German East Africa battle rules?

[FifteensAway]

Not skirmish rules but battle level rules for gaming German East Africa (and not Sword and the Flame, please, which I already own) suggestions?  Need to account for bush fighting, various nationalities, subsidiary forces like rug-ruga, etc. 

Time of the essence since I may be placing an order soon for at least part of my forces - India troops, since QRF has a sale going.

Thanks for your input!

[leadboy]

I'm building forces for the (now very) old "Over the Top" rules by Greg Novak, specifically to allow me to refight Tanga et al. Might have trouble getting hold of them now at a reasonable price, but worth keeping your eye out for.

[Belisarius]

I would use Death in the Dark Continent rules by Chris Peers . They have three German army lists , East Africa 1885 - 99 , Kamerun and Togo 1884 - 99 and South West Africa 1892 - 99.  The book also contains general overviews and descriptions of all the Colonial and Native troops and Tribal contingents which fought on the African Continent.

[robh]

I would second the Death in the Dark Continent suggestion, as the force creation work is done for you.
But if you already have access to good army and equipment lists then I think "Victorian Steel" is a better set of battle level rules.

[FifteensAway]

Looking at DitDC but , Belisarius, you list army lists at 99 but the book only has 80 lists plus 10 more in a PDF.  How does that work?  Adding Tarzan and the animals certainly appeals.

[Belisarius]

99 refers to the dates , 1885 to 1899 ect . 

[jeffreythancock]

Two Fat Lardies "If the Lord Spares Us" with the East Africa add on from one of their Annual Publications, which is also published in their WW1 compilation book.  Unlike many of TFL's more popular and recent rules, these are not skirmish level!

I've also considered Keep It Simple's DB WW1 Middle East with minor revisions.

[FifteensAway]

So, realized I have a copy of Death in the Dark Continent, the older version.  Trying to reconcile how a pre-1900 focused rule set will work for German East Africa in 1914-1918 where machine guns are essential to the action - at least more often than not? 

The Lardy rules have some interest but I'm generally not thrilled with their rules style.  The latter rules appeal based on the unit organization I was able to find on line.

I did take a look at Victorian Steel also.  Not quite there. 

Might be a situation where I pick and choose pieces and reassemble in to something 'new'? 

I am at least closing in on some organizational decisions.

This will be a 'small period' with no more than few hundred figures total, if that many, for both sides combined.  In my gaming world, that is a very small number of figures.

[fred]

There is always Great War Spearhead, a very through conversion of Spearhead to WWI. It is aimed at a couple of divisions a side, with each base representing a company, so may be too large a battle for what you are looking for.

The team have produced a number of supplements - but have no idea if this theatre is included in one of them.

[FifteensAway]

Took advantage of the QRF sale and ordered up my Indian forces and got a start on the Germans (sailors and naval gun crews for Konigsberg force) with a few other tidbits and some fun stuff from their "Quartermaster Department".  Still need the 2nd Loyal North Lancashire to finish building Force B for Tanga.

Not yet settled on rules, though.  Just made a unit size decision and moved forward, rules be damned!

I'll mangle the spelling, no doubt, but how about a figure for a 15 mm Meinegehartzen - the British spy guy who went ashore at Tanga?  Any ideas?

[tercio39]

Hi have you considered using any of the Peter Pig rules , square bashing has East African armies in its army book . Also I and others have used the classic AK47 rules for conflicts throughout the 20th Century with just a few tweaks and revised period specific flow charts . Cheers Alex

[monk2002uk]

I looked at the German East Africa battles in some detail with regards to a Great War Spearhead scenario book. Almost all of the actions are at a level down. Tanga worked reasonably well but was at the lower limit of what GWSH is designed for. The same issues may apply to Square Bashing as well.

Robert

[FifteensAway]

Finding rules for this region for WWI is a challenge because of the nature of the conflict - not really trench warfare, though trenches were certainly dug at times.  Not really all out charges - but there were bayonet charges that succeeded.  Machine guns were a big part of the campaign - but I don't think they dominated (could be wrong on that point).  Then there are so many different troop types:

Germans had all white units and Askaris and then Ruga-Ruga and carriers (porters) some of whom were essentially Askaris in training to some degree (some of them, by no means all of them).  And probably the best and most inventive medical staff going along with ingenuity galore in other areas to keep a force in being.

Belgians: a variation of left over Force Publique and some, almost, Belgian regulars - plus boats transported across quite a bit of wild terrain.

British (oy-vey!): locally raised amateur units, a regular British regiment, various troops from India, Uganda-Rwanda-Burundi raised troops (some more Belgian than British if memory serves), Rhodesian, and South Africans - lots and lots of South Africans, and - eventually, after someone overcame overt racism against the local population - the King's African Rifles and other black troops from as far afield as the West Indies, and a pretty huge number of those (back troops, that is, not a huge number of West Indies troops). 

And, not to forget - though maybe they'd prefer we do just that, the Portuguese with a lot of metropolitan troops (white troops from the home country) and even some native regulars.

There is also the possible also-ran option of French troops out of Madagascar if they could have been spared for hypothetical scenarios.

And it is not all khaki - though certainly that color makes a major showing.

Plus Masai.  And wild beasts.  Oh, and we cannot forget BEES!  Going to have a heck of a time finding those in 15 mm!!! 

Get to have water craft in the Konigsberg sub-campaign plus on the lakes.  Aircraft.  Armored cars.  Can use a hypothetical tank or two (with massive mechanical problems required).  Heck, there is even a dirigible with a possible cameo appearance.

Generally brigade equivalent level actions but many company level actions (often multiple companies) - but not so much at a skirmish level since some of those 'company' level actions were pretty intense battles.

The rules search continues - and all ideas continue to be welcomed because even if a given set doesn't work it may contain seeds that will grow in what ever finally gets settled upon.

So, please, keep those suggestions coming! 

[SteveBurt]

"If the Lord Spares Us" from TooFatLardies is designed for WW1 in the Middle East, but I'd imagine it will work well for East Africa too.
I think each base is a company in those rules.

[tercio39]

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