The Lions Did Eat Tonight!

Today the Jackson Gamers met and played two big game hunts with Howard Whitehouse's Mexican Jack Squint Presents The Lion Eats Tonight big game hunting rules.  We had tried Mexican Jack's game back in July and had a blast with it.  This time things turned out a little differently - the lions did eat tonight!

All figures and terrain are owned by Col Campbell who painted all of the men and the metal animals (those on bases).  The plastic animals either came from "animal tubes"  bought at the Jackson Zoo or at Michael's or from the Dollar Tree (the two bull elephants).

The mighty hunters are gathered to go forth and seek fame and glory.

Hunt #1 - Six intrepid hunters venture into the African bush in search of big game.  But the game was also searching for them.

Alan Haggard draws a bead on a charging lioness.  Can he get her before she gets him?

Yes, he does!

Hunter McGinnis is suddenly faced with a charging lion.  His porter has already run away but his faithful gunbearer stands by his side.  The lion is wounded and slinks off into the bush.

Baron Potzdorf is faced with a raging rogue elephant.  Things do not look good for the baron!  Partially concealed in the background, Mr. Enfield is sparring with an enraged lion.

And they weren’t as Potzdorf is stomped into the veldt by the rogue elephant.  And Mr. Enfield is still sparring with the lion

His gunbearer and porter suffer the same fate as the elephant bugles over their mashed bodies.  And Mr. Enfield is still sparring with the lion.  Seems that neither one can do anything but fend off the blows of the other.  How long can this last?

The elephant turns on Alan Haggard who coolly takes his shot and puts a heavy round right between Dumbo’s eyes, avenging Baron Potzdorf.

Finally Mr. Enfield smashes the lion’s skull in with the butt of his rifle, thus ending the long fight between them.

Escaping any damage from the lion a while ago, McGinnis begins to track him, only to encount a lioness in the bush.  He takes careful aim and kills her.

Meanwhile, “Nipper” Atkins gets his moment of fame, nicely potting a charging rhino with a single shot.  Bravo, Nipper!

 Game #2 - After a break for lunch at the local watering hole (actually Quiznos), we began a new hunt.  Three of the players each take a hunting party while three take a pair of game animals each.

The second hunt doesn’t start off well for Wilbur von Huysman.  Although he dodges a maddened elephant, his gunbearer and his porter succumb to the elephant’s mighty hooves.

But as the elephant rushes on past, von Huysman is set upon by both a lion and a cape buffalo!  Can he successfully fend off both of them?

Well, he sends the cape buffalo scurrying back into cover with a well-aimed shot, but the lion does him in.  The bull elephant has turned back but can only bugle his frustration that the lion has taken his toy.

Meanwhile young Mr. Stanley has encountered and dispatched a rather large lion.  Good for you, Mr. Stanley!  Of course what isn’t told is that his gunbearer, Gumby, actually fired the fatal shot.

Poor Wilbur’s body has been dragged off into the bush so that the lion can enjoy his meal in peace.

Suddenly Stanley is set upon by a rhino.  Surely he will do better against such an easy target.

Well, actually he doesn’t.  Leaving Gumby the gunbearer to face the rhino, Stanley and his porter flee into the bush.  Suddenly the porter runs back along side Mr. Stanley.  “Bwana, bwana!  Behind you!!”  A cape buffalo, previously wounded by the ill-fated von Huysman, has charged down on Stanley.

But Stanley keeps his nerve, turns, and kills the buffalo rather quickly with a single shot!

Moving back out to join his gunbearer, Stanley and his party are set upon by a rogue bull elephant.  Stanley and his porter quickly lose their nerve and scurry back into the bush.  The elephant rampages past the gunbearer and disappears into another patch of scrub after Gumby shoots him.

And another rogue elephant charges poor Mr. Frobisher, who earlier had a shot at an elephant cow and her two calves but declined graciously, saying, “ I don’t shoot at mothers and their young.”

Too bad the bull elephant didn’t know that as he mashes Frobisher and the porter into the veldt!

While Stanley and his porter are hiding from the rogue elephant, the gallant Gumby is facing a ferocious lioness.

Wounded by Gumby, the lioness scurries by him and jumps on the poor porter, instantly killing him.

But as she drags the body deeper into the bush, Stanley can hear Gumby shouting, “Bwana, bwana!  Come quick!  A large elephant!!”

But Gumby is very unlucky this time.  Mr. Rogue elephant squashes him.

And then continues on to attack young Mr. Stanley.  Inflicting a wound on the elephant, Stanley is able to avoid the charge and the elephant heads deeper into the bush.  We ended the game at this point as two of the three hunters had been mashed by elephants.

Game Results:  The results of the two games, which may carry over to another game in December were:

Atkins – killed a rhino with a single shot, gaining 60 reputation points.

McGinnis – killed a lion (10 points) and heroically does something for which I can’t remember, gaining another 10 points for a total of 20 reputation points.

Graf von Schneider – missed his only shot and ends up with a -10 reputation points.

Alan Haggard – had some trouble with his boots, losing 10 points but regained his aplomb and killed a lion (20 points) and an elephant (40 points), for a total of 50 reputation points.

Mr. Enfield – beat a lion to death with the butt of his rifle after a long fight, gaining 30 reputation points.

Baron Potzdorf – stomped to death by an elephant before he can really do anything; no reputation points but becomes the butt of jokes in the local bar.

“Junior” Stanley – although killing a cape buffalo with a single shot (60 points), he lost his nerve and ran away several times (-30 points), missed an easy shot (-10 points), and finally claimed a kill his gunbearer made (10 points to the gunbearer), resulting in only a gain of 10 reputation points.

Wilbur von Huysman – another hunter stomped to death by an elephant before he could do anything; no reputation points and also became the butt of jokes.

Frobisher – lost 10 points when he missed a shot on the elephant charging him, but his gallantry with the mama elephant and her calves counteracted the miss; no reputation points.

Look forward to more exploits of daring-do by our mighty hunters in four weeks!!

The Sword in Africa

On July 18, the Jackson Gamers gathered in the Fellowship Hall of Fondren Presbyterian Church for game using Larry Brom's The Sword in Africa rules. These rules are based on his venerable The Sword and the Flame but use 8-10 figure units and various types of "event" cards. Jim Pitts was the game master. He also painted all the troops and constructed the terrain.

The overall scenario involved stalwart British led askari, valiant native warriors, devious Zanzabari slavers, and disreputable Ruga-Ruga bandits. The Ruga-Ruga have captured some villagers who are to be sold to the local Zanzabari slave factor. The villagers' chief is out to rescue his subjects and the British askari are there to punish all malefactors, whomever they may be.

In the picture below, the players examine the board, their forces, and their specific objectives. [As usual, please click on the pictures to see an enlarged version.]

From left and clockwise: Phil Young (Ruga-Ruga), Ed Sansing and Bill Hamilton (natives), Sean Pitts (Zanzabaris), and Clay James (British askari).

Native warriors advance through the bush. Here they have encountered a mad holy man (squatting in the center by edge of a clump of brush) who delayed their advance while they persuaded him of their good intentions.

The villagers have appealed to the local tribal chief for help in rescuing their people. He is leading a force of warriors to assault the Ruga Ruga compound and rescue the villagers. The chief knows he must wipe out the Ruga Ruga if he is to have any peace in his land and must show the Zanzabari slave factor that it is not worth it to try to procure slaves from his peoples. The chief also doesn’t completely trust the district commissioner but won’t interfere if it appears the white man’s soldiers are out to punish the Ruga Ruga or Zanzabaris. But if he sees that they aren’t controlling themselves or any of the other whites then he may not feel so accommodating. He is also wary of any other whites who happen to be in the area, not trusting them as far as he can spit.

The Zanzabari slavers move towards the Ruga-Ruga compound.

Meanwhile the Zanzabari slave factor has received word that the Ruga Ruga have some slaves for him and is marching to their compound to buy them. He doesn’t really trust these bandits and is prepared to fight them if necessary. He knows that the local tribal chief may try to rescue them and wants to get the captives from the Ruga Ruga and back to his fort as quickly as he can. Their goal is to purchase the captives and get them back to their fort (located off the table) as quickly as possible, all the while avoiding rescuing natives or Government troops.

The Ruga-Ruga compound.

The Ruga Ruga have raided a small village, taking some of the villagers captive to sell to the local Zanzabari slave factor. They are holding the captives in their compound. They have sent word to the local slave factor and expect his arrival at any time. But they don’t completely trust the Zanzabaris, knowing that they will try to cheat them of their payment. They will defend their captives against anyone who tries to take them away.

The British led askari column moves toward the Ruga-Ruga compound.

The jungle grapevine has brought word of the raid to the district commissioner of the raid and impending sale of captives. He has dispatched a small column of Askari to intercept the sale, free the villagers, and punish the malefactors, whoever they may be. The column commander doesn’t really trust any of the locals, be they tribesmen, bandits, or slavers. As far as he is concerned, the only good local is a dead local.

The rules include a series of event cards that govern mystical, terrain, animal, etc. events that may impact the missions of the various forces. They came into play frequently and resulted in some hilarious and not so hilarious events.

Here a small herd of giraffe investigate the native warriors who wisely are moving away from their hooves. (Plastic giraffes from a toy animal tube.)

Somehow the natives set fire to part of a clearing and had to hot-foot it out of the way of the flames. Somebody probably dropped his ganga stick. The fire burned for several turns and prevented anyone from entering the clearing.

The Zanzabari encounter a lion as it bursts from the bush. But the unit leader drops it with a well aimed (and lucky) pistol shot, earning him the acclaim of his troops.
This event happened shortly after the senior Zanzabari leader had been killed by a snake that dropped on him from a tree.

The askari discovered a strangely marked stone and the column commander made his bearers pick it up and lug it along with them, in addition to the loads they already had.

As the natives approach the Ruga-Ruga compound, their leader is accosted by a lost white missionary who was revered by both whites and natives. But since they couldn't understand each other, he wandered off without any impact.

When the senior Zanzabari leader died, one of his units ran away after they heard that the other unit's leader (the one who killed the lion) would assume overall command. But they returned later and encountered a native spear unit. The natives charged but the resultant fight saw two natives captured (on right) and the rest killed.

Native and askari units close on the Ruga-Ruga compound as the defenders withdraw inside.
[The compound was hand built and the huts inside are paper mache bird house decorations obtained from Michaels.]

Just because the Zanzabari leader had killed a lion didn't make him Superman. Here he is after loosing a melee to the natives who then transferred him to the askari for punishment.

The natives have set fire to a corner of the compound, hoping to smoke out the Ruga-Ruga and rescue their fellow tribesmen. The askari are waiting to shoot whoever comes out of the gate!

On the back side of the compound a native unit encounters a rare white rhino.
Several of them die of fright and several run away. The rest scatter from the horns of the mystical beast.

Suddenly another lion bounds out of the bush and heads directly to the senior native leader who welcomes the encounter with open arms.

And moments later, Simba lies dead with a spear through his heart. All the natives rejoice at the tremendous courage and fearlessness of their chief. Surely this will be a good omen for their cause!

And a good omen it was. The Ruga-Ruga attempted to break out of the compound but were gunned down by the askari and then close-assaulted by the native spearmen. All but two or three of the bandits were killed and those few fled into the bush with the natives in hot pursuit. The villagers were rescued from a fate worse than death.

The British led askari took the captured Zanzabari leader back to the district headquarters where he was hanged as a warning for all would-be slavers.

The other Zanzabaris swiftly headed back to their fort with the two native warrior captives. At least they got a small return on their investment.