THE MEN WHO WOULD BE KINGS!

I have always been fascinated by the Anglo-Zulu War.  My adventure starting with the movie ZULU as a teenager - capturing my imagination with the heroic stand of the small British garrison.  But as a wargamer, I have always shied away from gaming this period due to the hoards of Zulus required to play any scenario.  Buying figures has never been a problem.  Painting them is a whole 'nother story.  So, this post is really about two things that have come together to allow me to finally game this period.  The ruleset "The Men Who Would Be Kings", with its skirmish-like approach to the period, and Citadel Contrast Paints.   

FRST THE RULES:

No doubt by now, many of you have found and use this ruleset if you are a colonial gamer.   I have had it for a while, was excited about it, but still scared of the Zulu hoard required.  A basic game of 24 points requires a Zulu force of 8 units (16 figures each) for a total of 128 figures.  Not hundreds but still significant.  I like the ruleset because it allows you to get a number of different troop types on the table with a reasonable amount of figures.  There are many reviews of the ruleset more eloquent than I could duplicate here so I will defer to them, but suffice it to say that they are a fun set of skirmish style rules with a number of interesting mechanics which can be played easily in a couple of hours without taxing your brain.  So, the first part of the entering this period was complete - ruleset selected!

NOW - Painting the Zulu Hoard!

I decided a while ago while painting armies for Infamy, Infamy, to try out the Citadel Contrast Paints.  They are not perfect.  They probably are detested by true masters of the paint brush but I have to tell you, for me, they are a wonderous miracle.  Not all of the colors are created equal or can be applied historically but enough of them I find to be very useful in such a way that my painting is now much faster.  Of course, this allows me to actually get some lead on the table and play a game.  The paints both nicely highlight and shade to a reasonable level with a single application.  I should also say that the paints are, relatively speaking, more expensive and I do use the Citadel set of primers.  As I said, buying things has never been hard - its making them useful that has been the struggle.  

So, enter the ZULUs!  How to paint so many figures.  Of course there is always the "brown" spray can method and the smaller you get the more potential this probably has but I am gaming in 28mm and looking for a nice balance between speed and detail.  What  I have found is that you can also mix these contrast paints with each other and with the Contrast Medium to make more acceptable colors.  In the case of Zulus, I make a Zulu skin color by adding 2 drops of Fireslayer Flesh with 2 drops of Cygor Brown and a drop or two of Contrast Medium.  Cygor is a very deep brown - almost unusable straight out of the bottle.  Fireslayer is a more reddish skin color.  When mixed together and diluted with a drop or two of contrast medium - you get a nice rich Zulu skin color - dark enough to shade recesses and light enough to give you texture on the highlights.  Here is an example of my work.  Pardon the bases.  I have not yet completed those.  Still working on getting all of the figures done.  A little dry brushing on these and they will look great!

Their are other "tricks" to using the contrast paints that I have learned through practice but I now use them extensively - even finding a mix for European skin as illustrated below with some Infamy, Infamy figures.  Using the contracts paints, I can now paint a unit of 16 Zulus in a day and am well on my way to completing my 128 figures!

Excited to have found a ruleset which matched my gaming expectations and desired complexity, and armed with the real possibility of actually painting enough figures to play, I ventured to create Unit Cards to teach my club the rules and to facilitate games.  We had our first game the other day with the cards.  All players including myself new to the rules.  The cards worked very well and true to form the British Garrison of Aaltenberg Drift withstood the Zulu onslaught.  It wasn't pretty - 2 British Companies melted away under assegai welding Zulus but the Sikhali Horse and the Reserve British Company stood their ground.  All in all a fun game. 

Below are some examples of the unit cards I have created.  I have them in MS PowerPoint so for each game I can select the cards I need, roll for the required traits and/or adjust the stats if upgrades are purchased and add the leader names.  I have cards for all available Anglo-Zulu war units including Limbers, Colour Sergeants, Machine Guns and Musicians.  My approach to TMWWBKs is to use a single Leadership value for each type of troop deployed.  I think that simplifies the record keeping a bit.  Units can still become leaderless but when properly lead all have the same leadership stat.  That can be diced for or pre-set.  By and large, I have not ventured down the Leader Trait path yet - for me I am not sure if those would enhance the game or take away from it.  On balance the traits seem to be overwhelmingly negative.  I understand adding flavor and friction but I think the core mechanics do that just fine.  

I also like the idea of having an overall Field Commander.  So, I created these cards and rules to go along with them.  The rules are in development - only played one game with them so far...

I'd love to know your thoughts on the cards and if you use Field Commanders, what rules have you created or do you use?

Forward Boys!