Today was an interesting day. I was supposed to game with Joe Collins (Sapper Joe) and Steve Hood (Combat Colours) at Wargames Cave in Granite City, IL. Alas, that didn't happen. So Don Cox and I played a 28mm Darkest Africa game using The Sword in Africa. I also forgot to bring my camera. So I have no photos of the game.
Don ran a platoon of German colonial Marines and a platoon of German Schutze truppe askaris. I had a company of Belgian Force Publique askaris backed up by one 10 man squad of native allied musket armed natives. We both had one mountain Krupp gun field piece and crews for each side.
I got the first movement cards and advanced my Belgian askaris up. Don brought his German troops into range. He then got the first fire cards. And more fire cards. My artillery was decimated as the one surviving Belgian askari gunner routed off the table. I also lost my allied tribal musket squad in the rout with the one remaining askari gunner. A third Belgian askari squad was cut in half by German mauser fire. The survivors then fell back to the table edge. I was able concentrate my remaining Belgian askari units and fire at two of the German squads. I was able to reduce one squad of German askaris done to four men and shoot up another German marine squad to half strength. Don responded by shooting up two of my remaining Belgian askari squads to one figure and another to half stength. One survivor fell back towards the table edge the other unit routed off the table. At this point, I was left with one effective unit out of six units total. I conceded the game to Don.
By this time, it had only taken one hour to finish our game. I spent more time driving to and from Granite City, IL than I did gaming today. However, 1-1.5 hours is pretty standard for a 28mm Darkest Africa game using small unit tactics. They usually resolve themselves pretty quickly...
At about the same time you were gaming, I was playing some Byzantine Turcopoles in a 15mm 1st Crusade scenario. I supposed to screen the advance of the Frankish and Norman knights and men-at-arms in the face of the Arab cavalry. I did my best. It was my first time playing Impetus. But my side didn't ask where exactly the Arabs would deploy. Suddenly, from the very start, the Crusaders had lots of Arab cavalry on our flank. It was a really fun game, but my entire command got wiped out.
ReplyDeleteI hope everything's going well.