Zulu War 1879
Surely nothing is more evocative of British Colonialism than the Zulu War? Flying columns, massed battles and heroic defences are all features of this wonderful period. The battles of Islandwana, Rorke’s Drift, Ulundi each offer different problems to the participants and there are numerous small engagements for yet more variety.
Thanks to the films Zulu and Zulu Dawn almost everyone can picture the people and settings of the time and a British army of the Zulu War is instantly recognisable.
The Zulu War has always been on my list of things to do and now it’s time to finally get started.
The Plan
I will be using Principles of War for the rules because I’ve played many excellent colonial games with them in the past including some truly memorable Zulu encounters. To make the project manageable in the time I have I will be reducing the unit frontages from 180mm to 120mm and having six rather than nine figures to a British company.
Base depths will also be reduced to keep everything looking in proportion.
Zulu ‘Irregular Massed Foot’ which make up the bulk of their forces will have ten figures on a 120mm x 60mm base instead of the normal 180mm x 90mm which needs twenty figures to fill it convincingly.
At this size everything should fit on my 8’ x 4’ table quite nicely.
Zulus 10 to a 120 x 60mm base
Zulu rifles 4 to a 120 x 40mm base but maybe smaller.
Indunas single figures on a 40 x 40mm base
British 2 riflemen per 40 x 40mm base, 3 bases to a unit giving120mm frontage.
Officer with bugler or with Sgt. on a 40 x 40mm base
Cavalry 2 to a 60 x 60mm base, 2 bases to a unit. Dismounted cavalry 3 on a 120 x 40mm base, 1 base to the unit + horseholder marker. Possibly 3 foot and seperate Durnford Officer figure.
Guns 1 on a 60 x 60mm base
Wagons as needed, 60mm frontage. Horses or oxen on their own 60 x 60mm base so they can be 'unhitched'.
Initial investigations
I was originally going to go with the old Garrison Zulu War figures which are available from Amazon Miniatures. I used to have both British and Zulus from this range and they are very nice figures that mix well, size and style wise, with Foundry figures. Currently Amazon are offering 100 Zulus for £50.00 which is a real bargain.
The costing for buying this range is shown below:
Amazon Miniatures
2x ZWP11 - British Infantry Officer & Infantry Bugler
2x ZWP12 - 10 Private standing firing
2x ZWP13 - 10 Private on guard
8x ZWP01 - 12 Warriors with Knobkerrie & shield (mixed)
9x ZWP02 - 12 Warriors with Assegai & shield (mixed)
1x ZWP03 - 12 Warriors firing Martini
4x ZW06 - Induana
Total £149.20
British: 40 figures (44)
Zulu: 216 figures (220)
The numbers above are the number of figures I would use and the numbers in brackets are the total number of figures I would have to buy. The Garrison range is not a complete range sadly and extra items and troops would be needed in order to fully represent the period.
I would need wagons, cavalry and guns at least. Irregular Miniatures do a gun and probably wagons too although I couldn’t find one when I had a quick search.
Foundry produce lancers; I would need 3 packs which they do for £20.00 which would make 2 units with only an officer wasted. Foundry Natal Police give me one unit at 3 packs for £20.00, mounted and dismounted with 2 mounted officers and 2 troopers on foot wasted. That’s not very good value and starts to eat into the savings made originally by going with the Garrison figures.
I soon decided that this was a dead end for me; too much grubbing around and searching through too many different manufacturers’ lists and never being able to order enough to get a break on the postage. I decided to fall back on the Redoubt range, both because it’s complete, and because these days I prefer to paint larger figures.
Going with Redoubt.
20 units of Zulu (200)
4 Induna (4)
£184.00
6 units of British Infantry (36)
2 Officers (4)
£38.00
TOTAL £222.00
And the planned extras for later:
1 Cannon
1 Gatling
1 Rocket battery
2 units of Lancers
2 units of Durnford Horse
4 wagons
3 units of Zulu rifles
As you can see straight away, the Redoubt option costs me £73.00 more for the basic troops but in reality the cost isn’t the overriding factor, being able to add everything I want to get eventually is far more important.
I’m planning to start this in 2007.
February update:
As time is moving on and I hope to start this in a month or so (after some WWII buildings get made) I am considering using Black Tree Design Zulus as they are much nicer sculpts than the Redoubt ones. Unfortunately the BTD british have a really peculiar helmet design which makes them unusable as far as I'm concerned so I will need to see how the BTD Zulus scale up to the Redoubt British.
Surely nothing is more evocative of British Colonialism than the Zulu War? Flying columns, massed battles and heroic defences are all features of this wonderful period. The battles of Islandwana, Rorke’s Drift, Ulundi each offer different problems to the participants and there are numerous small engagements for yet more variety.
Thanks to the films Zulu and Zulu Dawn almost everyone can picture the people and settings of the time and a British army of the Zulu War is instantly recognisable.
The Zulu War has always been on my list of things to do and now it’s time to finally get started.
The Plan
I will be using Principles of War for the rules because I’ve played many excellent colonial games with them in the past including some truly memorable Zulu encounters. To make the project manageable in the time I have I will be reducing the unit frontages from 180mm to 120mm and having six rather than nine figures to a British company.
Base depths will also be reduced to keep everything looking in proportion.
Zulu ‘Irregular Massed Foot’ which make up the bulk of their forces will have ten figures on a 120mm x 60mm base instead of the normal 180mm x 90mm which needs twenty figures to fill it convincingly.
At this size everything should fit on my 8’ x 4’ table quite nicely.
Zulus 10 to a 120 x 60mm base
Zulu rifles 4 to a 120 x 40mm base but maybe smaller.
Indunas single figures on a 40 x 40mm base
British 2 riflemen per 40 x 40mm base, 3 bases to a unit giving120mm frontage.
Officer with bugler or with Sgt. on a 40 x 40mm base
Cavalry 2 to a 60 x 60mm base, 2 bases to a unit. Dismounted cavalry 3 on a 120 x 40mm base, 1 base to the unit + horseholder marker. Possibly 3 foot and seperate Durnford Officer figure.
Guns 1 on a 60 x 60mm base
Wagons as needed, 60mm frontage. Horses or oxen on their own 60 x 60mm base so they can be 'unhitched'.
Initial investigations
I was originally going to go with the old Garrison Zulu War figures which are available from Amazon Miniatures. I used to have both British and Zulus from this range and they are very nice figures that mix well, size and style wise, with Foundry figures. Currently Amazon are offering 100 Zulus for £50.00 which is a real bargain.
The costing for buying this range is shown below:
Amazon Miniatures
2x ZWP11 - British Infantry Officer & Infantry Bugler
2x ZWP12 - 10 Private standing firing
2x ZWP13 - 10 Private on guard
8x ZWP01 - 12 Warriors with Knobkerrie & shield (mixed)
9x ZWP02 - 12 Warriors with Assegai & shield (mixed)
1x ZWP03 - 12 Warriors firing Martini
4x ZW06 - Induana
Total £149.20
British: 40 figures (44)
Zulu: 216 figures (220)
The numbers above are the number of figures I would use and the numbers in brackets are the total number of figures I would have to buy. The Garrison range is not a complete range sadly and extra items and troops would be needed in order to fully represent the period.
I would need wagons, cavalry and guns at least. Irregular Miniatures do a gun and probably wagons too although I couldn’t find one when I had a quick search.
Foundry produce lancers; I would need 3 packs which they do for £20.00 which would make 2 units with only an officer wasted. Foundry Natal Police give me one unit at 3 packs for £20.00, mounted and dismounted with 2 mounted officers and 2 troopers on foot wasted. That’s not very good value and starts to eat into the savings made originally by going with the Garrison figures.
I soon decided that this was a dead end for me; too much grubbing around and searching through too many different manufacturers’ lists and never being able to order enough to get a break on the postage. I decided to fall back on the Redoubt range, both because it’s complete, and because these days I prefer to paint larger figures.
Going with Redoubt.
20 units of Zulu (200)
4 Induna (4)
£184.00
6 units of British Infantry (36)
2 Officers (4)
£38.00
TOTAL £222.00
And the planned extras for later:
1 Cannon
1 Gatling
1 Rocket battery
2 units of Lancers
2 units of Durnford Horse
4 wagons
3 units of Zulu rifles
As you can see straight away, the Redoubt option costs me £73.00 more for the basic troops but in reality the cost isn’t the overriding factor, being able to add everything I want to get eventually is far more important.
I’m planning to start this in 2007.
February update:
As time is moving on and I hope to start this in a month or so (after some WWII buildings get made) I am considering using Black Tree Design Zulus as they are much nicer sculpts than the Redoubt ones. Unfortunately the BTD british have a really peculiar helmet design which makes them unusable as far as I'm concerned so I will need to see how the BTD Zulus scale up to the Redoubt British.
