Ever since I fell in love with the Foundry's Darkest Africa line of figures at Cold Wars I've been interested in gaming this period. Having stockpiled the figures and lurked on the Colonial Wars discussion group for months I headed to Historicon in search of a good set of rules. Based on my limited experience the Colonial gamers seem to be the class of the hobby. They had a room set up as a central gaming area with Larry Brom (The Sword and the Flame) playing the role of host. Beautiful terrain, gentlemanly play, and fun seemed to be the orders of the day.

My first taste of gaming Darkest Africa came in a scenario called "Punishment Raid" hosted by Ed Watts of the Monday Night Adventurers using The Sword in Africa rules. It seems the pesky Masai were acting up again and were in need of some stiff punishment. The Masai had four units (three in the central kraal). The British had a unit of police, one unit of Askari, one unit of natives, and a machine gun. I was given command of the police and started next to the Askari. The other two British units started on the opposite side of the board. I devised a three-point plan to punish the Masai:

Steal their cattle. This would hit them where it hurts the most.
Get to the opening of the kraal in "knot" formation. Hopefully this would bottle them up in the kraal and allow us to fight them one unit at a time.
Burn their huts. When it comes to punishment, nothing beats a good village burning.

On turn one the British natives got steamrolled and were eliminated, taking our army commander out of the game. The Askari and machine gun units were lost in the bush. Fortunately the Masai in the kraal were not allowed to leave until they were alerted to trouble so I moved my policemen towards a herd of cattle. In the firing phase I wanted to shoot the Masai boys herding the cattle but this was not considered cricket. It took me a while to get into the right Colonial frame of mind. Next I sent two men to take control of the cattle and the rest of the unit headed for the opening of the Kraal. I repulsed two Masai charges, killing the Masai army commander. At this point I was feeling lonely. The Askari commander didn't seem to be in any hurry to help me. He wanted to circle around to the kraal's rear entrance. I pleaded for assistance.

The Askari arrived just in time to help repulse the third Masai charge. At this point I only had two unwounded figures - a Sikh NCO and a mule handler. Meanwhile the machine gun was having problems. The fourth Masai unit was stalking it using a herd of cattle as cover. The Masai player was finally persuaded that this tactic was out of character for the Masai so he charged the machine gun. At the critical moment the gun jammed and the crew routed off the table without firing a shot.

I was still determined to burn the village but the Askari player had seen enough. He fled the table, leaving my wounded in the field. Outrageous! He was finally persuaded to return and do his duty while I sent my enraged Sikh NCO to burn a hut. Ed was kind enough to humor me and put some cotton on one of the huts and the game ended. I hope the Masai learned their lesson.

Second Game

My next trip into the jungle came during Howard Whitehouse's "The Lion Eats Tonight" scenario. The terrain was spectacular. Howard's mountains, complete with caves, were truly works of art. The figures were Foundy and the animals were from toy and dollar stores. The rules used were Howard's own home-brew.

Half the players controlled animals. The rest of us were given a big game hunter, a gun bearer, and two porters. Our first task was to come up with a name. My hunter was called "Baron von Fritz." When this was announced I was the recipient of some half-hearted boos and hisses. Apparently Germans are not very popular with Colonial wargamers. The game itself was hilarious. The one-liners and wisecracks were nonstop and the whole group was laughing the entire time.

On the first turn a pride of lions burst from the bushes and rushed a hunter. The lions were gunned down. This was the highpoint for the hunters. The situation quickly deteriorated. I rounded a bend and spotted a herd of Cape Buffalo. Before I could fire a shot they charged. I was trampled to death in the blink of an eye and my broken body was tossed onto a nearby hill. My gun bearer and porters dove into the river to save their skins.

Another hunter aimed his rifle at an elephant. The annoyed herd of elephants walked up and got in his face. The largest elephant stuck his forehead against the gun barrel, daring the hunter to shoot. Bang! The elephant fell dead. The retaliation was swift and bloody. Announcing that "The elephants are angry," the hunter was stomped into pudding and his body tossed around like a volleyball. The gun bearer and porters fled to the safety of a nearby cave. Unfortunately this was the home of a pride of lions. They woke up feeling grouchy and went to work on the unfortunates. The survivor staggered out of the cave to find the herd of elephants waiting for him outside the cave entrance.

While the elephants were exacting their revenge a Texan climbed a nearby hill and starting shooting at the "long nosed cows." This made the elephants angry, but the Texan was out of reach. So the elephants thundered past him and trashed his truck. The lions were subtler. They executed a brilliant flanking maneuver and raced towards the Texan. He ran for his life, leaving a porter to delay the lions. The delay was a brief one and the lions got him in the end. A leopard assaulted another hunter. While the leopard and a porter wrestled the hunter fired a shot into the furball, killing the porter. This futile tactic was repeated as the leopard attacked the second porter and the gun bearer. In desperation the hunter jumped into the river where he was killed by hippos.

The elephants charged across the river in search of fresh prey. One brave female hunter managed to kill one. Her victory turned to ashes when she was informed that she had just killed the baby. The elephants announced that they were once again angry and charged. She climbed a hill but the elephants were able to reach her with their trunks. Another hunter bit the dust. Meanwhile, in my part of the jungle, two hunters foolishly decided to climb a mountain. This turned out to be Gorilla Mountain and a gorilla soon attacked them. They desperately retreated and shot the beast from a distance. By now all the survivors had been thoroughly intimidated by the animals and were afraid to make a move. Deadly animals seemed to be everywhere. Most of the hunters began to head for the safety of the table edge.

When it was my turn again I decided to act boldly. My gun bearer climbed the hill and took the Baron's pith helmet and gun (it was in mint condition, having never been fired). He declared himself the new Bwana. Baron Bwana! He looked around for an animal to kill. In the distance he spotted a gorilla wrestling with a porter. Taking careful aim, he squeezed off a shot. Right between the eyes. The porter died instantly. After the game I would claim that I shot a "skinny gorilla carrying a box." No one was fooled. My second barrel wounded the gorilla. I unloaded my second gun at the gorilla and was finally rewarded with the satisfaction of actually killing an animal. But in this game success or failure was measured in laughs, not kills. In this regard the game was a smashing success. We all laughed our selves silly. In the months to come I will be prowling the local toy stores with a 25mm figure in my pocket, searching for suitable animals (angry elephants in particular) so I can run my own version of this game. I will always be haunted by those terrible words: "The elephants are angry."

Third Game

My third Darkest Africa game was hosted by Brett Abbott (Monday Night Adventurers) using his Tanzanica rules. The rules are based on Mordheim. When I sat down for the game I was overcome by a feeling of Déjà vu. There, across the table, was another band of Masai! Each of us was given a unit: French, Belgian, American, British, or native.

My command was a tribe of cannibals called the Mangbettu. This group included Prince Sheni, a witchdoctor, two musket men, two archers, and four spearmen. I carefully read my objectives. I was instructed to try and get some treasure from the Temple at the center of the board, gain favor by aiding the British, and punish the Masai. Punishing the Masai was turning out to be a full time job. Remembering the 80% casualties I took from my frontal assault on the Masai village I decided to employ a different strategy. Although I called this strategy "The Code of the Mangbettu" it could best be described as cowardice. There would be no frontal assault this time.

While the Belgians and Americans were shooting each other to pieces I forged an alliance with the British player and sought to trick the Masai into believing I wanted a truce. I was less than convincing though, and he wisely left a four-man rear guard while the rest of his group climbed to the top of the temple. I circled around to attack the four from the flank. They tried to escape but ran into the guns of my British ally. We worked well as a team. His rifles would knock down or stun a Masai and then I'd rush in with four spearmen for the coup de grace. I was careful to time my attacks so I could kill the Masai before they had an opportunity to recover and defend themselves. The Code of the Mangbettu! The poor Masai player made it to the top of the temple with his remaining warriors only to find himself under attack from the temple's amazon guardians.

At this point I took pity on the Masai player and promised not to attack him anymore. My British ally agreed and we turned our attention to getting treasure. Sadly, the Masai player failed his morale check and was eliminated. A lion had attacked the Americans when they opened a temple door so we made sure we were in good firing positions before we opened the door facing us. Out rushed a horde of amazons and they immediately started kicking my butt. The former Masai player controlled them, providing him a welcome opportunity for revenge. The Prince ordered an immediate retreat. The Code of the Mangbettu!

Our feet didn't fail us and the tactic worked. The British player got a few shots in after we skedaddled, so we dashed forward to finish off a couple of stunned amazons. Better still, the surviving amazons charged the British! The Prince ordered his warriors to advance and help the British (attacking from the rear of course). In due time we had finished off the amazons and we could collect our treasure in safety. The Masai had been punished. We'd gained favor with the British. The Prince was still alive. We ate our casualties (we were cannibals, remember). All was well for the Mangbettu.

I have a mixed opinion of the Tanzanica rules. I don't like the way wounds are determined. There is an awful lot of dice rolling: first check to see if you hit, then the victim can try and parry if he has a shield, then see if you scored a wound, and finally roll to see the effect of the wound. Wounds can result in death, a knock down or a stun. All of this will be familiar to Mordheim players. I don't plan to use this part of the rules in my own Darkest Africa games. The scenario itself is a good one. Each faction has it's own strengths and weaknesses. I'll definitely have to visit the Tanzanica web site and mine it for some good ideas. I like the idea of a campaign where the characters gain skills. I rather enjoyed the Witch Doctor. If he succeeded in casting his curse on a figure he could force the victim to re-roll any dice rolls during the turn. If you see the Monday Night Adventurers running a game at a future convention I suggest you join them for a good game.