1st Adventure in Jimland (Part Two)

The expedition initial set-up.

Last week saw me abruptly ending day five's events so I'll start this week by giving a blow-by-blow account of the 'action'
My plan as the explorers was to fall back into a skirmish line  whilst the  bearers would fall back out of range of any native assault.
A quick mention of the way the rules work are in order. Firstly you can move or shoot  but not both.
The explorers have 23 points (the leader has 28) to initially spread amongst three characteristics, namely Save, Shoot and Fight (the save ability probably being the most important).

The opposition with the explorers in the distance.

Our Stats lined up thus:
Sir Charles          :Save 15, Shoot 8, Fight 5
Henry Wharton   : Save 14, Shoot 6, Fight 3
Fred Carrington  : Save 14, Shoot 6, Fight 3
Joe Bolinbroke   : Save 13, Shoot 6, Fight 4
Unboko (Askari) : Save: 5, Shoot 4, Fight 3

The Natives opposition (Tribals) have no save and as they have only Hand to Hand weapons they only have a fight skill 4 though these skills do vary slightly.-

Turn 1 of the combat - the Natives are on the edge of the jungle.

The natives moved up to their 'real starting position (I use a bigger table than the 30" square
suggested so that figures are not "off-table" to begin with. and the explorers moved into their skirmish line.
As the Natives player I had picked the very narrow piece of terrain (approx 4" wide) with the purpose of a getting through it in one turn.
As the explorers I backed off to enable me to get two shots off (one with the opposition in cover, the second when they broke cover); I knew that I wouldn't be able to shoot through the cover and took the opportunity to back off.

Turn two with the Natives hugging the tree line

The natives as I had intended as the Native player and had anticipated as the Explorers  (- talk about split personalities!)
As intended the bearers moved away from the "bad things" (a game term) whilst everyone with a gun took a shot at the enemy.
5 Shots  and 5 misses later I realised how pathetic our gunfire was.
The next turn though the Natives would be in the open!

Turn 3, the Natives rush the firing line all of whom shoot.

As the Native player I would line up two attack on a single Explorer and one on each of the others.
The Shooting this time,  got off to a great start Henry bagged the one on the extreme right of the Native line (throwing a '3' on a D2) and similarly Sir Charles scored exactly the same, clipping the second one in the line.
Unfortunately all the  other three shots missed!
It was now 5 v 4 though in our favour.
 

Outcome of the  shooting.

The remaining Natives closed with us and I realised just how vulnerable we all were as we lined up the four melees:
First into action, Henry (Fight 3) v a Native (Fight 4) ! Gulp! Result of their D20 throws 3 v 11 - Native drops !
Charles (8) v Native (4) result 3 v 6 - another Native drops with yet another '3'.
Fred (3!) v Native (4) - 1 v 17 another Native bites the dust!
Joe (4) v Native (4) - 12 v 18 - no result.
This left the Natives with just a single man left.
The rules dictate two things of interest, one is that the combat lasts just four turns or until the Natives lose 50% or more of their force. I've already decided to only use the latter condition in future actions.
Luckily in the both the combats and the shooting no '20's were scored as this triggers an animal!

The aftermath !

Situation at the end of day 5

Day Six
We have rested well from our action of the day before and head South, discovering a deserted village and a strange creature that none of us recognised.

We posted guards around the village but the huts proved very comforting.
Our food situation, whilst not critical is causing a little concern and I have decided to return to Jim's Landing in the morning.

 The expedition has three day's worth of food left
and I probably could have pushed on another day, but hesitated in doing so.

The deserted village

End of day 6

Another  bearer bites the dust!

 Day Seven
We awoke to find hailstones crashing though the flimsy roofs of the huts and even though it was allover in seconds we still managed to lose one of our bearers and his valuable load of food.
This certainly made up my mind to head for 'home' and we thus proceeded North then Northwest over familiar territory.
We did 'bump' into a large group of Natives who thankfully ignored us.

Nine Neutral Natives

(There were nine Natives, 4 with guns and 5 spear armed, their reaction though was 'Neutral')
It was here that I diverged from the normal rules, allowing the expedition to move at two hexes a turn through already discovered terrain. In doing so they would also make a clear trail which would allow future expeditions to move at four hexes a turn. In turn I would ditch the rule that allows another expedition from any hex they had already explored.

End of day 7

Luckily, we didn't have any!

Day 8
After an uneasy night's sleep we awoke to find our belongings had been rummaged through though nothing had been taken. I suspect the nine Natives we had see the day before were the culprits!
The journey to Jimland was uneventful as we headed Northeast then Southeast arriving at twilight without further loss.

The "mighty" expedition returns triumphant!

Situation at end of game

Well, it's time to cash-in on the success(or otherwise) of the expedition.
So what now?
I had one food left, which I could have cashed in for $2 - making a loss of $3, so decided not to!
I had won one combat getting $10 and $1 for each Native - $16 total
For each new non-mountain square , without a river I get $5 +1D20 for each - total I got was $40.
For each village discovered I got $10 + 1D20 for a grand total of $52 .
Discovering a new species gave me an additional $20 +1D20 for an additional $30.
This gave me grand total of $138 + $2 (I had on hand) and a food ration worth $5.
It seems that I have made a loss though the good thing is that I needn't 'buy' new explorers, they're a one-off purchase and 'free if I choose to take them along again , Bearers and Askaris though have to be paid for each expedition.
One last 'reward' is the total of the cash-in divided by 100 (ignoring fractions) gives the explorers additional experience points. - max one per explorer in any of their abilities or characteristics.
So $138/100 gave me 1 point  to expend on one lucky explorer! (Whoop-de-doo!)
The map at least has been expanded a little

The world of Jimland has expanded - a little 

The trail created means I can get my next expedition to the last hex I visited in one day!

So overall my first adventure in to Jimland was a resounding success as far as I was concerned, exciting at times and things could turn on the draw of a card or the throw of a die.
I hope those of you that have had the endurance to follow this enjoyed it, as it'll be the mainstay of a few future posts.

In other news, I'm as ill as ever, following my bout of man-flu I've gone down with bronchitis - I'm very susceptible to things like that; I am still ingood spirits and almost back to doing some hobby-related things (this post was a real test of my endurance). I'm also trying desperately to keep up with all the blogs I regularly follow and comment upon.
Apologies once more for the poor photographs

As always, thanks for visiting and your comments, as always,  are truly welcomed and appreciated.