The Great War, In the Heart of Africa (modified), 28mm

We hadn’t played with our East African toys for a while, so we decided to bring them all out and have a game. Well, not quite all of them – the He He, the Masai and the Ngoni stayed at home, and it was left to the forces of the British and German Empires to slug it out between each other.My German Schutztruppe had the task of holding a ridge covering the Pangani River for as long as possible, and to hold open their line of retreat which was threatened by two flanking columns – one of Belgian troops and the other a mix of Kings African Rifles and Nigerians. Oh, for some reason they had a witchdoctor attached, along with a tea-drinking British commander.Well, the Germans managed to cut down the bulk of the attackers – driving off the South African and Indian Army detachments. However, the King’s African Rifles were made of sterner stuff, and they not only stood their ground but eventually they also got the better of the Schutztruppe in a vicious firefight. By the end of it there wasn’t much left to withdraw, the Germans losing two companies in the fighting, and they only managed to extricate their machine guns and pom-pom with difficulty. Meanwhile the Germans guarding the line of retreat suffered too – the company facing the Belgians routed (but not before it saw off the opposition), while the other flank was hard-pressed by the column accompanied by the witchdoctor and tea drinker.Fortunately for the defenders the German artillery performed miracles, particularly the Konigsberg gun which never missed a target throughout the game, causing mayhem amongst the Nigerians and their KAR supports. However, by the time the game ended the German players (myself and Chris Henry) had to concede defeat – our losses were just too heavy.Everyone enjoyed themselves immensely, and the rules – an adaptation of Chris Peers In the Heart of Africa – worked like a charm. As always Chris’ rules were  fast, bloody and hugely entertaining – which is really all you want in a game! My special award goes to Colin Jack. You rarely find a wargamer who can amuse himself by moving a troop of baboons around the table – which was all that was left for him to do after his Belgians ran away!

Tags: In the Heart of Africa