Colonial Campaigns:

Ethiopia 1887-1896

by Steve Winter

From Mark Fastoso

For the past couple of years, Mark Fastoso has been unassumedly running some of the best colonial games at Cold Wars and Historicon. They’re not big productions with elaborate terrain and thousands of troops, and they don’t attract big audiences. What sets them apart is the quality of the scenarios; they’re tense, action-packed, well-balanced contests. Mark has finally packaged ten of these scenarios into a 64-page book so that everyone can enjoy them.

All of the scenarios are drawn from Italy’s ill-starred campaign in Ethiopia. The first three cover Emperor Yohannes’s battles against both the Italians and the Mahdists. The next four deal with incidents during the reign of Menelik II up to the battle of Adowa, and the last three portray different portions of the Italian disaster at Adowa. There are eight Ethiopia/Italy matchups, one Ethiopia/Mahdia fight, and one Italy/Mahdia engagement.

The book is heavily tailored toward The Sword and the Flame, but scenarios can be adapted to whatever rules you prefer. The format is the same as that used in Larry Brom’s official TS&TF scenario books (indeed, Larry wrote the introduction for this book). Each scenario has notes describing the setting and historical situation, special rules, victory conditions, brief players’ notes, a full-page map, and separate OBs for each side. Several rules modifications are recommended; the most important is the use of eight-figure units instead of TS&TF’s standard 20. The battles range in size from a low of about 120 figures to a high of about twice that. In other words, they’re well within the reach of even modest gamers. Those with huge collections can increase the number of figures in a unit and the size of the table and blaze away, but it’s not necessary. If you lack Italian or Ethiopian troops, the scenarios can be played just as well between British and Mahdists or Pathans, if you don’t mind the historical disjunction.

Besides the scenarios, there are extensive historical notes at the front of the book, maps of the theater, discussion of the opposing armies, painting guides done in TS&TF style, TS&TF tables tailored for Italians and Ethiopians, a brief glossary of Italian and Ethiopian commands and war cries, campaign rules, and a bibliography. All in all, this is a remarkable book that belongs on every colonial gamer’s shelf. 64-page book/$15 + $5 S&H; available from Mark Fastoso, 1911 R Street NW, Suite 402, Washington, DC, 20002; http://home.ix.netcom.com/~fastoso/

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