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For a few tusks more
Game and rules
The game
Initially, the game will be a struggle between the European factions on one hand (French, British, Force Publique) and the Ngurmé on the other, with one side trying to free the two explorers and what remains of their expedition, and the other trying to keep them safely under wraps for later enjoyment (with a piece of garlic, no doubt). However, all three of the European factions will want to be the one to free the explorers and pursuade them to reveal the location of the elephant graveyard, and this will be in the individual players' briefings, so hopefully this will lead to fighting among the Europeans as well, and possibly even open the way for previously unheard of alliances between a European faction and the NGurmé.
For a few tusks more will be a skirmish type game, with the different factions consisting of a handfull of figures (between ten and twenty for the European factions and twice that for the natives). This allows us to have a few individual characters, which in turn allows some scope for role-playing during the game, which we find makes for a much more memorable and enjoyable game.
The game map
The game will be played on a 2mx2m board, featuring the River Congo on one edge, Lake Walfriede, and a large jungle area covering over half of the board. The natives will start the game anywhere in the jungle, while the Europeans either arrive by steamer on the Congo or start in Fritz' villa. Most of the scenery and terrain is currently being built, and more information on the techniques used in the construction will be posted in this project's pages as soon as possible.
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The game map (click for a larger version).
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The rules
As this game is planned for debut at a convention, the rules used for this game have to be fast playing, simple and fun skirmish rules: they have to satisfy the triple-F requirement - fast, furious and fun. Possibilities include home-brew rules, Fire & Steel, Rencounter, or the rules published in the September 1998 issue from Wargames Illustrated. As it currently stands, the latter will probably be used, as it is by far the simplest and fastest of the lot, but still has enough scope for tactics.
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