After a short break doing some painting, I played the 5th game in my experimental "Darkest Africa" campaign. The randomly determined scenario worked out much better for the Explorers than most of the previous ones. This time, as the explorers were about to cross a small stream, they encountered a Ruga Ruga war band heading in the opposite direction. The range of the explorers' rifles represented a huge advantage as they sat back and shot down the raiders who charged across the river. Once more than half the ruga ruga were down, the war band fled back into the bush. A locust plague that was generated as a random encounter after the previous game meant that the Ruga Ruga deployed 2 less guys than usual while the explorers had enough food stored away to avoid the problem. During the river encounter, the much suffering Mr. Rowlands (with his injured arm and foot) boosted his flagging reputation by shooting down the Ruga Ruga leader. He will finally get some grudging respect from the old Boer scout Max. After the skirmish, the party became lost trying to find its way around the river but then discovered an area of promising commercial potential for future sugar plantations. However, a local prophet has become aware of the explorers and is now raising resistance against them (meaning the enemy will have more guys in the next battle). These events were all random encounters generated after the battle.