Tri-State Bolt Action and other wargaming stuff Blog

Turn 8

Headlines from the London Times News – “Allies win back the Initiative in the Sudan, Atbara, Abu Hamed, and Trinkitat are re-captured” With the re-capture off Abu Hamed, Atbara, and Trinkitat the Allies have regained the initiative.  Now is the time to push towards Khartoum and end the Revolt.

The West: With no forces in the West there is nothing here for the Allies to do but wait for reinforcements to arrive from the north.  This will be the place of the final battles of the revolt.

The East: With the Revolt index in the east at 2 the only city left in the hands of the Dervish is Kassala.  Since this is one of the farthest outposts it may be several months before this town is re-taken. In any case the British force at Trinkitat is tasked with either staying put and risking a siege or returning to Suakin. Deciding to stay one additional turn the supplies are rolled for and it is found that they have 4 turns of supplies so this force may stay and build up the defenses around Trinkitat.

The North: Here is where the Allies will stop the Revolt first with them finally breaking the siege at Berber and linking up with the British at Atbara.  To accomplish this task the British force at Korti, consisting of the 1^st Infantry Brigade Commander, the 75^th Gordon Highlanders, 89^th Royal Irish, Camel Corp Commander and the Guard Camel Regiment, is tasked to cut across the desert and advance to Abu Klea. 

Battle of Abu Klea: (3 – 2, 1 unit1 of Dervish, 1 Rub of Fuzzy Wuzzy, Dervish attack on Allied Camp/zeriba) when the Fuzzy Emir saw the force he was up against he decided that it would be better to live and fight another day then to die a quick death at the hands of such a large force of British troops.  The British column advanced and took the wells at Abu Klea without firing a shot.

The forces at Dongola advances on to Korti with the expectation it will follow the force to Abu Klea across the desert.  The reinforcements at Wadi Halfa begin the wait for the Desert Railway to open up in 2 turns to advance direct to Abu Hamed. The Egyptian force at Abu Hamed, consisting of the 1^st Camel Company, 5^th Egyptians, Xth Sudanese, 6^th Artillery, Supply Train, and the XIth Sudanese, continues its amazing advance up the Nile to the next stop of Bashintab.

Battle of Basintab: (3 - 1, 2 units of Dervish, 1 Band of Dervish Cavalry and 1 Rub of Fuzzy Wuzzy, Allied attached on defended Town/zeriba)  Here the Dervish Cavalry decided to try and attack the Column before it had a chance to overwhelm the infantry in the town with artillery fire.  The 5^th Egyptians were able to deploy in line next to the Xth Sudanese and inflict a couple casualties on the Cavalry before they could get within charge range.  The resulting morale checks resulted in the Dervish Cavalry falling back behind the town.  Now the 6^th artillery was able to deploy and begin shelling the town.  Without the ability to defend the Dervish abandoned Basintab to the Turks. 

Next in the line of March is Berber.  The old town is liberated without a fight as it seems the revolt in the North is quickly being squashed and order is being restored in this part of the Sudan.

Now with Berber relieved the Egyptian force has picked up 2 Cavalry squadrons, the remaining part of the 6^th Egyptian Regiment, the Mounted Bashi Bazooks, and the Steamer Hermes. Hopefully the next turn Atbara can be relieved and the whole of the North will be cleared.

 In terms of the campaign this is due to the low revolt index and just plain bad die rolling on my part.  I rolled a 4 with an index of 3 resulted in no troops.

In Atbara the British force of the under the command of the 3^rd Infantry Brigade Commander, consists of the 2^nd Battalion 46^th and the 1^st battalion 79^th, along with the Mounted Infantry and 3^rd Royal Artillery 7pdr Mountain Screw Battery remains in place restoring order to Atbara and resting up for the next phase of the campaign.

The South: With the Revolt index dropping in the south Khartoum and the Egyptian column at Ruwaba needing supplies, finally releases the Steamer the Ruby T loaded with the 1^st Infantry Brigade Commander, the 4^th Egyptians, and section A of the 5^th Artillery to travel upstream to provide relief and much needed supplies. The first stop for the Ruby T is El Duiem. Here there are no Dervish forces and the passage is uneventful.  Next is Kosti where the Egyptian column is also advancing from the west. Again there are no Dervish forces…hmmm something is up.  The Ruby T brings in much needed supplies, 4 turns worth and off loads the 1^st Brigade Commander offloads and takes command of the column along with the 4^th Egyptians and section A of the 5^th Artillery for the column, finally artillery support and a commander to lead the column. Along with the 2^nd Egyptian Regiment, the 1^st Cavalry Squadron, and the 2^nd Camel Company, this force could possible take back El Obeid.

The supply situation in Khartoum the supply situation is reduced from 4 to 3 and it appears that relief is also close and with the return of the Ruby T next turn there are no issues in Khartoum. Atbara has 1 turn left but forces are close at hand, so no real worry here.  Kosti has 4 turns so then Egyptians there may rest for a turn before advancing back out.

With things looking better for the Allies, Woseley decides not to send any additional troops south. Why risk any more British lives when it isn’t required.

Closing out the turn The North with an index of 3 goes down to 1 with the loss at Berber and Abu Klea, the end is near for the revolt in the north. The East goes down to 1 with the wins in the North. In the South it stays at 5. While in the West it goes up to 6 since there are no Allies present anywhere in the West.  Both of these are at the Game Masters decision to possible have a bigger game at Khartoum next turn and a bigger fight at El Obeid.  The Mahdist only gains 28 points this turn for a total of 293 points. It doesn’t look like the Dervish will make it to 400.