengths and provides the colonial player a chance to field all manner of other units rather than the 24th Warwickshires. Thus you will be informed that the amaKwenke regiment carried black shields, the uVe black red and white, whilst the 57th foot had yellow facings the 58th black and the Marines a dark blue uniform. All useful stuff to know.
All the key battles are considered and suggestions for how to play them out given which seemed well thought out and include a few ‘what if’s’ which make a game so much more tempting in my opinion.
Free Wargames Rules
There are some nice colour photographs in there but not one map, perhaps my only moan , as trying to understand Isandlwana without a map is a nightmare, let alone with one!
The book is topped and tailed with a list of wargames rules he thinks worth looking at(remember this is NOT a set of rules) and a good bibliography for those who want to study more of this tragic but epic war.
Free Naval Wargame Rules
With some maps in it I would have scored it 10/10, without the maps still an excellent 9/10. If you fancy the period, buy this book.