Congo AAR from my game at Tactica 2017

This is a short AAR from a game of Congo that I had the opportunety to join in on at Sunday morning. I was teamed up with my Finnish friend Teemu to run the White men expedition that had been out searching for a arcefact, some stunning facemask. As we had found it and just had to head back to Europe to casch in a bunch of sawage tribals showed up to stop us...

I have had a couple of test games of Congo and i liked it but didn´t remember much of the rules, one thing I was a bit bothered by was all the markers at the gaming table, BUT the fellows at Spieltrieb Frankfurt that run the game had made custom markers that blended in perfect with the terrain, looked stunning.

At the start the Explorers was trapped in the willage and to "win" we had to get the Face mask of the table at one of the corners. Any of the characters or the Porters could have the face mask from the start, of course Teemu secretly decided to give it to the Female Reporter...what a givaway... any one knows the females will keep the bling-bling ;)

I commanded the Officer and his group of Ruga-Ruga with muskets and I also commanded the group of 3 White Explorers.

Teemu commanded the Female Reporter and hear bodygard of Trained Askaris, as well as a group of Askaris with Muskets and a group of Young Warriors.

All aroud the central village there was sawage african warriors that even brougt their Terror Drum...

Below you can see the Native King and his Feemale frenzied bodyguard.

I really like the activation system in Congo there both sides shoose 3 iniative cards each turn. Each of the cards allow you to do different things like move, shoot or use influence (try to rally your troops or do psyops attacks on the enemy...drum of terror...)

At the begining of the game several of our units was exhausted and even had taken some losses due to fatigue, so we had a hard time to get moving, meaning that the Tribals had a good opportunety to advance and close in on the heroes...

As the natives lacked in shooting we had plentu of opportuneties to shoot at them, but by prioritising to shoot we didn´t move much... so much of the fighting took place in the willage and the close suroundings.

The Officer was a real Hero and commanded his Ruga Ruga bandits well, unfortunate they was armed with Muskets that took time to reload...

All the shooting and fighting and smell of blood had waken up a hungry Lion that started to sneak around and then decided to attack the Native scouts that was holding up the Reporter with the Face mask.

As the Lion attack the Scouts, the Reporter sees her chanse to move forward the table corner... but the natives have sent a unit to cut of her way of retreat...

The giraff was used as a Turn marker :)

Luckely for the Female Reporter the hero of the day, Officer Lament was comming to a rescue and fought of the last tribal unit that was blocking the escape rout for her.

Even only armed with spears and a few muskets the Tribals had done much damage. the group of White Explorers was covering the line of retreat...but danger approached from the left...

As the big Lion tear apart the two remaining White Explorers the female Reporter and Officer Lament managed ti get away with the sacred face mask... leaving their white friends as well as a group of Askaris to the enemie...

The Female Reporter had lost 1 porter and 3 Elite Askaris, Officer Lament only lost 1 Porter, the expedition also lost 3 White Explorers and 2 porters as well as 5 Young Warriors and 5 Askaris in total 3 white men, 4 porters and 13 askaris and warriors... 

The natives lost their King and Drummer of terror as well as about 25 warriors.

Indeed a good victory for Officer Lament, jolly good fighting old chaps:)

Thank you all that participated! It was  a greate game !

CONGO - Adventures in the Heart of Africa

CONGO from Studio Tomahawk are probably the best looking wargaming rules I ever got my hands on, at least top 3 with Donnybrook and ...?

Anyway I must really say that Fred Machu have made a greate work with the layout of the CONGO rulebook that are the latest wargaming rules from Studio Tomahawk (SAGA, Musket and Tomahawk, Jugula).

It is a set of skirmish rules set in the Darkest Africa as imagined by newspapers at the end of the 19th century. You play one of 4 diferent fractions The White Men Expeditions, The Sultanate of Zanzibar, The Forest Tribes or The African Kingdoms, each of them allows you to bring different warriors and characters for your African adventure. Each of the fractions would need about 25-35 minis, depending a bit on wheter you bring expensive elit warriors or more cheap ones. The gaming are are needed are quite small about 120x90cm would be enought.

The rules in them selvs are easy to understand and quick to learn and gives a good and interesting flow to the games much due to the activation cards that can limit you ideeas but also give you a puch in the right direction at a crucial time. The rules uses D6, D8 and D10 dice to describe the miniatures abilitys, the higher the better.

What I really like is that they managed to get a "mental" view to the combat to by making it possible to influence the minds of your enemies. They might be so scared that they performe lousy in the following combat or maybe even has run their way, leaving your White man explorer all by himselvs surounded by jungle cannibals.

What I dont like about the rules are all the markers needed and that ruin the good look of the gaming table... suppouse I can cope with that, but still a bit annoying.

The 8 Scenarios are presented in a stunning way, in the form of a 1870´s Newspaper "Le Bulletin de la Société Géographique", very inovative and gives a good feel for the era.

They also managed to keep out of the dubious exploitation of Congo by King Leopold of Belgium as they have placed the settings a decade before King Leopold hired H.M. Stanley to conquer the Congo Basin for his to be Congo Freestate.

The CONGO Rulebook are hardcover, full color and 108 pages. You also get a deck of 44 cards for activations and a Punch out sheet of tokens and measuring sticks needed for the game. Ofcourse also 4 double sided "The Bulletin" sheets (8 Adventures for the game) and a Double sided Dangerous Terrain sheet. The Rules cost £34 wich feels a bit costy in my mind, but you get plenty for your hard earned cach, and you won´t need that many minis to get started.

Dice (D6, D8 and D10) and Miniatures are not included but both Wargames Foundry and North Star Miniatures have Box Miniature Sets for each faction in the game.

If you got the funds for it and like darkest Africa gaming I would defently recomentd the CONGO rules as they give interesting and fun games and best of all the production value and layout of the rules, very inspirational indeed !

19th Century Ruga-Ruga with Gripping Beast Plastics

Hven´t been much painting lately but I have at least managed to paint the last minis from the Gripping Bests plastic medieval Arab Spearmen and Archers box that I use to build me a 19th century Zanzibar Slaver force. Pictures below show the 12 Ruga-Ruga Bandits/Mercenaries.

In The Men Who Would Be Kings rules I probably will run them as Poorly Armed Irregular Infantry with Sharpshooters and Field Craft @ 5 points.

Poorly Armed but with Sharpshoter as they most often used Antiqued Muskets loade with stones, metal scrap, marbells etc, more like a short ranged shootgun, i.e increased Firing Value due to the Sharpshooter option.