Abu Ben Witti's Treasure

Not long ago Jon and I played a small Black Powder Darkest Africa game here in GHQ. Jon took the part of the Arab Slaver, the notorious Abu Ben Witti, while I took on the natives, lead by Chief Bykelezi of course! The first picture shows Jon's small force.

The Arabs must travel the length of the board to reach the village and trade their slaves for a king's ransom in ivory. On the way there are six markers, in the form of animals, which trigger an encounter. The percentage chance of the encounter increases the nearer to the village the Arab party gets. Jon ordered an advance for his Arab Riflemen first and a Blunder resulted. A throw of 6 gave him 36" of movement and he reached the river.

However, he also triggered the first encounter with a throw of 93% on the chance factor! He now found himself and his natives attacked by a force of Pygmies!

The Pygmies proved a small problem for Abu and were soon dispatched! Jon ordered his Arab Henchmen forward again, and again triggered an encounter, this time with a mad bull elephant! Oh Dear!

The enraged beast charged forward, only to be shot down by closing fire, and then to have its ivory cut out too! Oh the ignominy! However, while distracted by the lure of ivory, the party was attacked by the fierce warriors of Chief Bykelezi.

However, the Arabs proved to be made of stern stuff and soon they drove off the warriors and entered the chief's domain.

Choosing to spend a turn in the village, Jon was able to recover his casualties and exchange slaves for ivory. He had now to get his party off the table by the track exiting at the midpoint of his long table edge. Unknown to him the only route available to reach the edge quickly was guarded by a large force of natives. If he was n't careful he was going to find himself cut off and cut up! Turn 14 saw Jon ordering his native riflemen forward towards the exit point. He Blundered! Again a 6 resulted in a 36" advance forward, springing the trap too early! The natives found them selves surrounded by some angry Pygmies intent on revenge!

Sadly, it was n't to be the natives' day as Pygmy bow fire proved awful and native fire in return disordered the Pygmies! Worse was to follow as the Pygmies found themselves attacked from behind and were soon destroyed, while their fellows were failing to obey orders to rush to their aid.

In short, Abu Ben Witti's party achieved all their objectives in some style in Turn 16, aided by some really awful dice throwing by the natives at crucial moments I'm sorry to say. I suppose you could be charitable to me and conclude that Jon blundered to victory!
The rules we used were Black Powder and the figures were from my collection of Foundry's Darkest Africa range. The animal markers are from a whole range of manufacturers too numerous to mention here. The village I scratch built years ago ~ it once featured on the cover of Wargames Illustrated I recall!