Zulu -Mustering the forces

It's been a couple of years since I gamed the Zulu War.  Inspiration struck in the form of Dan Mersey's "Wargaming the Zulu War.". Time for another go.  I'm going to try to put my own pint sized campaign together for it based on the fighting at Silhayo's Kraal, one of the war's first actions as the invasion began.

Actually I had just read Adrian Greaves "Forgotten Battles of the Zulu War."  Quite an inspirational book, that does away with some of the Hollywood myths.  The British are not all Redcoats,  Auxiliary forces played a major role in the campaign and the Zulu do not fight in quite the way they are depicted as doing on film 

My collection is heavily focussed on 25mm Minifigs, but as per usual, I was quite unsure how many figures I had.

Quite a few as it turns out.  Since I've invested in a couple more contingents recently it was time for a parade, as a reference point for my game planning.

The Queens Own Minifigs.  With a Gatling gun and/ or a 7pdr screw gun.

48 line Infantry

4 Officers and NCOs

3 Colour party

1 wagon

1 heliograph.

Nice painting (for me) but some base work touch ups needed.

My Natal Native Contingent

One foot Officer, three Native NCOs and a mounted redcoat Officer.

40 Infantry in 4 x 10 or 3 companies of 12 for the Men Who Would be Kings rules

The Frontier Light Horse

One Officer in top hat

One Nco

Four horse holder groups

4 groups of 8 Mounted Infantry.

Perry Miniatures.  Nice!  They double as a Boer Commando.

The Zulu.

3 chiefs and 80 Warriors 

The 80 Warriors make 8 groups of 10 or 5 groups of 16 for the Men who would be Kings rules 

Casualty markers and tokens.  Faa'sands of 'em!

Tents and objectives markers.  Tick.

My wider reading in the Zulu indicates that the carrying of ML rifles was widespread. For Blood and Steel my Zulu Warbands will be armed with ML rifles & Melee Weapons.  @3 points

Shoot 8(40)

Shoot Save 6

Melee 6

Melee Save 6

Resolve 6

Initiative 1

At this point I'm unsure whether to downgrade the British Regulars Melee score to 7.  Currently a 6.  Really?  Against a Zulu also a 6?  Big guys who trained specifically for hand to hand combat, and had a shield?  The idea of making them equal seems to me to come from bias.  Maybe though it's the Zulu score that should be a 5?  Something I'll work out as I go through it.

Looks all set for a great campaign. 

The extension!

My Frontier Light horse can double as Boer, so I added a Company of 30 or so 1880s/90s British.  Haven't built that block house yet though!