The Cartington Expedition - Finale

In last week's post the expedition led by Frederick Cartington was reduced to himself and seventeen bearers, following an ambush by 9 hostile "Tribals" and whilst he may have food to feed himself for two hundred days in the wilds of 'Jimland' he is still several days from safety with only his trusty rifle and stiff upper lip for protection.

Herewith then, the final chapter



From the Journal of Frederick Cartington, in Jimland: (continued)

    The six natives on the flank f the expedition

"Swiftly burying our dead, I decided to immediately head for the relative safety of Jim's Landing, some four days' journey.. We once more continued South following the river, looking for a suitable camp site when cries from the rear of the column alerted me to yet another native attack. I immediately took up a defensive stance whilst ordering the bearers to safety, the sticky mud of the stream not helping. The Natives were few in number and I soon saw them off".

Desultory native rifle fire as their spear men rush forward

Chaos as the bearers run in all directions, Frederick stands firm...

...and bags a bad guy - One down, two to go!

Bearers everywhere; Frederick still standing firm(ish) with two bearers

Enemy Spear-men rush to their deaths! (I threw a 1,2 and a 1 on 3D20s!)

"What a day yesterday was, but we picked ourselves up and made good progress going SE through familiar terrain, encountering a few Natives that ignored us- for once! One of the Natives also pointed out an unusual plant - I pretended interest."
Almost as soon as got going, we were again attacked in the rear whilst once more crossing a stream. Same routine, I took up a defensive position in cover overlooking the extraction of the bearers whilst the Natives descended upon our rear" 
They were, of course, no match for my sure aim and the sacrifice of a bearer bringing down one of the attackers with his final breath"

Four of the five natives attacking the rear, the fifth was on a flank attack to their right

Natives close to combat

A bearer dies, but kills his attacker, rifle-fire is ineffective

A Native wades in to attack the bearers stuck in the mud!

Another bearer dies, but so does one of the natives riflemen

"Our bearers' sacrifice delayed the natives long enough for me to shoot down two of their number, sufficient to make them flee"

Pygmies to the front...

"Making our way to the North-east and the trail that would finally lead us back to Jiml's Landing we were once more surprised by a force of that most dreaded opponent - Pygmies, both to our front and right, rear flank and once again, whilst we were crossing one of those irritating streams so prevalent in Jimland."
"I gave the order to flee even though I was stuck in that damned stream mud!"

...and to the rear and flank!

They swiftly close to our front...

...and our rear!

The bearers make it to safety, Frerick is stuck!

Frederick looking very lonely

"Every man for himself"

And the Natives continue toclose the range

Frederick joins the exodus, safely in cover

The expedition returns and Frederick counts his blessings (luck) I guess

 "Escaping to the cover of the dense jungle, I picked out two of the Pymies' lethal darts from my flask
and Bible and made my way to the rendezvous point awaiting the arrival of the rest of the expedition."
"Of the seventeen bearers, only three showed up and none of these carried a load of food!" I had gone from having over three months of food to zero in a matter of moments. I did try to hunt for food but I guess the ruckus we had caused scared off any potential game!"
"With rumbling tum, my three bearers and I made a swift, uneventful return to Jim's Landing, passing the more,  by now, almost obligatory  ruins."  

 And with the very great threat of the pygmies, (who couldn't hit the legendary barn door - and even when they did Frederick Saved!) and the remarkable dice rolls that saved the expedition right up to the last , when Fred needed a two to a six on a D6 to survive being without food for a day.

It was a nail biting finish to the expedition and on points scored the most successful to date! (well over 500!).

That's it then for this week, next week I'll be posting about some of the things I've also been doing  - (other than the recent additional expedition in Jimland!).

Thanks for taking the time to visit and as always your comments are both welcomed and appreciated.

Cartington up the Swanee

Double pronged attack

Why "up the Swannee"? Well, "up the Mto Mweusi", doesn't have the same ring to it imo and nor does it reflect what follows.
What follows then is a continuation of Cartington leading the expedition to follow the river previously discovered, having already lost three out of the six Askari accompanying the expedition.
Once more then:


From the Journal of Frederick Cartington, in Jimland:

Snake attack!

 "After our scout Henry's inability to find a way to follow a river and after the now usual sighting of some unknown primate, he once more failed to spot some very unfriendly natives lying in wait for us in the long grasses bordering the river."  
I ordered the bearers forward into safety whilst we made for cover as the cowardly spear-armed malcontents attacked our rear,  whilst their rifles enfiladed our advance to cover.
Their shooting proved only effective enough to disturb a viper that had also been minding its own business in the grass"

Get in cover, get the bearers to safety and shoot!

Native and viper kill each other - seems fair.

The shooting attracts an Ant - but what a size!

The expedition's shooting proves very effective

,,,bur their melee ability less so and Bertie bites the dust.

"The two remaining spear-armed Natives closed with our chaps in the forest meaning our Askari had to concentrate their fire on their riflemen, with great effect, dropping to of them."
I could tell the natives were about to flee, but even as we were about to claim victory a spear thrust dropped poor Bertie where he stood, putting a bit of an air of despondency on the whole affair."  
"Later we came across a deserted village from which we assumed they had come."
"We followed the river for the next several days, encountering some ambivalent Natives , whom we assumed were the source of the nocturnal drumming that once more caused panic in one of our Askari, who fled into the night.  Evidence was found of some interesting geological feature and some fossilised bones."

The Tribals get the drop on the Expedition.

"Four days after the last ambush, still following the river South we were once more surprised by yet more hostile Natives which Henry failed to spot"
They closed on us from the front and rear, and with little chance of getting our bearers to safety we formed a firing line and awaited their assault."

Forming the line, awaiting the assault, bearers trying to get out of the way

Five fighters against nine natives - not good odds.

Henry, (centre of the line) first to drop and the Hippo joins in!

"Henry our Scout,  in the centre of the line,  I think was the first to drop, though he did manage to take down one of the savages with him whilst at about the same time I could hear the sound of a hippo the Natives must have disturbed with their rush through the jungle."

Just what the expedition probably didn't need, but Cartington has dropped a native

"I turned to see a crocodile was also in attendance, attracted by the smell of blood no doubt after the vicious hand to hand fighting  was now reaching its climax. " 

A bearer becomes croc food, but is wounded

"Having dealt with the blaggard to my front I had yet another to deal with"
"With the ferocious attacking natives and the wildlife  to deal with the fighting was very intense"

Aloysious and an Askari drop, whilst the Hippo munches on a native

The last Askari dies, another bearer becomes a croc-snack, whilst the natives suffer too

Natives trying to flee, whilst the expeditons breaks off

Natives fighting to escape the wildlife, killing the croc in the process.

Last of the Natives able to flee in peace whilst Cartington looks on

"When it seemed like the natives had had enough, I had the chance to call  a reform and re-appraise our situation"









" We may have bested the enemy but we were now a pretty much spent force as an expedition, having lost all of our explorers, all three of the remaining Askari and three or four of our bearers".
"By my reckoning I could last months out here on just the remaining rations let alone considering my own Hunting skills.but I guess it's more "Realistically though I'm about a week's travel from Jim's Landing and should I not make it back, I trust whomsoever finds this journal entrust it to future expeditions."

The expedition after the fight.

The tribal ambush at the end of the episode was a brutal affair and without the intervention of the Hippo, I doubt any of the expedition would have survived,.
As the Native player, I tend to let their set-up be determined by dice, but their objectives are fairly obvious, - "Kill the Explorers first !" When there are multiple choices then it's either the closest or a die roll decides.

So will Frederick get back to Jimland or was all this in vain?  I will, of course be posting the finale of this expedition's outing into the wilds of Jimland next week.

In the meantime thank you for taking the time to visit and as always your comments are both welcomed and appreciated.

Cartington at the Helm

The expedition at the start; Frederick centre-front .

I've used the last week to continue painting up my Sudanes Arab types and to fit in a another adventure into the wilds of Jimland with Cartington leading another expedition. Knowing I had a wedding event to attend (and very good it was too) plus a clinic visit, hobby-time was a bit limited, so I endeavoured to do two hours of painting a day and an hour's play of the Jimland Adventure (the whole adventure taking just over four hours to play out to a conclusion!).
With just over 120 photographs to  go through, crop, photoshop etc. this adventure will have to span over several posts.

From the Journal of Frederick Cartington, in Jimland:

The planned route

"With the success of my leadership in the last venture, I decided to lead the largest, most ambitious expedition that Jimland has ever seen. 
I scooped up the entire available bearers and the six Askari that were available.
Next I convinced Henry to accompany the expedition as Scout and of course Al and Bertie were keen to join us too. With 20 day's of rations, we set of in good mood. 
The plan was simple, we'd retrace our steps to where we first encountered the river  (the Mto Mweusi according to the bearers) and follow it westwards to wherever it took us and as always with an eye on our food supply for the return journey."

Column, ready for the attack (blue circle), 4 slavers bottom right and 5 top right

"Reaching the end of the trail we had forged previously, Bertie informed me he had found a new plant species, which I thought very familiar and in any event I was far more interested in the Slavers Henry had spotted trying to lay an ambush for us!". 
The action was swift and deadly, I devised a plan to form a firing line on the rough ground to our left whilst the bearers made a dash for cover. The Askari would immediately open up on the enemy as and when they could.
By concentrating fire on the larger group of five Slavers  we could demoralise them swiftly."

Four slavers with carefully concealed rifles, rushing through the undergrowth

The slightly larger group of slavers rushing for the cover of the jungle...

...and the Askari facing them

The firing line forms (bottom centre), whilst those that can move out of the stream, skedaddle

 

The Slavers open fire, dropping three Askari,

We return fire with deadly accuracy

The firing continues apace, with another Askari lost, whilst two more Slavers are dropped.

 "The firefight was swift but brutal, we lost three of our Askari, but gave as good as we got, bagging all five of the enemy which seemed to be enough for them as their friends disappeared into the undergrowth very swiftly.
Taking into account our losses we now had more food per man than we started - every cloud etc.
The next day, Henry stated he couldn't find a way through the jungle but I think he's a bit shook up by the experience of the first day.
We get on the move again, going SW then NW, blazing a trail as we arrived in the grasslands.
Over the next two days, Henry once more states he's a bit bewildered by the terrain and can't find a route North.
I now suspect he's definitely jittery and losing it."

"When we finally got going again we encountered another familiar sight of an ancient ruin of some sort, with a village of friendly Natives. The latter don't seem to understand bartering and made off with $3 (the entire cash I had on hand), probably thinking it a gift. Finally we encountered the river and followed it to the Northwest, incidentally encountering a rather bizarre new species of primate."

And if you're still with me at this point, that was the first week of the expedition with three cards indicating "lost", meaning we stayed put, munching away on our rations!
The battle with the was quite tense as they're about as good a shot as the Askari, but our first shots of two '1s' and and a '2 ' helped!

Thanks for taking the time to visit and I hope you've enjoyed this latest adventure into Jimland, even if it's just to look at the pics!
As always your comments, criticisms, questions, queries and anything else are always welcomed (I take brickbats as well as bouquets) are always welcomes and truly appreciated.
More next week folks !