Death in the Dark Continent: First game

Ever since finishing the British forces for The Mahdist Revolt I have been building terrain pieces and a board. Yesterday everything was put in place for my first game of Death in the Dark Continent. My opponent was my friend Frank, who had agreed to give the game a try despite not being to keen on unit based games.

Frank would take control of the British, while I would be trying to put the Mahdi's men to good use. We decided that in order to keep things simple and therefore played the Pitched Battle scenario.

Once the forces had been lined up next to the board, it felt like I already had the advantage having triple the amount of units that Frank did.

Forces
Here are the forces we played with:

British
Chief (Elite Soldiers with breech-loaders) 1 base
British infantry (Elite Soldiers with breech-loaders) 3 bases
British infantry (Elite Soldiers with breech-loaders) 3 bases
British infantry (Elite Soldiers with breech-loaders) 3 bases
Baggage

Mahdists
Chief (Ansar Skirmisher untrained with muskets) 1 base
Ansar (Skirmishers untrained with muskets) 4 bases
Ansar (Skirmishers with spears) 4 bases
Ansar (Skirmishers with spears) 4 bases

Jihadiyya (Soldiers with muskets) 4 bases

Jihadiyya (Soldiers with breech-loaders) 4 bases

Beja (Elite Warriors with spears) 4 bases

Beja (Elite Warriors with spears) 4 bases

Beja (Elite Warriors with spears) 4 bases

Baggage

The Game
After deployment it became clear that the British's only chance of success was to play a defensive game. For the Mahdists the aim was to get within musket range and then to attack with the Beja in melee.

In the first couple of turns the Mahdist horde swarmed in from all side towards the British, and the visual effect of almost a 100 minis moving towards 30 British was stunning.

The British moved into positions, so that they created three firing lanes, which would limit the amount of Mahdists who could move close at the same time.

As the Mahdists got closer the British started to open fire, but being outside the rifles effective range meant that damage was limited. Just as the Mahdists thought they would be able to get close enough to start returning the fire their movement rolls failed and most of the units seems to crawl forward.

In the center the many units were having problems getting into position as the space was simply not there. Slowly the Mahdists came into the effective range of the British rifles and this was telling. Suddenly Disorder markers started to take their toll on the units and they were being kept away from the British. When the Beja finally got into close combat and the Jihadiyya and Ansar musket into range they were severely hampered by the Disorder markers and bad dice rolling.

After loosing two Beja units, one Ansar musket unit, and both Jihadiyya units the remainder of the Mahdist decided to flee.

Impression
Wow! Just wow! This was an incredible game in all sorts of ways - visually it was stunning to see the hordes closing in on the British. The rules just flowed and the Disorder mechanic in particular was excellent - perhaps the best implementation of disorder I have tried in a game.

Frank knew nothing of the game rules beforehand, but we quickly got the hang of it. The game took around 2½ hours and until the last two rounds both of us felt that the game could have swung both ways. For me this is always a good indicator of a well balanced game.

Nothing in the rules is complicated, but this does not mean that the rules are stupid, they just feel incredibly fine tuned. Shooting works very well and Close Combat even better. The clear winner is however the Morale and Disorder rules which while effective and cruel just fit the game.

Despite not being a fan of neither the setting or unit games Frank was impressed. And we both agreed that a rematch should be played before long.

I finish this post with a lot of pictures that I took - I hope you enjoy.

Death in the Dark Continent: British force ready

The Mahdists' opponents the British are now finished as well.

These are all Perry plastics and are really nice sculpts. I went for the khaki look, which means that these are painted as the 1st Royal Irish Fusiliers which were diverted to Sudan in 1884.

Again a pretty straight paint job, where I decided to base coat them in Army Painter Skeleton Bone, which meant that the uniform was already painted. The rest of the details where painted on, before a wash of Army Painter Soft Tone. I finished off by re-highlighting the uniform and white areas.

In terms of troop types for Death in the Dark Continent, I based these on the Anglo-Egyptian army lists, but omitted the Egyptian and Sudanese soldiers as my idea is that these Brits are part of the relief column send to get Gordon out of Khartoum.

There are 9 bases of Elite Soldiers with breech-loaders, spilt into 3 units of 3, and of course a Chief's base which is similar to the other 9 bases.

The baggage for the British I made from a cart and some crates I had lying around, and the three guards (only two are visible from the angle I took the pictures from) are also from the Perry plastic set.

The bases still lack some small tufts but I ran out, and have ordered some.

I actually have 12 Perry metal Highlanders, but since the Royal Irish bases already amount to 300 points I have decided to leave them off the painting table for now. I really fear painting the tartan, when I finally decide to paint them.

Next up is making a desert terrain table.

Death in the Dark Continent: Mahdists force ready

The end of the weekend saw me finish the last bases for my Mahdist force for Death in the Dark Continent. These were the Ansar Skirmishers. A mix of traditional weapons and firearms.

Together with the Beja Warriors and Jihadiyya Soldiers I have more than enough bases for 300 pts. But this gives me some options.

In total there are 102 figures, which is divided into the following:

Beja Warriors - 12 bases
Jihadiyya Soldiers - 9 bases
Ansar Skirmishers - 18 bases
Chief - 1 base
Baggage

It has taken me roughly three weeks to complete these and despite the rapid painting I am very pleased with the results. Next up is their opponent the Brits.