Death in the sand

Friday nights game was a shameful total defeat. In some ways it was very realistic in that 4 British officers (me, Shaun, Tom and Paul), thought we'd march a troop each, in column, towards a British outpost, casually dealing with any Arab-types we saw along the way. Then we subsequently got slaughtered by inferior armed, poorly trained enemies.

The rules set used was "A Good Dusting". We used the solo play so that we could all be British officers. The Arabs were concealed by using the vegetation markers to randomly place possible unit locations. These were randomly revealed by a combination of dice rolls and proximity of the British units. Considering the random nature, it was surprising that the Arab tactics were perfect. They even let 2 units of the column pass before flank attacking, and also attacked simultaneously.  

So here's the abridged version of events, and because I'm still lost for words over what happened, its mainly told in pictures.....

The objective.

The route. Come on from the near end. March to the objective at the far end.

The column got half way to the objective, before Arab tribe units appeared on 3 sides.

Considering all Arab unit placement and start times were random, it was a perfectly co-ordinated group ambush!

No time to form a square. The Highlanders and the Sussex form back-to-back. The Marines and the red jackets formed??

The Highlanders and the Sussex firing lines inflict minimal casualties as the Arabs move in.

The Marines cover the Arab left flank attack, while the red jackets cover the right flank.

The red jackets only got a single volley off, inflicting minimal casualties, before the Arabs got into hand-to-hand combat.

Back-to-back, there is nowhere to retreat. The Highlanders and the Sussex are overwhelmed.

 

Coming over a nearby hill, meant the Arabs were only ever in the Marines line of fire for 1 volley.

The Marines broke and fled. Sadly the Arabs could run faster....no survivors.

The dismounted officer rallies the last troop section to try to use bayonets to repel a 2 sided attack.

The remaining Arabs, plus a newly arrived superior Mahdi group, swarm around even deeper.

The horrific, bloody end.