I did dabble with Dahomey a few years back using some 20mm Esci plastics and The Sword and The Flame. Whilst I love the rules for the fun game they produce I got the feeling that the battles were fought around the jungle terrain, not through it.
It has occurred to me that Dahomey (and Ashanti, another fascinating campaign) should not be treated as just another Colonial game, but maybe more as a Vietnam type game. Of that period there was a set (Bodycount?) that had all the players on the Free World side and the (elusive and rarely seen) Viet Cong controlled by an umpire or tables
I'm going to give this some more thought, but my initial hunch is that games of campaigns like this are better served using mechanisms designed for modern asymmetrical warfare, as opposed to traditional Rorke's Drift type rules.
You could also add the Maori Wars to your list - musket-armed indigenous warriors skirmishing through heavy bush (sub-tropical rain forest), who also quickly adapted their pa sites for modern (19th Century) siege warfare.
ReplyDeleteGood point (as if I need encouragement to look at the Empress figures!!!)
DeleteThats an interesting point Steve, and quite true too.
ReplyDeletePeter Pig's Vietnam rules 'Men of Comany B' has some great ideas in that regard, including options for the guerrilla player to withdraw forces from one activation point and redeploy them to another, simulating local knowledge and better use of terrain. Would make for some nervous Europeans as locals dart from one flank to another seemingly at will, reducing the impact of all that firepower they carry.
Thanks for the heads up, I will investigate...
DeleteHi Steve,
ReplyDeleteI would agree with Paul and also throw in the fact that your Winter War project could also benefit from such an approach. Much to ponder then!
All the best,
DC
I do a lot of pondering!
DeleteI was also going to suggest MOCB, as well as the Dervish pop up rules in PITS, which follow a similar mechanism.
ReplyDeleteThere's also a back of a postcard set of rules in a very old edition of Miniature Wargames for the Ashanti Wars that might well be of interest, if only for the mechanisms?
Yet another Men of Company B rec -- I ran a Star Wars game with them and it was great fun -- Imperial stormtroopers (Americans) against Ewoks (VC). The players laughed when they saw what they were facing -- they weren't laughing by the end of the game. :-)
ReplyDelete