More Natives!

Some more natives to cause the Hon. Cecil Cathcart Marchbanks some trouble...

Figures are Foundry.

Zanzibar Slavers.

Faraj Al-Dosari and his foul slaver followers.

Maarouf Alzeshi and Faraj Al-Dosari (with pet monkey Bashir)

The "Butcher of Murogo", Falakee Al-Fayyoumi and men.

Figures are Foundry.

British Askari.

A unit of British Askari ready to join the Hon. Cecil Cathcart Marchbanks on his new expedition.

Sergeant Baako presents his troops.

Figures are Foundry.

The European Explorers.

The European adventurers and explorers finally set foot on African soil...

Captain Thomas Henry Abel and his guide Kimani.

Mbasogo, Sir Archibald Dreaton and renowned hunter Merle Caspar.

Major Sir Cornelius Hedney and assistants.

Dutch guides Klaus Voorheim and Piotr Witzenfeld. 

 Figures are Foundry.

Next - British Askari.

The Germans.

Baron Torsten Holzmann leads his expeditionary force into the darkest realms of Africa...

Kapitan Herwig Becker, Baron Holzmann, Dr. Otto Rieflin and  Herr Eckehard Friedrich.

Marine leader Leutnant Rudi Wolff.

Wolff and his Marines assemble.

Herr Friedrich leads the Marines with Leutnant Wolff.

The Germans assess their recent ivory acquisitions.

A good days work!

Figures are Copplestone.

Next - More Europeans.

The Natives.

A quick update of the progress on the natives.

Here we have Chief Mwenye and his family.

Chief Mwenye and his family in front of "The Tribute of Oluchi".

Next we have his eldest sons Tawanda and Timane assembling their war parties

Tawanda.

Timane.

Figures are Foundry.

Next up - Europeans.

Darkest Africa - Planning the Expedition 2.

Following on from the post by ZM and his 'stocktake' I thought I would add where I am up to now...

I have now finished all the bases on my Darkest Africa figures! I also re-attached several erroneous native shields and spears and touched up a little bit on some with minor chips but got too dark to pick it all up so will try to do more over the week. I still have about 30 unpainted European types but I think we have plenty enough to be getting on with already! I also have a handful of bearers and African villagers to work on.

So, my latest DA stock take is -


Painted:

Askari x53
Europeans x20
Native bearers x4
African villagers x7
African warriors x39 (well, 15 of which are in progress)
Zanzibar Slavers x10
(British Redcoats x56 - Zulu War British that could be used at a pinch?)

Unpainted / in progress:

Askari x11 (based and undercoated)
Zulu (as tribesmen) x36
Europeans x30 (based ready for undercoat)
British Redcoats x20
Lions x3 (have based ready for undercoat)

African Villagers x7

German Marines x10 (getting there!)

German Officers x4 (almost done)

Almost finished two African cattle. Also painted up a nice 'tower of skulls' and picked up various boxes and crates etc for the explorers. 3 Renedra tents to do plus whatever generic terrain I pick up.

Darkest Africa - Planning the Expedition 1.

My intention is to get a few more figures painted and run the Darkest Africa campaign as published in Wargames Illustrated.

A quick count revealed:-


Zanzibari, including canon 34

Explorers 30

Askari 24

Sikhs 10

Bearers 7

Pack Donkeys 2

Belgian Officers 9

Belgian Askari 4

German Officers 5

German Askari 10

Slaves 4

Wichdoctors 2

The Red Skull 1

Lizardman (with German flag) 1

Masai 5


Total 148


A couple of VSF figures thrown in there but quite a good start and I probably have a similar number bought and ready to paint.

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

Thoughts on a Darkest Africa Campaign.

The basis for any Colonial / Darkest Africa wargame should, I think be based on the need of the major powers to exploit the natural resources of the relevant country, to seek greater influence in terms of geography and trade and to prevent other, rival, powers from doing just that.

One suggestion would be to use East Africa as a base for the scenarios. There is lots to experience there. So Kenya and Tanzania (as the are now) could prove to be ideal - plenty of Belgian, German and English colonials to use and the native tribes there would provide much scope for plot development.

Characters that may feature:

General Sir Norton Bottle-Blythe (Military Governor of Mabele Province)
The Hon. George Smythe-White (Landowner and part-time explorer)
Henry Cabot Adams (American importer / exporter)
The Hon. John Hector Neville Winstanley (Noted explorer and adventurer)
Jean-Luc Flambard (Belgian mining engineer)
Prof. Louis Marcaut (French archaeologist)
Angus Campbell-Bannerman (Scottish mining engineer)
The Rev. Peter Cecil (Missionary)
Sir Andrew Parker-Leake (Colonial administrator)
Gert von Stauffenhalle (German diplomat and spy)

Needless to say, the above could all have competing objectives. Certainly Gert von Stauffenhalle is inciting trouble amongst the Umabele tribe, arming them with rifles and bombs. What are the Belgians up to and why do they need over 100 Askari to guard their mining operation? What about Angus Cambell-Bannerman's own mining exploration? He was up until six months ago a Captain in the Kings Own Scottish Borderers, so why come to Africa in such a hurry? How about Henry Adams - why is he working so closely with the French archaeologist Professor Marcaut?

Also, rumours abound about the Ngorongoro tribe inland, they are becoming restive since the English party of explorers have discovered a previously uncharted plateau in the jungle. Perhaps a detachment of the 17th Norfolks, under Captain Roderick Courtney, should be sent up river to Kingora in order to investigate...