Gaming in Colonial Africa 1

We played our first couple of games using The Men Who Would be Kings recently.  These were played at the skirmish level using half sized units.

For the first game we played a straight forward encounter “kill ‘em all” game, to get a feel for the rules.

A combined warband of Longshankee and Stumppi warriors faced off against a force of slavers.

NATIVES

Longshankee Warriors and Archers

• Longshankee Warriors = Tribal Infantry Elite/Fierce
• Longshankee Archers = Irregular Infantry with bows Sharpshooters/Field craft
• Stumppi Warriors = Tribal Infantry
• Stumppi Blowpipers = Irregular Infantry with bows Field craft
• Escaped Slaves = Irregular Infantry with obsolete rifles Field craft

SLAVERS

Chinese Riflemen and Fanatics

• Chinese Riflemen = Irregular Infantry with modern rifles Elite
• Chinese Fanatics  = Tribal Infantry Elite/Fierce
• 2 x Arab Riflemen = Irregular Infantry with obsolete rifles Field craft

The battlefield

The game was great fun.
On one side of the table the two Arab riflemen (or rather one as poor leadership meant that one unit was somewhat tardy) faced off against the escaped slaves and the Stumppi warriors.

The Arabs and ex-slaves exchanged fire at long range, killing one Arab, whilst the Stumppi tried to work their way around the flank. The tardy Arabs finally arrived, only to be charged and wiped out by the pygmies.

Two units of Arab Riflemen engage the Escaped Slaves on the rocky outcrop

but they are charged in the flank by Stumppi Warriors

The Stumppi then failed their attempt to charge the second Arab unit, who blasted them at close range, routing the survivors. They were soon revenged by the ex-slaves who shot down a couple more Arabs, causing them to flee the field.

The first unit of Arab Riflemen are wiped out but a volley from the 2nd Arab Riflemen routs the remaining Stumppi Warriors

On the other side of the table the Chinese fanatics and Longshankee warriors advanced on each other supported by their respective missile units.

Stumppi Blowpipers and Longshankee Warriors and Archers advance on the Chinese

Chinese Fanatics wait behind a rocky outcrop for the Longshankee to get closer.

As the Longshankee Warriors approach the Chinese move out to close the charge range

Off to the right the Stumppi Blowpipers are closing in.

Suddenly the Chinese caught the Natives off guard, by veering the fanatics to the side and racing towards the Stumppi blowpipers. The pygmies killed one of the fanatics, but were then caught by their charge and the last survivors ran back towards their lines for a couple of turns.

The Chinese Fanatics switch their attention to the Stumppi Blowpipers

The remnants of the Stumppi Blowpipers fall back.

A well-aimed volley from the Chinese riflemen pinned the Longshankee Warriors, allowing the victorious fanatics to charger them in turn, routing them. By now the Longshankee archers had crept up to close range (their leaders ability of “short sighted” meant that they could not shoot at anyone beyond 6”!) where they wiped out the last few Chinese Fanatics with a single volley. With the last two pygmies back in the game, the Chinese riflemen found themselves attacked by 3 units. They killed a few of their attackers, but were eventually shot down.

Chinese Riflemen try to fend off Longshankee Archers approaching over the rocky hill

Surrounded, the last four Chinese Riflemen are doomed.

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The second game was quite different. We diced for scenario and played Scenario C: To The Last Bullet. The slavers stayed on and were matched against a force of Ottomans.

OTTOMANS
3 x Line Infantry = Regular Infantry
2 x Militia Infantry = Irregular Infantry Unenthusiastic

The Ottomans got to defend so they dropped a Line infantry unit to make it 18 points.

Ottomans line up at the halfway line ready to fall back on a defensive position

around the hut and the rocky hill

The Slavers have a long way to catch up.

This game never really got going, Apart from the Chinese fanatics, the slavers hardly moved at all. The Ottomans had plenty of time to occupy the defensible position with Regular Infantry (despite that unit’s commander having the trait of “Wheezy” and not being able to move at the double) and form a firing line on the flanks before the first slaver rifle unit was halfway across the table. One of the Arabs and the Chinese riflemen did not move at all for 3 or 4 turns. The Ottoman player took pity on the slavers and gave the rifle units 4 free movements, but still the slavers were forced to commit piecemeal.

The only Slaver unit to get close were the Chinese Fanatics who were mown down by crossfire.

Once the Chinese fanatics were mown down in a crossfire, one of the Regular Infantry units formed Close Order, fixed bayonets and marched forward, alternately blasting or bayoneting everything it encountered. By the time the slavers were down to one unit, the Ottomans had only lost 4 figures, so we called it a day. It had been a disappointing game, but mainly down to abysmal dice on the part of the slaver commander. We thought that this particular scenario was very dependent on the composition of the attacking force. If they had been mainly Tribal infantry it would have been quite a different battle.

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Like Lion Rampant and Dragon Rampant, TMWWBK seems a  good set of rules that will deliver a fun game. We will be playing it more in the near future and trying a couple of 3-way games in a week or two to see how that goes.