BATTLE OF DORODOOM PASS page 3

The fight between mad Jack in Col. Stopengoof has become a legend, but I was there and I tell you that the legend is not an exaggeration!  The two men went at each other to tooth and nail, sword and pistol, for nearly eight minutes (eight melee rounds for you Gaslight guys) before a backhanded swing by mad Jack with his pistol caught Col. Stopengoof on the side of the head knocking  him into the ground stunned.  The battle was even more fantastic since the remaining shutztruppen had entered it at one point making it a two on one affair.  Mad Jack merely doubled his efforts parrying blow from von Stopengoof while running the unfortunate shutztruppen clean through with his sword.  This action left mad Jack alone on the deck of the Mark IV.  The Mark IV still contained troops and its crew  was now proceeding to run around crushing natives under its massive tracks.  Mad Jack made several roles to see if he could break into the below deck compartments.  Never being very mechanical he failed.

The rest of the Prussians forming a battle line with a large Prussian walker commanding the center proceeded to engage the Arabs on the right flank.  More natives appeared to the left and started to engage the Prussian left.  However their lack of modern weapons place them at a severe disadvantage, their morale was also starting to waver.  The Prussian walker finding the range of the Arabs started firing telling blows causing many casualties.  This helped relieve the British on the right who are suffering many infantry casualties along with their disabled steam spider.

At this point in the battle a stray round from on Arab musket graze my temple causing me to lose consciousness.  The rest of the battle was told to me by others while recuperating in a British medical tent after the battle.

It seems that the native forces had several more armored contraptions that they had thrown into the battle including a spar torpedo equipped Belgian steam crane and a massive Russian designed battle turtle.  These vehicles however had suffered from their poor engineering and arrived at the battle quite late were their firing was ineffectual although it made for quite a sight I'm told.  The disabled British steam spider in typical British fashion charged the steam crane in an attempt to prevent it from a ramming the Prussian walker.  The Belgian steam crane fired its spar torpedo while underneath the steam spider.  The only result was that the concussion of the blast caused the disabled gun of the steam spider to finally go off in the direction of the battle turtle!  However the shot ran wild doing no damage.  Several more Imperial regiments were now approaching the battle along with some towed British artillery.  As night was starting to fall the natives realizing that they had lost the element of surprise to now faced a pitched battle with a technically superior foe faded back into the shadows.  The Imperial troops worn and tired with a fair share of casualties made no attempt to follow.  The battle was a draw.

After a discussion of the battle the following day in the command tent of the Imperial forces it was decided that this had been a spoiling attack in an attempt to slow the approach of Imperial forces to the fort of Dorodoom.  It was thought that this was to give time to assemble more troops and prepare defenses at the fort.  In that  the natives were somewhat successful, as it has taken us several days to be ready to march again.  Whether or not their sacrifice was worth it for them only time will tell.  We march in the morning for what I will believe to be the final battle a Dorodoom.

Your Humble servant in Africa,

Henry S. Writerdon

London Times war correspondent attached to her Majesty's forces.

Editors note: Henry was quite fatigued while he wrote this so please excuse any spelling or other errors you may find.  Also the game was quite enjoyed by all six players including one eight years old and one I believe approaching 70!  This shows you the wide appeal and playability of Gaslight.  I also wish to thank the Gaslight writers Chris and Buck for their contributions to this game, and the dealers at the con for their contributions that allowed me to award all players in the game a reward. I will post this battle report as well as pictures on the Gaslight Yahoo group   I would also like to thank all players to make these Gaslight games enjoyable for me to run.

Regards,

Bill Witthans

One last page with more pictures!