On Friday I was lucky enough to get a spot in Jim Purky's game Khartoum. Based in the final attack in the movie I have watched and read about Jim putting this together for many months now on his blog. Its been a tremendous amount if work on his part which has resulted in a magnificent game. And I was lucky to play in it.
The game is set up over three tables which represents the Nile River, two parts of the city and the dessert. There are spaces between each section for players to walk through to command their sections. Everything is in 54mm. The figures are mostly plastic and all terrain, buildings and ships built by Jim.
The center piece us a beautiful reconstruction of part of the city of Khartoum. The government palace sits by the river and commands the city. Various buildings, market stalls and such add interest and variety.
The citizens of the city, soldiers and visitors are everywhere. Its sort of a "where is waldo" game finding them. And most amusing too!
By the river sits a steamer paddle wheeler with cannon and gardnier gun. The city walls are garrisoned and ready to defend the city. Artillery is placed in towers or corners of the walls.
But out in the desert are the The Mahdist army led by The Mahdi. There are thousands of them. And ships in the Nile too! All posed to attack and take the city.
Rules used are written by Jim. They simple and each player gets a set of them. Easy to understand and quick to understand they are the very type of rules you want to have at a convention. Dice and rulers are provided for each player.
The game starts with the Mahdist army advancing on all sides of the city. The defenders open fire, knocking numerous soldiers down but still they come on. My portion of the walls I defended was a corner wall out towards the desert. My rifle fire was very good (roll 6D per figure) but try as I might my artillery could not hit a thing!
Soon the enemy were at the wall and ladders were set up. My men pushed some over (roll a 4-5-6) but more came up. Soon up the ladders came the enemy. Once one figure made it onto the wall a gap appeared in my defenses and more and more dervish jumped in. We fought hard, but soon my command was wiped out!
At the gate the doors were blown open. Waiting for them were my last defenders behind a wall. We shoot down many enemies but numbers told and again we ere wiped out !
Around the city by the river we did better defending. One wall at great cost actually drove off they enemy.
But more enemies appeared and soon the sailing ships of the Mahdi arrived to overwhelm the river boat.
And now they poured into the market place and poor Gordon prepared to met his fate.
Three hours passed too quickly. It was fun, it was entertaining. A perfect game for a convention like this. Thank you Jim for letting me into the game and thank you for your hard work. It was amazing!
