Ngoni Dawn

[Plynkes]

After playing on the fantastic Sudan table last week, I was itching for some more Colonial T&T. The nephew is all into last stands, the Little Bighorn and all that right now, so he suggested we do a desperate 'against the odds' type of fight, and volunteered to be the doomed European folk facing overwhelming odds. So we rustled up this little tale...

East Africa, Eighteen Hundred and Something-or-Other. Hoping to make his fortune in the new colonies, the young Herr Winkelmann took up a position in charge of a Deutsch-Ostafrikanische Gesellschaft (German East Africa Company) station in the middle of nowhere. With him came his overbearing, physically abusive, nagging harridan of a wife. Despite her many flaws, he loved her deeply.

But then one day a lion ate her.


The late Frau Winkelmann teaches a zebra not to look at her in a funny way, moments before becoming a lion's lunch herself.


Herr Winkelmann was inconsolable.


He would spend all day at her graveside, mourning his loss. He neglected his work, and the company were considering replacing him and bringing him home to Germany to get help.

But then everything changed. A young native girl came into his world and forbidden love blossomed. She healed his wounded heart, and Winkelmann was able to smile and enjoy life again. She told him her name was Munyuse Mkalipi, but he couldn't pronounce that and so called her Dawn. Ngoni Dawn.

Unfortunately Winkelmann had been putting his Winkel where he really shouldn't ought to have been putting it. For Munyuse Mkalipi was in fact wife number twelve of the local Ngoni Sultan, Inkosi Mtwalo. She had fled from the thought of that sweaty fat old man she never wanted to marry in the first place and saw the dashing young Winkelmann as her saviour.

But the war drums were now beating. The warriors were coming to the mission station to take Ngoni Dawn back.



"Was this the face that launch'd a thousand ships?" Er, I mean a dozen canoes?

Jesus, man. I dunno about wife No. 12, I reckon 12 is actually her age.



The figures representing our lovers in this game. Nandi Woman in Bowler Hat finally gets her first gaming outing. Yay!

So with a miniature African Iliad on his hands, Winkelmann sprang into action to prepare his defences. At his disposal he had two squads of DOAG askari, some Ruga Ruga and a European command unit with flag. Reggie was given a pile of stuff to make barricades with, which he could lay out on the table in any way he saw fit. He also had an ammo dump, which would dispense Volley Fire cards unless the enemy managed to overrun it. Dawn was placed in the innermost room of the house and told to barricade the door. Everyone else was outside, manning the parapets.




Northern, garden side of the house, with hastily improvised inner barricade.


Southern side, manned by Askari and Ruga Ruga.


In the still of the night, the warriors crept towards the station.

As the Ngoni were fond of attacks just before dawn, we decided the first few turns would take place under cover of darkness. The sun would come up at a random moment decided by the drawing of a card...

[Plynkes]

The native force consisted of groups from three regiments - The Kabaenda, untried youths; the Mabema, seasoned fighters in their twenties; and the Amadoda, battle-hardened veterans all. They also had a unit of scouts, and some musket-armed skirmishers. Fat old Sultan Inkosi Mtwalo and his two most trusted witch-doctors also came along to provide moral support and cheer from the back.


The warriors approached in darkness from the south and west.


The Amadoda led the attack, to encourage their less-experienced comrades. Fire from the askari was punishing, but they kept coming.


More warriors swept towards the station.


Realising that no attack was forthcoming from the north, and so many of his men had nothing to shoot at, Winkelmann redeployed a squad to the south wall of the garden.


The Askari squad had been busy shooting at the Amadoda, allowing the raw Kabaenda to sweep in towards them unmolested.
There was a grim fight for the barricade.


While the Amadoda pressed on, hopeful of gaining the honour of taking the enemy's flag, as was their right, being the senior regiment.


Despite being raw, green troops, the Kabaenda's numbers prevailed. They managed to hack down the askari squad and carried the barricade.


The battle raged on, and the Amadoda triumphantly wrested the flag from the dead hands of the standard bearer, as the command unit was overrun. Things looked bleak...

[Plynkes]

Winkelmann bravely rushed to face the foeman, and avenge the deaths of the colour party.


On the south side, the Ruga Ruga were about to be overwhelmed, for surely there was no hope.


Brandishing walking stick and pistol, Winkelmann was determined to protect his love to the end, or fall trying.
He made it a black day for the Amadoda, their triumph in capturing a standard overshadowed by the death of their beloved general, shot in the face by Winkelmann.


Yet he did not go unavenged, for, finally, Winkelmann was cut down by their spears; his body pierced with many wounds, each a testament to his bravery and devotion to Dawn.


"NOOOOOOOOoooooooo!!!!"

With the last of the white officers fallen, the soldiers decided they weren't being paid enough to stick around and die, so fled the scene.

Locked alone in the bedroom, Munyuse Mkalipi produced the gourd of foul-smelling liquid from the folds of her robe. She had procured it from a sangoma against this very moment.  The dark hour had come. What would she do? "I will never go back. Never." Then she heard them banging on the door and calling her.

What choice she finally made is not recorded. All that is known is that the Company Station was attacked and burned by Ngoni tribesmen.




As already stated we used T&T with the colonial supplement. The game was perhaps a tiny bit one-sided, but some crucial die rolls, had they gone differently, would have changed things substantially. And well, we wanted a desperate struggle against the odds, and got one.


Printed out some more of those cool cards downloaded from the T&T site, and also stole Driscoles' idea of printing out cards to keep track of ammo.


Used my Corto Maltese Tarot to decide when the sun would come up (the Sun card was shuffled into the first five cards of the deck, and we drew one each turn). The battle was over before the dawn came, though.





                                                     Yea, I will wound Achilles in the heel,
                                                         And then return to Helen for a kiss.
                                                          O, thou art fairer than the evening air
                                                            Clad in the beauty of a thousand stars.

[Remington]

Beautiful story, Plynkes. And the pictures are fantastic as usual. Love every bit of this! This and the Sudan table are dangerously pushing me towards amending my New Year's resolutions to add "Colonial" to the list. Sigh*...

But I love to see that you can have loads of fun with such an amount of miniatures. That is nearly achievable for one such as me!

[answer_is_42]

 
Beautiful stuff, as ever.

Where are the sandbags and other barricades from, by the way?

[gamer Mac]

Great report
Lovely miniatures and scenery.
Is that an LPL entry hidden in the pixels.
The small details on the barricade are very nice. Typical Plynkes. Outhouse and Gramiphone or lovely touches.

[Ray Rivers]

 

Fantastic!

Lovely board, miniatures and story... brought a tear to my eye.. 

Plynkes... master of Africa.   

[Major Weenie]

Very nice indeed!

How did you make the fields of grain/wheat/millet ?  Cut sections of door mat?

Regards,
MW

[traveller]

 

[Phil Robinson]

Always know I am in for a narrative and visual treat when I see an AAR post from our man in Africa. Bravo!

[Prof.Witchheimer]

Dylan, thank you, your report is exactly what I need at the moment!

[area23]

Wow!

[joroas]

 

[Sterling Moose]

Wonderful.  Fantastic terrain, figures, AAR the whole 9 yards.

[Captain Blood]

Top work Plynkes.

Did those Ngoni have banned symbols beneath their pixels?