The column moves on |
From the Journal of Frederick Cartington:
"Having achieved our initial objective of finding the outlet to the river, we proceed North-Eastwards towards our second objective which surprisingly was a swamp."
"Our Scout Ebor, (unsurprisingly) failed to notice the Tribals within its confines. We soon convinced these hostiles that attacking us was foolhardy. in the extreme."
Natives to the fore and flank |
They close in...slowly |
Those that can move, head for safety or form a firing line |
Some impressive shooting drops two natives |
The natives struggle to move in the Swamp |
Four guns against a slow moving target, just doesn't seem fair somehow |
He's dropped, with shots to spare for his friend |
It's all over, as some make a slow escape to safety and a flanking fire is formed |
"We encountered some natives that we plied with trade goods to enable us to purchase three loads of food to replace the two we had found had gone bad, probably due to the conditions in the swamp".
It was probably the same Natives too that had rummaged around in our camp the next night, looking for trade goods, but they had had the last of them"
"Wandering from the jungle, three Askari asked to join our expedition and as we had sufficient food I complied with their request, thinking the extra firepower would be useful."
The column, with Askari bringing up the rear |
"They attacked from our front, attempting to use the cover of the jungle, but to no avail."
The small force of Natives take advantage of the cover |
The natives close... |
... and the column makes its usual preparations |
The natives break cover and close with the expedition |
With formidable firepower the result is as expected, the two remaining flee. |
"With our food dwindling fast I reluctantly decided to head back to Jim's Landing which was a lucky decision, in that the very next day after the rain, the remainder of our food was ruined"
"Unfortunately our route home south was blocked by a lake, rather than another branch of the river, enforcing a slight detour"
The column and casualties |
"On the last day of the expedition, a soldier foolishly followed the Askari's lead and ate a plant that killed him, whilst two Askari survived this foolish attempt at sustenance".
"Finally arriving at Jim's Landing. fresh food, water and rest would soon return Doc and Ebor to our ranks"
"A personal note:"
"As I wait for the Doc and our Scout to recover I have written to my good friend Edward Burlington Bt., inviting him to lead our next expedition. I am tiring of the responsibility of leading these very dangerous ventures into Jimland, but will of course volunteer my services as hunter."
Thus ended the last expedition where Frederick would take the lead, as the expedition had made enough cash ($378) to outfit a new expedition and pay for a leader with a skill ! (Ned will be an Archaeologist).
It was an interesting adventure that had shown my simple river crossing rules worked imo in the style of the Jimland rules and here's the map of the expedition's exploration:
The expedition's route in red (bit obvious really) |
Even so I have played another two adventures, featuring Ned Burlington as leader and will post these in due course.
Thanks for taking the time to visit, hopefully you have found something of interest and as always your comments are both welcomed and appreciated.
Looking awesome as always!
ReplyDeleteThanks you Michal, always appreciated.
DeleteCracking report Joe, sadly i don't know enough about the rules to offer any advice on how to play out the Natives, but if your finding things to easy maybe you could add to their number.
ReplyDeleteThanks Frank, I doubt it's the urles at fault, as they're simple enough - Natives get two choices, whther to split their force or not and which side or sides to come onto the table. My problem is tht as the Native player I have no guile about the Native deployment and they tend not to deploy as I would. As the Expedition player I know how to combat the rather simplistic Native tactics, restrcited as they are by the randomness of using dice in their deployment.
DeleteTheir number, I think, are somewhat on the small size as they're meant merely to act as speed-ups in the expeditions progress.
Right I understand now Joe, I've found that when playing solo its best to play both sides as if they were yours, so in a case like this it might be better to ignore the rules & just set the natives up as would seem logical from their point of view as it would be save to think they've been watching the explorers for awhile before launching their assault :)
ReplyDeleteI think you're probably right, but I far for my explorers as I think I can probably beat myself easily as the Natives, given a bit of luck!
DeleteWait until you've read the next two adventure though (coming soon to a blog ner you) and maybe you can come up with solutions of how best to organise an expedition too - I think I've lost my touch!
Another cracking instalment and I would tend to agree with Frank with regards to the natives in solo play. You certainly seemed to be enjoying the adventure and that has to be the primary focus.
ReplyDeleteThanks Michael and Frank does make a lot of sense with his answer, but solo pumbingly boring - what do I do with the bragging rights of winning/defeating myself ?
DeleteJolly good stuff! Hmm, I suspect that unless the natives have overwhelming numbers or ambush from dense terrain then a decent-sized column will always see them off with no/minimal loss to itself. That's just the way of things...
ReplyDeleteThanks C6, there are a minimum of six and a maximum of ten Natives in most encounters (ambush event cards go as low as five) and even with smaller numbers they can still inflict occassional casualties on the column.
DeleteSuper duper batrep and pics. I enjoyed it greatly. Western firepower, the way ahead to conquer the world.
ReplyDeleteThanks Irqan and yes bolt actions rifles etc. are more than a match for pointy sticks!
DeleteI am glad there will be further adventures (but with different characters) as I have really enjoyed the ones posted on this blog. Be warned if you ever stop I may start to run them on my blog.... consider that a warning!
ReplyDeleteThe next couple of adventures may see Jimland laid to rest for a while, so please start preparing your own adventures - it'll inpsire me to return to Jimland!
DeleteNice read again Joe. No Idea what to suggest really besides introducing some sort of behavioural tree of your own devising.
ReplyDeleteThanks Brummie, as frank says above, I'll have to take a closer look at how the Natives woul dreact from my pov.
DeleteNice journaling of the Jimland adventures, Zab. I really like the "face" shield artwork by a native in the 3rd picture from your post summary.
ReplyDeleteThanks Jay, the Native shields are well sculpted enugh for even a bozo like me to pick out the details.
DeleteThe photo's of the expedition look great (as ever) and this was a fitting swan song for Frederick Cartington's career as expedition leader Joe - a shame he couldn't reach that second objective, but events proved his decision to turn back was a good call.
ReplyDeleteTrying to tweak the hostile natives will be tricky, simply 'beefing them up' might make them too powerful against an expedition that's down in numbers after a run of bad luck. Maybe add some variation to their deployment and tactical options, perhaps the chance of an occasional stolen rifle / poison tipped arrow or spear, or even the odd 'berserker' type who are so high on witch doctors potions that they ignore their first wound?????
Thanks WA, Frederick may yet return as leader of another expedition. I don't rckon the natives need tweaking at all, it's my use of them whilst taking their 'turn' and their initial deployment being dice driven, so I'm going to be looking more at the latter.
DeleteMore terrific "Jimland" shenanigans, Joe. One of my fave expeditions tbh, and I'm looking forward to seeing how your new leader gets on with his excursions. Wonderfully written stuff :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks Blaxx, not one of my favourite expeditions as my best laid plans slowly fell apart!
DeleteHi Joe another interesting expedition. It did seem easy but it also seems that the expedition members numbers and firepower have increased but the native numbers have remained static, would that be a fair assumption.
ReplyDeleteSo gone are the days of last ditch stands and nail biting actions to be replaced with the European steamroller.
Maybe as Simon suggested you try and improve the decision making of the natives or simply increase their numbers to match your own.
It will be interesting to see how the new expedition leader acts, not well from the tone of your conclusion.
I when they have lower numberst always seems like the NAtives don't stand a chance with lower numbers ans seem overpowering when they have large numbers.
DeleteThe natives are card driven (or table driven in my own version) and have a minimum of 6 and maximum of 10 appearing, generally with an equal chance of all spears, a rifles/bows or a mix.
Great looking game, beautiful pictures, love the natives...
ReplyDeleteThanks Phil, it's taken a while to get to this stage, but I reckon there's still more that could be done.
Delete