Darkest Africa + Muskets & Tomahawks = Rifles & Spears (update 25MAR16)

[Happy Wanderer]

Gents,

The past few posts (Masai! I+II+III) have detailed the background, collection and painting of the Masai for use in the Darkest Africa setting.

In this post we now take a look at rules and the rules of choice for this period.

We take a popular North American Wars 18th century rules set, Muskets & Tomahawks and put it to the test. We’ll discuss the reason behind its use, its adaptability and just how we can bring it to play Darkest Africa games in the 19th century…

I trust there will be much food for thought….so dust off those armies of Africa, they march once again!

Happy Wanderer

http://wp.me/p1YrZG-kD

[Happy Wanderer]

...sorry guys,

Had a wacky link problem...sorted now.


Link above should work 🙏🏻

Cheers

HW

[Saucy Jack]

Wow!!! So much information in that blog post. I myself have adapted M&T for my own project 1812 - Retreat from Moscow, but with the weapons being more or less the same, our main challenge was how to make cavalry more effective. In the M&T rules it is stated that the rules don't really cater to much for cavalry.

I am toying with the idea of using a "mass skirmish" rule set that I can use for Mahdists vs. Anglo-Egyptian confrontations and you might just have provided me with the rules.

Very much looking forward to reading about your play test game.

[Saucy Jack]

Got a few question in regards to your Troop Characteristics. What do the following Traits/Options do:

- Determined
- Muzungu
- Drilled
- Thrown Weapons

[Happy Wanderer]

Got a few question in regards to your Troop Characteristics. What do the following Traits/Options do:

- Determined
- Muzungu
- Drilled
- Thrown Weapons



Hey Saucy,

Here you go...

Determined – morale class becomes Provincial.

Muzungu – never test morale. If hit by any fire other than from other White Men, Regulars, Artillery, Machine Guns or Gunboats the White Men is considered to have the ‘Good Star’ officer trait ie make a save die roll of 4+ to ignore the ‘kill’. If killed then all other muzungus have this ability removed.

Drilled – use the Firing Line attribute (p32).

Thrown Weapons - same as the standard rules (p28) i.e. once per turn a unit so equipped may throw weapons before moving into melee. Casualties by thrown weapons alone do not cause a reaction test but do inflict potential loss on the enemy.

 

[Saucy Jack]

Thanks a lot 

I am very interested in what you're doing with this rule set.

[Saucy Jack]

What is the rule difference between BLRs and RRs?

[Happy Wanderer]

"I am very interested in what you're doing with this rule set."

Thanks   I hope you try them...I think R&S is a pretty good fit for DA...possibly better than FIW (heresy!)

Just touching on the last post regards muzungu.

You'll note on the troop characteristics chart that White Men units have 1-3 figures. How I would anticipate this unit forming is that for each White Man he would take a gun bearer so a complete unit would be 3 WM and 3 GB. When such a unit was fired at the kill would be determined randomly and then if the WM is hit he would roll his 4+ 'muzungu' save as per the rules. if the GB gets hit he cops it! Off course White Men do not have to take a GB but for an additional 5pts he doubles his rate of fire....pretty useful. Collectively the single WM figure with GB is 20 pts which is quite expensive...but they are tough!

"What is the rule difference between BLRs and RRs?"

In reality (in this theatre) the difference isn't significant in that ammunition expenditure is a consideration as well as general accuracy of fire. RR is more convenient than BLR but not a significant battle field changer IMHO.

Therefore the subtle difference is that the RR is considered to have the Sharpshooter trait as standard i.e. re roll missed scores of 1. This will make there fire a little more effective but still mindful of the accuracy/ammunition conundrum I mentioned above. Like the BLR, the RR also does not suffer any range band fire modifier.

HW

[Saucy Jack]

Any plans to incorporate the Raw and Untrained rules from DITDC into the rules?

For what I intend to use the conversion for the catch all Horseman troop type need to be divided into both Light/Heavy cavalry and Camel Cavalry.

[Happy Wanderer]

Any plans to incorporate the Raw and Untrained rules from DITDC into the rules?

These two factors are more or less incorporated in the troop stats. in DITDC Raw equates to troop quality….raw troops…obviously. In R&S equivalent types are rated raw and have, for each type, the appropriate column on the reaction chart as per normal M&T. If you recall M&T handles troop quality principally with that chart though other 'stat line' ratings cane used to define a troop type as well.

Generally Raw troop have low Aggression values so they can be expected to be 5+ to kill, though to be fair most troops have a 5+ rating with only a few types really wanting to mix it up in African warfare...alot of African fighting was ritualistic, or at least, not as full on aggressive as the notable exceptions such as the Masai, Azande, Fan or Ngoni for example. The low aggression combined with their poor morale generally marks them as Raw....plus a sprinkling of whatever other traits are appropriate...one of the great advantages of the M&T system. Sometimes low morale and training could recategories a troop type such as particularly bad Soldiers who could be re-classed as Askaris for example.

Untrained in DITDC means a poor shooter. That’s fairly easily covered by the low 5+ to hit and usually no other trait to enhance their firepower i.e. using the firing line (Drilled trait). This is the equivalent firepower of untrained American militia and I think that ratings (5+) is appropriate to account for most poorly trained shooters in Africa.

For example, a properly trained German Regular would fire with a 5+ rating, which would be improved to a 4+ when deployed in firing line and equipped with a BLR that would suffer no range band penalties and a constant lethality of 3+. A poorly equipped and 'trained' askari' would be a 5+ to hit and with accuracy of the smooth bore musket dropping of (-1) over 12" range and also a drop of lethality by 1 (3+ to a 4+ to kill) and have to reload after each action of firing...so taken as a whole the untrained musket men is significantly a lesser shooter than a trained European type as you can see.


[Small correction (to previous post) - the Determined trait improves morale one level e.g. Provisional to Regular...which I have renamed 'Motivated'. This is so the reverse wordage can apply i.e. Unmotivated. Determined becomes +1 Aggressiveness...just a bit cleaner....all rules unchanged, just a jiggle of words].

For what I intend to use the conversion for the catch all Horseman troop type need to be divided into both Light/Heavy cavalry and Camel Cavalry.

The ratings I have used are as per ITHOA which was intended to be focused on East and Central Africa - classic Darkest Africa. The Cavalry ratings in the stat lines cover the various grades of horsemen quite well I think and pretty much all cavalry used in Africa. They are;

Horsemen: Covers native mounted troops armed with spears, javelins or throwing knives. Cavalry are rarely encountered in tropical Africa proper because the bite of the tsetse fly is fatal to horses, but they provide the main strength of many of the armies found on the southern edge of the Sahara. Most Horsemen ride small, fast horses or ponies, although some groups or individuals on the desert fringes may substitute camels. They usually skirmish with missile weapons, which can be thrown to a considerable distance from the high vantage point of a horse's back.

Mounted Musketeers: Some cavalrymen skirmish with muskets rather than employing more traditional weapons. They are often skilled at loading and firing them from horseback, and are more effective at long range than ordinary Horsemen, although they take longer to reload their weapons.

Lancers: This category represents armoured heavy cavalry, who fight with lances or swords and often ride armoured horses. In the states of the Western Sudan both men and horses generally wear thick, brightly-coloured quilts to protect them from arrows; further east, mail armour is more common. Such medieval survivals are becoming increasingly obsolete in our period, but they will continue to fight bravely even against European colonial forces. They receive a saving throw of 4, 5 or 6 against hits from archery, but not against firearms or in close combat.

Mounted Regulars: Generally speaking, attempts by colonialist armies to deploy mounted troops north of the Zambezi have failed because of the effects of the tsetse fly. An exception to this is in Angola, where several hundred Boers from the Transvaal have settled in the 1880s, and fight alongside Portuguese forces operating in the relatively fly-free highlands. Portuguese regular cavalry are also found to a limited extent in Mozambique. These are represented by Mounted Regulars, who do not have a separate entry in the Troop Characteristics Chart, but are instead treated as follows:

They have the choice of fighting mounted - when they are treated in all respects as if they are Mounted Musketeers, except that they do not need to reload - or dismounted, when they are treated exactly the same as Regulars. They may use the whole of any movement phase to mount or dismount; they are treated as a Mounted Musketeer target for that turn, but may fire as whichever type they currently represent at the end. However in this situation they are regarded as moving, and so receive no firing bonus in that turn.





Camels are essentially a combination of effects as described in DITDC (which does a nice job of it) and can be classified using the existing categories above as detailed in DITDC p7…so that’s easy enough to do. In East and Central Africa there really aren’t any camel mounted troops and none described in the original game so I have left them out and wouldn't expect to se any in the backwoods of Darkest Africa. I could (easily) have put them in but I was staying true to the free online version of ITHOA and mindful of stepping on any toes regards what’s free online and what you pay for. Suffice to say though that the free ITHOA version is virtually 98% of what you need to play R&S…only a few classifications and and an odd rule here or there would make any difference..bugger all really.



Hope that helps.

HW

[Saucy Jack]

Thanks Happy,

will most likely return with more questions.

[Saucy Jack]

Hi Happy,

me again 

Have you made the chart for the different Morale types?

[Happy Wanderer]

Hey Saucy,

Yes, all on the playsheeet which I shall put online when I get the last post done.

I adopted the same principal as M&T by allocating a troop type to each column on the chart. It's slightly more logically organised such that the quality degrades from left to right.

Note that within classes troops can sometimes slide up or down one class depending on wether they are motivated or unmotivated so an 'irregular' troop morale class could be reduced to 'Askari' class.

I toyed with the idea of just making simple step gradient and designating each troop type on the troop characteristic chart as a certain type to make the chart a bit 'cleaner' but in the end went for the M&T way of designating each type in a column. You could alternatively go for four morale classes and leave it at that - something like Veteran, Trained, Green, Raw...I think the M&T way of designating actual troop types which might be better though (and more in period)...thoughts (anyone?)

Looks like this. Note - the reaction test causes of revealed enemy Hidden marker ≤8”, Baggage captured, defender’s village burned" are somewhat provisional as I'm not sure if these unbalance things though I like them and usually they should only cause a recoil or temporary flight unless of a poor morale grade - which all seems reasonable to me...they are derived from DITDC which rightly places their loss as important.

[Saucy Jack]

Once again thank you for replying to all my questions - really appreciate it.

I like the look of the table and the modifiers - and I am going to be using it as well. Only difference is that I will have Skirmisher type instead of Agile Warrior type. Not much difference though.

Looking forward to reading about the play test and seeing the playsheet.

[Happy Wanderer]

Once again thank you for replying to all my questions - really appreciate it.

No problem - thanks for being inquisitive...it's always stood getting some discussion going.

I like the look of the table and the modifiers - and I am going to be using it as well. Only difference is that I will have Skirmisher type instead of Agile Warrior type. Not much difference though.

Not sure exactly what you mean. The Warrior classification fits in with the troop type description of being a 'step up' from the lesser Spearmen class in morale. Warriors are types like the Masai, Zulu, Azande, some Ngoni and a few others. This further breaks down into Warriors and Agile Warriors. I like how ITHOA makes the distinction between Warriors, Agile Warriors and Spearmen, something that got dropped in DITDC or 'reinterpreted' into the the DITDC rating system which I think is a little less granular than ITHOA.

Warriors fight differently and have a number of subtle changes in R&S that make them the premier fighters over Spearmen who are more of a traditional 'push, shove and back off' tribal warrior class. The other great advantage is that ITHOA already has complete lists with all the troops stated into their respective classes which works perfectly and is key to integrating the ITHOA lists with R&S to get going immediately.

In DITDC the 'Elite Skirmisher' class is more or less the Agile Warrior class and 'Elite Warriors' are Warriors in R&S. Spearmen in ITHOA become plain vanilla Warriors and Skirmishers respectively...I think that is how DITDC 'decodes' to the ITHOA lists with perhaps a few specific exceptions.