Machine Guns in the Second Anglo Boer War

[Mark Stanoch]

I am designing a scenario around the Battle of Colenso. The Boers did have at least one Pom Pom present (Ian Knight identified it as a Maxim-Nordenfeldt). Page 94 in the second edition suggests that machine guns in the 1870’s and 1880’s were more reliable and therefore can ignore the first jam result. But what about machine guns used in 1899-1900? Presumably these later weapons were even more reliable, so should all jams be ignored? What other changes would be advised to reflect historical accuracy for these weapons?

[Big Al]

I wouldn’t ignore jams altogether. The conditions in South Africa were quite dusty and hot and distances for supplies are great with few centres. Machine guns jammed in WWII, so I would still allow them a chance of failure. The question is “how often or what condition. Besides, that is part of the fun.

You could make it something like two 1s rolled or more 1s than 6s or similar, which would be far less frequent but still a jam.
Alternatively, you could stay with the rule as it is, but make a command roll to see if the jam is cleared quickly enough to have no effect. Failed command roll means it has jammed as per normal.

[Mark Stanoch]

Thanks Big Al for the advice. I like your latter proposal as passing a Command test sounds right.

While on the subject of Colenso, how would you model the Boer artillery? I think that due to the use of high explosive and shrapnel, the artillery should be much more deadly. Perhaps rolling 4 dice for less than half range targets?

[Author]

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