The Great War, Heart of East Africa, 28mm

A few years ago we decided to augment our “Darkest Africa” figures by bolting on small armies from the Great War. I opted for the Germans in East Africa, mainly because all my Great War armies are from the wrong side, but also so they could be historically matched against my African tribe of choice – the He He. For most of the war, the Germans fought a series of rearguard actions against superior numbers of British Imperial troops, always managing to extricate themselves from danger before the lumbering attackers could trap them.This game represented one of these situations – a defending force astride a river, while light flanking columns were approaching them from flank and rear. This all sounds very “Staff College” – in truth we were in for a first-rate bloodbath!Two units of Schutztruppen were cut off on the wrong side of the river when the British Empire troops appeared. They soon found themselves pinned in a firefight with the King’s African Rifles and the Nigerian West African Regiment. While they managed to see off their opponents, casualties were heavy. Then, the surprise appearance of a British armoured car solved the problem of how to extricate the remnants back over the river.The armoured car was knocked out by fire from a German pom-pom (called a schnellfeurgeschutzen – you’ve got to love those German names!), and when the dust settled the Germans found that the attack had come to a halt. Actually, there were no Btitish Empire troops left to shoot at. that left the two flank attacks. First off, Colin Jack’s Belgians appeared on the German right flank, and were sent running after a bitterly fought close range firefight, which saw the Germans lose their unit of sailors from the SMS Konigsberg. Finally, the South Africans appeared on the German left, but after seeing of a thin screen of “Ruga Ruga” allies, they were mown down by the Schutztruppen reserves, deployed in a long gully. Victory was duly awarded to my Germans.Of course, this was a particularly silly game. For a start, casualties were absurd – the British losing almost 100% of their force, and the Germans about 50%. We were packing it away about an hour before some of the other games played in the club that evening, which just shows how bloodthirsty our game was! the trouble is, we use a variant of Chris Peers’ Heart of Africa rules called Heart of East Africa.The rules are a lot like Contemptible Little Armies, but even more murderous – making it far too easy to hit people. After all, they’re designed for small bands of well-armed troops fighting hordes of natives. Instead we were pitching two whole armies of well-armed troops against each other. The result was carnage! Next time we might tinker with the factors, or even resort to Contemptible Little Armies, which – though bloodthirsty – isn’t as markedly so as this set! However, the game looked good, and it was good to give the Schutztruppe an airing again.