After Dorking 1871: The War in Africa, The Battle of Bundas - Part 2

Following on from part 1 we restarted the Prussian invasion of British Egypt where the battle still hung very much in the balance.

The British regiments defending Bundas had just broken and fled north, and the Prussians were poised to sweep into the settlement and on to capture the road north.

General Hans Von Platzhirsch ordered his field artillery to advance and form a grand battery overlooking Bundas.  He held his infantry line in place while the guns advanced and set up.

Prussian grand battery forming up (these are pointing away from the British to represent them still being limbered and not ready to fire)

Verdammt noch mal, Fritz, bekommen diese Waffen eingesetzt!!
Command failures kept the Prussian guns out of the fight for a turn or two, giving the British time to deploy their reserves.

This gave the British the opportunity to bring up their tardy reserves and as time passed the Prussian impetus ebbed away.  The British soon formed a powerful line to the east of Bundas.  

The two lines close and try to establish something like an ordered firing line.

Both succeed and a ranged duel begins...

Both forces made good use of long ranged firing and as shot and shell poured into the opposing lines, regiments wavered and were shaken across the battle front.

It was a brutal tit-for-tat exchange and it was most unclear which side would gain the upper hand.

The Prussian divisional reserve infantry took the town and set about looting what little of value they could find.  

In a panicked response, a British regiment saw fit to abandon its orders and charge out towards the Prussian lines.  They intended to dislodge the beastly Boche at the point of a bayonet.  It didn't go well as they took horrendous losses advancing into the Prussian Dreyse rifles.  None-the-less, they put the Prussian before them to flight!

Both sides suffered further losses and the fight descended into a bitter impasse.  

The British suffer casualties all across their positions, and fall back to try to recover.

Wissen mein Gott die Briten, wie Sie ihre Waffen äh verwenden?
Prussians are shaken by British fire...

Prussian lines withdraw heavily shaken to try to restore a bit of order.  Its all too late though...

We decided at this point that the Prussians would withdraw along their logistics lines and had not done enough to secure Bundas or the road to Khartoum.

An excellent battle all round and another good bash for the Black Powder rules.  

I doubt the machinations of the Prussians in Africa are finished...



Here's a review of Black Powder from the Beast of War chaps.

Prussian period uniforms start at 1.26.

British period uniforms.