Yes, Source of the nile is an excellent game. Ten copies on eBay US right now.
Below is my blort on the game originally posted in 2001:
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Surviving in Source of the Nile
Source of the Nile is a great game, Ross, a great game, thanks for
creating it so long ago !
I carry mixed memories of the Discovery > Avalon Hill board game
Source of the Nile from 1979 when it was released. Alan Moorehead's
excellent volumes The White Nile and The Blue Nile had been eagerly
devoured, and I had been lucky enough to make an up-the-Nile
vagabonding trip in 1975, so I opened the bookcase-style game-box
with eager anticipation. Suitable for solitaire play, no less !
What tabletop past-time could promise to be more interesting ??
Over the next few weeks I played the game solitaire twenty times. In
every one of those games my exploratory expeditions were destroyed,
and from only a few did my ragged, starving white explorer manage to
stumble unaccompanied back to the coast. I decided that the game
just wasn`t very much fun, and had no desire to try it out as a
multiplayer exercise. It was put on the shelf, and eventually
forgotten about until 1999 when the release of Darkest Africa figures
revived my interest. I purchased a used copy of SotN to replace my
vanished original, and sat down to try the game again, with the
advantage of an extra 24 years of gaming experience.
Tribal interactions for expedition survival
I played SotN a few more times solitaire, with results much as I
remembered them. Analysis of the factors which destroyed my
expeditions revealed that overwhelmingly they were attacks by native
tribes. I had been soliciting every unknown tribe as a potential
ally, and trying to make friends with all of them, which, with my
modern sensibilities, seemed the soundest course of action. However,
in the game-world of 19th-century Africa this approach is tantamount
to suicide, and had resulted in a string of shredded expeditions.
Much too often, when approached in an open and friendly fashion,
those clever tribal chieftains would feign benign friendship, only
waiting to catch my expedition unawares in a surprise attack.
A rethinking of tribal interactions, including careful examination of
the Native Policy rules seemed to be in order.
I realized that one does NOT need to make friends with every tribe
encountered, but only to avoid being attacked by them. This was a
turning point in my enjoyment of the game. After this mini-satori
the other five, game-allowed attitudes towards native tribes make
sense, and seem more attractive. One very good way to avoid conflict
is to cause a tribe to hide as you pass quickly through their
territory. For small tribes, with a well-armed expedition, analysis
of the native interaction chart shows that just ignoring such tribes
will almost never result in an attack, while seeking contact with
them will often result in a sneaky ambush.
Another important realization is that one doesn't even need friendly
tribes near your port of entry, or close-by already-friendly
tribes. Therefore it makes lots of sense to just march on past the
smaller tribes near the coast, ignoring them as much as they will
allow.
With larger tribes the situation is much less clear. Large tribes
are less likely to hide if ignored. The odds in these situations are
strongly a function of the number of fighting men included in the
expedition.
Well away from the coast, however, a friendly tribe can be a big
advantage to an explorer. One doesn't need to consume ones own
supplies while staying with a friendly tribe, and they will often be
happy to trade, allowing the usefulness of one's loads to be
optimized, and carriers whose burdens have been consumed to be re-
stocked.
Therefore I now "Ignore" and try to hustle past coastal tribes, and
when confronted with a small tribe deep in the interior, I "approach
in an open manner with a great show of technology". Don't be stingy
with the gifts, if in a negotiation you have ten gifts, ALWAYS give
the local chief all ten. If he decides to be friends, that is great
for the intrepid explorer, who gains a base of operations remote from
the coast. If a small tribe decides in any case to attack, one still
has a decent chance of survival through winning the unsought
combat.
For the bad surprise of discovering a big inland tribe, it is
necessary to analyze the odds in the native interaction table for the
particular number of fighting men in the expedition. At some point,
it will still come down to luck. In these cases I often use
the "take defensive posture" or "Retreat to the previous hex"
option. Defeating a large tribe is substantially less likely, and
even if the expedition wins the fight, losses in askari may cripple
ones ability to continue.
Terrain types to avoid ("Just don't go there").
Those of my expeditions in the past which did not expire on native
spears came to grief by starving slowly to death while unable to find
their way across difficult terrain. Previously I was determined to
cross whatever horrible terrain was discovered in an unexplored hex,
failing again and again to find the way. Meanwhile the card-
generated disasters and supply wastage were awful. I finally decided
that there are types of terrain (Swamp, Jungle/Swamp,
Jungle/Mountain) from which one must simply retreat immediately,
subsequently searching out a route around. Do NOT try to cross
Jungle/Swamp terrain. Even with a guide it is very difficult, and
not worth the losses in time, personnel, and supplies. Guides, you
will discover, have a decided habit of dying or deserting in the
worst possible terrain. It should be noted here that in a hex with
multiple terrain types, the card-generated random disasters are
doubled or tripled in frequency over those experienced in a hex
containing only a single terrain type.
Knowing when to head back for the coast.
The largest psychological hurdle to be overcome in becoming a
smarter, surviving explorer is the realization that there is no shame
in turning back BEFORE a major disaster cripples your expedition.
Indeed, knowing when to head back for one's port of entry is key. In
spite of all one's planning and careful play, it is very likely that
your explorer will find himself with an expedition depleted in
supplies, personnel, or both, without yet having completed his
grandly-planned epic journey, or without having traced that river
completely to its source.
To doggedly press forward in such a situation is to squander your
expedition and to die. Instead, an important and useful tactic is to
cache all of your goods not necessary for a high-speed return trip
through known hexes to the coast. Then back to Europe to visit Mum,
the Royal Geographical Society, and a bit of publishing.
This caching is a good way to build up your subsequent expedition.
If you have canoes, gifts, rations, and muskets cached well inland,
it gives great flexibility in planning and equipping your next
expedition, and may allow your subsequent attempt to be larger and
better equipped than the present fading endeavor. It sometimes makes
sense to hire bearers at the coast who will carry no loads until the
cache is reached, in effect beginning your fully-equipped expedition
well inland at the site of the cache.
Does it all make any difference ??
Following the important paradigms listed above, I find Source of the
Nile a thoroughly enjoyable game. Since radically changing my play
style, my newest explorer, Lemuel Hardwicke, has completed six ( ! )
consecutive exploratory missions without major disaster.
He still, however, has not managed to make a full east/west transit.
Two large caches await him deep in the interior, one near the
friendly Wabipswi village.
Perhaps you might be able, my dear Sir, to make a small contribution
towards the expenses of his next expedition ?
Chick
11 February 2008, 06:10:36 PM