Colonial Games: the Battle of Al Bunrab

Part Two
The Battle of Al Bunrab

Continued from
Part One

Sinuous, now moving at overpressure, fires a torpedo as part of its ramming run on Miskatonic,who desperately fires her main guns and gatling in a vain attempt to deflect the attack. The torpedo causes major mechanical damage, reducing Miskatonic's speed by half for the remainder of the battle. The ram, however, is disastrous for Sinuous; the shock tears loose steam fittings and causes severe mechanical damage, while causing only minor damage to her target. Miskatonic's gatling quickly clears her decks of terrenes and gunners. Unable to move, with almost no personnel left, she will be helpless in the face of the larger crew's boarding parties. She has no choice but to strike colors.

Behemoth now blasts the American motor truck whose gatling has vexed her accompanying infantry. Her starboard gun tries for the statue truck but is unsuccessful. Ogress' long range machinegun fire takes its toll among the accompanying American infantry, but does no harm to the truck.

As the statue moves behind her, Quebec grinds forward to engage Behemoth. Quebec's torpedo run and gunfire bring Behemoth to a clattering halt with mechanical damage, knocking out a gun in addition. She follows up with a ram attack which does more damage to herself than to the huge dreadnaught. Then she backs slowly away from the stranded giant.

Ogress crosses behind Behemoth, racing for the avenue. It is precisely the wrong moment; Ogress is momentarily out of the action, and all three American landships, two at close range, suddenly have no other opponents. Their intact batteries hurl a wall of combined fire at the stranded Behemoth.

Shell after shell smashes into Behemoth's armor, buckling the plates, snapping rivets and sending the heads flying through her interior like shrapnel. Finally a penetration finds the huge boilers. Guns, men's bodies, boiler tubes and pieces of armor plate are hurled skyward. The shockwave flattens nearby infantry and causes chaos among the cavalry as terrified horses pitch their riders and bolt in all directions.

Behemoth is no more.

Ogress' captain, once his ears cease ringing, considers the situation. He now controls the avenue, but the statue truck has turned back to shelter behind the three landships. Two are moving at half-speed, but all their guns are intact, six against Ogress' two. There is no reasonable hope of accomplishing the mission, and the attempt would certainly cost him his ship, now the last British landship on the continent.

Dropping rope ladders to pick up the stunned Highlanders and signaling for the remnants of the cavalry to follow him, he turns and steams for the coast.

Outcome
The battle was a decisive victory for the Americans, but without Rajah Rabiid to fan the flames of discontent, the long-term effects were nowhere near as disastrous as the European powers had imagined. It did not escape the natives' notice that the English and Germans had done their best to stop the American plan, and in the short run, the locals were far too busy looting the hulks of the destroyed landships for metal and parts and cutting the statue up for building material, to give much thought to revenge. Roosevelt was so pleased with the successes of his new landships that he was perfectly willing to accept the British and German explanations that the battle was caused by overzealous local commanders for whose actions their home governments apologized. And local chiefs were more than happy to see the untimely end of the Rajah, who had been making a severe nuisance of himself with his demon-bunny of bronze and steam.

Meet the Commanders

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