Siege of Khartoum is a boardgame designed by Stephen Kling and published by The Historical Game Company. The game covers the Mahdist revolt and the situation created when the Mahdist isolated the town of Khartoum. 

General Gordon has been sent to organise an evacuation, but defies the Government and instead organises a defence, while waiting for a relief force. Can the Mahdist capture Khartoum before the relief column arrives?

This is a small format boardgame with hex and counters and a canvas map measuring 17” x 11”. It should play in a single session.

Of particular note, the rules are just 3 pages long, plus a page with the terrain chart. This is a series set of rules and there are now several titles in the series. I already have Poltava.

Each of the games, to fit with the common game engine, has an element of fortification on the map, though across the various games, these do not necessarily always translate as forts ‘proper’, but fit a variety of situations in which some have redoubts or perhaps a good defensive position such as the heights at Wagram or the heights at Saratoga.

The game engine relies on a ten card deck of cards per player. A card is drawn at the start of each player turn and it will state how many units you can move, how many you can fight with and also include a special rule, such as ‘Omdurman’s Rockets - Any Egyptian unit in Fort Omdurman may attack twice during Combat at a range of 4 hexes this turn’ and it is here that the flavour and history of the action is introduced. With 24 turns, the card stack will be cycled through two and a half times.

We played the game face-to-face tonight, but called the game part way through as it seemed impossible for the Mahdist player to make any headway to get into the fortified areas. My oponent, playing the Mahdist side described the situation as dispiriting.

However, for a first playing, I sense that there is a learning curve as to how to get the best use out of the armies and so I am going to play it again solo, now that I some experience with the demands of the scenario and thought about it a little, for my next game, I will use and deploy the Mahdist differently as follows;

1.  Understand that this is a 24 turn game, so it probably needs that full playing time for the situation to 'develop' as it should.

2. On set-up, keep the 1-5-3 units out of the battle, they will be needed later once the fort is breached ..... they don't have much value in the elim pile!

3. Initially use the artillery to attack the units on the fortified walls, while concentrating all efforts on taking Fort Omdurman (on the other side of the Nile) and perhaps knocking the artillery armed steamer out.

4. Wait for the special event when the River Nile narrows (recedes), the additional expanse of dry land created will allow Mahdist forces along the Nile to move through that and circumvent the fort walls. The defence will be stretched. This is the point that all of those 1-5-3 troops can be unleashed.

note - this event will be played during the second round of card draw, so will occur on one ofthe turns between 11 and 20, one has to hope it is sooner!

5. There is errata that states the Mahdist Felucca (ships) with troops on can convert to infantry immediately if they land and still have 1 Movement point left (Without MP's left they wait until the next turn to unload).

I think the narrow focus of the Madhist plan will make the initial turns fly by.

Anyway, for good or for bad, that will be the plan - we shall see.

I didn’t really know too much about the campaign before getting the game, but my exposure to the game has left me wanting to take a deeper dive into the history, so it must be doing something right. There is a bibliography at the end of the rule book, which is helpful.

I bought my copy from Second Chance Games (UK) who seem to have a goodly range of all the games in the series - there will be something for everyone in that list. More on this in the coming days!

EDIT As a follow-up from yesterday's Khartoum post, I returned the game to the table and got a much more dynamic game. The Mahdist forces momentarily  breached the Egyptian fortifications several times, but ultimately, Egyptian firepower was too powerful and they were ejected at every event. 

To make matters worse, the British River Column arrived early in play (needs a ‘1’ to arrive mid game) and even when the Nile receded (event), the artillery armed steam boat helped ensure that every Mahdist attack along the Nile coastline failed! In the end, I gave up on turn 18!