Evil natives led by the villainous Zobeir have kidnapped the young daughter of the German Consul. They intend to hold her for ransom. However they have not reckoned on Kapitan Von Der Lupe, commander of the Consular Guard and chief suitor to the beauteous Gretchen. He collects all available men from the guard and gives chase. (I designed this scenario simply as an excuse to use the Foundry Prussians I had been painting. Pathans made fine natives and the young lady figure from the Space 1889 adventurers set played Gretchen.)

Zobeir holed up in a small walled village bordering a body of water. He placed a few of his riflemen in the town, but dispersed most of them for surprise attacks on the advancing Germans. Von Der Lupe and his men (all seven of them – it's all I had painted) came out through a pass and approached the village just before dusk. (I put two natives with muskets on top of the tallest building in the town and two more in a small walled courtyard. All the rest would enter the board randomly. Zobeir and Gretchen would be in one of three buildings at the far end of town. The Germans would have to keep searching until they found her. Whenever the special event card was drawn, 2d6 would be rolled as long as it looked like the Germans were succeeding. On a 2, Zobeir would kill Gretchen. This ensured that the Germans didn't dilly-dally.)

Von Der Lupe sent two men to cover the village from a small hill on his left and act as a reserve. With the rest he advanced. Two more were sent to protect the right flank. The men on the left commenced long range fire on the natives on top of the building, killing one immediately. Suddenly a native appeared off to the right. The two men on that flank fired and missed. The enemy returned fire, stunning one of the Germans. Von Der Lupe sent one more man to that flank. Then another native appeared, running from the village towards the main German party, screaming and waving a spear! (Each group of two men was sent to occupy one of the random entry points.

The first group succeeded, but the second group was surprised by a figure appearing at the spot they were going to cover! The European firing card was drawn, but they both missed. They were surprised, I guess. They rest of the Germans were screened by some bushes. The native firing card was drawn soon afterwards and the native scored a glancing hit on one of the Germans. Since there was no way to predict when the recover card was going to appear, Von Der Lupe had to send yet another man over to the right flank to cover that random entry point (I decided stunned figures didn't count). Then, another random roll placed a melee weapon-armed native at the entry to the village. Melee weapon armed natives were all pre-programmed to charge the nearest enemy. So now the battle has barely started and all of Von Der Lupe's plans have disintegrated! Just like real war!)

Before anything could happen, the native was upon them. He engaged one of the German infantry. While the combat raged, Von Der Lupe and his one remaining infantryman raced for the closest building of the village. They leaped inside. The rifleman went to the window that looked towards the far end of the village and was promptly shot by one of the two natives hidden in the courtyard just adjacent to the building. (This was one of the problems with the card system and why I am considering adding another melee card to the deck. The native was able to run right up to the Germans without being shot at. Okay, I can accept that. However, the next card was the European movement card.

So now Von Der Lupe had to decide to stay where he was and help out in the melee, whenever it came, or move on and get out of sight of the rifleman on the rooftop. Was this realistic? Maybe, I don't know for sure. Anyway, Von Der Lupe and the one soldier remaining ran into the house. I made the decision that the soldier would go to the window with the intent of shooting out of it. Thus he was a valid target. Before he could fire, the native fire card was drawn and a lucky shot put him down.)

Meanwhile, the group on the right flank finally killed the native with the musket. The group on the left were continuing to shoot at the native on the rooftop, but not getting any hits. The hand to hand combat saw the native cut down the poor German, but soon afterwards he was himself shot by the flanking force. Von Der Lupe decided to recall the group on the right flank, leaving it unguarded, for a concerted push to get rid of the two natives in the courtyard. The natives had other ideas, and two of them appeared from nowhere and charged towards Von Der Lupe's hiding place! (With one man down and another stunned, I decided to bring everyone together except for the two men on the left. I could not afford to leave that entry point unoccupied.

A native with a gun there would have been very bad news. As the Germans were moving towards Von Der Lupe, two successive native movement cards were drawn, and two figures were rolled for. One came from towards the front of the village, the other from the back. They both headed for the luckless captain.)

The brave Prussian calmly shot down both charging natives with his pistol. His three infantrymen, the stunned one having recovered, dashed for his location. One of them entered the house, while the other two, after a pause to catch their breath, ran across the street to take cover behind a wall. Meanwhile the two infantry holding the left finally disposed of the native on the rooftop. (Another feature of the game is variable movement. Natives move 1d6, while Europeans move an average die (an average die is a normal die, but with an extra 2 and 5 taking the place of 1 and 6). The first European movement roll was only a 2. This would have left the figures out in the open in full view of the natives in the courtyard. Thus the pause to catch their breath. The next roll was a 5, which gave them enough movement to race across safely).

Then disaster struck. Two lucky shots rang out and the infantryman in the building with Von Der Lupe was hit, along with one of the men behind the wall! Far from panicking, the other man behind the wall scored two quick hits of his own and killed both the natives in the courtyard. Von Der Lupe now had some serious thinking to do. He had lost half his force and was barely even in the village. The streets were quiet, but more natives might appear at any moment. He knew he couldn't abandon any of his wounded, and if he lost one more man there would be no way he could safely retire.

He made the decision to pull back. (Once again, the fortunes of war. The native sharpshooters got two lucky hits on the Germans, stopping the attack at just the right time. And although the surviving rifleman shot the natives, it was too late. With 50% losses there was no way Von Der Lupe could risk continuing. The morale check card was drawn, and the result indicated that the Germans could advance no closer to the enemy. They later recovered, but by then it was too late. Also, although it wasn't in the rules, I determined that one man could carry a wounded man at half speed, while two men could carry a wounded man at full speed. Since there were only four Germans left, it would be very difficult to pull out if any more figures were lost. Gretchen would just have to wait for her rescue.)

Von Der Lupe had no recourse but to summon forth the two men in reserve to help carry the wounded. He himself carried the two men out of the house he was in, stopping to gun down another attacking native in the process. The four survivors then slowly made their way back to the pass from which they came. One careless native thought to chase them, but he was shot down in his tracks. Then only taunts and laughter followed them, taunts of shame that burned into Von Der Lupe's brain. (Funny how things worked out. Once the Germans started retreating, there were almost no more natives that appeared. Just one, who was immediately shot. I guess the dice knew they had won. I also stopped rolling to see if Zobeir would kill Gretchen. The closest I came to rolling snake-eyes during the fighting was "4". I didn't really want her to die, anyway.)

Highly distraught, the young captain returned to the consulate, slumped in defeat. But wait! The Consul has learned that two dhows recently departed the port. They are in league with Zobeir. They intend to pick him up at the village and transport him further down the coast, to hostile territory beyond reach of Europeans. If he makes it, he can head inland and will never be found. The consul has arranged a joint rescue effort with the British consul. You and your surviving men, plus some British Marines, will board a British gunboat and give chase! (Oh boy! A sea battle with boarding action! We'll see if Von Der Lupe can redeem himself and rescue the fair maiden.)

Roll to Your Rifle 1:1 Skirmish Rules for Victorian Era