Fight for the Stone Bridge, 1890
17th June 2007, Comments Off
Darkest Africa, In the Heart of Africa, 28mm
We decided that it was time to give our Darkest Africa toys an outing again. The original idea was for a ridiculously complicated multi-player game, but in the end we opted for a simple two sided scrap. this involved a border clash between a small force of French Legionnaires, and an Italian expedition consisting of Bersaglieri and Italian askaris. Both sides were supported by native allies, both groups of which looked suspiciously like Ngoni tribesmen. Clearly some sort of Civil War was involved!
Colin Jack’s Italians began by throwing their natives forward, and his all-female archer unit drove my musketeers from “The Stone Bridge”. This paved the way for the Italian Ngoni to advance. they chopped up the hapless musketeers, but when they came out into the open they were mown down by concentrated French rifle fire.
The Italians were supported by a small mountain gun, which dominated the centre of the table and forced the legionnaires into cover. Meanwhile a French Ngoni band crossed the river and waded into a unit of Bersaglieri on the far bank. the two sides were evenly matched, but in the end the tribesmen emerged victorious, and massacred the Italians to a man.On the far side of the table a small French force saw off a group of Italian Ngoni after a hard-fought struggle, then advanced to take the Italians in the rear. At that point the Italian commander called for a general retreat, leaving the French in control of the field.
The rules we used were the ever-popular Chris Peers set In the Heart of Africa – which we’ve converted for a whole range of other periods and regions – the North-West Frontier, the Spanish Main, the North American Forests, and the dusty plains of India. In fact we’re currently thinking about coming up with In the Heart of Mexico – a set covering the Mexican Revolution! The rules are quick, a bit silly (which we usually like), and above all great fun to play. The figures were a mixture of Foundry, Copplestone and Bicorne.
