The Sun Never Sets - The Action at Umbopa Drift

 As was noted in the previous post, Captain Gerard Moon was leading a supply column through hostile territory. The column contains 5 wagons, 2 platoons of the 23rd Infantry, 1troop of the 10th Royal Hussars, and a troop of Natal Mounted Police.

We pick up the action as the column begins to cross the Umbopa Drift.

Lt. Josiah Collins is scouting to the right of the column but has found nothing.

Meanwhile, Sgt. Udy Chesley is scouting a brushy area to the left.

Lt. Boniface (Bonny) Orpen brings up the rear with the Hussars.

Sgt. Chesley spots something, 2 Zulu Ivyo resting in the brush! (Note: the Watti-Hooti roll did not activate any other hidden unit markers.)

The Mounted Police fire an ineffectual volley, but it warns the column of the impending action.

 Sgt. Chesley falls back and delivers another volley, again with little effect.

The Induna Nomfazwe urges him men forward.

Captain Moon orders the infantry to form a square around the wagons.

The hussars close ranks and face the threat, joined by the half-platoon led by Lt. Collins.

The combined firepower of the two cavalry units began to tell on the Zulus.

This gave Captain Moon time to complete the square.

The troops continued to fall back, peppering the Zulus with volleys. One fusillade dropped the Zulu leader of the lefthand unit.

 At this point, the Zulus focused their attack on the Hussars.

A final volley from the Hussars then they fall back to the crest of the ridge.

The Induna Nomfazwe orders a charge, but the first ivyo passes its Critical Morale test but fails its leaderless roll to move. the second ivyo closes on the hussar's flank.

But they lose their nerve at the last second and fail the Close into Combat roll. They fall back into the drift.

Seeing the Zulus falter, Lt. Orpen orders the charge.

Almost half the hussars miss the order, but the charge strikes home. The decimated Zulu ivyo also stands.

Lt. Collins orders the Police forward as well.

In the ensuing melee, the first ivyo is routed at the cost of Pvt. Pentecost Altham's life.

 The Natal Mounted Police's charge was also successful, but the loss of Pvt. Cossie Mostert will be sorely felt.

Thus ended phase one of the action at Umbopa Drift.

The Sun Never Sets - Random Hidden Unit Generator - a solo game aid

 Today I thought I'd present a solo game aid that was a little more of a solo game aid. My first solo "The Sword and the Flame" game, "Disaster at Gakdul Wells", featured an Egyptian force in a makeshift fort being attacked by a bunch of Dervish. As such, there were no hidden unit needed, the Dervish just came blazing down the hills at the fort.

For my next game, I am doing a British supply column crossing through hostile territory in Zululand. For this action, I would like to have the Zulus represented by hidden unit markers so that I do not know if the position occupied by the marker is a real unit or a dummy marker.

To accomplish this, I have created another spreadsheet. It will allow me to use up to 60 hidden unit markers. I can enter the number of markers I want to use and a percent value for the number of dummy markers.

For my game, I am using two platoons of infantry, a troop of Natal Mounted Police, and a unit of hussars. For this force of four units there should be about twelve Zulu units. With that, I set the number of unit markers to 30 and the percent of dummy markers to 60. This should give me somewhere around the twelve actual units called for.

Next, I click the Create Units button. This starts the routine that writes the status of each marker to a hidden worksheet. Here is an example of the data generated.

Notice that data for 30 hidden unit markers has been generated. Also, 11 of the markers are actual units. The other 19 are dummy markers. Column "P" is the list of percentage values that can be selected from the main page. Column Q is used for the pick list on the main page that identifies if a unit marker has been spotted.

Here is what the game table looks like at the start of the game.

The British side enters the table.

The Natal Mounted Police have split up to scout both sides of the road.

Captain Gerard Moon is at the front of the column.

A nervous looking lieutenant Gilbert Cleaton leads the left platoon of 23rd Regiment of Foot (Royal Welsh Fusiliers).

lieutenant Josiah Collins, of the Natal Mounted Police, notices a rough patch of ground to his left. He goes over to investigate

Could this Hidden card be a real unit?

The unit marker is number 1, so I click in cell A2 (for this group of cells, the B column indicates the hidden unit card number) and set it to "Yes". In this case, the card is a dummy unit marker.

When unit marker 4 was spotted, it turned out to be a real Zulu unit. I place Zulu unit 4 on the table, in the spot where its marker is. Then I click the Wattie-Hootie Roll button.

What is a "Wattie-Hootie Roll"? Well, when playing a game with unit markers, it would be all to easy to just isolate 1 marker at a time and blast it away. What the "Wattie-Hootie Roll" does is to give a radius from the discovered unit and any unit cards within that radius are activated as well.

In this example, the "Wattie-Hootie Roll" says any cards within 12" are activated as well.

If unit 4 is the rightmost unit circled above, then the two markers next to it would be revealed. Should one or both of those markers be actual units, another "Wattie-Hootie Roll" would be made, and the radius is measured from the newly revealed unit. In this way, hidden units may get support from nearby friends. It might also spring an ambush prematurely.

I have placed the Hidden Unit Generator on my Google drive for those who want it. If you have any difficulty downloading the file, please let me know.

Thank you and happy gaming!

The Sun Never Sets - Roster Generator - a solo game aid

 Before going too far into the details, this roster generator is neither specifically for "The Sun Never Sets" nor specifically for solo gaming. It is for generating rosters for "The Sword and the Flame" and can be used for solo or head-to-head play. But, since I am a solo gamer in the wilds of southern Colorado, I thought that this little program would help add color to my games and after-action reports.

In "The Sword and the Flame" it is suggested that players name the figures in their units. While this seems like an easy task, coming up with 20,40,60, or more unique names can be a bit of a bother. I am sure that many people have tackled this problem in many creative ways, but I have decided to use the power of the internet and some rudimentary programming skills to solve the roster problem.
 

The illustration to the left shows the layout of my roster. Across the top is unit and senior officer information. Below that is the roster that contains the names for each figure in the unit. Finally, the pertinent game information is at the bottom.

The buttons to the right of the roster form are used to fill out the roster. 

The "Create Names" button randomly selects from 664 first names and 1684 last names (that's where the power of the internet comes in, finding names) to create all of the names on the roster.

The "Press For a *** Unit" buttons assigns a unit name (Guard, Line, or Highland, based on the button selected) for the unit.

The three buttons below the "Press For a Line Infantry Unit" button fills in the morale values for the button selected.

The "Create Scottish Names" and "Create Welsh Names" have their own lists on names specific for their regions.

You can pick a Unit first or the soldiers' names first. If you don't like the names or the unit generated, simply press the button again and get new names.

Here's an example:

I'll start by generating a line infantry unit. I press the "Press For a Line Infantry Unit" button and get the, "16th (The Bedfordshire) Regiment of Foot". I'm good with that.

Since it is not a Welsh or Scots unit, I'll press the "Create Names" button to see who's in my unit.

Now I have a list of every soldier in my platoon. The company and platoon are intentionally left blank so that these can be assigned as needed.

Another thing of interest is the Colonel's name. Adolphus Bohun happens to be the 11th Earl of  Langport. I have given infantry colonels a 10% chance of being titled. If he is titled, both the title and the holding are randomly selected. The titles are weighted toward the bottom end of the nobility scale and the holdings come from a list of 652 place names from around the UK.

Here's an example of a Scottish roster:

If the Scots colonel is titled, the location of his holding are drawn from a specifically Scottish list.

Here is a Welsh list:

In a nod to one of the colonialists' favorite movies, I have added serial numbers for the "other ranks" so I can keep track of the Jones'.

I have used the typical British infantry list for this article, but I also have generators for the cavalry and artillery also. In addition, I have generators for all branches of the Indian, Egyptian, and South African volunteer forces. Each draws from lists of names specific to their region.

Here is an example of a Punjab Field Force roster.

Notice that the officers have British names.

If you have any comments, I would love to hear what you think.

I imagine you are thinking, "I'd like to actually see the thing before I comment on it."  Well, I have finished up some clean up and finishing touches, so the roster generator is linked below for you to use as you will. Please let me know if the link doesn't work.

The Sun Neve Sets - Google Drive

Thank you for your interest.