I needed a game. Not simply something colourful, but a one-off, entertaining, multi-player game, suitable for at the best novice and the worst non-wargamers. Let me explain. For the past decade or more, I’ve put on a Christmas Wargame for between three and eight of my historian colleagues, the number varies year to year. Usually, its a straightforward looking naval or land game, with a ‘twist in the tail’: a secret weapon, a chance event, or presence known only to the umpire - me. Who can forget the “Good Ship Venus” game in which five gallant Admirals fought to the death over a stranded galleon, which turned out to be a plague ship? Or the “Storming of Santa Rioja”, where half a dozen small contingents of mercenaries of sundry nationalities fought within the walls of a captured city, acquiring loot as they went; only to drop like flies from the poisoned wine left behind by the departing Commander. The Scots alone survived since the beer wasn’t laced. Or, and what a tour de force this was: The “Siberia Calls” game in which, rather like an initiative test c.1567AD, nine gallant Cossack mercenaries, accompanying a sled or two loaded with gold, headed back to the trading fort on the river. They met it all. Thin ice, bears, native raiders and I kept the best till last, a veritable army of wolves, over a hundred strong (borrowed from a ‘D&D’ group). Eaten within sight of the fort, and to think they believed that once the garrison fired the cannon all would be well. Sad, eh? You get the picture? I found what I wanted in my son’s old toy box. The game was fought in 15mm scale, using a smallish model ship and a limited amount of terrain and a few buildings. My game took place on a billiard tabletop, which is much larger than a pool table. Forces were divided into 5 commands, you could increase or reduce the number with little effort. SCENARIO It’s 1528AD, somewhere in the South Atlantic, off Africa. A Spanish Nao “Santa Susanna” approaches a bank of cloud. Short of water, they realise this is an island and head for it. The ship anchors in a lagoon, between two promontories on each of which there are some primitive form of fortification, a fishing village, and some canoes. There is obviously a minor tribal war going on between the two communities and thinks Don Diego, the Spanish Captain, some ‘Gold and Glory’ to be had. He calls his men together. The Island The island, Fropieal, is very large, and the rumbling of a volcano can be heard. Only two narrow promontories of land appear on the table. Each settlement has a few huts, a large idol (gold???) and a handful of dugout canoes. A very tall wooden stockade, with a simple high gate, separates each village from the main part of the island forest. The water supply is outside each gate at a spring or stream. The old bones of a wrecked ship lie in the middle of the lagoon. The Islanders An ancient people, split by an old feud, they will fight each other at any given chance; canoe borne raids for slaves or gold are common events. In fact, one may well be in progress when the ship approaches. Each village has about 20 or 30 warriors, armed with spears and javelins, and short bows, used normally for fishing. I umpired three attempts at this game and surprisingly, the native groups do well. The Spaniards Don Diego has problems. His almost mutinous crew variously armed with arquebus, swords and bucklers, pistols, halberds, glaives and crossbows, have an alternative, persuasive young leader in Don Jose, who will lead half a dozen, perhaps more of the 20 surviving crew on any mad scheme which will make him rich. He must be watched. Don Diego would like to use Don Jose and his ruffians as a ‘glorious’ advance guard. He would not be unhappy to lose them all in exchange for a decent bit of gold and full water casks. The Guests The wreck in the lagoon is not that old! It was an Arab slave trader, which was driven in by a storm recently. Not all of the crew died, there are 6 Arabs living in one of the villages (no, I don’t know which village!). They take no part in the islanders’ conflicts, which is fortunate since they all have European copied firearms and a small petrara breech-loading cannon salvaged from the wreck. If the Arabs get the chance, they would be most interested in acquiring the Spanish ship and sailing away. They hate all Dons! The Game Any basic set of Renaissance skirmish rules will do for the game. I distributed the five groups of ‘forces’, that’s the two native groups, the Arabs, and the two Spanish units - Don Diego with the bulk of the crew (for the moment) and Don Jose and his hotheads at random to the five historians gathered. If needs be, the crew left aboard, say three men, could be another player. I let them determine their own objectives more or less. Obviously, water and gold for the Dons, the ship for the Arabs, and to repel the interlopers and survive for the natives. The natives have an ally. Out in the forest beyond each palisade an enormous amount of fauna exists - Leopards, troops of monkeys, 30 foot long anacondas - all of which can be involved in ‘defending’ the island if, or rather when, the interlopers move beyond the stockades to find water. The tall palisades, incidentally, are intended to prevent one of the islands most interesting animals from causing havoc in the villages. I based the scenario (yes, you recognise it now) loosely on “King Kong” and so the island, unknown to the Arab and European players, has a giant ape. ‘Kong,’ or whatever you want to call the ape, is curious by nature, generally protective towards the islanders who provide him with the odd treat (not a’ la Fay Wray!). The ape is controlled, for the most part, by the umpire, but can be summoned by drum, or conch or fire, whatever, by the natives, but can’t be ‘used’ by one native player against the other. Being inquisitive, if he hears gunfire, a new sound, he will head for the source. Of course if threatened or attacked by ‘King Kong’ the visitors will try to kill him. After all, these are C 16th entrepreneurs and desperados, not C2Oth circus owners with an eye to the Hollywood nights. ‘Kong’ can only be killed by the direct fire of cannon such as those aboard the “Santa Susanna”, though handguns will annoy him, maybe (Huh!) drive him off. A wounded ape would be particularly dangerous and apes are capable of bursts of great speed. Yes, they can swim reasonably well too! Well, compared to the Spaniards. The Arab player, since the Europeans didn’t know of his force’s existence, stayed hidden in one game, and using the native canoes sailed out to fight for the ship, captured it and fired the cannon at the ship’s boat on the beach to sink it. Just as Don Diego is opening the gate to send out his forage party, the gunfire makes him split his force. One bunch of Spaniards get to see the old “Santa Susanna” sailing off, the other get to meet ‘King Kong’. Oh, dear! In the second game, we ended up with four minor wars on the table. The great ape, not surprisingly, destroyed one village that the Arabs had set on fire, and then destroyed them. The last game was the best. These Don’s were smart, taking one of the ships guns ashore with them to impress the natives, they drove them into the forest and set up the gun inside the gate in case they came back. These unspeakable gentlemen actually managed to kill ‘Kong’ with several rapid shots from a wrought-iron breech-loader, before dismounting the idol and carrying it back to the beach. Unfortunately, (didn’t I mention this earlier?) apes are fairly gregarious creatures and the late lamented ‘King Kong’ was just one of a small family of simians living in the forest. When he emits a cry, all the other apes get a little annoyed and want to know where he is and what’s happening to Dad, or you might say ‘Junior’- after all who says ‘Kong’s’ the biggest ape on the island? I have to say, the table looked quite delightful as the five (yes, FIVE!) great apes strolled through and over the gates and set about the Spaniards and Arabs. The villages were flattened too, but never mind, the natives could all live quite nicely in the new floating accommodation so recently vacated by the owners and you could actually fish from the side without using a canoe! As the elderly academic who played one of the tribal leaders said “If this lot are supposed to be gods, how come the monkey flattened them?” Well, there it is. Not an utterly ‘historically accurate’ wargame, but one which you might find useful if you have a couple of possibly interested visitors around at Christmas time and desperately want to involve them in wargaming, the only serious intellectual activity for mankind. You might even be lucky and find that the film of “King Kong”, surfaces (again!) over the holiday period. By the way, I used 15mm scale figures by ‘PETER PIG’, with a sprinkling of TTG and Mick Yarrow figures. For the natives, from Range 10, packs number 15, 16 and 25, and from Range 3, one or two figures from packs number 43, and 48. Mick Yarrow’s Native American Indians provided chiefs, etc. The Dons all came from individual figures in ‘Peter Pigs’ Range 14, packs 2, 3, 4, 5, and 7 are most useful, and I used the command group Spaniards from Mick Yarrow’s 16th century Spanish range, with one or two pikemen and shot. The gun was a little item, no.4190/A from the ‘Amati’ scale model ship accessory series. For the Arabs, I used a couple of the Omani foot figures in Mick Yarrow’s range and added one or two suitable figures from ‘Pig’s’ Ranges 10 and 14. ‘Kong’ and his family were toys of the Britains ‘zoo’ range type and the ship and boats were old models re-furbished. Try it. NO ANIMAL WAS HARMED DURING THE MAKING OF THIS WARGAME. Back to Table of Contents -- Lone Warrior # 141 Back to Lone Warrior List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2003 by Solo Wargamers Association. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. 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