Ahmed wiped the sweat from his mouth with the back of his hand while peering intently ahead. With a slow horizontal motion, he then raked the foremost jungle climbers aside, revealing a large, upright stone upon which was carved a leering human visage. This evoked a nervous murmer from the party behind him which he quickly silenced with an upraised hand. He then bowed his head and appeared to study his feet for what seemed like a minute, only to lift it and consider again the stone carving. Muttering “there is no god but Allah,” as much it seemed to himself as to anyone, he then waved the party forward and delved into the jungle…

Background

This wargame scenario is designed for use with the “The Sword in Africa,” the small unit African skirmish variant found in the 20th anniversary edition of TSATF and is based on the scenario idea “Rags to Riches” found in the same. In this scenario a party of Zanzibari raiders are attempting to reach the safety of the coast with their ill-gotten gains, closely pursued by several bands of vengeful natives. Complicating matters further, the raider’s escape route carries them through the sacred ground of a group of pygmies who have plentiful supplies of poisoned arrows readied for use against pursuers and pursued alike!

Forces Involved

The scenario is designed for three players, with one player controlling the raiders, another the natives, and the third the pygmies:

• The Zanzibari raiders consist of one 10 man group of Arab riflemen, one 10 man group of Arab musketmen, two 10 man groups of irregular askaris (treat as Ruga-Rugas), and two 8 man units of native bearers. The raiders are led by two leaders and the bearers by one overseer. One leader should be designated as the senior leader. These units should be setup at the beginning of the game 6-10 inches from the western table edge. Their setup precedes the designation of the pygmy units location (see below).
• The pursuing natives consist of three 8 man units of spear-armed tribesmen and two 8 man units of tribesmen armed with muskets. All of these units are considered off-board at the game’s onset. Their time of arrival is random and is diced for as follows: During the beginning of each turn roll a 1d6 for each unit with the unit appearing on a roll of 6. Add +1 to the die roll for each game turn beyond the second (example add +1 on turn 3, +2 on turn 4, etc.). The unit’s arrival location is also random and is determined rolling a 1d8:

  1-4: center of the western table edge
  5-6: Center of the southern table edge
  7-8: Center of the northern table edge

The natives are led by two leaders each of which should be attached to one of the units before play begins. One of these should be designated the senior leader.

The pygmies consist of two bands of archers with 10 men each and one band of spearmen with 10 men. They begin the game concealed in locations recorded by the gamemaster (GM). Their player may locate them in any location within the area designated as sacred ground (refer to map). They have one senior leader.

Objectives

To win, the Zanzibari must exit the eastern table edge with at least half their loot by the end of 12 turns. Each of the sixteen bearers is considered to be carrying one article of loot and eight of these articles must be transported off the eastern table edge for the raiders to succeed. Note that it is not required that the bearers themselves actually carry the loot off the table edge; the Arabs or their askari may alternatively accomplish this task though any figures carrying packs are prohibited from firing and suffer a –2 in close combat. The natives win by preventing the Zanzibari from achieving their victory conditions.

The pygmy player wins by simply having fun! Since any violation, no matter how small, of their sacred ground is a “loss,” the pygmy player’s objective is simply to punish the Arabs and/or natives for their intrusion while having as much fun as they can in the process. Their command is ideally suited to first time gamers or the more casual gamers in one’s group.

The Battlefield

The battlefield should measure 6 feet by 4 feet and consists of a forested valley opening out onto an expanse of beach. The pygmies’ sacred ground lies astride the middle of the valley and its boundaries are defined by five stone carvings. These carvings are considered to be swathed in jungle foliage and their location should not be represented on the battlefield at the game’s outset. They only become visible and marked on the battlefield once a raider or native moves within 8 inches of them. Pygmy units are disallowed from moving outside the area demarcated by these carvings and will not engage any unit outside this area though they may attack with bowfire any unit which first fires on them. Note that the Zanzibari and native players should be left to figure out on their own these limitations on pygmy fire and movement.

The hills defining the sides of the valley are considered to be steep and only accessible via the trails marked on the map. Unit movement across the low-lying sand dunes east of the valley is 2d6+2 inches per turn.

Special Rules

1) If fired upon or charged, the bearers will drop their loads and run one movement distance directly away from the source of the threat. If still within 12 inches of their overseer, they may then make a morale check on a 1d6 to determine if their flight is arrested: on a roll of 1-3 they rally and may return to the dropped loads the following turn; on a roll of 4-6 they continue fleeing and are removed from play.

2) “The Sword in Africa” rules stipulate that units must begin making morale checks each turn once their leader is killed to determine whether or not they will break and flee the table. A +1 penalty should be added to these dice rolls when checking the morale of askari and native units operating within the sacred ground. The Arab units, fortified by their Moslem faith, are relatively unaffected by its “taboo” nature and suffer no penalties to morale checks. Pygmy units receive a –1 modifier on morale checks.

3) It was common for the pygmy tribes of Africa to coat their arrows with poison derived from the seeds of the strophanthus plant. This poison caused paralysis by increasing the contractile strength of striped muscles and could potentially cause fatal heart attacks through its digitalis-like effect. In this scenario both pygmy archer units are assumed to have unlimited supplies of arrows coated with this poison the effect of which is as follows: Whenever an archer misses then the GM should secretly roll a d6 with a 6 indicating that the arrow actually grazed a figure within the target unit thereby poisoning it. This figure should be randomly determined. The GM should then roll a further d6, with the result indicating the number of turns that will elapse before the target figure suddenly suffers a fatal heart attack and is removed from play at the indicated turn’s conclusion.

To build suspense and create atmosphere, the GM should warn the player of something having affected the figure one turn prior to his demise (“Suddenly Hamad is noted to fall behind the group, his face contorted with pain, one hand clutching his heart!”).

Hope you enjoy the scenario. Remember that the native and Zanzibari players have no knowledge of the pygmies presence or their sacred ground at the game’s onset.