Battle of Nyezane 1879

[Anthony Miles]

On Friday night at New Buckenham Historical Wargamers we had a game of Black Powder based on the scenario of the Battle of Nyezane 1879, The first pitched battle of the Zulu Wars. This battle is known as Wombane by the Zulus, another alternative is Inyezane.

The scenario was taken from the Black Powder 2 rule book, modified slightly to account for available figures. We played this, as usual at the club, using 2/3rd distances.

Initial positions have the British, having started to break camp and beginning to move off across a river and along a track, spot Zulus ahead of them. Units of Natal Native forces along with Royal Naval and Infantry are pushed forward to engage and protect the column.

The British objective is to get three wagons and escorting units off the far end of the table or break two of the three Zulu brigades.

The Zulu objective, prevent this.

The British plan to form a corridor of troops either side of the road and push along as fast as we could was initially scuppered by failed command rolls allowing the Zulus to hit our left flank pretty much in their starting positions.

We soon overcame this issue and British firepower soon started to take it’s toll, destroying first the initial Zulu assault on our left and then the force attacking the head of the column down the track.

With the second Zulu brigade broken the game was called as a British victory despite suffering higher casualties than their historical counterparts.

A fun game for a Friday night and something different from this conflict. Once again I can take no credit for any figures, all belong to another member.

More on my blog at Jabba’s Wargaming

Tony.

• This topic was modified 5 years ago by Anthony Miles.

[Charge The Guns]

Great looking game!

This is a fun scenario. I’ve played it as Zulus. We got so close to causing an upset, but just couldn’t get past the firepower from the plucky redcoats.

[Jon H]

That is awesome, I wish I had a table that big 😀

[Big Al]

Looks fantastic.
I played this in 6mm. The British won comfortably, the Zulus suffering on break tests.
To be honest, I think we used too big a table. The artillery didn’t do much because of that, but also, the Zulus had to make up quite a bit of ground to close and I think that was the problem.

[Anthony Miles]

Thank you all for your comments.

[Author]

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