
Design Notes For The "Shaka" Trio Of Games:

  Possibly like yourself, my initial interest in Zulu warfare was sparked by movies like "Zulu" and "Zulu Dawn", which focused on the Victorian Zulu/British wars of the 1870s. Then came the 1986 made-for-TV movie "Shaka Zulu", and I was surprised to learn that Zulu clans had been warring with each other for hundreds of years prior to any European setting foot on south African soil in earnest.
  Being interested in obscure battles of old, I started out designing just the Naka scenario with it's interesting situation of a solitary unit behind enemy lines, fighting to the last man while the main force attempted to cut it's way to relieve this unit. Reading what precious little information exists on Naka, I uncovered two more battles which had connections to Naka, and it looked like Shaka was in attendance for all three battles. I decided to convert all those battles to Medieval scenarios, and offer them as a Shaka trilogy, or tribute to the great King of the Zulus. There really is no apparent evolution of tactics in these three scenarios as is sometimes demonstrated in some "quad" paper wargames, though the 1812 Nongoma scenario does feature a young yet to be crowned Shaka, laying the groundwork for his now famous and revolutionary (in Africa at least) "horns and chest of the bull" tactic. Surprising to me at least, is the Ndwandwe's total failure to adapt to Shaka's new style of warfare, even 14 years after first encountering it and being throughly vexed and beaten by it, (shades of the French in the 100 Years War!).
  For those not familiar with warfare according to Shaka, he inititated a system whereby he divided his army, (impi) into three distinct regiments. Middle-aged warriors he deployed in the center regiment (the chest of the bull), whose purpose was mainly to engage and hold the enemy's front. The two flanking regiments consisted of older veterans and formed the "horns of the bull", their purpose being to encircle the enemy position and fall on it's flanks and rear. Young unproven warriors comprised a small reserve (the loins of the bull), to the rear of the center regiment. This may not seem revolutionary in hindsight or in light of ancient battles such as Cannae, but clan conflicts in South Africa prior to Shaka were mainly day-long skirmishes, with casualties typically being extremely light and more often often than not, totally non-lethal. With the coming of Shaka, no longer would battles last from dawn till dusk with hardly a warrior wounded other than by enemy taunts and jeers.

   I know that not everyone enjoys tending long lines of units who begin eyeball to eyeball in a hack & slash affair with little room for manuevering. For me though, there's great drama in witnessing the test of two army's lines in close face-to-face combat, and I hope you also find some interest in these three engagements.
 
   Included in the Shaka.zip file is a small new game icon file named Shaka.bmp. To use it in the game, place it in your Medieval\Icons subdirectory.
  Also included are some custom sound files mixed for these scenarios. They make good audio cues, and I hope you find them worth the effort to give them a try. I got a little carried away, pick and choose if you want :)
rh02.wav
rh07.wav
rh10.wav
rh16.wav
rh25.wav
rh26,wav
rh29.wav
rh32.wav
rh33.wav
rh34.wav
rh35.wav
  To use them, simply move the original identically named wav files which are located in the Medieval\wavs subdirectory to another location, and replace them with the new wav files from Shaka.zip to your Medieval\wavs subdirectory. Reverse the process to use Medieval's original wav files again. None of these new files are essential to playing the scenarios of course, they're just for a touch of "Zulu" atmosphere.



Notes On The Scenarios As A Group:

  In general, the AI does a surprisingly good job of recreating Shaka's flanking manuevers as the Shaka player, and does a decent job of defending and counterpunching as the Ndwandwe AI player. Of course the best opponent will be another human, as the AI sometimes tends to get a bit lazy with offensive tactics. It's very important to return units to column formation after they've been forced out of order due to retreating. Remove from your lines weakened or tired units, there will be a lot of tiring due to almost constant combat. Plug holes back up because the AI _will_ take advantage of the many opportunities for unit-to-unit flank and rear attacks. Try not to place your units one behind the other, as retreating units can easily disrupt passed through friendlies.
  The burden of winning is with the Ndwandwe. Though they outnumber the Zulus in each battle, they do not match the quality of Zulu morale, and they certainly do not equal Zulu leadership. A Ndwandwe win will, or should be, a difficult task. Historically, Shaka's presence was the deciding factor in all three Zulu victories, though each triumph was very costly and effectively bled his nation of good warriors for some time afterward.

  Note that while some Zulu clans did use short and rather ineffectual throwing spears, Shaka banned such practices in his impis, (refering to such weapons as "flimsy ridiculous toys"), and insisted that each man test his mettle up close and personal so to speak. Therefore, there are no missle capable units in any of the three scenarios. The sole reference I found to any sort of throwing spear in these particular battles was one cursory note which stated that at Gqokli Hill some of the Ndwandwe had throwing spears, but could not and did not use them them due to their tightly packed column formation as they climbed the hill in an advance on Shaka's position. Medieval's short sword and it's ratings are used to simulate the assegai stabbing weapons used by the combatants.

  There is some consistancy throughout all three scenarios, such as 4 movement points for all Shaka led impis, (Shaka disallowed the use of "bothersome" sandles), 3 movement points for all Ndwandwe armies, Shaka led units are worth more Victory Points than Ndwandwe units, etc.  Another consistant factor is that Shaka is always outnumbered, as was the case historically.....I'm sure he wouldn't have wanted it any other way :)
 Zulu impis improve and grow with each battle, and to a lesser degree, Ndwadnwe impis do too. For example, the Zulu young militia reserve regiment begins the series with units of 15 men with a morale of 55. By the third battle, they are Veterans with 25 men with a morale of 65.

 In order to replicate as much as possible the nature of the battles, it's _very_ important to set all AI players to Aggressive mode when starting any scenario.



Scenario Notes:

NONGOMA-1812
  Young Shaka commands the left "horn" regiment at this battle, and his formation enjoys extra morale and killing power due to his charisma and leadership. Shaka is a leader (InDuna), in the Mthethwa clan, the clan which gave him and his mother refuge after being cast out of their original Nguni clan. It was at this battle in which Shaka really gained the attention of the Zulu world by his new and inspired tactics. The Ndwandwe had to be be very confused when Shaka's left horn, and on the other side the right horn, broke ranks and sprinted to positions on the Ndwandwe flanks. The Ndwandwe player has the benefit of expecting this of course, but with superior Mthethwa mobility, numbers, and punch, he will still have to stand toe-to-toe and slug it out eventually. If playing the Ndwandwe side, try to cut your way through to the young Mthethwa regiment, as they are untried in battle and prone to flight. A small Ndwandwe relieving force enters from the north on turn 5 in an attempt to pin Shaka against the main Ndwandwe impi.

GQOKLI HILL-1818
  Information on this battle is sketchy. It's known that Shaka positioned his impi on the top of the hill in his usual "bull" formation. It's known that the Ndwandwe advanced uphill in a tightly packed column, and that Shaka responded by releasing his two "horns" on the column's flanks while the "chest of the bull" engaged and held in place the front of the Ndwandwe column. There is some discussion of a feint executed by Shaka prior to the main engagement which drew off some of the Ndwandwe warriors. This scenario deals with events after that feint. The Ndwandwe's are on the offensive and have good depth for an uphill assault. But that depth is a double-edged assegai because it also can allow the Zulu "horns" to race down the flanks of the Ndwandwe column.

NAKA-1826
  This battle represents the zenith of Zulu warfare under Shaka's tight control, and is basically a real in-your-face type of shoving match. You'll have to claw and scrape for retreating room as either side. The Zulus open the game with a charging assault on the Ndwandwe line, due to their state of readiness and rolling momentum. It's not clear how Shaka's boyhood friend, (the Zulu Guard unit) managed to cut his way through two Ndwandwe lines to take up a position at the foot of a hill in the Ndwandwe rear, but that he did, along with his small band of elite warriors. They died there to a man, but not before exacting a terrible toll on some of the Ndwandwe's best warriors. As the Zulu player, try to mimic Shaka in attempting to reach this beleaguered unit as soon as possible in order to bestow Shaka's leader bonus, and possibly save the large number of Victory Points the unit is worth. Do not move the Zulu Royal Guard unit off it's starting hex, as it receives a large defensive bonus in the rocky hex it begins in. Most likely this Guard unit will eventually be eliminated, but you can extend it's life by making only flanking attacks, and resting it if the surrounding Ndwandwe Guards stop picking at it for a turn or two.
  As the Ndwandwe player, you should try to eliminate the Zulu Guard unit to have the best chance of gaining enough Victory Points to remain in the game. Try to attack it every turn, giving it no rest. Your Guard units are fragile, but there's eight of them against the lone Zulu Guard unit.....for awhile. A fighting defense may allow you to weather the Zulu storm.


  I had a lot of fun designing these three scenarios, and I hope you find them interesting and competitive. I welcome any questions, comments, or suggestions on anything related to playing or improving them.
  Thanks to Jeff Lapkoff for allowing me to use a few wav files from Incredible Simulations, Inc.'s "Zulu War" game, and to fellow player Bill Hamblin who offered some good suggestions for Naka!

  As an aside, there's a new four hour TV mini-series currently under production named "Shaka Zulu-The Citadel", and scheduled for an October 1999 airing. Encouraging is that the same director who directed the 5 hour 1986 "Shaka Zulu" series is in charge of this new project also. Even better is that Henry Cele will reprise his role of Shaka. Not so encouraging is that David Hasslehof will also have a role in the film :)

Thank you for trying the Shaka scenarios!
Phil Natta
pnatta@earthlink.net
1-27-99

References:
"Naka"  Out-of-print wargame by Bearhug Games
"The Zulus"  Osprey Elite Series book
"The Zulu War"  Osprey Men-at-Arms book
"Washing of the Spears"  Donald R. Morris
Many Internet sites dealing with the Zulu nation and King Shaka

