Results of the First Expedition

After 19 days exploring and mapping the area north east of Cape Town, here's what we discovered.

We engaged and defeated a large hostile tribe. At the sight of the hostiles, a couple of our hired soldiers ran into the jungle and were never heard from again. We sacked their village and captured 6 natives for bearers, 3 food supplies, 1 loot and a donkey.

Other known and unknown tribes we met.
5 Tribes – Friendly. One tribe chief signed over his lands to us.
Makolo Tribe
Mongo Tribe
1 Tribe – Neutral

We met some friendly slavers.

Discovered a cataract and a 48’ waterfall.

Discovered Iguanadon and paradactyl.

Discovered ancient ruins.

Bagged Trophy Elephant and a Trophy Hippo.

We lost Dick, several soldiers a donkey and other supplies due to a flash flood.

On the way back we cached some supplies just in case we were out that way again.

We are now headed back to the University of Heidelberg to report our findings. Hopefully this newly found information will bring us donations so we can continue our exploration.

First Encounter With the Natives

At five squares out of Capetown, in mountain jungle terrain, the expedition ran into a large tribe of natives.

These natives were more like savages. An attempt to offer a gift did nothing. Knowing that, we took up defensive positions. Thirteen savages charged us as fast as they could run against our eight people armed with muskets.

The savages attacked us with spears, bow/arrows and blow guns.

The four hired soldiers were postioned forward, and the explorers and bearers were positioned in cover behind the soldiers.

The explorers are out in front. The supply bearers are in the rear getting ready to flee if they need to.  

After a couple errant arrow shots from the natives, two of the soldiers fled the battle. The natives continued their advance. In addition to some very poor shooting it looked like were were about to be over run.

This is strange. A paradactyl appears. Probably to eat the dead native down below.

Inspite of the poor shooting on our part we had a couple of miraculous moments that changed the momentum of the battle. First there were 3 natives vs Astrid and I. We successfully knocked out the three natives. At the same time our hunter, Perm shot a group of natives bringing down the group leader. This caused the other natives to run for cover buying us more time. By this time the remaining natives were close enough for hand to hand combat - we didn't have time to reload out muskets. Our melee skills proved better than our shooting skills or maybe we were just lucky. We were victorious over the savages! Perm and Astrid suffered minor injuries. The bearers were untouched. Only two African soldiers fled.

Hand to hand combat. The bodies pile up.

We gathered the wounded natives and looted their village for supplies and food. The wounded natives were converted into food/trade bearers. We advanced further into the unknown.

The Jimland Africa Project

The map is huge. It is based on the map board from Source of the Nile.

Now that I've modified Jimland with rules from Source of the Nile and Adventures in Lost Lands, I created a map of Africa below the Equator.

Of course, the goal will be to map the interior of Africa which is made of several hundred explorable squares.

I have no idea how long this is going to take. It should be interesting.

Jimland Improved

After many years I finally attempted to play Source of the Nile (SotN) by Avalon Hill, but found parts of the game overly complicated. I recently purchased Jimland which is basically a stripped down version of Source of the Nile, especially the combat system.  I created a hybrid game by incorporating the the streamlined parts of Jimland with may of the fun parts of Source of the Nile. I also implemented the Two Hour Wargames Lost Lands combat system and dino rules into the game.



Explorers encountering  a herd of dinos!



Here's a summary of the sequence of play and the changes I made:

Set Up - Jimland rules with addition of "Rep" from THW Lost Lands. The SotN set up rules are overly complicated.

Disasters - Used Source of the Nile event cards. A large varity of mishaps.

Getting Lost - Used SotN rules.

Movement - Simplified, 1 sqaure unexplored squares, 2 squares if alrady explored.

Roll for Terrain - Jimland has a much more elegant system for determining terrain. I revised it to make it better. Also added possibility for discovering ancient ruins.

Rivers, Mountains, Cataracts, Waterfalls - Used SotN event cards which is more interesting. However eliminated SotN's rules for river flows which are way too complicated.   

Natives -  Used SotN event cards to generate natives but used Jimland rules for determining friend or foe, bartering and buying.

Combat - used THW's Lost Lands combat system. Losts Lands has rules for combat against dinosauers and cavemen. One of the best combat systems for minatures for any time period.

Food - Used Jimland's system for cosuming food. For hunting animails used Lost Lands hunting system. These are actual rules for hunting.  

Healing the Sick - Used SotN rules.

Bonus Discoveries - Used SotN rules.

Funding Expeditions - Used SotN rules. I like the way the Victory Points are translated into an X amount of donation cards received. Some cards have "No Donations" and some cards have free trips to Africa, otherwise it is 500.00 to sail to Africa.  

By combining the best parts of  Jimland, Source of the Nile and Lost Lands, the results are one great game!

I forgot which rules generated the cat.

The IP Heroes & The Search for Cortez's Sword

The year is 1938.

"Hey Pete!"

It's Pete’s old history professor from Rutgers. He knew Pete had expertise and an interest in historical artifacts and handed him what appeared to be a tip of a blade. “If you figure it out you can have it!”

After checking the piece out, Pete had some theories, but needed to follow up on them. That’s when Pete called Kurt. “Hey Pete! Long time no hear,” I said.

Pete said, “I think I’m on to something big, can you and Dick come out here? I’ll explain when you guys get here.”

Astrid is also in town visiting. The three of us fly to New Jersey to visit Pete.

"Hey Pete!”

It’s been a few years since we last saw Pete.

One of Pete’s friends, Darla is an expert on rare blades. She tells us about the extraordinary powers of this sword and that we are not the only ones looking for it.

We pick up our buddy Louie in San Francico and head out to a location somewhere in the Pacific by a tramp steamer. Unfortunately, we are intercepted by a German U-boot. The evil Nazis throw us in jail for questioning.

That same night, we jump the two German guards and grab their rifles. Pete hotwires a truck and we get the hell out.

A native woman waves at us to stop.

Natives are chasing her. They don't look too friendly!

Melee with the natives! Astrid drops a couple natives with her bow and arrow before they reach us.

We knock out the rest of the natives. Drive Pete Drive! We leave the native lady in the dust.

We take a boat to a nearby island and land on the beach.

Pete said, "This should be the place. There's an abandoned airfield a few miles in."

We are not the only ones on the beach......

The Amazonian women ambush us and we take heavy casualties. Fortunately we recover from our wounds and push on.

What's this? A secret alien base!

Dick spots the aliens coming out of the base!

Astrid and Louie rush into the base and take out the remaining aliens.

The IP Heroes finally locate the abandoned airfield.

The Obersturmbahnfuehrer Mohn offers Kurt a deal. "Hand over the sword blade and I will let you and your friends live."

Kurt replied back with a heavy American accent, "Banana!"

Obersturmbahnfuehrer Mohn commands his natives to charge the IP Heroes. "Kill them all!"

The Nazi natives attack us from all angles! Pete and Kurt fill the air with hot lead with the German rifles!

The IP Heroes survive the onslaught with just a few minor wounds. Bodies litter the airfield!

Kurt is about to capture Herr Mohn.....

When suddenly an evil demon ape is summoned by the Nazi!

We unload all our weapons into the demon. When the demon ape goes down, Pete jumps on top to finish him off with Cortez's Sword blade to the throat.

"Hey Pete, you ok?"

"What happened to Mohn?"

"He fled into the jungle."

"We'll get him next time."

"Help me get off this over-grown monkey."

Good Guys, Bad Guys & Civilians

The Good Guys.

The Bad Guys!

The Civilians or cannon fodder.



These are 1/72 scale plastic figures painted up for Six Gun Sound Blaze of Glory.

A Band of Heroes

It's the morning of June 6, 1944. Our first objective is to take out a gun overlooking Utah Beach. If we don't take out the gun, a lot of our guys won't make it off the beach. I'll be taking a squad left and Dick will be taking a squad through the center of town.

Overview of the objective. Gun in front and German command post in back.

Dick and his squad advancing up the middle of town and stop at the fountain. They see two German sentries in a building.

The two Germans are easily taken out.

Dick's squad takes position in a building, but is immediately met by a hail of German gunfire! His squad goes down and is the only one left standing!

The Germans were no match for the paratroopers. After being outgunned and cornered, they surrendered. Germans suffered 5 dead, 6 wounded and 7 POWs. US losses were 2 dead and one wounded.

I was playing the Americans and the cat was controlling the Germans. Better luck next time.