Kosha, 1885

Major General Francis W. Grenfell

After the fall of Khartoum, the future of British operations in the Sudan was uncertain for several months. A frontier force under the command of Major General Grenfell was posted to guard against further invasion by the Mahdist forces. This force was strung out at various strategic points along the Nile from Asuan to Akasha and consisted of a mix of British and Egyptian units. There were a tense couple of months at the end of 1885 leading up to the Battle of Ginnis. As I mentioned a few weeks ago, the tip of the spear fell to the Cameron Highlanders, supported by the IXth Sudanese and the 20th Hussars, at the small town of Kosha.

This struck me as the perfect setting for my Sudan project. My campaign will be fictional based on the premise that the argument to avenge General Gordon (slain during the siege of Khartoum) or abandon further military adventures into the region rages on far longer than the winter of 1885.

Rumors of a Mahdist invasion will still send elements of the Anglo-Egyptian army south in force, but the Cameron Highlanders of my campaign will find themselves resident in Kosha far longer than their historical counterparts. Indeed there will be missions beyond garrisoning the fort that will take them beyond the town as there will be a strong push by one wily and influential minister for the army to re-establish power as far south as Dongola. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

I LOVE maps and I don't think you can really have a campaign without one. Even if you don't plan on plotting the location of every unit (I don't) it's good to know the important features of the area and how far apart said features might be. Imagine my delight when I discovered a treasure trove of high resolution 1:250,000 scale survey maps only a few years beyond my date of interest tucked away on the Library of Congress website! I've only downloaded a few (Wadi Halfa, Kosha, and Dongola), but as far as I can tell most of Egypt and the Sudan are covered in these beautiful maps. Most regions have three sets, produced in different years, the oldest of which is dated 1911. Besides rivers, settlements, and wadis, the maps have wonderful details like palm groves, wells, and ruins. I've spent a huge amount of time scouring the internet, cross referencing locations (Sai Island) with modern tourist attractions and ongoing excavations to see what sort of terrain I might build to represent a few of these on the table.

This map (drawn by me using several of the survey maps as a guide) represents the core of my campaign. It's only about one quarter of the Kosha map, but trying to fit more on one sheet of paper was making the text too small to read. I can always add more sheets if the campaign warrants, but I think this will do for now!

My initial British force will be a company of Cameron Highlanders. In The Sword and the Flame rules, this will be 42 models (1 captain, 2 lieutenants, 3 NCOs, and 36 privates). All of the officers and NCOs will be given names and personalities. Even though I have extensive records on the men of the 79th Regiment of Foot, I've decided on creating fictional characters to populate my campaign so as not to sully any reputations. Major General Grenfell will be the only historical figure and will interact with the tiny garrison through inspirational letters.

In the next post, I'll have the first examples of painted highlanders and wax poetical about the joys of painting tartans!