Tag: Dervish

After Turn 02: December 1883 the Anglo-Egyptians luck runs out – the revolt has spread into Western Sudan; Darfur & Kordofan are aflame with Mahdist support and Dara immediately falls to the rapidly growing Dervish Army in Darfur. Even worse El Fasher falls immediately after with the loss of it’s garrison. In Kordofan the expedition heading for El Obeid (2nd Company, XIIth Sudanese Battalion; and 1st Section, B Egyptian Artillery Battery) somehow survive the sudden onslaught, and are not perhaps fully aware of their precarious position.

Continuing from Revolt in the Sudan’s Turn 01: November 1883, the Anglo-Egyptians get a lucky break, the Khedive is relieved to hear the revolt hasn’t spread to Darfur & Kordofan, the breadbasket of the Sudan. Meanwhile in Khartoum the available supplies have actually increased thanks to Bordein’s unexpected, albeit hasty, arrival. However Abu Hamed is not looking so lucky – it has only 2 turns of supplies and the only possible help that might reach them is plucky Talahawiyeh, who, if very very lucky, may reach the garrison by the end of this turn, if she doesn’t they may have to gamble on sallying out to try and drive off the Dervishes long-enough to forage for supplies.

The campaign begins with a violent revolt in the North and South, spreading fast like a bush fire. The North had been a powder keg for some time but it had been hoped any insurrection might be contained there. The insurrection actually began at Dongola, and spread North to Wadi Halfa which immediately succumbed and the Xth Sudanese Battalion garrisons in both locations were engulfed by the suddenness of the uprising. Even worse the revolt spread South through Berber and then Atbara fell to the rapidly growing Mahdist cause – it being suggested that most of the troops at Berber (from the 2nd Egyptian Cavalry Squadron) may have changed sides and joined the Ansar rather than fight them! All along the Lower Nile the lesser towns also fell to the Mahdists, and just the strongly held garrison town of Abu Hamed held out, surrounded by a countryside of seething revolt.

Following on from my introductory Our First Fire & Sword Campaign: Revolt in the Sudan post the initial deployment was done randomly – using a random table I generated to use in conjunction with Steve Winter’s original rules. This resulted in a reasonably conventional, although not necessarily ideal deployment of the Egyptian forces. The actual size and number of forces was similar to Steve’s originals, see his starting OOB (or our map below) for an idea of the forces… The map shows the situation once the random deployment has been completed and the initial revolt indexes generated – but before Turn 1 has begun and checks for revolts carried out.

Some of us at the Auckland Wargaming Club were inspired by Steve Winter’s campaign at the Colonial Angle website – so we grabbed Steve’s great idea, I tweaked it a little to suit me, and off we went! First thing I did was grabbed Steve’s Map and colourised it – the map below is the result. I am on the lookout for a new map long-term however and this one is now getting a bit congested due to my tweaking!

Our Colonial Campaign gets ready to kick off! Turn one has already begun and the Sudan has erupted into revolt. See how the campaign is going here… Our First Fire & Sword Campaign.