UP THE RIVER...
A jungle rescue mission
To Lakamazoo: a jungle scenario for the first of a duo of pulpy adventures.
One of my recent projects has involved adventure games set in the period 1900’s to the 1930’s. Over a period of time I’ve been slowly building up a collection of suitable figures from a number of sources, including Pulp Figures, Artizan Designs, Copplestone Castings and theWargames Foundry and North Star Africa ranges.
RESCUE
I usually work to a game scenario, building up the forces for each side and sourcing any additional scenic items required. For one of my early games I designed a scenario which would involve a rescue mission somewhere in the tropics. The rescue force would move up-river into the jungle; for that I would need the rescue force, river boats, native village and some local, native people. So with the basic concept outlined it was time to check through what I needed to get.
TERRAIN
I had sufficient scenic materials to represent the jungle and some generic locals which would could be used, however I was missing an appropriate native village. I sourced a variety of items: one large chiefs hut using
a modified Hovels Celtic round house, a couple of resin African native round huts fromWargames Terrain Workshop, a small dark age hut from Gripping Beast and a converted plastic haystack. All the huts were given the same paint finish. I also made some generic ‘boma style’ fencing by fixing variable length bits of wooden hibachi skewer into strips of foam packing material on a cardboard bases; this was given a basic light brown paint job with some mixed grass and dirt scatter on the bases.
WHO IS UP THE JUNGLE?
For the rescue forces, I had enough to represent some local volunteers plus some colonial troops, but I was short one component and I opted for a naval landing party. For this I used the Royal Navy shore patrol figures from Empress Miniatures. I had sufficient transport to get the rescue mission up-river, comprising a couple of launches and a small river gunboat. In addition I had a small naval ship which I decided would come out for the game and sit on a separate shelf.
RULES
To play the game scenario I wanted some simple lightweight rules to use. Initially I looked at Pulp Alley Quickstart (which has the advantage of being a free download). This is a great set for small numbers of figures with character attributes and commensurately smaller game spaces but... that was not quite what I wanted.
I was looking for a very simple set of skirmish rules with some way of randomizing the appearance and movement of locals which would allow for playing solo. After some consideration and experimentation I settled on the set of rules included in Battlegames Zulu Special (BG14), these are relatively simple with randomized appearance and dice driven actions for the Zulus which were easy to adapt to my requirements. I made a few basic adaptations to the published rules as follows:
◗ The local indigenous population would use the Zulu deployment, movement and morale part of the rules, using 2D6 for number in each unit appearing.
◗ The Shooting Table was extended to add SMG, LMG, Sling and Bow. With a generic musket/rifle entry. Rolling 2D6 when firing a SMG and 4D6 when firing a LMG.
◗ There was a saving throw for all combatants: a 1D6 is thrown and the results were straight forward: 1,2,3 is disabled (or dead); 4,5,6 is okay!
SCENARIO: RESCUE!
The action takes place with a mission to Lakamazoo. Read on!
DESCRIPTION
The small trading post by the river at Lakamazoo has been attacked by the local native tribe. Two women travellers (one British, one French) were captured and taken back to their village. Some survivors of the attack on Lakamazoo escaped down river to the port town of Gwondamaloo and informed the authorities. A small expedition to rescue the women was hurriedly put together consisting of a British naval landing party, local volunteers and a detachment of French colonial troops.