After driving off the Niambo, Isawannayu led the women to a village where the chief had been a close ally of her father. Chief Bosede allowed the women to stay and heal. Lesedi, Nomusa and Dayo all recovered from their wounds. Isawannayu asked the chief to aid her in deposing her uncle, but the chief would not hear of it.
The chief was concerned the result of her battle would incite revenge raids by the Niambo. Isawannayu proposed a deal. If she patrolled the lands between the village and the headwaters of the river bordering Nobelongga and Zululand, Mtowamfalme, and swept the area clear of Niambo, then the chief would commit his warriors to her cause.
The chief reluctantly agreed and in addition, allowed the contingent of N’Nonmiton in his village to join Isawannayu’s patrol. The village’s N’Nonmiton was commanded by a woman named Ode and consisted of five additional female warriors. Two of the warriors were armed with rifles.
Isawannayu’s plan was simple, the two groups would patrol separately to the river. Once they arrived at the headwaters, they would join forces and patrol back to the village. The lionesses began their patrol with great confidence, not knowing that even simple plans could go horribly wrong.
The Game
This was the second game using the Quick and Easy campaign in Fortunes Won and Lost (page 20). Since Isawannayu won the last game, her Major Morale goes up to five. The Major Morale of the Niambo goes down to a three. This means in the next encounter, the Niambo will start with only 3 PEFs.
Looking on the Next Encounter table, I find that Isawannayu’s force goes on a Patrol. But before starting the encounter, I need to rebuild her force. First, I need to determine if the group members that went OOF (out of the fight) will recover and rejoin the group by rolling on the Recovery table. All of the OOF figures recovered bring Isawannayu’s group up to full strength, so there is no need to roll on the Replacements table.
Since this is my second encounter, I can field more that one group for the Patrol encounter. Isawannayu is allowed one group for each point of Major Morale. However, I chose to add only one additional group since I’m still learning the game. The second group is led by Ode, a REP 5 melee tribal native and consists of 3 REP 4 melee tribal natives and 2 REP 3 tribal natives armed with rifles.
The objective of the Patrol encounter is for Isawannayu or Ode to spend one turn in each of the table’s nine sections. The game starts with Ode’s group on the edge of section 7 and Isawannayu’s group on the edge of section 8. The Niambo PEF A starts in section 1, PEF B starts in section 5 and PEF C in section 6.
One other thing I did for this game that was a bit different for me, instead of setting up the entire table, I drew a map of the table divided into the 9 sections and set up a 24″ by 24″ “battle board” on which to resolve combat. It’s a concept used in many RPGs, including 2 Hour Dungeon Crawl by THW Game Design (Two Hour Wargames changed their name!).
The first five turns consists of only movement. PEFs move toward and away from the women. When doubles are rolled PEF D is generated and placed in section 2. Sections 7 and 8 are successfully patrolled.
In turn 6, the women win the activation Ode’s group reaches the center of section 4 and Isawannayu’s group reaches the center of section 5.
PEF A moves into section 4 and triggers an In Sight. PEF A resolves into 1 REP 5 and 4 REP 4 tribal natives with melee weapons. The Niambo have the advantage. The two women with rifles fire and hit 2 of the Niambo forcing them to duck back. The remaining Niambo charge. The two rifle women fire as they are being charged, but both miss. In the melee, both rifle women go OOF, one woman is OD and another goes OOF, but only one Niambo warrior is OOF. Both sides have the Will to Fight, so another round of melee commences. One more of the women goes OOF leaving only Ode fighting the Niambo leader. The Niambo leader goes OOF.
At this point 2 Niambo warriors have ducked back and 2 Niambo warriors face Ode. No one backs down and another round of melee is fought. This time, luck is not on my side as Ode goes OOF.
As Ode’s group is engaged in section 4, PEF D enters section 5 and resolves into a false alarm. PEF B also enters section 5 and resolves into 2 REP 5 and 4 REP 4 tribal natives with melee weapons, and 2 REP 3 tribal natives with rifles. They immediately trigger an In Sight. Isawannayu wins the advantage.
Isawannayu wins on the action table and chooses to immediately charge giving the enemy riflemen less opportunity to fire. In the charge the riflemen fire, one misses and one woman goes OOF. At first, it seems as though things are going Isawannayu’s way. The two riflemen go OOF and Isawannayu dispatches one of the REP 5 warriors as OD. Then, two more women go down OOF. There are now 5 Niambo warriors to Isawannayu’s 3. Rather than fight another round of melee, Isawannayu chooses to leave the table.
It was an interesting game. Rifle armed troops without bayonets are truly at a disadvantage once engaged by melee troops. When Ode lost half of her force in the first round of melee while inflicting only one enemy casualty, the writing was on the wall. Isawannayu fared little better by not taking out both of the REP 5 Niambo warriors resulting that the Niambo would not fail the Will to Fight test.
All of the figures used are from Wargames Foundry and the photos are from my iPad.
Atomic Floozy Adventures 