*
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.
March 28, 2024, 11:50:55 AM

Login with username, password and session length

Donate

We Appreciate Your Support

Members
Stats
  • Total Posts: 1686475
  • Total Topics: 118102
  • Online Today: 857
  • Online Ever: 2235
  • (October 29, 2023, 12:32:45 AM)
Users Online

Recent

Author Topic: "Darkest Africa" Solo (Darkest Frostgrave?)  (Read 3691 times)

Offline bazookajoe

  • Librarian
  • Posts: 174
"Darkest Africa" Solo (Darkest Frostgrave?)
« on: April 27, 2020, 02:58:49 AM »
Like many others, I have been trying a few solo games lately.  After playing some Fallout and Doom Squad, I have turned to creating a solo "Darkest Africa" game.  Basically, I am combining the core mechanics of Frostgrave/Rangers of Shadow Deep with some aspects of "In the Heart of Africa" which are all games I enjoy very much.  I wanted something that I could play on a 3x3 foot table involving about a dozen figures per side and with a nice character development system.  I want to avoid an overtly Hollywood or fantasy type of "Darkest Africa."  Anyway, I wrote a rough draft of the rules (basically converting from Rangers but with Heart of Africa style scenarios) and today tried the first test game.  The setting is c.1870s-80s East Africa where a colonial expedition is conducting a punitive cattle raid on a Maasai village.  Half the Maasai guard the village and other half arrive later as a relief/pursuit force.  The Maasai were brave but were gunned down as the Askari got away with the small herd.  The main lesson from this game (I think) is that I go the gun aspect of it right (yes, they are deadly which is true) but I should increase the point value of anyone carrying a gun to make sure there are slightly less of them around.  Will give it some more thought and keep working on it.


Offline Diablo Jon

  • Mastermind
  • Posts: 1247
Re: "Darkest Africa" Solo (Darkest Frostgrave?)
« Reply #1 on: April 27, 2020, 05:48:29 AM »
Looks good. Facing The Maasai should probably impose some sort of morale penalty on the native Askari from what I've read everyone was terrified of them might help balance out the guns or maybe add ammo limitations?

Offline bazookajoe

  • Librarian
  • Posts: 174
Re: "Darkest Africa" Solo (Darkest Frostgrave?)
« Reply #2 on: April 27, 2020, 06:37:27 AM »
Yes, thanks, that's an excellent point.  I am trying to create a "fear" rule.  For instance, pastoral warriors and ruga-ruga cause fear among less aggressive (more vulnerable) groups and this imposes penalties.  One addition to the Frostgrave/Rangers system I am trying is to have figures make a "Will" check (10+ on a d20) before moving into combat with an enemy including when they go group activations.  The pastoral warriors have a big +3 to Will but villagers have 0.  Also, anyone affected by fear will get -1 to their Will tests and other rolls (like combat). And yes, I agree that the pastoral warriors should cause "fear" among the less well armed type of Askari (basically those with muskets) but probably not among the ones with a little more western-style training and proper rifles.

Offline Diablo Jon

  • Mastermind
  • Posts: 1247
Re: "Darkest Africa" Solo (Darkest Frostgrave?)
« Reply #3 on: April 27, 2020, 06:55:21 AM »
Sounds like a plan. Certainly the Maasai are supposed to have wiped out several gun armed arab caravans. Only time I can render them coming up against Askari with modern rifles was Carl Peters and even though he inflicted a lot of casualties even he was forced to do a runner.


Offline Atheling

  • Elder God
  • Posts: 11905
    • Just Add Water Wargaming Blog
Re: "Darkest Africa" Solo (Darkest Frostgrave?)
« Reply #4 on: April 27, 2020, 08:05:22 AM »
Lovely looking game  :-* (I haven't had a chance to read through it as LAF is quite often down [at least at my end] of late).

The Masai look fab  8)

Offline Marine0846

  • Supporting Adventurer
  • Galactic Brain
  • *
  • Posts: 6607
Re: "Darkest Africa" Solo (Darkest Frostgrave?)
« Reply #5 on: April 27, 2020, 02:03:10 PM »
Nice photos.
Like the look of your  Masai.
Semper Fi, Mac

Offline bazookajoe

  • Librarian
  • Posts: 174
Re: "Darkest Africa" Solo (Darkest Frostgrave?)
« Reply #6 on: April 27, 2020, 06:47:00 PM »
Thanks.  I painted those Maasai almost 20 years ago and they remain some of my favorite figures.  I was originally going to use Ngoni for that test game as they better match the "Zulu" huts (thanks Empress) that I use for bigger Anglo-Zulu War battles.  However, I saw the Maasai figures sitting in a box and realized I had not used them in well over a decade so they got thrown in.    What I really need to paint for this project are some plain-old almost useless villagers.  I have lots of martial/warrior types (Maasai, Ngoni, Azande, Ruga Ruga) but need more ordinary guys with spears, bows and the old musket.  Luckily, I am sure I have some unpainted ones in my aging pile of lead.

Offline DoctorPete

  • Mastermind
  • Posts: 1222
Re: "Darkest Africa" Solo (Darkest Frostgrave?)
« Reply #7 on: April 27, 2020, 08:07:11 PM »
Nicely painted figs.  Love the Massai.   :)
I am not a quack!  I'm a mad scientist.  There IS a difference!

Offline bazookajoe

  • Librarian
  • Posts: 174
Re: "Darkest Africa" Solo (Darkest Frostgrave?)
« Reply #8 on: April 30, 2020, 02:27:47 AM »
Tried another test game today.  Changed the setting to Central African forest.  An expedition of Zanzibari slavers ventures into the forest and is crossing a river when they are ambushed by Batwa (ie pygmy) archers hiding in thickets of bush.  The Zanzibaris have two "explorers" (ie the Zanzibaris armed with rifles), 6 Askari with muskets and 4 carriers.  There were 13 Batwa including their chief and sub-chief.  I played the Batwa and the Zanzibaris were on a simple AI system mostly taken from ROSD and customized for the scenario.  The Zanzibaris had to get at least half their column off a designated table edge.  Their AI required each figure to take one action to move toward that edge and the other to shoot, reload (musket) or fight.  While two Batwa archers were picked off, the Zanzibaris lost seven (the Zanzibari sub-leader, 3 Askari and 3 carriers).  The Batwa looted the supplies and had a big party that evening at their camp. The game took just under an hour to play (not including set up) and seemed to go well.  It was a tough scenario for the side being ambushed but it felt about right and was fun.
 


Offline bazookajoe

  • Librarian
  • Posts: 174
Re: "Darkest Africa" Solo (Darkest Frostgrave?)
« Reply #9 on: April 30, 2020, 02:43:05 AM »
Forgot to mention that the Zanzibaris also had a guy with a sword and shield that I rated as a warrior.  He survived but did very little as it was an entirely shooting type of engagement. 

I gave the Batwa some special rules for when they are fighting in the forest.  They can move through forest terrain without penalty (tho not other types of terrain like rocks) and once per turn one figure can "teleport" 10 inches in any direction (needs a Will test) but can do no other actions.  This is not meant to be a fantasy type teleport spell but something to show how adapt they are at fighting in the forest and how unpredictable they might seem to people not used to that environment.  In a defensive they might have traps but not here.  The Zanzibaris had a couple of really good guns. 

Here are a few more pics.  The Zanzibari sub-leader in the long white robe took an arrow in the chest just as he was about to cross the river.   A lucky Mutwa rolled a critical hit!

Offline Smokeyrone

  • Mastermind
  • Posts: 1972
  • Five Rings
Re: "Darkest Africa" Solo (Darkest Frostgrave?)
« Reply #10 on: May 02, 2020, 10:57:23 AM »
nicelooking stuff!
Reigning USTA Florida, and National 50+ Singles Champion  (tennis)  TWO Time Florida 50+ Singles Champion!  Just won State 2019!

Offline bazookajoe

  • Librarian
  • Posts: 174
Re: "Darkest Africa" Solo (Darkest Frostgrave?)
« Reply #11 on: May 02, 2020, 10:10:24 PM »
Thanks.  We don't see pygmies enough in war games. 

Working out a campaign system is proving harder than converting the main rules but almost there.

Offline Grumpy Gnome

  • Galactic Brain
  • Posts: 5333
    • The Grumpy Gnome
Re: "Darkest Africa" Solo (Darkest Frostgrave?)
« Reply #12 on: May 03, 2020, 05:09:34 AM »
Great stuff! Cool project idea, brilliant brushwork. Looks like it was fun!
Home of the Grumpy Gnome

https://thegrumpygnome.home.blog/

Offline bazookajoe

  • Librarian
  • Posts: 174
Re: "Darkest Africa" Solo (Darkest Frostgrave?)
« Reply #13 on: May 04, 2020, 05:36:07 AM »
Thanks Rick W.

I played my first campaign game to try out some draft campaign rules which are a mishmash of things from games like In the Heart of Africa and even Dracula's America.

I decided to try it first as an European explorers' expedition.  The basic idea is that there are five environmental zones (grassland, Savannah, forest fringe, forest, and lakeside) and the expedition has to win three games in each zone to "win" the campaign.  The environment is determined randomly as are the enemies for each game.  Between games, there are the usual survival and experience processes, and an encounter (or maybe two) on a table of 50 random encounters.  Characters' skills can help resolve the encounters which can give or take away points from the expedition and/or the enemy in that zone.

The expedition is led by two explorers (let's call the first one John Rowlands who likes Big Game Hunting and his sidekick is Max du Pre who is a Boer scout from the far south) and comprises 8 askari with muskets and 4 carriers. The expedition first entered the "forest fringe" zone and the first game involved a chance encounter with a marauding Ruga Ruga band just returning from a foray in the jungle.   Since Max is a very good scout, the expedition got to deploy some of its members to the side of the enemy in an attempt to catch them in a crossfire.  As it turned out, that might have been a mistake as it split the expedition. Unfortunately, the skirmish went badly as the Ruga Ruga (owing to some very good shooting rolls by them) inflicted heavy casualties on the expedition causing it to run away.  Mr. Rowlands and 6 askari were almost lost.  Indeed, Rowlands suffered a permanent injury to his arm so he won't fight as well, one askari (left in the last picture) was badly wounded so will sit out the next game and another askari has psychological scars (the one with the blue jacket in the last picture).  Not a very promising start.  Fortunately, while fleeing from the encounter, the expedition managed to make a "minor geographic discovery" (an encounter) and record its location so all was not lost.

 

Offline Diablo Jon

  • Mastermind
  • Posts: 1247
Re: "Darkest Africa" Solo (Darkest Frostgrave?)
« Reply #14 on: May 04, 2020, 06:40:58 AM »
Another fun looking game. So to win the campaign the expidition have to win 15 games? Judging by their showing in the first game that looks like it could be quite a feat  lol

I'm imagining by game 15 the expidition will consist of an Askari with a wooden leg, a one armed porter and a fever ridden white man.