Congo: Mungo Mah Lobeh, Game 5

Introduction

This is a rather delayed account of our 5th game in the Mungo Mah Lobeh campaign using the Congo rules.

Earlier games in the campaign can be found here:

• The Masks of Maskouii
• The Three Wise Men
• Catching the Boat
• The Strange Statues

Game 5 in the campaign was actually played last September - some 4 months ago - and I've been putting off the account since then.  Ah, well, here it is now:

Passing the Fang Territory

Scenario 5 is set up like this:

• There's a band of jungle running diagonally across the table.  It's difficult terrain, but also is full of Fang cannibals.
• Discoveries can be found in the jungle at various points.
• The players start at opposite corners from each other.  Their primary goal is to exit at least 1 unit from the opponent's corner, success in this will gain a large number of victory points.
• Secondary goals (i.e. other ways to score victory points) are as usual: obtaining discoveries, knocking out enemy characters, finding loot...

The Forces

Mary Kingsley's "White Men Expedition" force consists of:

• Mary leads a unit of 5 Ascaris
• A group of (3) white adventurers
• The guide/kirangozi accompanies 4 soldiers
• 5 ruga ruga (professional, but undisciplined native mercenaries)
• The doctor is in charge of 5 young warriors

I'm not so familiar with Ujuwa the witch doctor's band.  However, I do know it has the following in it:

• 4 bands of (young?) warriors.  One is led by Ujuwa himself, another by his soothsayer.  There may be 1 or 2 sacred warriors added to some of these bands.
• 1 group of 6 bow-armed archers, led by a chieftain (?)
• 1 group of 3 lightly-equipped scouts.

The Game

From the start, it looked as if the 2 sides had slightly different strategies.  Mary's column advanced fairly close together, aiming slightly away from the centre of the table.  On the other hand, Ujuwa's forces spread out to try to cover the entire length of the jungle.

Note that I cannot actually see Ujuwa's scouts in this picture, or indeed in most of the others!  I know that they were present; they played a small - but significant - role in the forest tribe's achievements and I know that they ended up in the jungle at the bottom left of this picture.  I can only assume they've moved so fast that they are hidden in the foliage already.

Fang Cannibals

Hostile Fang tribesmen roamed about in the treetops, taking potshots with their poisoned blowpipes at anyone who came close.The first to feel their wrath were Mary's ruga ruga and (especially!) her soldiers.

Initially, The Fang were quite even-handed.  They also shot down 2 of Ujuwa's 3 scouts, leaving just a single quivering man holding on to one of the all-important discovery tokens.

Finally, Mary and her ascaris passed through the tree line without problems.  The adventurers who tried to follow were not so lucky: in a disastrous piece of bad luck (for Mary!), 2 of the 3 adventurers were hit and fell.

Mary's Dash

Mary and her small bodyguard of ascaris exited the jungle.  They were pleased with themselves for having passed unscathed and for having made a discovery en route [i.e. the #2 green token].  However, the way ahead was full of Ujuwa's tribesmen.

The ascaris attempted to skirt around the bands of warriors, but were caught when Ujuwa and his force attacked them.  Mary's force fled without taking any casualties, but were forced to drop their discovery.

From this point on, Mary and her ascaris ran for the corner as fast as they could.  This seemed to catch the tribesmen somewhat flat footed; none of them managed to intercept the white woman and her friends.  [Ujuwa's group had acquired a Movement stress token and didn't have the right card/dice to rally from it, whilst the other warband wasn't well positioned to attack].

At the last moment, the chieftain ordered his archers to shoot at the strangers.  It was a damaging volley, but not enough to halt the ascaris.

With one last bound, Mary and her ascaris left the table, thus securing a guaranteed 15 victory points for her side.

At the same time, the furthest-advanced tribal warband bludgeoned its way past the ruga ruga.  Casualties were heavy on both sides.

The last of the white adventurers also fell at this point, though I forget whether he was a victim of a Fang blowpipe or whether he was assegaied by a passing group of warriors.

Since the tribesmen now outnumbered the expedition considerably, they rushed forwards.  Ujuwa's band came through the jungle unhurt and fell upon the 2 remaining soldiers and their accompanying kirangozi.

In a small-minded act of petty revenge, the last of the ruga ruga shot the tribal soothsayer.  Amongst other things, this left a single warrior guarding the #4 objective for the tribal forces.

The End Game

At this point, the forest tribe held all four discovery tokens, as well as a loot counter [I forget how this was picked up - probably it was from a random event].  Excluding the items for which random victory points are awarded [i.e. loot and knocking out enemy characters], the scores so far were:

• Mary: 15VP for exiting the table
• Ujuwa: 16VP for 4 discoveries

In other words, it looked very tight, but probably a minor native win.

The doctor [who hadn't moved at all up to this late point in the game] thought he saw a chance of reversing this.  It may not have been good odds, but the lone warrior with the #4 objective was an easy target - if the doctor and his followers could catch the tribesman.

Unsurprisingly, the lone warrior fled when he saw the doctor's band approaching.  However, Ujuwa had to use his only movement card for this - and that meant his own band [with the #2 discovery which had been captured from Mary earlier in the game] was in range.

As a last, desperate, do-or-die action, the doctor and his band of young warriors charged Ujuwa and his group of warriors.  Even though slightly outclassed, the expedition's force triumphed, drove Ujuwa back and re-captured the #2 discovery.  Hurrah!

Finally, here's a picture of my elephant.  This was the nominated wildlife for the scenario, but no-one drew an animal token for the entire game.  The poor beast never made an appearance and is still waiting in the sidelines...

Conclusion

That was a very tense game, with the tribesmen [mostly] rampaging through the expedition's forces.  At the conclusion, Mary had just one unit left [i.e. the doctor's young warriors] plus a single ruga ruga, whilst Ujuwa had at least 4 units and a lone scout.  The Fang cannibals accounted for a lot of Mary's forces, especially the better quality groups such as the adventurers and the soldiers, leaving them easy meat for the tribesmen to finish off.

However, like all scenarios of Congo, victory isn't about destroying all the enemy forces.  So, what's the total?  Who won?

Victory Points

Ujuwa

• 12VP for 3 discoveries [#1, #3, #4 were all held at the end of the game]
• 1VP for loot
• 4VP for knocking out the expedition's guide/kirangozi [a random roll, but I think this is the maximum that could be achieved]

Total: 17 victory points

Mary

• 15VP for exiting the table
• 0VP for knocking out the soothsayer [a random roll.  This is the least which could be scored]
• 4VP for discovery #2

Total: 19 victory points

So, it's a very narrow victory for Mary's expedition, achieved in the last act of the game by the unlikely success of the doctor's desperate charge!  Ujuwa has every right to feel robbed by this; I expect he's plotting a terrible revenge for the 6th and last game in the campaign!

Congo: Mungo Mah Lobeh, Game 4

Introduction

It's taken me a month to get round to writing up this game.  I can still remember the overall result, but I have probably forgotten many of the details.  Still, I have the full set of pictures, so I'll just try to spin the best yarn I can from those, filling in the blanks where necessary...

OK, game 4 in our Congo campaign is set in a forest.  Both columns are exhausted and are searching for parts of 2 mysterious statues (one obsidian/black and one jade/green).  Each statue is split into 3 parts which are scattered around the table.  Victory conditions are weighted towards the side which collects the larger number of pieces, with a hefty bonus for gathering all three parts of either the jade or the obsidian statue.  Note that my painting for these statues was a bit rushed and so the bits of the jade statue are a lot darker than I had intended.  They look almost black and are easily mistaken for bits of the obsidian statue.

Mary Kingsley's "White Man" column.  The pre-game exhaustion rolls resulted in all of the 5 units taking a stress token and two of them suffering a casualty as well.  Harsh...

Ujuwa's "Forest Tribe" force.  Only 3 of his 6 units suffered from exhaustion and only 1 of those lost a man.  Must be some tough guys.

The Game

Both columns advanced and easily picked up one nearby piece of statue.  The only real difference at this point was that Mary's forces moved a bit more recklessly, covering more ground but picking up some stress tokens (or at least, not rallying from those inflicted by the pre-game exhaustion).  Ujuwa's tribesmen were a bit more circumspect.

The first significant event of the game occurred when one of the Ruga Ruga picked up a lost item...

Realising too late that he had touched a forbidden totem, the man screamed and screamed.  His cries of horror unsettled everyone within earshot.  [That is to say, pretty much all of Mary's groups suffered a Terror stress token, apart from the Ruga Ruga themselves - who drew a red Panic token].

Moving on in the thick jungle, Mary's ascaris suddenly realised that they were marching parallel to - and close to - Ujuwa's warriors.  They opened fire and felled one of their opponents, but the tribesmen threw assegais back and knocked out 2 ascaris in return.  Then, both sides vanished back into the vegetation.

By mid-game, both columns had become very strung out and scattered, though there was relatively little contact between them.  From memory, each side had collected 2 statue parts at this point.

Just as Mary's advance guide (hired young warriors) collected another piece of statue, Ujuwa cast a successful ritual.  Monkey poo was thrown at the men by a bunch of treetop primates, but it did little more than annoy them.

Mary's warriors now had 2 pieces of the black statue, whilst another group [the Ruga Ruga?] had a green piece.  While it was unfortunate that these 3 pieces weren't all the same colour [as it would have scored a lot more!], at least holding these would prevent Ujuwa from collecting a matched set as well.

As they left a dense thicket, the Ruga Ruga caught a glimpse of the witch doctor through a gap in the forest.  He was casting his evil spells on their friends, so they immediately opened fire on the group of tribesmen.  Only one hit was scored, but when we rolled for casualties it was Ujuwa himself who took the bullet.  That'll put a dent in his plans!

Meanwhile, Mary's hired warriors were having a busy time!  Firstly, they fought off - and killed - a leopard which ambushed them...

...and then they were assaulted by some of Ujuwa's warriors, led by a chieftain.  Mary's men were slightly outclassed, but they fought off the attackers, killing 2 and forcing the others to retreat.

When the dust settled, the victors realised that the tribesmen had left behind a piece of the onyx statue behind.  Mary was ecstatic, as this now gave her three matching parts - indeed, they were all held now by this single group of hired warriors.  Ujuwa was correspondingly despondent: he was wounded and this lost skirmish was very costly.

Elsewhere, more tribal warriors fought Mary's soldiers to mutual exhaustion.  The soldiers were almost [but not quite] wiped out, losing their Doctor along the way.  This game was very hard on named characters...

Back at the main event - and with only 1 turn left in the game - Ujuwa's last 2 warriors [in that area, at least] made a last-ditch attack on Mary's tribesmen.  They were outnumbered quite considerably and the odds didn't look good, but the amount of loot to be gained was almost certainly game-winning and so the risk was taken.

In a stunning upset, both of Ujuwa's men felled their opponents, whilst Mary's disorganised warriors failed to make any impact.  They fled precipitately, leaving the jubilant tribesmen in possession of all three parts of the black/onyx status as well as a rather fine leopard skin.

Conclusion

As the turn limit ran out, there was no possibility of Mary recapturing the onyx statue.  That meant Ujuwa had won a crushing victory, with 4 [or was it 5?] pieces of the statues in his possession against Mary's 1.  The witch doctor also had the loot [leopard skin] and had knocked out Mary's doctor.  Against this, he was injured himself and had lost his chieftain.  Truly this game was rough on named characters!

In many ways, it was a somewhat unusual game.  There was relatively little fighting, as both sides were too interested in cajoling their flagging troops into moving faster and further in the race to the most distant objectives.  When there were clashes, they were mostly side shows with little real impact on the overall result.  In the end, only the fight for the 3 parts of the onyx statue had any real significance: winning this would determine the game's winner conclusively!

Onwards to Game 5 ==>

Congo: Mungo Mah Lobeh, Game 3

Introduction

As regular readers of my blog should be aware, we're playing our way through the "Mungo Mah Lobeh"/"Throne of Thunder" campaign for the wonderful Congo rules from Studio Tomahawk.  Previous encounters are described here:

• Trading at the village of Maskouii
• The Three Wise Men

Mary's "White Man" expedition.  Adventurers, soldiers, ascaris, ruga ruga, native warriors and a smattering of auxiliaries & characters (doctor, guide, bearers).

In the 3rd scenario of the campaign Mary Kingsley, our heroine, has to catch a boat.  However, the crafty witch doctor Ujuwa is determined to stop her.  The game is set in swampy ground on the banks of a large river, so it could get very sticky.

Ujuwa's tribesmen.  Lots of warriors (young and old), a big group of archers, a minor chieftain, a soothsayer and at least one sacred warrior.

The Setup

Mary's expedition has to attract the attention of the boat's captain, so as to make him pull in to the jetty and take them on board.  There are 3 places where waving & shouting might be effective: the pier itself and a couple of rocky outcrops.  Apart from that, the terrain is low lying and swampy, inhabited by hippos  crocodiles and containing dangerous quicksands.

For each uncontested objective at the end of every turn, Mary scores points.  The closer the objective to the boat & river, the more points it scores.  These points are used at the end of the game to determine who has won and by what margin.  The total needed for a major win for Mary's expedition seems like quite a high number...

Our Game

From the start (and as might be expected), both sides raced for their objectives.  One of Mary's groups (the young warriors) camped on top of the nearest vantage point/pile of stones and started to wave and shout at the ship.

Another group (the adventurers) sprinted towards the second vantage point.  More on them in a moment...

Mary's own group (ascaris and a bearer) entered the nearest patch of marsh to look for discoveries.  The terrain was found to be quicksand, so they proceeded very carefully, but they did discover a useful '4' token.

Then, the foremost of Ujuwa's warriors charged in from the other side and attacked them!  Despite Mary's best efforts at pacifism, 4 figures from each side fought hand-to-hand.

This skirmish went decidedly against the head: the ascaris (ill equipped for melee) scored 4 hits to nil against the spearmen, sending the few survivors reeling back in disarray.  This was a calamity for the tribal forces who fully expected to win such an encounter, or at least to inflict some damage in a close-run fight.

In revenge, Ujuwa's senior warriors attacked the adventurers, catching them before they could bring their firepower to bear.  The tribesmen won the melee easily and over the next few phases they proceeded to chase down and wipe out their opponents (scoring quite a few points for winning melees along the way...).

Then, in one of those "I couldn't have timed it better if I'd been prescient" moments, Mary's forces opened up at the same time with almost every firearm they had.  The volleys of bullets tore the heart out of the native warband, leaving them with no really effective melee units.  From this moment on, it was not really a question of if the Kingsley Expedition would win the game, but rather by what margin.

Immediately after this, the heavens opened and the swamp was lashed with a tropical rainstorm that reduced visibility and lowered the effectiveness of missile weapons.  Again, Mary could hardly have been more lucky in shooting just before this happened!

The Sikh soldiers followed this up by fixing bayonets and charging across the creek in an attempt to eliminate their shocked enemies.  They were nearly successful in this, though one warrior escaped their wrath.

Meanwhile, native scouts were racing towards the jetty to try and stop the expedition from reaching this [i.e. the most lucrative of the 3 objectives].  Even if they had to act as speed bumps, they had a reasonable chance of delaying Mary's men enough to prevent them from claiming this goal.

At this point, Mary's forces had found 3 of the 4 possible green "discovery" tokens.  There were still 3 green tokens left that could be investigated, but according to the scenario 2 of them would be curses.  Ujuwa's men decided that the odds of success were too slim to take a chance on this, even though they were very close to the relevant terrain areas.

As the Sikhs charged towards another damaged enemy group, their shouts disturbed a nearby hippopotamus.  The enormous creature appeared from nowhere, stampeded through the tribal scouts [who were too canny to be caught by this attack]...

...before splashing through another marshy area and crashing into Mary's surprised ascaris.  One of these men was trampled to death before the animal lost interest and vanished into the rainstorm as suddenly as it had appeared.

After having cut a swathe of carnage through the few remaining warriors, the Sikh soldiers started to take some casualties themselves - not least from the tribal bowmen [the only part of Ujuwa's forces to be still relatively potent].  Deciding that they had done enough - and needing to protect their green "1" discovery - the soldiers retired out of range.

Mary and her bodyguard of 4 ascaris [less the one that had been squashed by the hippo] thought that there was nothing to stop them from simply marching up to the jetty and flagging down the steamer.  In desperation, the last 2 tribal warriors in the area charged forwards and assegaied her bearer and one of the musketmen.

With this surprising defeat, the ascaris scrambled to retreat behind some nearby rocks.  In their haste they left behind the green "4" discovery token, much to Mary's disgust.  She spent the rest of the game making multiple attempts to rally them and retake the item from Ujuwa's men, but without any success.  Possession of this discovery was one of the few successes that the witch doctor had in this game.

[Aurgh!  Blogger has published a partial, earlier version of this article.  I had typed the entire report, but it's been truncated from here onwards.  I will rewrite it in due course - in the meantime, please accept my apologies for the rather abrupt ending... Update now complete, but I will leave this paragraph here as a reminder]

Shortly after this, Ujuwa's bodyguard attempted the same trick.  Their surprise attack drove the ruga ruga backwards a few paces...

...but the fierce mercenaries counter-attacked immediately, slew several tribesmen and retook possession of discovery #2.  Even though they were then targeted by the tribal archers and lost several men to arrows, the ruga ruga survived until the end of the game and scored victory points for intermittent control of the second objective [pile of stones].

In an attempt to find the last remaining discovery, the Sikhs and the doctor ventured into one of the remaining areas of unexplored marsh.  All they achieved was to activate a curse [green token #5] and to startle another large hippo.  The enormous animal crashed away through the undergrowth without hurting anyone else.

As the game ended, we were astonished to see how the various survivors from both sides were scattered and intermingled.  Also noteworthy is the distinct line of casualties running from north to south across the board.  The crocodiles will feed well tonight!

Conclusion

• Mary's native auxiliaries had camped, unchallenged, on top of the first objective for the entire game.  This scored a significant number of victory points.
• The ruga ruga and other expedition groups had intermittent control of the second objective; the dice were kind and this scored a good number of points as well.
• The expedition forces were prevented from reaching the third objective [the jetty] and therefore didn't score anything for this.
• Against that, Ujuwa's tribesmen won some melees, but only a few.  Their total of victory points for these wins was quite small.

Overall, it was a crushing victory for Mary, who also made 2 useful campaign discoveries.  At least Ujuwa had a consolation discovery of his own.  Without this, the game would have been a complete walkover!

There were some casualties amongst the characters and auxiliaries; this is the first time that such an event has happened in one of our campaign games.  Specifically, one of Mary's bearers was slain and Ujuwa's soothsayer was injured and is now poorly.

Finally, many thanks to Steve/Ujuwa for being such a good sport and playing through the rest of the game in good humour even after the desperately bad second turn.  It's not easy to maintain such composure when all one's hopes and dreams are crushed so early in a game!