Colonial Games: the Residency at Biltezi, pt. 2

Part Two
The Residency at Biltezi

Continued from Part One

The gunners break out the hidden cannon, and manhandle them into the street, only to find that their mission -- to blast open the main door of the Residency -- has been made impossible by the mass of Makkas' spearmen crowding around the base of the central ladder.

Instead they fire their first shots at the imperial troops on the main building, with surprising effectiveness.

A look through the Tabletop Periscope gives a street-level view of the gunners from behind...

...which is precisely the viewpoint of the remaining four Company sepoys, who bolt from their town buildings and take the gunners from the rear, killing two and scattering the remaining members of one of the crews.

The sepoys valiantly attempt to spike the captured gun, but are unable to accomplish the task before they are overwhelmed by Makkas' spearmen, who have recovered from their funk at the edge of town.

Meanwhile, the native rifles advance toward the building, as the spearmen at the ladder are whittled down by the two remaining tower defenders.

Makkas' infantry, unable to break the Gurkhas in the gallery, shift the ladder to the connecting building, clearing the main door. The Residency defenders now mass their fire against the remaining gun crew, killing two gunners, as the last surviving sepoy bolts hopelessly from the town toward the main entrance, only to be cut down by the cannon's first shot at the door. The scattered camel troops have regrouped and dismounted to the right of the tower, joining the spearmen at the ladder.

The surviving two gunners reload furiously, and manage to get off a second shot, an instant before the rifle fire from the wall cuts them down. But the damage is done - the door is smashed open, just as the native rifles drive the defenders from the tower wall. As the howling natives stream into the building at two different points, the situation rapidly becomes hopeless for Willoughby and Maj. Bloomham.

The leader of the Chizbogan rifles, waves his pistol as a signal to Nocokepepsi Khan, that the garrison has surrendered to the uncertain mercies of the Ouargi warriors.

Outcome
The loot from the safe and warehouses, plus the substantial ransoms paid by the Affable East Ouargistan Company for the Willoughbys and Maj. Bloomham revived the flagging fortunes of the two renegade emirs, who were now able to recruit new troops from the border areas to harrass the European settlements and trade routes.

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