THE RULES OF THE GAME

As is so often the case with my games, there really aren't many. Each player begins the game with a certain number of tokens indicating his 'Baraka' ('blessing'). This determines his place in the order of action. The lower your Baraka, the earlier you must take your turn. This means simply stating what you intend to do during a three day period, and can range from 'sitting home with the wives and goats' to quite elaborate behaviour involving movement, fighting, diplomacy, public displays of piety, proclamations etc.

My favourite remains the man who ordered seamstresses to sew him a French flag on turn one, so that he could publicly burn it on turn two! Most actions will be 'open', but the umpire may permit secret actions, as he deems appropriate. A player with higher Baraka can intercept the actions of a lower, though this counts as his own turn. In general, the later you move, the better for you.

The umpire will give or take Baraka points according to the success or honour of the player's actions; for myself, I point for straightforward 'going to the mosque' or 'patrolling for bandits' actions. more for decisive or risky actions. Staying home gets you none, but risks none. Baraka is most easily measured by simple tokens, which can be traded, lost, or stolen between players. Observers of modern politics may see a parallel in campaigning for office. The French have no Baraka, and French players can move once per character anywhere they like in the sequence; they do not have to act at the same time. Once all players have announced their moves, umpire resolves any conflicts, and allows a period - 5 or 10 minutes - for fevered lying to one another before the next turn.

MOVEMENT

Moroccans

'Razzias' (raiding parties) or other mtd retinues; Baraka + D6 X 10 miles

'Harkas' (armies including men on foot & camp followers); Baraka + D6 x 5 miles

French

Cavalry patrols 80 miles march 120 miles forced march

Light Columns 60 miles march 90 miles forced march

Heavy Columns 40 miles march 60 miles forced march

French forces move at half speed through rough country, no deduction for Moroccans. The mountains can only be crossed at passes, though I mountaineer' Berber foot can move elsewhere on the mountains at half speed.

COMBAT

I've used several different, quick methods for this game, mostly involving the '6's hit' theory. Basically its up to the umpire to free-kriegsspiel combat according to whatever seems reasonable. High Baraka would be the key in fights between Moroccans, but, in the real campaign, 20,000 of them lost heavily to a French square with 12 75mm guns, 1,200 magazine rifles and 8 machine guns at the battle of Sidi Bou Othman. My favourite combat sequence was a game in which one player was to be set upon by a mob on entering Marrakesh. I set about two thirds of the players up as the mob, with the rest as bodyguards. Then I told them they had ten seconds to touch the intended victim on the head. He was seen crawling under his bodyguards' legs, hand over his head, and survived the assassination.

ACTUAL SEQUENCE OF EVENTS

August 12 Sultan Moulai Hafid abdicates.

At right: Typical settlement of a walled ksar in the Draa valley, Morocco.

14 French envoys leave Marrakesh for Safi, but are intercepted by El Ayadi's Rehamna horsemen and forced to return to the city. Thami el Glaoui 'protects' them.

15 El Hiba. crosses the Tiz-n-Babaoun, with M'Touggi's consent.

18 El Hiba enters Marrakesh, receiving homage of the great Caids. Mangin defeats raid by El Hiba's brother.

23 Period of diplomatic agility between all factions. Thami el Glaoui holds the hostages,and refuses to give any to M'Touggi, but gives five of them into El Hiba's keeping, with one remaining for bargaining.

El Hiba's desert nomads make themselves unpopular in Marrakesh.

Sept 4 Lyautey instructs Mangin to 'go ahead'.

5 Mangin moves south from Settat

6 Mangin defeats El Hiba at Sidi Bou Othmann

7 Driss Menou plots to steal hostages from El Hiba, to hand them over to the French himself. Thami el Glaoui gets them, releases them to Major Simon, and gets all the credit.

El Hiba remained active in his revolt, south of the Atlas, for a number of years, but never again threatened Marrakesh. The French were in charge from now on. Thami el Glaoui was able to parlay his recent (very recent) pro-French behaviour into a position of great power. El Ayadi joined the French side before Sidi Bou Othmann. M'Touggi slipped badly in prestige, and with him the active but unlucky Driss Menou. Goundafi stayed home throughout. Corcos got rich. Accounts, from different approaches, can be found in Gavin Maxwell's excellent Lords of the Atlas (1966) and Douglas Porch The Conquest of Morocco (1982).

BATTLE REPORT

Bismillah! Hardly any rules, lots of wickedness. I've put this one on twice at conventions, as well as subjecting the locals to it. At Twistercon '94 in Oklahoma City, Chris Engle, the Indiana madman (my gaming twin) was the Pretender, a role well suited to him since he wore a real Moroccan jellabah and quoted what he said were bits of the Koran. I knew he was going to win when the French intelligence officer got orders from above to assassinate his own field commander, and then bungled the public explanation (read "lies') that followed.

The young woman (now Josephine Corcos) who arranged to be carried up a mountain in the only car in Morocco, all the time forging incriminating documents against the Pretender, also deserved great credit for making the most of her role. There was a lot of rather pathetic fighting between rather pathetic troops - I forget the details -but the real action was in hiding from the city mob, and getting strangled in dungeons. I won best of show for this one. My head swoll up beyond its usual size. I was unbearable for weeks.

When I ran it at the Siege of Augusta convention in January '95, we had 15 players, 33,000 'troops' (ranging from the French Armee d'Afrique, very bad news, to mobs of mountain shepherds of a military value known only to their owners) wandering about the map, posing about and avoiding actual bloodshed like mad.

There were two casualties - Madani el Glaoui was bumped off by his brother and blamed on the Pasha of Marrakesh, and the Pasha himself, who made himself so unpopular that he was deposed, imprisoned, and strangled with his own chains by the guard.

Note: the Pasha of Marrakesh always gets toasted in this game, just warning you. It really isn't fair or balanced. But you knew that when we started. El Hiba won that one too, thanks to his ability to promise good behaviour to the French privately. while keeping the crowd stirred up against the infidels in public. Bloody clever, as Colonel Bagshot told me at the time.

Lords of the Atlas Introduction