The 'Fuzzy-Wuzzies' of the Hadendoa tribe were not actually fighting for the Mahdi yet, but we needed lots of troops for the Dervish army. They are located at the southern edge of the field:
Located at the northern part of the Mahdi's army are the mounted troops:
The Dervishers themselves hidden behind the eastern hills:
Hicks Pasha has just turned the column as already mentioned, so this used top be the tail of the column; some mounted Egyptians, Sudanese, and you just make out the leading element of the baggage train (which historically numbered some 5000 camels! I used one!)
The original head of the column on the right, with Hicks Pasha and staff on the left. Dervishers lurking behind the hills in the background:
Closeup of Hicks Pasha turning to his Egyptian staff, unaware of the impending disaster:
The battle commences with the Mahdi's forces racing towards their enemy. This is again the view from the north:
Turn 1: The Egyptians at the tail of the army deploy and begin to fire upon the advancing 'fuzzies', scoring 7 kills. A few shots ring out from the 'fuzzies' and amazingly two Egyptians are early kills! The Krupp gun is prepared to fire, while additional Egyptians fire on the Dervishers to the east, scoring 3 additional kills and a Shaken.
At the column's center, men are deploying against the threat coming form the east. The baggage train is moving to the west and supposed cover:
Finally at the head of the column, the troops prepare to receive the Dervish cavalry charge:
The End of Turn 1 sees Hicks Pasha cautiously optomistic. His men have inflicted a total of 24 kills on the Dervishers while losing a mere two of his own. A good start he thinks.
Turn 2, Hicks gets the second consecutive initiative roll:
At the tail, the 'fuzzies' make their charge, taking 5 kills and watching the cannon miss long over their heads. Two melees break out as the 'fuzzies reach the Egyptian line quickly. 8 tribesmen go down, but they take with them 9 Egyptians and 1 Sudanese. Things just got very sticky for Hicks!
Back in the center, under the watchful eye of their commander, Sudanese pour deadly fire into the advancing Devishers, killing 10 tribesmen although two other kills were doubled (see rules in earlier post) Dervish rifle fire only drops 1 Sudanese before they crash into melee. Again the fight is bloody resulting in 5 more Egyptians with a loss of only 2 Dervishers. Hicks is beginning to get a little anxious, so he brings his reserves in front:
Things go better at the head of the column as the charging enemy cavalry are met with a devastating volley from the Sudanese and a counter charge by more Egyptian horse. 2 Sudanese foot soldiers and 3 Egyptian horse go down, but they bag 11 of the Dervishers! The End of Turn 2 sees casualties total 33 of the Dervisher and 25 Egyptian/Sudanese.
Turn 3: and the Dervishers win the initiative.
View at the start of the turn:
Back at the rear of the column, surviving Egyptians are falling back attempting to keep their firing line intact. The 'fuzzies' however keep coming despite their losses! Egyptian fire scores 20 kills. (I've removed casualties to ease the play) and 4 more are shaken. There is bloody hand-hand however, and the Egyptians lose 30 men! They take down only 22 Dervishers! Ouch! The 'fuzzies' are breaking through! The Krupp lets go with a blast of canister which takes out 6 more 'fuzzies' and 1 unfortunate Sudanese in the wrong place at the wrong time!
At the column's center things are also falling apart. The first line of Sudanese has been overrun and the second line has taken significant losses:
At the column's head, the Egyptians continue to do well, although their mounted troops are nearly spent:
End of Turn 3, and Hicks' army is teetering. Losses to his men this round totaled 31 men. The Devishers lost 56, but there are still more coming!
At the start of Turn 4, the tail, center and head of the column looks like:
The 'fuzzies' soon swarm over the remaining Egyptians at the army's tail, while one lone soldier fights off 4 Devisher, causing one to be shaken with his fire, and then killing 3 more in melee! A brave man he:
Fighting in front of their commander, Sudanese and gunners try to hold on desperately. Their fire scores 5 hits but too many of the 'fuzzies' and Devishers get through. In the resulting melees, 16 of Hicks' men go down along with 13 Dervishers:
Back at the head of the column, the Sudanese have just about finished off the Dervishers on this part of the battlefield. The tribesmen lose 5 to fire and bayonet, while the Sudanese lose only one. The last Egyptian cavalryman takes down an enemy before he too loses his fight.
End of Turn 4 saw 20 more of Hicks' men go down, while the Mahdi has lost only 9 more.
Turn 5 and the Dervishers get the inititaive, not what Hicks needed. The end is rapidly closing in on the Egyptian army. First to go is the brave Egyptian holding his ground at the end of the column:
Then its Hicks' turn. He and his aide both cut down a 'fuzzie' but then pay the price. The center is destroyed:
The last stand occurs at the north end of the field. The surviving 13 Sudanese formed up and blazed away at the charging enemy, dropping 5! Then it was crashing swords, spears and bayonets. 7 Sudanese and 5 Devishers meet their end. The last Sudanese struggle backward, fire one last time but only one more Devisher is killed. They are overwhelmed!
Final tally for this big game was 20 mounted Dervishers, another 70 tribesmen on foot. An additional 61 'fuzzies' also were taken down. Of course Hicks' entire army was wiped out: 108 Egyptians and Sudanese. An enjoyable engagement even if the end was predictable. We recycled some 60 additional Dervishers to give the Mahdi a grand total of 207 men. Historically he had somewhere around 30-36,000 versus Hicks' approximate 10,000. Only some 500 Egyptians were believed to have escaped. The Mahdi had a great victory and recovered a great deal of modern equipment which he would turn on Khartoum. But that is another story. Stay tuned!
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