BFE 2: A Chaotic Affair

From Ambush to Victory

We had not played Battles For Empire in quite some time, so it was back to the desert! An Egyptian column has been sent out to arrest the provincial governor, who is in a village deep in rebel territory. The column also has supplies for the garrison. The column had Sudanese, Egyptian cavalry, Bashi-Bazouks, slavers, and plenty of baggage, plus two sections of mountain guns. The advance party finds that the governor and garrison have gone over to the Mahdi and the trap is sprung! What followed was a highly chaotic and desperate battle that went for almost 3 1/2 hours! The game featured a number of cavalry charges, counterattacks, desperate defense of the baggage, then trying to get back through the pass and to safety. The Mahdists and Fuzzy Wuzzies threw themselves at the cloumn's units with reckless abandon and at one point looked like they might win the game. Surprisingly, the Bashi-bazouks and the slavers, who were the lowest quality units on the board, held for as long as possible, which threw a wrench into the Mahdist plans. There was so much action happening across the board that it was hard to focus on the immediate threats! The Egyptian column, however, survived all of the charges and while the losses were heavy, they were able to escape the trap. Despite not having played this game in quite some time, things went suprisingly well, with just a bit of time spent looking up rules, particularly for a couple of weird situations that we had come up. There's been some discussion that we need to get back to this sooner rather than later, so for the next time we'll probably use some British forces for a change of pace.

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