From StuartL - Usuthu!! - Klendathu - 65 Points

I'm back again with my 3rd post of the week and finally wrapping up the outer orbit of the challenge sector. The theme for Klendathu is an invasion gone bad and the first British invasion of Zululand certainly fits that bill. In 1879, the British Governor in South Africa provoked a war with the neighbouring Zulu Kingdom (against the wishes of the British government it must be noted). This was followed by the British marching several columns of troops into Zululand in an attempt to destroy the Zulu army and break up the kingdom. Sadly overconfidence on the part of the British commander in chief (some may say incompetence), a lack of clear intelligence about the position of the Zulus main army and poor deployment saw two British columns suffering a severe defeat at Isandlwana and a third column put itself into a siege at Eshowe. While the later heroic defence of Rorke's Drift (as seen in the amazing, if inaccurate, movie Zulu) is probably the most recognizable part of the conflict, the battle at Isandlwana had a far greater impact on British capabilities and planning for the rest of the campaign.

When I am painting, I often listen to podcasts or watch Youtube. I recently watched a series about the Anglo-Zulu War on the Redcoat History Podcast channel. The presenter lives in South Africa and has spent a lot of time walking the battlefields and reading the various accounts of the war. On the channel, he often reads excerpts from the British soldiers who left written records of the war, and one of the things that struck me is that there was frequent mention of the Zulus using skirmishers. I have quite a large force of Zulus for Black Powder, but they are generally set up as large warbands (see the picture further down the page) rather than small skirmish formations, so I decided to put together just such a group.

While the typical image of a Zulu warrior is of a lightly armed tribesman wielding a spear, they did have a surprisingly large amount of firearms, especially after looting the British supplies at Isandlwana. They were notoriously poor shots, not being trained in the use of the weapons, though numerous British casualties were caused by rounds fired from British rifles. The models all come from Warlord games and are mainly built from the Married Zulus box set. I have included rifles from the Unmarried Zulus set and the Natal Native Contingent box for a bit more variety.

The black head rings mark these warriors as being married. Each warrior needed the kings permission to wed and it was only given to older men, so these fellows are obviously veteran fighters. The shields could belong to one of several different regiments, so I can use these models for the slaughter at Isandlwana, the meeting engagement at Nyezane river or for the British retribution at Ulundi.

So, for 9x 28mm models, I should be adding 45 points to my running total, plus an extra 20 points for the knocking back the invasion of Zululand by those terrible redcoats.

O thank goodness, three post in and you've finally got something more in my wheelhouse.  It's great to see some Zulus on the Challenge again.  And I agree while they work best in hordes, it's good to see some based individually for a change.  Great work on them.  Now let's make sure we've got ammo boxes for the Martini-Henris and get that jam cleared on the Gatling gun.