Congo: the Priest and the Slavers

Introduction

After playing Pulp Alley on my new, modular terrain in the morning (see here for a description), Steve and I decided to continue our day of gaming with a return to Congo.  The tiles were re-arranged a bit and set up as an African tribal village.

On the day of the scenario, this particular settlement was hosting a French missionary called "Father Marcellin".  Most of the tribesmen were away hunting when a force of Arab slavers descended on the village.  It appears that they disapproved most strongly of this particular European giving the natives ideas...

The Scenario

This is number 3 of the standard scenarios from the base Congo rules: "A Survivor's Account".  The priest starts the game hidden in one of the huts; the defenders know where he is but the attackers do not.

• The attackers are split into 2 groups; one enters from each end of the table on the first turn.  Note that we chose to use my dhow model to mark one of these entry points, but the vessel has no game function besides being decorative.  Attackers score points for capturing the missionary and taking him off the table, or for burning and looting the villager's huts.
• Only a few of the defenders start in the village; the rest arrive piecemeal at random points and times.  The tribe scores points for hustling the priest off the table and for each enemy group destroyed.

The Game

The brigands advanced; Ruga Ruga ran between the deserted huts whilst their tribal auxiliaries were a bit slower.  Zanzibaris and ascaris leaped off the dhow and marched up the beach.

Feeling horribly outnumbered, the villagers scattered.  Experienced hunters ran for cover in a nearby cluster of bushes, while the chieftain and his warriors tried to hide in the lee of the hut nearest to the river.  This hut was where Father Marcellin was staying and so the tribesmen beckoned for him to join them.

The first of the tribal reinforcements arrived in the very far corner of the table; a group of warriors paddled their canoe to shore as fast as they could (again, the canoe is really just for decoration, rather than being a playable, functional model).  They seemed a long way from the action...

The chieftain's group (with the missionary) was harassed by rifle fire from the Zanzibaris.  It looked as if they were about to be outflanked as well, when another bunch of tribal warriors arrived back from their hunting.  These splashed across the shallow stream and charged up the hill.  Even though the opposing auxiliaries were led by a great brute of a man, this initial melee went in favour of the villagers and the attackers' advance was halted.

The attackers' second band of young warriors was struggling.  They didn't like this place, there were strange noises coming from the village, it was bad luck to attack a European and they generally didn't feel nearly as brave as they had done when they agreed to join this expedition [young warriors are especially susceptible to psychological attacks; the villagers made considerable use of such terrors, especially when they didn't have many units to move instead].

Eventually, these bravos built up a total of 4 stress tokens [ie. they were totally freaking out!].  Then, a lion appeared in the nearest patch of scrub...

Never underestimate native firepower!  The Zanzibaris had been ignoring the tribal hunters, but a flurry of arrows dropped several of the Arabs on the beach.

This heralded a veritable storm of activity!

• Running with the speed of the giraffe, warriors tore across the beach in pursuit of the remaining Zanzibaris.  Indeed, the latter only escaped annihilation because their trader managed to keep retreating, one step ahead of their pursuers.
• Simultaneously, the chieftain's warriors charged the ascaris and drove them back to the beach, leaving two of their number behind as corpses.
• Not everything went the way of the villagers, though: the Ruga Ruga fired a volley of muskets at the tribesmen.  They managed just one hit - but it was the chieftain himself who took the bullet and fell!  This unseen attack from afar panicked his bodyguard, if only momentarily.

Finally, the lion woke up and smelled blood.  It charged from cover into the back of the depleted unit of native auxiliaries, killing one of them and sending the other screaming away in terror.

It was about this point that the other unit of young warriors decided to run away; their terror was simply too much for them [this may just be the first time I've seen a unit destroyed entirely by terror attacks!  In this case, they didn't even encounter any enemy or make more than one move onto the board before they fled].

Back at the beach, the furious warriors chased the Zanzibaris right across the sands to the edge of the river, killing as they went.  The Arabs' trader could only do so much to avoid contact; eventually the unit was caught and slaughtered to a man.

The ex-chieftain's battered bodyguard decided that it would be more valuable for them to escort the missionary away from the village than it would be to stay and continue fighting.  Of course, the nearest exit point from the table was the dhow, so they boarded it and cast off from the jetty.  Let's hope that someone in that group knows how to sail!

So far, the victory points had been going entirely to the villagers; they had accumulated an impressive total [16 VP: 10 VP for saving Father Marcelin and 6 VP for eliminating two enemy units, even if one of these had simply run away in terror].

The slavers still had forces in the village, though - they decided that this would be a good time to do some old-fashioned pillaging and burning.  Two huts caught fire immediately, but the third must have been damp or something as it stubbornly refused to catch light.

The Ruga Ruga then poured a terrifying volley from their muskets into the only warriors left in the village.  Although none of them were hurt, the smoke and noise blinded and petrified them.

Maybe the lion sensed their fear, or maybe he was simply confused and angry with all the shouting and banging, smoke and flame?  Whatever the reason, he chose this moment to attack the panicking tribesmen from behind, slaying two of their number and causing the rest to flee.

The beast didn't stop there, either.  He turned on the ascaris (who had completely failed to set fire to the last village hut).  When they fled from the enraged lion, they were intercepted and annihilated by warriors returning from the beach.

It didn't stop there, either!  The predator charged into the victorious warriors, killed one and sent the rest splashing across the river to escape its bloody jaws.  Truly this was a very angry lion!

Even though the game's official time limit hadn't been reached, we called the game at this point.  The remaining slavers escaped with their loot; there was no-one left who could stop them from doing so.  One last tribal reinforcement arrived (a group of hunters and their healer), to find the village burning and bodies littering the streets ... and a lion on the loose.

Conclusion

Well, that was a wonderful game to play!  It had a very different feel to many other scenarios; in particular it seemed difficult to coordinate the various units (especially when they arrived at random points and times).  Having said that, some actions were highly effective, such as the hunters/warriors chasing down and wiping out the Zanzibaris on the beach, or the Ruga Ruga & lion putting paid to a different group of warriors in the village.  And I'm not going to forget the power of multiple terror attacks in driving off the attacking, weak-of-heart young warriors.

Victory points were as follows:

• Villagers: 19VP: 10VP for saving the missionary, 9VP for eliminating three enemy units.
• Slavers: 12VP: 6VP for burning two huts and 6VP (?) for the loot they carried away.

From the scores above, it looks as if the defenders pulled off a handsome win.  Consider this, though: the village is in ruins and inhabited by a man-eating lion.  The priest is adrift on a stolen dhow and the river water has so much blood in it that it won't be fit to drink for quite some time.

On the other hand, the Ruga Ruga mercenaries escaped without losing a man and with a considerable amount of plunder.  They'll probably be quite happy with that!

Congo: The Mossouko Ritual

Introduction

Yesterday, my friend Steve visited and we played several games.  In the afternoon, my sons joined in for a long-overdue game of All Things Zombie; more on that another time.  However, before the zombie game, Steve and I went through our 3rd game of Congo and it was just as exciting and engaging as the previous two!

The Moussouko Ritual

From the Congo rulebook, we chose to play scenario #7: The Moussouko Ritual.

A tribe that lives in the village of Moussouko is intimidating its neighbours with its extreme practices of black magic.  Eventually it all becomes too much for the other villages and a punitive expedition is organised to root out this nest of devil worshippers by destroying their sacred places & fetishes.  Without these, Oagasou, the evil witch doctor, would lose his power and his supporters would drift away.

I've got a Forest Tribes force, including a witch doctor, so there's no problem in supplying the defenders.  As the scenario is written, the attackers come from the African Kingdoms list, but I don't have such a force.  Instead, we'll use my fledgling Zanzibari Slavers column.  I see no reason why the Zanzibaris shouldn't be just as incensed by extreme paganism as any other group.  Anyway, having such a defiant village around is probably bad for business...

Note that the fetish numbers (in orange) were hidden until after deployment choices had been made.  My Zanzibaris had decided to enter on the left hand side before knowing which fetish was which.

This scenario is quite a complicated one, but here's a summary:

• There are 6 fetishes scattered around the table,  Each has a randomly-assigned number (from 1-6) and the fetish can only be destroyed on that specific turn.  If it is destroyed then it scores the attackers that many points.  For example, fetish number 5 can only be destroyed on turn 5; this would score 5 points for the Zanzibaris.  Obviously, the higher numbers are worth more, but both sides have more turns to prepare forces to attack or defend them.
• The fetishists score points by panicking and/or defeating the attacker's units.
• There's a lot of superstition and uncertainty in the air: every turn has at least one special rule which can make it subtly different from any other.  Examples are Confusion, Paralysis, Consternation, Madness...  As you will see, these can have dramatic and unforeseen results!

The Plan

Zanzibaris waiting to enter the table on turn 1 at the blue arrow.

This is, of course, told from my point of view!  My Slaver column consisted of:

• 5 Zanzibari musket men, plus an Emir.
• 2 x 5 Ruga Ruga (mercenaries.  Tough, but superstitious)
• 5 Baluchis (Indian/Arabian mercenaries with shields and swords), plus a Brute.

I didn't think it realistic to attempt every fetish, so I decided early on to enter on one side and ignore the furthest two targets.  Bearing this in mind and looking at the now-revealed numbers, this is how I planned the game:

• Fetish #1 will be quite a stretch as it is barely in reach even if some of my units move at full speed for all three phases of turn one.  I'll make an attempt on it, but fully expect that Steve's warriors & witch doctor will block me from reaching this fetish in time.
• Fetish #4 should be reasonably easy to achieve; my entry point is close enough to cover the area with my people.
• The interesting ones will be the central fetishes (#3 and #6).  Obviously these will be contested; I'll aim for both but I'll be happy if I can claim either one of them.  There should be enough time to make this possible.
• Fetishes #2 and #5 are just too far away to be worth bothering about; I'll ignore them completely.

The Game

Did my plan work?  Let's find out...

Despite the Confusion special rule on turn 1, my forces advanced with all speed.  As predicted, Steve's witch doctor & warriors sat on fetish #1 and thus blocked my access to it.  From that position, a nasty combination of sorcery and psychological (terror) attacks left one detachment of Ruga Ruga "a bit wobbly" (or terrified for their lives, if you prefer!).

Turn two saw the witch doctor and his cronies charge at the Zanzibaris.  They were seen off after a volley of musket fire and a brief spell of hand-to-hand fighting.  After this repulse, they slunk back out of range - but they had done their job already: it was already too late for me to destroy fetish #1.

In the middle of the field, the Baluchis advanced rapidly and camped on top of fetish #3.  This put them in the right place, but they'd have to hold the position until the end of turn three before I could destroy the item and claim the points...

Turn 3

It wasn't to be: hordes of enthusiastic young warriors, egged on by their Champion, threw themselves at the Baluchis.  My Brute won his first duel, but fell in the second fight and the Baluchis were driven back off the objective in a rapid series of clashes [incidentally, the tribesmen scored several victory points for these fights].

The final group of young warriors then attacked my central Ruga Ruga.  The latter were sent scurrying backwards, leaving a couple of comrades where they fell.  There was no chance whatsoever of the Slavers reaching fetish #3 now.

To add insult to injury, a fierce gorilla had been awakened by the sounds of fighting.  He peered out of the jungle just behind the remaining Ruga Ruga.

I did get some revenge, at least.  The other Ruga Ruga, freshly rallied, moved round the jungle trees and caught the still-celebrating young warriors in the back with a stupendous volley of musket fire.  No fewer than 5 his were achieved and only 1 save was made; the target group was therefore reduced to a single, shocked warrior.

Finally, the gorilla charged, but this "Kong" was just a wannabe: the damaged Ruga Ruga slaughtered the beast effortlessly and then efficiently stripped the carcass of the valuable bits.

Turn 4

OK, so far I had failed to take fetish #1, hadn't tried for fetish #2 and had been driven away from fetish #3.  It was now turn four and fetish #4 should be easily achievable.  Having seen off the witch doctor, all my Zanzibaris had to do was move a short way and sit on top of the fetish until the end of the turn.  There were no enemies anywhere nearby who could have interfered, or at least not with any realistic chance.  It's in the bag, right?

Here's what happened: the special rule for turn four in this scenario is Consternation and reads as follows: "During the 4th turn, if a Panic Stress token is drawn, the turn ends immediately".  I had read this, but wasn't worried as I should have at least one move before any stress tokens were drawn for fighting, right?

Wrong!  At the start of turn four, we rolled for the effect of Black Magic (this is a very sacred grove, after all).  We rolled a '3'.

One of Steve's groups of young warriors was parked on top of fetish #3 (which I had completely failed to break in turn three).  He therefore drew a stress token for them to show the effects of the black magic - and it was a Panic marker.

It took a few moments for this to sink in: turn four had ended almost immediately after it had begun and before anyone could move, shoot or undertake any other actions!

The wails of the natives on realising that they had trespassed on their witch doctor's sacred fetish so unsettled the Arabs that all they could do was to cower down and hold their hands over their ears.  When the unearthly screaming finally subsided, the Zanzibari emir realised with consternation that the optimum moment to destroy the nearby fetish had passed.  He knew that it was just a skull on a stick, but the superstitious tribesmen would only accept the desecration of their holy items if it was done in a particular sequence...

Turns 5 and 6

Turn five saw me march the intact group of Ruga Ruga on top of fetish #6.  The Zanzibaris followed as best they could, to stave off any attempt by the natives to interfere with this.  So far I had totally failed to break any fetishes at all.  #5 was too far away to be practical, but I was not going to let anyone stop me from breaking #6!

Instead of challenging my fresh troops, Steve's damaged units in the centre concentrated on hunting down the remnants of my Baluchis and first group of Ruga Ruga.  Both of these were ultimately destroyed, earning even more victory points for the tribesmen in the process.  They even stole my looted gorilla parts!

Victory

Zanzibaris

• At the end of turn six, I destroyed fetish #6 and thus earned the Zanzibaris the heady amount of 6 VP.

Fetishists

• The forest tribe racked up 2 VP for a panic token that I had drawn early on (it had no lasting effect beyond this and doesn't appear in the narrative above).
• They also scored 8 VP for combats that they initiated and won.
• Finally, the young warriors captured 1 VP of looted gorilla bits.

Grand total: 11 VP to the defenders, 6 VP to the attackers.  Therefore it's a very solid win for the fetishists.  Their evil witch doctor will continue to dominate and harass neighbouring tribes and passing caravans for years to come!

Conclusion

In hindsight, I did some things wrong and had some bad luck.  To be fair, Steve did everything he needed to and would certainly have won anyway, even if I had managed to claim 4VP for fetish #4.  His victory might not have been by such a huge margin, though!

What I did wrong:

• The Emir was all but useless where he was and wasn't worth the cost.  I should have either chosen a different character or placed his unit near the Baluchis so that his morale effect could have been used to assist these morale-sensitive troops.
• In hindsight, one unit was enough to see off the witch doctor; the second unit on the left flank would have been much better employed in the centre where my 2 groups were horribly outnumbered.  Of course, had the witch doctor's warriors been a bit more effective, they might have beaten a lone Zanzibari unit...

My bad luck:

• I don't normally rail against fortune on the grounds that (a) it all evens out in the end and (b) it's not good manners.  However, the sequence of events that cancelled turn four just as I was poised to score an easy 4VP really threw a spanner in the works and I knew immediately after this that the game was unwinnable for me.  Still, it was fun and I don't mind losing as long as it's with style!  

Zanzibari Slavers: the Characters

Introduction

One of the four columns (i.e. "Army Lists") in the Congo rule book is for a trading group from the Sultanate of Zanzibar.  Long before Europeans became interested in the interior of Africa, expeditions from Zanzibar had been travelling there in search of riches.  Often, this involved slave trading; it seems that the Zanzibaris weren't particularly interested in increasing the wider world's scientific or geographical knowledge.

Of course, not all Zanzibaris were greedy traders in human misery, just as not all white men were morally pure.  But this lot are...

The Boss

The leader of my Zanzibari slavers is a cunning, ruthless, old fox.  Yussuf al-Omani is not a nice person: he's sly and devious and you'd have to be very sharp indeed to get the better of him.  He runs his band with ruthless efficiency, but he's feeling his age now and has considered retiring when (if!) he deems his succession is secure.

The Son

Abdulrahman ibn Yussuf is the boss's son and heir apparent.  He still clings to sheds of his youthful idealism and has a lot to learn about the realities of the family business.  However, he is fiercely loyal to his father and won't tolerate any criticism of him.

The Executioner

Othman al-Tammar does what he's told, which often involves cutting the heads off those who have failed the boss.  He has no imagination or feelings about this; it's just a job...

The Slaver

Omar ibn Khaldun is the expedition's slave master.  He is very good at cowing spirits; he can recognise incipient rebellion from a person's body language - often before the slave realises that they about to fight back him/herself.  Omar is a brutal sadist who takes out his anger on all "the goods" for the scar that was once given to him by a Bantu farmer.

The Brute

Mussa al-Rasheed is the expedition's enforcer, responsible for discipline.  He ensures personally that the boss's orders are followed and that there is no trace of dissent.  His beard is stained red with henna, though it seems unlikely that he has indeed been on a pilgrimage to Mecca.

The monkey is evil too...

Conclusion

This group forms the core of my Zanzibari column for Congo.  They're a rough bunch of really nasty people.  I've probably depicted them as rather cliched stereotypes, but this doesn't worry me much.  I'll look forward to seeing them thrashed in a game - unless I'm playing the Zanzibaris, of course!