The line between exploration and warfare could be a slender one in Victorian Africa. This was more than usually true for the noted and notorious Welsh-American explorer Henry Stanley, whose expeditions had the general appearance of armed columns crossing the continent. This was especially evident in the case of his Emin Pasha Relief Expedition, a bizarre affair lasting three years, involving the death of several ‘volunteers’ and many unnamed Africans, the loss of most of the relief supplies and eventually the near-refusal of Emin Pasha to be rescued. Stanley resolved this issue by basically kidnapping him as a souvenir. It’s a very strange tale indeed. “To the Mountains of the Moon” is a strategic/skirmish/role play campaign representing just a portion - several weeks - from the Emin Pasha expedition. It is related, in a sideways fashion, to my “Science versus Pluck” colonial rules. The game can be played in several formats of varying - complexity isn’t the word. Theatricality is closer to the mark. All the players work together as a team (ha!) against one or more umpires who act as the forces of nature, adversaries, allies, and the universe in general. Each player portrays a real character from the expedition, commanding companies of porters and askaris and pursuing their own objectives. These may or may not have anything to do with the overall plan to cross the Ituri Forest from the River Congo to Emin Pasha’s station on Lake Albert, some 350 miles as the proverbial crow flies. Players should be deterred strongly from dividing the expedition on a long-term basis. Short separations can work but if the players form a vanguard and rear column, as Stanley actually did, you wind up with two unrelated games. A team of umpires would be needed to keep things moving. Besides, the fate of the Rear Column — a horrible tale of death and deprivation — deserves a game to itself. For our purposes, any separate body should be handled by non-played characters who won’t demand much attention from the judges. If you have only a few players, pick the most interesting characters and take a company each. Stanley, Jephson, Parke, and Stairs are best for four-player games. Everyone else can be assumed to be stuck at the base at Yambuya awaiting stores, more porters, etc. Background In 1885, the forces of the Mahdi captured Khartoum, killing General Gordon and effectively overrunning the whole of the old Egyptian Sudan. One province held out, however; Equatoria, the southernmost Egyptian outpost. It was an inaccessible region of swamp, tall grasses, and forests on the upper Nile where the modern Sudan and Uganda now meet. A garrison of about 1,500 soldiers, recruited mostly from local tribes, maintained a number of posts against the Mahdists and the fierce Dinka warriors (who conveniently hated one another). The governor was a strange German physician known as Emin Pasha, who was appointed by Gordon some years before. With no outside support it seemed impossible that Emin could defend his province. The few reports that got through, along with his exquisitely detailed studies of the local flora and fauna for the museums of Europe, suggested that he had little ammunition for his rifles and cannon and few spare parts for his two aging steamers. Without a relief expedition, Equatoria would fall. The man chosen to lead the relief expedition was Henry M. Stanley, the man whose “Dr. Livingstone I presume?” had catapulted to instant fame. Stanley was the most renowned African explorer of the day. He spent several years working for King Leopold of Belgium as an official of the Congo Free State. For reasons of his own, Stanley decided to lead the expedition not from the east coast of Africa along the usual route to the Great Lakes country, but through the unexplored Ituri Forest of the Congo. To do this required the aid of an old acquaintance, a merchant prince in the slave and ivory trade known as Tippu Tib. This man was the leader, if anyone could be said to be, of the bands of “Arabs” (mostly Zanzibari muslims leading private armies of local cannibal gunmen) that dominated the eastern Congo basin. Stanley arranged for Tippu Tib to be made governor of the Stanley Falls district by King Leopold. Nobody believed this arrangement would last. The game begins in June 1887. Stanley has formed up his column at a village called Yambuya, at the head of navigation on the River Aruwimi, a tributary of the Congo. Steamers can reach Yambuya but beyond there, only canoes and similar small craft can travel the river as it snakes through the Ituri forest. The Aruwimi flows from the east but where it rises is unknown. It is believed from measurements of longitude that Yambuya is about 350 miles due west of Emin Pasha’s southern outposts on Lake Albert. It might be 600 miles in practical terms. To the Mountains of the Moon: A Campaign Game An Expedition with Mr. Henry Morton Stanley, the Famous Explorer Introduction and Background Stanley's Party and Knowledge Rules Events Battle Report Historical Expedition and Bibliography Back to Table of Contents -- Courier # 90 To Courier List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2004 by The Courier Publishing Company. This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com