Isandlwana

[tbw]

I don't know as it would have. As I understand that part of the fight, Pullien was ordered by Chelmsford to pull back to his position, which Pullien was in the process of doing. It seemed as though Pullien didn't think the Zulu threat that imminent on his position. I don't think he had the time to organize his company's into what you call one of those squares. Had he been able to have done that, they might have lasted longer, but I don't think the result would have been any different. Because as I understand it, the Brits kept running out of ammo. The problem wasn't so much what formation to use as it was ammunition. Without ammo it didn't matter what maneuver they tried.

But, what do you bet, most of those Limey's bullets hit the mark. Not like what happened at another fight - where they didn't, couldn't hit the broad side of a barn.

[joewiggs]

Excellent point! perhaps my perspective, had it been followed, may have only prolonged the battle while the same results would have been avoidable.

My premise was based upon two trains of thought. The first issue - the flow of ammunition may not have been a critical factor in the battle as portrayed through the media. While it is true that some company distributors of ammunition were foolishly fickle in rejecting native auxiliaries and others, ammunition for the most part did get out.

Secondly, the main thrust of the Zulu army (head) was driven to the ground several times by massive British fire. In a square, the "Horns" may have been driven back with the aid of a similar fuselage.

[tbw]

May 26, 2013 9:56:09 GMT -5 joewiggs said:

Excellent point! perhaps my perspective, had it been followed, may have only prolonged the battle while the same results would have been avoidable.

My premise was based upon two trains of thought. The first issue - the flow of ammunition may not have been a critical factor in the battle as portrayed through the media. While it is true that some company distributors of ammunition were foolishly fickle in rejecting native auxiliaries and others, ammunition for the most part did get out.

Secondly, the main thrust of the Zulu army (head) was driven to the ground several times by massive British fire. In a square, the "Horns" may have been driven back with the aid of a similar fuselage.

I don't think it was a media thing. At least as far as I can tell. Here's one of the sites I use, see what you think.

www.britishbattles.com/zulu-war/isandlwana.htm


Also I've got an old PC game that has this battle in it. I've played it a number of times, but, never thought of attempting what you mention. I'll dig it out ant give it a go. Usually when I play the thing, I almost always without fail - use the terrain. And when I do I use the spaces between the ridgelines, sometimes the ridges themselves to make a defensive perimeter that works quite well. I doubt back in the day, with Napoleonic tactics they way they were, that they'd come off their blasted lines and pull the old 1776 American tactic of hiding behind a rock. But that's essentially what I do. And I've defeated the Zulu's every time I did it.

[joewiggs]

Wonderful reply and I am anxious to see what your game may come up with!! ;D

[tbw]

Ok,,, After digging out that old pc game and in the first attempt try to wrap my mind around things, not do anything real fancy just give it a go.

If you go to that web link I gave you it would be easier to describe what i'm talking about rather than getting wordy and losing interest. Here's that link again.

www.britishbattles.com/zulu-war/isandlwana.htm

Once there scroll down to the map, abut 4 pics down.

If you notice there's that road to Rorkes Drift. And there are what seems to be something on that road that appear to be limbered guns, they were. And just above those, Between the ridge and the brit troops there appears about 10 tear drop shaped icons. Those icons represent the brit camps. Now those are sources of supply for the brits in this game, and they have somewhat of a defense, so they just don't sit there and instantly die when attacked. BUT, this game won't let you move them. Which, more or less forces one to defend that area as is depicted at the start of the fight. The ridges act as blocking terrain so the Zulu's can't move through those. So in effect what the brits formed was somewhat the square you wanted me to try.

The rocket battery, 2 natals and one Cav unit at the beginning of the battle are located at the middle most - right hand ridge. This rocket battery is difficult to extract and usually gets captured, overran etc. The natals are slower than the Zulus so if you don't move them out right from the get go you won't get them back to the main brit force and they'll eventually get chopped up and killed. What usually happens is they are great attractions for many of the Zulu's trying to chase them down and attracts a good many of them from the main fight giving the brits the time they need to defeat the Zulu's attacking them back by the camps. If you don't move those 2 natals out and the Cav unit in an attempt to keep the rocket battery, trying to give it the time to escape, they eventually all get killed and provide a direct route into the southern supply camps (which don't move) and with nothing else to cover them, will cause the brits immediate defeat.

One does not have enough units to guard the supply camps and maneuver a great deal elsewhere. Especially with those 4 units, Cav, Rct, and 2 natals caught out of position.

Entrenchments help a lot. In this game the longer you keep a unit building the entrenchment the longer it will last in the game. But the Zulus will attack those entrenchments very early if you don't screen them with the Cavalry unit you have at the supply camps, that isn't going to happen. I'm not sure the trade off is worth it because of the attrition upon one of the most mobile units in the game can be crippling if the Zulu's break through in an area only it can get to.

[tbw]

I tried another game today. You'll be pleased to know your square worked.

As a map reference, the top of the map will be what I refer to as North.

There are 5 supply camps in the game that represent the 10 on the map. Two of those camps are right up against the ridge as depicted, another, a third on the southeastern point of that ridge. The other two are in between the ridge and the next ridge to the south.

What I did was pull back the line from on the north to where that first northern camp was and covered it with a covering force. And the line on the north side then didn't have to be so long, basically from west to east to the stream edge. Then the line ran to the south along that stream, cutting back to the west to cover the the camp on the se point of the ridge. I let the ridgeline to the west block their advance from that direction and basically fought on a square - less the ridge side. In doing that I had 3 protected camps and had to let the other two be captured by the Zulu's near the end of the game.

All in all it was the best test of what you proposed yet. As it was a British Decisive victory. Of the 19 or so units the brits had, they lost 11 and saved 8 and was down to one supply camp at games end. The Zulu's lost 34 units out of 50 some units. And many of them were shot up pretty bad. What I didn't like, they took out the brit artillery unit about mid game as I forgot to put a covering force on it. Still wonder how many more Zulu units I would have killed had I not been so stupid. All in all it worked, and was the first time I ever tried that move.

What I usually did was fall back between the two ridges and protect the camps there. Its easier to defend as you can form two lines between those ridgelines and protect 3 of the camps. Still, it worked really well, and I'll have to try it again.

[joewiggs]

You are a gentleman and a scholar of whom i have great respect! Thank you for sharing the web site with the membership!

[tbw]

This is something what it looked like. Its not exactly to scale, but close enough to make sense of it.

         bbb         s
         bRb C LLLLLLs
         bRb         L s
         bRb C        As
         bRb           L s
         bbb           L s
      C    C LLLLLLLLLL  s
----------------------    s
             C          \  s      -{  Road to Rorkes Drift
                           ----------------------------------
              bbb            s
              bRb              s
              bRb                s
              bRb               s        
              bRb              s
              bRb                s
              bbb                 s    

legend  -  
b = broken
R = Ridge
C = camps
s = stream
L = Skirmish Line
A = Art. gun
--- \  = road