I managed to get in a Zulu War games at Fall-In this year. We placed the British force on a central hilltop wih the Zulus attacking from two sides. The board is one of the GW Battleboards, painted and flocked by Scott from Pictors Studio (who also happens to own it along with about half of the figures). The figures are a mix of Empress Miniatures and Wargames Factory.
The British won the first move and opted for long range fire. The Zulu commander managed to close quickly with several units, but others wavered under steady valleys from the British infantry. The Natal Mounted Police moved into some tall grass to cover an open section of the line, and the Zulus were shortly upon them. Nevertheless they managed a disciplined retreat, while disorder halted several Zulu formations otherwise prepared to assault the British positions. British fire and some yeoman bayonet work soon sent the Zulus packing. The Zulus had quite a bad day, most units breaking and leaving the field on their first break test. So the British dispatched them handy and the Thin Red Line was never seriously tested.
We used several modifications to the standard rules for this game. First and foremost, we doubled the British fire dice for half range and closing fire. In hindsight, this seems a bit too much but we were tying to compensate for previous games which saw the British wiped out too quickly. We plan to tweak this in future games to find the right balance. Still, HP provided an enjoyable game, and I look forward to the next one.
