Into The Heart Of Africa Forces

[Dr. Kevin Moon III esq.]

Hi,

Now I'm well on the way into painting my British Naval Landing Party and have a good load of natives armed with muskets and tribal allies for a West Coast Chiefdom army and I was wondering how people run their armies for Chris Peers' rules?

Having done a cheeky bit of reading it looks like I will be going with a couple of units of marines/sailors with a few officers and then some locally russled up askaris (probably somali ones, though by the looks of it they were mostly indistinguishable when in uniform) for my British and just general mobs of musket armed troops for my natives. Of real concern to me is unit sizes and numbers of units.

I'm not really sure what a good size of game to play is with the rules, 600points is a figure knocked about (+20% for colonials), that seems an awful lot for native armies at ~4points a model?

help and experience would be appreciated!

Thanks
Kev

[Prof.Witchheimer]

i'm not really experienced but somebody in the german Sweetwater forum has helped me to put together a German Hermann von Wissmann Expedition:



and some infos from Foundry site:
http://www.wargamesfoundry.com/library/heartofafrica03.asp

Colonial Expedition:
Standard Bearer 0 - 1
White Men* 0 - 1
Regulars* 0 - 1 (that means just one marines/sailors unit, not a couple)
Soldiers* 1 - 3
Askaris 0 - 3
Mounted Musketeers 0 - 1
Artillery 0 - 1
Machine Guns 0 - 1
Gunboat 0 - 1

how i understand the good size of game to play is 500-1000 pts. 500pts is a little troup, 1000pts - a big one.

[NECROSTONE]

Liking this lots

[Doc Twilight]

Hi,

Now I'm well on the way into painting my British Naval Landing Party and have a good load of natives armed with muskets and tribal allies for a West Coast Chiefdom army and I was wondering how people run their armies for Chris Peers' rules?

Having done a cheeky bit of reading it looks like I will be going with a couple of units of marines/sailors with a few officers and then some locally russled up askaris (probably somali ones, though by the looks of it they were mostly indistinguishable when in uniform) for my British and just general mobs of musket armed troops for my natives. Of real concern to me is unit sizes and numbers of units.

I'm not really sure what a good size of game to play is with the rules, 600points is a figure knocked about (+20% for colonials), that seems an awful lot for native armies at ~4points a model?

help and experience would be appreciated!

Thanks
Kev

Kevin -

600 points is about right for most circumstances, and you will indeed find that the Native forces, by comparison, are -huge-. I have an Egyptian Garrison force that struggles to survive, even with superior shooting, against the hordes of natives usually flung my way. It particularly hurts that noone seems to want to let me use my fortification;)

Be warned that it is an extremely bloody game, and that massacres are not unheard of using the rules. Not a bad game, but it's my opinion that certain lists are more "balanced" for playability than others.

-Doc

[Captain Blood]

Doc,

Did you notice that Kevin's question was three years old? 

I'm not sure he's still around for that very helpful answer of yours!

 

[Plynkes]

Aye, the Resurrectionists are abroad again! 


Dr. Kevin Moon III esq.
Last Active:  July 09, 2009, 06:18:07 PM

But in this case he just may see it!

[Doc Twilight]

Doc,

Did you notice that Kevin's question was three years old? 

I'm not sure he's still around for that very helpful answer of yours!

 

Ahh... but time and space are nothing to one who walks the void, Captain Blo...

Oh, to hell with it. No, I didn't notice. But in my defense, twas not the one who started revivification of this unliving flesh!;)

-Doc

[Captain Blood]

Ah, but that's Necrostone's job... Necromancy... 

[axabrax]

I'll go ahead and answer despite the staleness of the thread: 

We've actually just played a few games for the first time doing German Colonials versus Rugga Rugga. As mentioned in the prior post, what you are going to find is that your European Regular forces (any of the Colonial Expeditions or the Naval Landing Party) are tiny and your native forces are huge. The ratio seems to be about 2.5:1. For instance, I kitted out a German force with 1 White Man leader, 2x 8 Schutztruppe Askari, 1x7 German Marines, and a Scout for around 600pts.  That's 24 figs. Don't forget the scout as you will desperately need him to detect ambushes. (I learned this the hard way when I was ambushed and massacred by a group of Masai warriors in the jungle!)  The opposing Rugga Rugga force at 600pts is about 60+ figs.

My feeling based on a few games is that the natives have something of an advantage because of numbers. The Europeans lay down a lot of fire power, but they really aren't that hard to kill if the natives can get close enough. (Not always easy to do as movement is very slow in closed/difficult terrain and the average native's firearm has a lousy 10" range.)  Now if you do two competing colonial forces, say Brits versus Belgians or Germans, it's a whole different ballgame and probably the only way to go if you want to use gunboats, MGs, artillery, and all those other fun toys. Otherwise you are looking at very small units of soldiers.  I have a huge Seebattalion force, and I realize I will never get to use it against anything but other Europeans as I'll never have enough native figs to challenge it, and, even if I did they'd take up too much table space.

I would say 400-600 point games are good for colonial versus natives, but I would do 800-1000pts for European vs. European, so you can really get some troops on the board. Also don't forget that some of the scenarios have uneven points; For instance, if you do Europeans attacking a defended position the natives have to pay 5pts per 1" of fort/mud wall. Throw in a static cannon and you can actually get into the 800pt realm for the natives with relatively small numbers of troops (say around 50-60)

In addition to a suitable scout, you are going to need 4 baggage elements per army. This is actually a very important part of the game, so don't forget to buy some porters, Oxen, native wives, donkeys, or whatever. And the baggage can move, so boxes, crates, and other static stuff won't really be suitable.

We love this game: it reminds me very much of an "Historical Fantasy game" if there is such a thing.

[Gluteus Maximus]

We love this game: it reminds me very much of an "Historical Fantasy game" if there is such a thing.

Surely that would be DBM? 

I agree that "historical Fantasy" is a good thing and if we are honest, something that virtually all gamers are involved in, even if some don't realise it 

[H.M.Stanley]

[unashamed bump] 

[Dr. Kevin Moon III esq.]

Having now played quite a few games (since 2006!), axabrax is spot on with his assessment.

Here are some of the lists I've been using in our 500-600 point club games:

British Naval Landing Force
1 Regular Leader       
6 Regulars         
6 Regulars         
6 Soldiers          
Machine Gun
Scout      

Arab Slavers
Swordsman Leader   
12 Swordsmen      
12 Askari         
12 Askari         
14 Ruga Ruga         

Jungle Cannibals
Warrior Leader            
16 Warriors               
20 Spearmen            
12 Archers            
12 Pygmy Archers            
12 Pygmy Archers            
Witchdoctor      

Ruga Ruga
Ruga Ruga Leader            
12 Ruga Ruga               
12 Ruga Ruga               
12 Ruga Ruga               
16 Warriors               
Witchdoctor                     
Scout            

All have provided close, entertaining games.    

[H.M.Stanley]

Excellent - thank you.

I can pitch straight in with the figures i have for a Landing Party (Sikhs), Cannibals and Slavers. I'll be going back to my Explorers in a couple of weeks as i have a gathering in a couple of weeks that i'm painting for