New Blog Page with Links to Resources for Gaming in Darkest Africa

I was searching through some of my back issues of various wargaming mags to hunt down an article for somebody and decided I needed to better organise things. So I've put together a new page on my blog that details links to various resources for gaming in Darkest Africa.

It's meant to be a resource for me, but I thought it might also be useful for others. There are still other bits that I want to add (e.g. figure and terrain manufacturers), but it summarises lots of useful articles and scenarios. I've deliberately not added battle reports (there are lots!), but may do so at a later date.

More African Antics

I've been a bit busy recently with work but still found time to finish off bits and pieces here and there for games set in Darkest Africa. So time for a quick update...

First off, I managed to organise a mid-week gaming session and introduced two friends from the club to Congo.

They played the Last Queen scenario with Dan's African Kingdom trying to stop David's White Man Expedition from making off with the crown. 

Much fatigue was earn't in this game and although the crown was recovered, the White Men just managed to scrape a victory on points. 

A couple of weeks back I also managed to get a game in of Death in the Dark Continent. This is a game that I really like. It has an excellent game mechanic for disorder and the alternate unit move system with distances randomly determined really makes players think about what to move and when. 

When painting terrain for Congo, I decided to focus on Savannah. Despite only 3 of the 12 available Congo scenarios (including two published in magazines) being based in Savannah, this turned out to be a good move. My Azande force is built from Congo's African Kingdom and their 'Home Terrain' in DitDC is 'grassland'. In game terms, grassland is Savannah but with fewer trees. 

The gaming mat I use for Congo is marketed as a 'Zulu mat' and is actually 6' x 4'. I fold it for Congo, but the full size cloth mat is perfect for DitDC. 

In out first game of DitDC, my Azande skirmishers suffered terribly at the hands of Paul's Zulu warriors. For our next game I've decided that my Azande will probably dig a few pitfall traps.

In DitDC pitfall traps are sized the same as a base that holds two skirmishers, so I started by cutting some pieces from hardboard. 

These were than covered in filler, allowed to partially set and then uneven rectangles were pushed into the filler using polystyrene. Once fully dried, I covered in my usual sand mix, primed and painted to match the rest of my Savannah terrain. 

For this I use cheap acrylic paints available at craft stores. The colours I use are 'Suede' for the base coat, with a very dilute 'Burnt Umber' wash and a final highlight with 'Sandstone'. The pits were painted a very dark brown (Valejo 'black brown').

I then cut up some of the rubberised horsehair that I previously used to make a bomas for my village and sprinkled this over the pits, using PVA to glue it down. Finally I added a few scenic tufts. The idea was to leave just enough of the dark pit visible to give a hint that the base may be concealing something. It'll be interesting to see how useful they are in a game.

Now it's time to knuckle down and try and get my Azande finished!

More Darkest Africa

I'm starting to put together terrain for the remaining Savannah based Congo adventures. Still waiting for the group of African princesses that was missing from my order of Death in the Dark Continent from Northstar (hint hint!). The free figures were there, but no princess.

Other than that I just need to finish a small village and I'm all set for the three Savannah adventures. You may remember the huts I bought at Salute.

Well, I've been reasonably productive and they are very nearly finished (some small details left to do and a quick varnish).

The hedge represents a thorn bush bomas. It's probably more just scenery in Congo but helps to define the edge of the village. It will be more useful as a terrain addition for DitDC. Speaking of which, I've also been busy adding to my African Kingdoms column to build an Azande force. Eventually this will also work for Men Who Would Be Kings. One army, three games!

The Azande force is based on the sample army given with the DitDC book and includes 3 units of elite skirmishers (with throwing knives), 2 units of traditionally armed skirmishers (spears), 2 units of skirmishers with muskets and a single unit of rifle armed elite skirmishers. The chief and bodyguard form a separate unit.

The Azande were all purchased at Salute from Foundry and I'm using the figures with ratan hats as the elite skirmishers. Interestingly the hats are very similar to those worn by the Malagasy and I have quite a few of those from my own adventures - must dig them out. Unfortunately, Foundry's figures only came with a few actual knives. But I have a cunning plan...