We wanted to create a scenario which would combine some of the romantic element; of campaigning in WWI East Africa, such as lake gun-boats, railroads, British and German colonial troops, indigenous tribes and Arab traders. The way we brought it all together was to have the players role-play the leader of each group, according to secret instructions known only to them, including mutually conflicting victory conditions. The resulting scenario was played at two local conventions (GameCon III and ConQuest '99). Theater of operations The scene is set in an imaginary British lake-side trading station (see map), flanked by a native village and an Arab trader settlement. The port is linked to up-country farms by a small gauge railroad and is surrounded by dense jungle. The native village used Zulu-style huts, the port was a mix of generic, adobe houses and mission-station type buildings with crates and barrels scattered about, the Arab Trader village was made up of NW Frontier stone huts (the buildings used were a mixture of scratch-built, Aketon and Frontline Wargaming, RLBPS products). The railroad was a conversion from a plastic toy set that seemed about the right scale. The jungle was home made from a variety of imitation silk and plastic plants (ivy and other interesting looking leaf-types) bundled together to look like trees and mounted on flocked peg-board bases (not strictly to scale, but it gives a pretty convincing "jungle feel" to the terrain - idea stolen from MWAN'er Dave Love). A few plastic toy hippos and crocs down by the lakeside added local color. Order of Battle Units contained twenty figures as per "The Sword and the Flame" rules (TSATF), each representing a platoon-sized unit, including, a leader figure. British Kings African Rifles (Frontier figures) plus ten civilian Upcountry evacuees (Ral Partha figures). 17th Punjabi Light Infantry (Ral Partha) Loyal North Lancashire Regiment (Frontier), transported by lake steamer (Frontline Wargaming). Roval Navy Landing Party (Frontier), transported by lake gun-boat (scratch built on an old Lego hull using Richard Houston's naval furniture (hatches, davits, etc.) and riapid-fire naval gun) Two MG with two crew each (Richard Houston and Ral Partha), one deployed in the port, one with the train German Three units of Askaris (Frontier). SW Africa Field Force Schutztruppen (Falcon). Rugga-Rugga (Ral Partha Zulu and Boer War figures). Two MG with two crew each (Richard Houston and Frontier), to be attached to German Units. Neutral Native villagers (40 Ral Partha Zulus armed with a mixture of spears and rifles), also two canoes down by the lakeside, near the village (Frontline Wargaming). Two units of Arab Traders (Ral Rartha Pathans armed with rifles), the traders have two dhows moored lakeside by their village (scratch-built from plans on the Major General Tremorden Rederrim website, http//zeitcom.com/majgen). American safari (Foundry "Darkest Africa" figures, a mix of armed Europeans and natives plus native bearers) There are sufficient units for up to thirteen players. Player objectives It is the eve of the Great War. The overall situation has the British holding a railhead/port by a lake somewhere in East Africa with two units (KAR, 17th Punjabis and 1 MG) against an anticipated German attack from inland. At the same time, in anticipation of the international situation, part of the KAR is attempting to evacuate civilians by rail from upcountry to the relative safety of the port. British reinforcements are expected from across the lake. The natives are thought to be friendly, whereas the traders are known to be restive, possibly pro-German. All German units, the British naval units, the train of KAR and civilians and the Safari start off-board and roll for turn of entry (1D4) and location in either jungle or lake border map squares (1D8) - the train of course starts on the railroad tracks. Movement through the jungle will be hidden (map plotted) until units enter spotting range of each other. Each player received the following, secret instructions and victory conditions You are Lieutenant Pip Sumner, King's African Rifles. With detachments in the port and a train load of up-country evacuees anticipated, you must ensure the security of the port until the safe evacuation of the civilians and the timely withdrawal of the defending troops is achieved. You are Subedar Amir Zaheer, commanding a platoon of the 17th (Punjabi) Light Infantry Your brother has become involved in the Indian Independence movement at home and you yourself are under suspicion. To prove your loyalty, you must ensure that the port is securely defended during the evacuation, Above all , you must keep the flag flying. You are 2nd Lieutenant Roger Ashcroft, Loyal North Lancashire Regiment. Your orders are to aid in the evacuation of the civilians from the town. If necessary, you will follow orders given to you by ranking officers in the town. You are Ensign Whitehouse, age 19. You are in command of the Royal Navy landing party on the steamer "Persephone". This will be the first time in combat for you and your ratings. Your orders are to aid in the evacuation of the civilians from the town. You will follow your orders to the letter. You are Leutnant Otto Plusser (Askaris I). Your orders are to storm the town and haul down the accursed flag. All the better if you can do this before your rival Leutnant Kessler's platoon. You are Oberleutnant Gustaf Holtz (Askaris II). You have caught wind of a rumor that a train due to enter the port is carrying settler gold. You must try to capture it for the good of the Fatherland. If some of it slips into your pockets to pay off gambling debts in Dar-es-Salaam, so much the better. You are Leutnant Fritz Kessler (Askaris III). Your orders are to storm the town and haul down the accursed flag. All the better if you can do this before your rival Leutnant Plusser's platoon. You are Hauptman Karl Von Halstadt of the South West African Field Force. You and your men have hacked your way through the southern tip of Africa to join your comrades on the lake. You are brave and beloved by your men, but you have a dark secret--you like to dress in women's clothing. During the journey, a brother officer caught you posing in front of a mirror in a deserted farmhouse wearing a woman's frock. To spare embarrassment to your ancient military family, you must contrive to die heroically in the coming battle. You are Feldwebel Theodor Muller (Rugga-Rugga). Your continuing leadership of this unruly band of cutthroats (and indeed personal safety) depends on your ability to lead them to loot in the town (four barrels/crates). You are Umtomo, leader of the Wakamba. You have been selected to steal the white man's thunder box as a totem to present to the tribal elders. You must not lose more than 50% casualties in doing this. You are Selim Bey, formerly a slaver, you have no love for the British who put an end to the family business. You are a fierce rival to your half-brother, Ahmed Bey. You have caught wind of a rumor that the train is carrying settler gold, You must try to capture it for your own gain, all the better for you if you can do so with fewer casualties than your half-brother's band. You are Ahmed Bey, formerly a slaver, you have no love for the British who put an end to the family business. You are a fierce rival to your half-brother, Selim Bey. You are seeking an opportunity to loot the town (carrying off four barrels/crates by dhow), all the better for you if you can do so with fewer casualties than your half-brother's band. You are Hank Arnold, formerly of Brookline, Mass., you are guiding an American safari and have been away from civilization for months. You care nothing for Europe's family quarrels, your only desire is to get across the lake by boat with at least half of your hunting and trading spoils intact. Rules The basic rule-set used was "The Sword and the Flame" by Larry Brom, with the modifications suggested by Blake Walker in his "Dark Continent" supplement ("Heliograph" no. 110). We did not have well-defined "sides", so we modified the movement rules (normally governed by drawing from a deck of playing cards, one side moves on a red, the other on a black card) by using a deck of cards containing one card for each unit, randomly drawn to control unit moves. This has the effect of preventing the British and the German sides from fully coordinating attacks but adds loads of fog-of-war. Other rules modifications included Canoe, dhow and steamer movement rules came from an article in "Heliograph" no. 6 by Jay Stribling Since players were role-playing their unit leaders and we didn't want them to be killed off too easily, we added the "officer wounds" variant suggested by Howard Fielding in a posting at the site - this enables leaders to absorb more punishment than the original rules ("It's just a flesh wound!") before finally expiring Train movement was taken from "Adapting TSATF for Lawrence of Arabia" by H. Lubbens in "The Courier Communication between leaders of adjacent units was permi The ideal convention game should offer easy to pick-up rules with plenty of action for the players. This scenario, with its modified TSATF rules and elements of role-play, went a long way in achieving these goals. We quickly found that this game played very differently each time it was played (a nightmare to playtest !) and in any given game not every command was equally active. However there were opportunities for those commanders willing to take the risks. In our two convention outings we saw the British successfully evacuate their civilians to the port and then defend the port perimeter against all comers once their reinforcements arrived in one game. In the second game, the German Askaris ambushed the train and rushed the town before the defense could establish itself and a wild melee ensued, the British had to evacuate with unseemly haste and then a brisk firefight developed between Arab traders and Askaris over the settler gold. Back to MWAN #109 Table of Contents Back to MWAN List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2001 Hal Thinglum This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. 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