The huge island of Mafrica is located along the equator and is slightly larger than the state of Texas in square miles but much more elongated. It is a land of stark contrasts with extensive mountain ranges, a major desert, large areas of jungle, grassland plains, and some marshes.
The population is as varied as the geography with several ethnic groups and various religions within the borders of a total of seven nations. It's history has been a violent one with many major wars and constant smafler conflicts.
It is this fictional psuedo-historical place that is the location of a series of miniatures campaigns and games. While the games may vary, they are all tied together by the common geopgraphy/history that I created called Mafrica.
SUMMARIES OF THE NATIONS OF MAFRICA
Mafrican Federal Republic - By far the largest of the nations of Mafrica, it stretches along most ofthe eastern coast ofthe island and is the only country to have borders with all other countries. It's capital city, Alitarnarivu in the south, is ihe largust city oClwafiica. The majority of the people are of the Mero ethnic group, the most populous ofthe island. But it's very much works against it. The NTR has long been troubled with a determined insurgency in the north of the country, as the minority Rupa, who occupy much of the wilder and rural area-, seek their independence from the central government Also adding fuel to the fire is that the Rupa are animist in religion when the vast majority of Mero are Muslim.
The government is hardly stable either, it's actual republic long overthrown by military generals who actually run the country while allowing meaningless elections to make sure their candidate gets the vote. The Mero military receives much hardware from other sympathetic Muslim states around the world but even so it's army, numerically the largest on the island, is of uneven quality. Officer cliques infect the military and often political reliability or nepotism decide who is promoted instead of abiliiy.
The MTR, while not currently at war with any of its neighboring states, has less than cordial relations with most of them. Only the southem nation of Zende enjoys a border free and trade flows freely back and forth. Their historical rival is Amhara, the Amhara people have been deadly enemies of the Mero as far back as history is recorded Sorder incident, and the two governments only grudgingly maintain dipolomatic contacts. The central government accuses the Amhara of supporting the northern insurgents, a charge denied by the Amharic government but actually acknowledged by any neutral observers as fairly obvious.
The MFR is also hostile to both Yamoussa and especially Freistadt It openly backs the rebel fighters operating along its western border inside Freistadt. Inside MFR territory, rebels are trained in military camps and equipped from MFR military stocks. The white government of Freistadt is fully aware of this and is bitterly opposed to the MFR .
Probably because of the forbidding geography separating the two. the MFR has little to do with Ouada either politically or in commerce. The neighbor Bagarida, tribes that once fought the Mero centuries before and lost but now the MFR almost considers the country to be, a client-state Actually the Rnuandans have no love.for them. They do some trade and their corrupt government is too weak internally to be concerned with other states.
The MFR has a lot of resources with known mineral deposits, rich soil, some oil found. and if it ever solves it's considerable political problems could become a major power besides just in Mafrica
Amhara
This land is a huge highland plateau formed by surrounding mountains on all sides It's population is just as insular, some would say xenophobic. The highlander people known as the Amhara have always had a reputation as fierce lighters and for most of history have been hostile to all outsiders Driven into the highlands many centuries ago by their more numerous enemies, they then thrived in their present situation. Virtually no other non-Amharic people live within their borders they also are united by a common religion of their own particular form of Christianity bought by European mssionaries in the l4th century
The Amhara are predomiantly agricultural but do have some rapidly growing cities and mines for copper and silver bring in hard ciiii-ency The government is leftist-leaning , having overthrown their ancient emperor and his dynasty some twenty years earlier in a bloody coup. The military have the predominant role in the government and indeed soldiering is a very respected career culturally among the Amharic compared to many world cultures.
Foreign relations, especially with other Mafrican states, is easy to summarize. The Amhara don't really get along well with anybody - though they do covertly support the northern insurgency of the Rupa in the NIFR. They share a mutual dislike of the MFR government with Freistadt but have never even recognized the control the whites had over the former GurtTidn colony and now independent nation During the Cold War, the Amhara refused to align with either the West or the Soviet bloc but both to help train officers and purchas military equipment. They fear any foreign control over their mineral resources. Because of this their development remains limited compared to their potential.
Freistadt
Located along the southern part of the west coast, Freistaat was once a colony of Germans in the 19th century and the white population still living there is solidly German in background though immigration was open to any. After the Great War, Freistadt struck out on its own and is a republic based on the old German Diet. However, only the whites have the vote and only the whites own the commercial companies and farm estates. Periodic black unrest over the last few centuries has always been harshly dealt with. Despite world disapproval and outright hostility from other Mafrican countries, the Freisiadters insist they run their "homeland" as they see in. The blacks are the main labor force - not slaves but not first-class citizens either.
Freistadt has offshore oil and major diamond deposits along its western coast so it is quite wealthy and thus has been able to well-equip its virtually all-white army - generally considered the best in Mafrica with all the German military traditions A few reliable blacks even serve and to help control the interior tribal districts there is even a small black police force.
Freistadt is currently fighting throughout its grasslands plains with a couple of black guerilla movements, which the white government refers to as "terrorists" while the rest of Mafrica sees as "freedom fighters". The MFR helps supply the small arms and also gives sanctuaries to the rebel fighters in cross border camps. Occasionally the Freistadters have crossed the border in short punitive raids. Neighboring Baganda, to the south, is also sympathetic to the guerrillas but less capable of aiding them materially.
History is no doubt on the side of the overwhelming numerical advantages of the blacks in Mafrica but these traditionall whites refuse to change thus far nd are willing to fight for it.
Zende
Occupying the far southeastern comer of the island, Zende is the smallest of the nations of Mafrica but actually one.of the most stable. A former colony of France, it has several small tribes of generally peaceful and cooperative backgrounds with a common extra language of French but virtually no whites remained when the French gave up the colony after the Great War. Like most Mafrican countries it is predominantly agricultural and it's chief port and capital city, Nandibo, exports many foodstuffs to world markets. The Zende are known as keen businessmen and were successful traders even in ancient times.
Zeride gets along well enough with both its neighbors, the MFR and Baganda, so it has a very small military compared to the rest of Mafrica. The West has lately invested in Zende thru the World Bank and the government, democratically elected, has devoted much effort to improving education and medical treatment to- the people. If there's a bright spot to Mafrica most would say it was Zeende.
Baganda
Situated south of Freistadt and to the west of Zende is Baganda. This land has always been a troubled one with several small rival tribes thoroughly mixed together and often involved in power struggles for control of the government. I he current regime is barely clinging to power, its president feuding with the National Assembly and due to his belonging to a tiny tribe with little influence, the military loyalty is shaky too. The majority of the soldiers are members of the Acholi tribe, a warlike tribe since ancient times. Corruption is rampant and factionalism paralyzes most national programs. Economic mismanagement contributed to the problems and for the vast majority of poor, life is extremely hard in Baganda. In the rural areas banditry is becoming rampant.
As far as their neighbors go, Baganda - like all the black states - does not recognize or get - along with Freistadt and while the Bagandan history is filled with lost wars against the Mero of the MFR, they currently tolerate Mero influence inside their own country due to trade and occasional MFR military equipment sales on credit.
Zende is friendly enough and has lately attempted to extend a commercial partnership to the Bagandans though it is difficult due to the corruption and chaos endemic throughout Baganda. National elections are due to come up next year but many neutral observers doubt that the current presidency will even last that long.
Ouada
Located along the middle of the western side of Mafrica, Ouada is dominated geographically by the large Dchanri Desen , which cover-, much of the country. Needless to say, the population ofOuada is the smallest of the Mafrican nations. It also suffers from a distinct split of it, citizens, the coastal inhabitants, who tend to be. somewhat more modern and the interior clans who still dwell in the desert as their ancestors did, a more chaotic bunch long famous for their lack of obedience to any central government or authority.
Even now the current government is dominated by Oua-jofe (coastals) and is facing a simmering rebellion among several of the Oua-tuge (desert-dwellers) clans. Only now the rebels are beginning to get modem vehicles instead of camels and plenty of automatic weaponry!
At one time the army was mostly composed of Oua-tuge, considered more soldier stock but in the last five years the government has stepped up recruiting along the entire coast and has hired foreign mercenaries to help train them. Deep in the interior near the Koum Mountains, a few former army officers of Oua-tuge background have formed a movement called the Brotherhood and claim they will overthrow the central government and occupy the capital city, Ouadalan. They claim that the people, of the interior have long been enslaved by the Otia-jofe and they will change.that.
Most observers expect an outbreak of increased fighting soon. Neither side is looking to other states of Mafrica for much help - the Oua-tuge have had a long history of raiding back and forth with the Amhara and the Oua-jofe hostile to their neighbors both north and south. Both sides would have nothing to do with Freistadt especially and indeed believe they are strong enough to go it alone. A test of strength is coming soon - the central government will have numbers but the desert fighters more experience and reputation.
Yamoussa
The peoples of Yamoussa dwell in some of the worst arid of Mafrica with many marshes and sections of extremely dense rain forest. They were pushed there in early history by the much more populous Meross. Most of them beating the Yamoussa like drums. To the south is the forbidding Dchari Desert hemming them in. It is a poor country with power spread throughhoot local clan leaders and a weak national identity The current government barely influences much outside of the capital city of Tougouri without local approval.
The country is agricultural and barely grows enough to support the population - in fact at times famine rears it's ugly head. Unlike most of the other Mafrican states, thus far there seems to be no real great mineral wealth or oil discovered to help boost the economy or interest world corporations.
Yamoussa is a pipeline however for smuggled arms etc for the northern Rupa insurgents and this has long angered the MFR government. In truth however, the central government regardless of their sympathies either way, can not stop local strongmen from making their own profitable deals with arms merchants and the Rupa. The same is believed that the desert Brotherhood gets a lot of it's mnililary hardware from the Yamoussa southern border.
There is no Yamoussa army merely collections of militias of varying sizes and quality. Seldom however does it all break out into major fighting.
AFTER ACTION REPORT
GUERILLA RAID INSIDE FREISTADT
This, the first Mafrican Campaign game, was an attempt to simulate one of the many low-intensity hit and run style campaigns that occurred in Africa between the black freedom movements and the white governments. Before game night, two volunteer players were given maps of a district inside of the former German colony called Freistadt and also orders of battle for their particular sides. Terry Paul assumed the guise of a guerilla commander of the MLF (Mafrican Liberation Front) and given the mission of planning a raid into this border district. Mike Fisher was the local military commander of the government forces, charged with coming up with a security plan including reactive moves by his troops once a raid was discovered.
Both players came the night of the game with well-thought out plans and other players then divided up into one of the two teams. I refereed and had the original map. I went back and forth between the two sides to track their moves and what they wanted to do, in sort of a free kreigspiel form of game.
The MLF force, over 100 infantry with a few RPGs and a couple of mortars as their main firepower, crossed the border at night and divided into two groups. One group - the largest with over 60 men - headed for a crossroads position and hunkered down in a scrub woods just off the road. They were going to spring an ambush hopefully when a government column drove past. The second group entered a village called Xangano with the goal of seizing the local black headman, a government supporter, and hustling him back across the border for a show trial.
Meanwhile the government forces were concentrated at their airfield base and another military camp just outside the district but ready to roll upon warning. Surprisingly they did not use a helicopter they were given as a recon ship to search for rebels. However, since the guerillas were moving mostly at night, it wouldn't have done much good. They were instead content to have a couple of small landrovers with black auxiliary police driving about the roads mostly. checking upon farms and villages.
A quick role-play between one player as the headman and another as the guerillas ended with the headman being seized without a fight. He was immediately sent back with a couple of squads toward the border. Then early the next morning the guerillas made a phone call using the lone phone in the village to the police station at Rundo, the largest village on the other side of the district.
The guerillas reported the headman seized and gave a false report as to which direction he was taken. Then after a plea for help, they hung up and awaited the government re- action. In the meantime, a police vehicle drove unknowing right past the ambush site on the south road, but the guerillas held their fire. ( I had them roll a d6 and if it would have been a "-1" then their fire discipline wouldn't have held and the ambush would have been triggered.)
The government now sent aloft the helicopter with 4 scout rifleman inside to head for the village of the kidnapping. It dropped off the riflemen about 300 yards from the out- skirts and slowly they moved forward under overwatch from the chopper MG gunner Then the few guerillas left in the village (some others had left earlier with a stolen truck earlier in the morning) opened up on the scouts. We had our first firefight.
They shot it out for a bit - the helicopter did not move any closer to get out of the long range negative modifier that the AK-47 rules have - and the last two riflemen just reached a village building when they were cut down. The helicopter then turned around and headed back on his original patrol route before finally landing at the airfield.
The government now summoned its mobile force of armored cars and APCs with a small force of infantry which rumbled into the district- Other government forces even smaller in size again cautiously approached the original site of the gun battle, Xangano. An interrogation of the locals caused them to learn that the guerillas had taken the guns and radio from the dead army troops and fled for the border. They also were told that a truck was missing -- The local commander ordered the helicopter to go down the east road toward the border and knock out that truck. (It had long crossed however.) The government was under strict orders not to violate the border.
The helicopter spotted a few figures walking along the road just miles from the border and opened up with the MG, killing them. (Ref. note: They were innocent civilians but the government player at that time, not the CO Fisher, never bothered to check. So I guess that makes this sort of a "black wargame" which longtime subscribers will recall was hotly debated in Hal's Letters columns some years back.)
Finally we got ourselves a big fight. The armored column had been checking woods to the south and approached the crossroads ambush at an angle rather than on the road itself The guerillas still waited to open up as the vehicles closed in. But earlier the MLF players had informed me they wanted to make little mounds of dirt on the road to look like many landmines planted there! Even though they had none - the government didn't know that. Clever idea but it now backfired on them.
The lead jeep approached the road ana saw the mounds and reported them to the rest of the column by radio. The column then proceeded to try to swing around the flank south of the woods, angling away from the guerilla fire zone! The guerillas started moving to reorient that flank and a government spotting roll saw some of them scurrying about the woods. The armored cars opened up with cannon and heavy MG fire. They disembarked their infantry who tried to approach the woods. The guerillas then decided to gamble and rush the enemy - trying to close so they could fire their few RPG's and also use their numbers to overwhelm the few infantry there. It almost worked, but firepower shredded several of the attackers and one third of the force failed their morale, fleeing in panic. The government force pulled further back into the open and kept up a curtain of fire. The guerillas fell back then themselves deeper into the woods. Temporary stalemate but broken by an airstrike the government then called in.
A divebomber dropped a napalm bomb into the woods, killing very few but doing the guerillas moral no good! Thought the plane had more firepower left to try to use such as rockets, it wasn't necessary as the guerillas broke and ran (Ref Note: The 3 guerilla players saw their situation as hopeless and asked to voluntarily rout the whole force, figuring some at least would make it back across the border. I agreed as I also realized a fight like this is very unbalanced for those who like a close wargame type of battle). Total losses in the game/operation: Government (4 dead, 1 captured) MLF (56 dead, 18 captured).
Post game analysis was that the game proved to be a fairly good simulation of such an operation; the guerillas had the advantage of hidden movement and picking their places to strike, but the government forces with their overwhelming firepower advantage creamed them when a fight broke out. Not the most exciting tabletop wargame though the double blind map movement was interesting. Figures used were Peter Pig 15mm Modern Africa Range and the rules were the Pig's own AK-47 rules modified by me. The whole thing took about 3 1/2 hours. I thought it was a good opening game for my mythical Mafrica continent but the next game is going to be a full scale battle over a city with lots of troops and both sides having tanks too!
Back to MWAN #103 Table of Contents
Back to MWAN List of Issues
Back to MagWeb Magazine List
© Copyright 2000 Hal Thinglum
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