THE HOOK My God! The French have taken control of one of the routes to India! I say Mr. Speaker, can we members of the Parliament of Great Britain allow this? No! I say NO! The Frogs can not be allowed to threaten our Empire. We should send an army I say. A military force, to teach this Muhammad Bey who his betters are...And so begins another of Victoria's little wars. This game allows you to play the invasion of Dar as Salaam. Where you can pit English fire power against Islamic faith. DAR AS SALAAM 1880 Though Dar as Salaam is technically part of the Ottoman Empire it has been effectively independent for over fifty years. In that time the Bey (governor) has worked constantly to modernize his state. The army has modern rifles and good German cannon. Many of the farmers grow cash crops for sale to the West. The ruling class even wear Western cloths. But this has not come without a price tag. The Bey has gone far into debt. Mainly to the French. Now the French have moved to cash in on their loans. They seek to take control of the financial arm of the Salaamite government. A move that would effectively make Dar as Salaam a French protectorate. Another slice of Africa for France. Something the British government can not allow! Dar as Salaam sits on one of the routes to India. Not a good route like Egypt - with its canal - but a route none the less. There in lies the English interest in the state. They can not allow a foreign power to control any route to their Imperial prize. The Bey does not want war, but his French bankers will not let him compromise his way out of their debt so war it will be. His forces are small be well equipped. And he can always call on the local population to support his cause. Given time he will have greater numbers and the defensive position. The English on the other hand have a large army and the best equipment in the world. If the penny pinchers in London don't cheap out, the attackers should out number the Bey's army and settle the matter in short order. THE MAP AND MOVEMENT All the action of this game happens in the Beylik of Dar as Salaam. It takes an argument to move from one town/village to the next. But once at a location, one can move around in it freely. The invasion starts on the coast and works its way inland. THE FORCES Unlike in other games the players do not automatically get all the forces listed here. At the beginning of the game the players will do a series of matrix arguments about which forces they do get. So the list shown here are the maximum forces available. Individual characters start somewhere on the map. With their military units or by themselves. BRITAIN (All Invaders start off the coast) 5 Battalions of Infantry 1 Battalion of Sailors 1 Squadron of Cavalry 6 Cannon 1 Riverboat 1 Battalion of Police FRANCE 1 Detachment of Resident Guards (Starts in Dar as Salaam) DAR AS SALAAM (All regulars start in Dar as Salaam) 4 Battalions of Regular Infantry 2 Squadrons of Cavalry 4 Cannon 5 Bands of Irregular Tribal Infantry (Start in the villages) 1 Band of Bedouin Cavalry (Start in the desert) 5 Bands of Irregular Black Infantry (Start off board in the distant south) Map More Dar as Salaam Introduction The Invasion Example of Play Characters Back to Table of Contents -- Matrix Gamer #10 To Matrix Gamer List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1999 by Chris Engle. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com