Battle of Tanga 1914 Refight

Mark put on another one of his sumptuous games, this time a WWI Ost Afrika game using Games Workshop's 'Warhammer Historical Great War' (basically Warhammer 40k without all the silly stuff).

This was the battle that more than anything was the foundation of the von Lettow-Vorbeck legend. You can read more on the battle here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tanga

The game would see the Anglo-Indian force attempting to take the town of Tanga, while the German Schutztruppe and Askari force would do their best to defend it. The British was something of a mixed bag in terms of troop quality but had numerical advantage, along with their opposition not being quite the grizzled veterans they would later become. The game had the blinds for the Germans, with a dummy counter for each company or command unit (see the yellow counters below). There were also secret bonus points for  the British if they were able to capture the Hotel Deutscher Kaiser in the centre of town (bottom right in the photo below), while the Germans would be rewarded if they captured the supplies at the docks (top middle in the same photo).

The view from the German right flank:

Matrosen Kompagnie infantry defending the Hotel Deutscher Kaiser:

British tourists disembarking their cruise shipping, thinking that this was a package holiday in Dar es Salaam:

Leutnant zur See Hammerstein with a bottle of Hefeweißbier Dunkel getting ready for the fight:

More British rats crawling through the jungle:

The sailors (who were my wurst quality troops) charging (okay they shuffled forward, then shuffled back before shuffling forward again) ahead to meet the British threat:

My army's elite Schutztruppe showing the sailors how it's really done:

Before they were wiped away by the Bengal tigers:

The Löwe von Afrika himself, Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck, holding it all together (well it's me holding him):

The game was tense (the Germans were outnumbered 3 to 2 and my firearms were old and therefore had shorter range), with the balance shifting a few times as fortunes charged, I was able to grab victory when my Askaris held off the British assaults on my right flank:

All in all a great game, that looked good and was a huge amount of fun.