Saturday 29 October 2011

Source of the Nile Game.


My intention since I bought this Source of the Nile, was to use it as the campaign aspect of a Darkest Africa campaign, as it seems to have the basic covered with battles to be fought on the table top. Each player would run an expedition exploring the interior of Africa via hex based movement and random events, terrain. The winner would be the survivor with the claim to the biggest, best discovery.


From Wikipedia:
Source of the Nile is a board game by Ross Maker and David Wesely. It was released by Discovery Games in 1977 and re-released by Avalon Hill in 1979.
Set in the 19th century, the object of the game is to explore the interior of Africa, make an important discovery, and report it back to European civilization. The explorers must outfit their expeditions and choose a method of travel, be it canoe, camel or foot. At the outset of the game the map of the interior of Africa is blank. As explorers enter each unexplored hex, a card is drawn to determine the terrain and events, if any, that befall the explorers. Crayons are used to draw terrain on the map as it is discovered.
The explorers must confront dangers such as starvation, disease, river cataracts and hostile natives. The game is, in fact, highly lethal to explorers, but if a player loses an explorer he or she may create a new one who re-enters the game at a coastal port.
The player must choose a profession, and the amount of points a player gains for particular discoveries will vary depending on their choice. In particular:
  • Zoologists get points for discovering animals.
  • Botanists get points for discovering exotic plants.
  • Missionaries get more points when dealing with natives.
  • Geologists gain points for minerals.
  • Doctors gain points for medicinal items.
  • Journalists gain points for almost any encounter, even with other players.
  • Ethnologists gain points for discovering native villages

3 comments:

Fitz-Badger said...

I had a lot of fun playing that game with friends and solo back in the day!

ze bulette said...

That looks like a great game! I know it's not a P&P/boardgame, but do you like the Civ series? The pseudo-hex crawl of the randomly generated continents of those games thrilled me.

Sidney Roundwood said...

Oh my Lord....what a wonderful game that was! So pleased you're making great use of it again.