The Marshal Petain Gentleman's Club: The Sad Demise of Capt. Madly-Barking

This week's game was to be another of our 'The Men Who Would be King' playtests. Whilst we ran a very successful TMWWBK campaign, back in 2017, this time we want to explore the possibilities of a more multi-player approach.

Last week's game used the rules more or less as written and resulted in an overwhelming victory for the Mahdists, with the Anglo-Egyptian force being pretty much massacred. This week we re-introduced the Galloping Majors from our 2017 campaign and also added a group move rule. A major could order a group Move action to all units within 4 inches and would only incur a single roll on the Native Deployment table.

Once again the scenario was a 'cross the table' type affair with the Anglo-Egyptians escorting an important convoy of tea and biscuits, under the command of Captain Madly-Barking.

The activation order was determined by a card draw with the Mahdists represented by one card, the convoy by a card and the Anglo-Egyptian forces by 2 cards (essentially one per player). We used our 'Sir Garnet' rule, whereby, the senior Anglo-Egyptian Major decided which player would activate when the Anglo-Egyptian cards were drawn.

We had a change of players this week; Major Whitemoore remained in his cot under doctor's orders to add more quinine to his gin, and Major Eyeswater was away entertaining dignitaries back in Cairo. Luckily, Young Winston Elliot was back from an archaeological expedition and able to take command of the composite battalion.

Majors Pea and Dundarse joined the natives incognito, acting as intelligence officers; leaving Major Cakey temporarily in command of the Durhams and the evening's 'Sir Garnet'.

The last innovation was an attempt to give the game a more co-operative feel with the players rolling on the Babbage tables themselves and deciding upon the most logical / reasonable native unit placements between themselves. The Intelligence Officers' role was essentially an admin one; managing the action deck, getting troops out of the box, and rolling dice when required to do so.

All in all this was a much more even game. Although, it has to be said that the Anglo-Egyptians were incredibly lucky; the number of 1s rolled for Native Deployment and Native Actions had to be seen to be believed.

The Durhams, under Major Cakey, deployed on the right, with the convoy, and a unit of mounted infantry in support. The Composite battalion took the left flank and were supported by the Naval Brigade.

Even with the new group move rule, the advance was slow. The downside is that you're putting all your eggs in one basket; if you fail the Action Test then nobody moves. A probable over reliance on group moves and a close deployment, no doubt a reaction to last week's massacre of the Durhams, resulted in the Durhams and the convoy becoming entangled in the pass between some areas of rocky ground. Predictably the Dervish appeared in the right rear on the Durham's open flank, with a unit of camels scything into the exposed convoy. A couple of rounds of melee saw the convoy destroyed, and Madly-Barking dead in the dust, before the camels were driven off by rifle fire. El-Babaji was not finished yet though; a unit of Beja tribal infantry was hot on the heels of the camels and charged into the rear of the Durham's formation. They narrowly missed hitting the rear of the mounted infantry before they too were driven off.

In the centre, a mimosa scrub covered hill acted as safe place for the Dervish to gather their troops; a move through the cover of the scrub put them within charge range of the Midsomers. A couple of such charges by Beja tribal infantry wreaked havoc with the Midsomer companies but the centre was ably defended by the Naval Brigade with their Maxim gun. On the left, the Balamory Highlanders had to deal with a constant stream of Tribal Cavalry and Beja appearing in their rear. The Highlanders calmly about faced and saw off all comers with rifle fire.

Although, casualties were relatively light, this week, the Anglo-Egyptians only advanced a third of the way up the table and lost the convoy. Hence, the Residency remains under siege and the starving garrison are denied their tea and biscuits.