Between the convention, holidays, and vacations it has been awhile since we were able to get together for a Friday night of gaming. As it was it was just Dewey, Joey, and I. Rob is off in the Pennsylvania countryside and none of the semi-regulars showed.
I have been having fun reading Darkest Africa, Henry Stanley’s exploits during one of his expeditions through Africa. This inspired me to research a little bit more about what was going on in Africa at the turn of the century. So I pulled together some different exploits and came up with a scenario.
I call it, Up the Denge without a paddle. The border between the Belgian Congo and the German territories was always a source of confrontation. In this scenario some German Explorers have wandered across the border to loot..err explore an old temple. The local tribes fearing the Germans were looking for captives, or worse, headed off to the local Belgian home office to report this incursion. The commander smelling glory quickly rounded up what forces he could and set off to run the Bosche off.
We used the Space 1889 colonial rules with a few modifications. Dewey played the Germans, a company of Sea Battalion, a Gatling gun and 2 units of Askaris. Joey played the Belgians with 2 companies of regulars, 4 companies of Askaris and a warband of tribesman. I played the German civilians.
The Germans needed to get their porters from the temple to the boat. A smaller unit of porters was detailed to chop wood and load it on the boat for fuel. Dewey decided to protect the porter temples with a unit of Askaris and the Gatling gun. The Belgians came on the board in several locations. The regulars came up the middle with the Askaris on the left flank and the Tribesman on the right.
Things went wrong for the Germans right from the start. Apparently the porters were in absolutely no hurry to carry their heavy burdens. So they shuffled along at a most pedestrian pace.
Then the Askaris showed up and with a remarkable display of marksmanship wiped out the crew of the Gatling gun. Then when the Sea Battalion opened up on a unit of Belgian regulars all they managed to do was rile them up into a frenzied charge that nearly wipe the Sea Battalion out.
On the other flank things went a little better as the Tribesman came out, got shot at , decided they had enough and dove back into the jungle.
Eventually, they charged the encampment and picked on the civilians a little. The Germans were able to get back into the boat with a few goodies, but overall it was a victory for the Belgians as they had seen the cabbage eaters off.
