Naval Landing Party defends against Azande

[Operator5]

Ran the second game of In the Heart of Africa last night. We did not worry too much with points as I just sort of threw some stuff on the table. Some of the Leader rules and special abilities we again did not use as I am still trying to get the mechanics down.

We had 4 players. Three of the players ran troops of a naval landing party with native contingent. They had a White Man leader, a unit of regulars, a unit of Heavily Armed Askaris, and 2 units of Native Spearmen. It was just under 400 points and about 34 models.

They faced off against 5 units of Azande Agile Spearmen and 2 units of Agile Warriors. It was a few points less than the naval landing party and about 70 models.

The goal of the Azande was to drive the enemy from the village at the base of the hills. To do this, they had to have at least one unit in the village and no enemy units in the village. If any turn ended this way, then the game ended.

So here is the start of the game (that's Mike L. sitting back there and ready to command the Regulars and White (Wo)Man.



The next two images are my advancing Azande. I rolled about average with some good rolls and some poor ones mixed in. So my advance was in fits and starts.





The Native Allies of the Landing Party moved forward to slow my advance, though outnumbered by a little less than 2 to 1, they were able to do enough damage that my force was greatly diminished when I finally reached the hills (and cover from the numerous rifle shots). Here are two photos of the action with them.





Two of my Azande units routed off the board rather than dying to bullet wounds. So, I reached the outskirts of the village with only three of my initial seven units and only one of those units was at full 10-man strength.

I sent my Agile Warriors in to assault the village where they engaged the Askari and the 2 remaining Native Spearmen. Though I was able to rout the Askari after 2 turns of combat, my warriors were down to just 2 men and of the other 2 units, only 1 remained.

Here you can see the scrum at the outskirts of the village.



In the end, I was facing an untouched unit of Regulars and the White Man with just 1 10-man unit of Agile Spearmen and 2 Agile Warriors. We called it at that point as the Naval Landing Party could easily have held the village with those forces.

It was a great game and I really enjoy how quickly these rules play. We had over 100 models on the board and even though I had to cross nearly 6 feet of table, the game played out in about 2 hours.

[Plynkes]

Can't beat a bit of the old spear vs. Rifle. Ah, Rifle triumphs again. Oh well.

[Operator5]

If the points had been even (meaning the Azande had one more unit of Agile Spearmen) there was a better than even chance they could have taken the village, despite the fact that the foreigners could simply stand and shoot for most of the game.

[Smokeyrone]

Nice.  I love those hills, too.

[Operator5]

I love those hills, too.

Second comment I have gotten on them since the game. Really, I made them 7-8 years ago and they still come out and get plenty of use.

[Plynkes]

I may be wrong, but in a situation like this where one side has to advance towards a defender the attacking side would normally be allowed more points (125% is floating around my mind for some reason) than the defender anyway, so I think the natives did pretty well.

[Operator5]

The rules call for something like 125%. That would have given me about 30 more models on the board.

Like I said, I was just winging it to have some fun and get more familiar with the rules. The Azande had the bonus of lots of cover on the right flank and the fact that the Regulars deployed on the left which limited their range to their half of the table.

I also had some very good die rolls at times (rolling 4 6s in a row for morale tests).

[Gluteus Maximus]

Good to see you like the rules. I got a set recently and they certainly read very well, so I would like to try them one day.

Dare I name-drop, but Chris and I used to belong to the same club (October in Birmingham UK) and I know he is a big fan of "native" forces, having used a very nice Masai army in the campaign we had using his earlier set. I'm sure he would have planned to give the natives an even chance if possible, so using the 125% guideline should do the trick. If you try the same scenario with adjusted forces, I'd be interested to see the results.

I've already worked out points values for all my armies at 300 pts each and I have enough figures for at least 8 different armies.  All I've got to do now is find the time to play a game or two

Please post any more games you play, as they are ceratinly fun to read.

[Belgian]

I love the paintjob on the wargames factory zulu's!!!

Any methods, colors, you maybe want to share, need to paint up some of them. And your paintingscheme is lovely!

Greets,

[Operator5]

I did not paint those, so I passed the message along to the guy who did. I'll see what I can find out.

[Death]

Hey Belgian, thanks for the compliments on the Zulus!  I actually painted them up really quick, i usually spend a few hours per mini, but on these guys i need to do them quick since id like to paint up a ton.  I did a super quick scheme on them. 

Primed all figs black

Flesh - First: heavy Drybrush GW scortched brown , Second drybrush GW Dark Flesh
Spears/Head bands/Loin Cloths/Spear: Painted on FoW English Uniform, followed by FoW German Cam Beige, then a blend on top of  GW bleached Bone.

Shields: for white i based FoW Middlestone, and painted all but the edges with Bleached bone. On the brown parts i did scortched brown, then Bestial Brown.

FoW=Flames of War
GW=Games Workshop

I hope that helps!

[former user]

they certainly look good!

with this kind of setting, we use wave attacks with reserves coming up.
IMHO, this concept offers a more balanced game since the attacker has a limited amount of troops and still has to think tactical, but does not need to care too much about casualties.
The game then runs in sequences and you get to try out different approaches and the defender can stage a mobile defense by shifting his forces

even against british rolling fire a very balanced game is possible.
the defender of course rolls for wounded and the time frame is limited or some reenforcements are due to arrive at a randomly set time

[Belgian]

Thanks for the quick response and paintinfo!

Greets,