Long term readers of this blog will know my penchant for gaming the Zulu War on the tabletop. They will know I also like to post my army lists ahead of a game. I recently picked up a copy of Blood & Steel, following a recommendation on the Shot & Shield podcast. This comes from the same stable as the successful Blood & Plunder rules from Firelock Games, which have seemingly sold well and cover the Golden Age of Piracy.
I'm currently looking for a 'go to' set of colonial rules. This could be interesting, so in the interests of getting my African miniatures out on the table for an outing in 2023, I'm putting together a couple of 200 points forces for the game, ahead of actually playing it. More on this once we've had an opportunity to wage some war with it. Ake siqale, as they say in Zululand.
You'll need the rule book to make sense of these. Note that there are only a limited number of army lists in the book, starting with rather obscure (for a Brit) Second Seminole War in 1835, and ending with the Spanish American War of 1898. There is a strong bias towards conflicts the Americans fought in the 19th century.
I'd like to try some Darkest Africa gaming with this, but much will depend on how our first foray goes. I'm also twiddling with Jim Webster's Hell & Uncivil Disorder to create a possible German landing party game with that system which I'll be testing out at some point soon.
ZULU FORCE - 198 points
Leadership
Zulu Induna (nil points - free) - force commander
Second free Induna (Horns of the Buffalo rule) = 0pts
Core units
Married Zulu Warriors (10 models @ 4pts = 40pts)
Unmarried Zulu Warriors (7 models @ 4pts = 28pts)
Unmarried Zulu Warriors (7 models @ 4pts = 28pts)
Support units (maximum one each)
Royal Guard Warriors (10 models @ 7pts = 70pts)
Zulu Warriors with Rifles (8 models @ 4pts = 32pts)
This gives us a pretty broad range of the available Zulu units.
BRITISH FORCE - 198 points
Leadership
Captain Aubrey James (15pts) - force commander
Core units
British Regulars (4 models @ 7pts each = 28pts)
British Regulars (4 models @ 7pts each = 28pts)
British Regulars (4 models @7pts each = 28pts)
NCO upgrade to one unit above +5pts
Support units
Natal Native Contingent (8 models @ 4pts each = 32pts)
Gatling Gun (1 model @ 20pts)
British Mounted Infantry (6 models @ 7pts = 42pts)
I've gone a little crazy with this list as I wanted to feature quite a diverse range of support units for the British. Consequently, because you can't have more core units than support, I've had to split the British infantry into three. The NCO upgrade to one of these means the unit is slightly bigger with five models. But I get to squeeze the Gatling in, some native scouts, and some cavalry so I can test those out too. It's a diverse force, the question is how these smaller infantry units will fare against the big Zulu formations.
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