Welcome to my blog, the story of my continuing journey into the World of Zombie Wargames.

Monday 2 September 2019

Max's Next Expedition

As I've not finished any thing this week, despite my best efforts here's another of Max's !adventures in Jimland", played several weeks ago. I've also GM'd two expeditions with #1 son as the explorers, which I'll write about sometime in the future.
In the meantime, once more:
From the journal of Frederick Cartington:
"With the success of the last mission in mind, we set off with a slightly better supplied expedition than is usual. Our explorers were accompanied by six soldiers a muleteer (leading two pack animals) and enough food for about a fortnight. With extra trade items, a moderate amount of ready cash, medicines and ammunition we were in high spirits indeed.
Max's plan was to head back northeast and to follow the lake around in another attempt to reach the coast, following the previously found river's direction."
As seems usual with Max's expeditions our start was delayed by torrential rains, dampening our spirits somewhat"
Ready to face the native threat
"We eventually got underway to discover a small ravine had opened up, no doubt due to the rain, into which a curious bearer and his load of food immediately disappeared into. Will these chaps never learn?"
By day four we had discovered some unusually large bones, probably dinosaurs; encountered some natives that were not interested in us and I almost fell foul crossing some difficult quicksand - unlike another of our food bearers (stupid chap) who disappeared beneath the  surface.
No sooner had we reached the veldt than we were set-upon by a small group of hostiles, brave, but foolish chaps, I thought."
Four natives charge the column whilst three riflemen take pot-shots
First blood to the column
All the shooting disturbs a  snake!
Two soldiers attack the snake and the explorers protect the retreating bearers.
The natives close in and the snake is joined by a crocodile !
Snake dealt with but fighting is still harsh
The soldiers charge from snake to croc and gang up on a native !
Crocodile and natives finally dealt with dealt with
"Having dealt with the animal attacks and fool-hardy natives we arrived at  our destination near the lake whereupon we encountered a river, feeding the lake to our Southeast. Plans were of course immediately changed as Max decided to follow the river Northwest - rivers are, after all very important  discoveries [Editors note : For "very important  discoveries" read "most valuable cash reward"] . Hindering our progress however were yet another group of natives surprising us from both our flanks.
Natives to the left of us, natives to the right ...
The attackers use the building to cover their approach
Their riflemen also close and use cover
The column reacts accordingly
Ooh, err, they're a bit close !
Fighting and shooting is chaotic
Native casualties mount
Just one more native to drop should see them off !
It was all going so well too...
Frederick and Horatio attack the snake...

Snake defeated and Horatio bitten, but Albert is at hand
 "The natives, despite their number were only mildly troublesome, causing little to no wounds, however slight, to our number. The snake that emerged from one of the huts was much more worrisome, having the ability to poison its victims. even so, I joined in engaging the creature alongside Horatio and whilst I survived two of its bites Horatio succumbed to the creatures bite and poison at the very moment he put his spear through the vile serpent.
Albert was immediately on the scene, the natives having long since dispersed, applying liniments and a poultice to draw the poison. The successful of his medications was soon realised as Horatio recovered sufficiently to be carried by one of the beasts or two of our bearers.
"As if I had not had enough of beasts for one day, the very next day I was singled out by some big cat or other but survived with little more than tears to my clothing.
"Over the next week or so, we had the usual discoveries and events, "interesting rocks", pygmies, a windstorm and so on, but we continued our journey along the river, until our bearers decided it was "Bad Juju" to continue heading northeast  wherein we diverted a bit, found a swamp and back-tracked on to our course, having picked up the river once more.
Archie's Birthday was greeted by giving everyone double rations (we still had 10 day's worth) and yet more new plants, jungle rot and some gold occupied our time so much that we were once more ambushed!"
The opposition decide to engage us frontally !

Max, as has become the  norm, order the soldiers to charge
shooting and fighting is brisk
and deadly....
Two more natives die, ending their enthusiasm for the fight.
 "This group were quickly dealt with by fire  and bayonet and proved to be not the last encounter we would have on this expedition as with depleting numbers and food were made for home, though not by the most direct route I should add, Max being determined to explore "just a little out of or way" and it was at this point that we were attacked by slavers...
They came from our right...
...and our left
Once more bayonets proved effective, but so was the enemy fire
Enemy fire proving more effective than wished
Shooting and fighting provoked an ant into action !
General view of fight
Shooting accounts for two of the enemy riflemen and another is cut down in melee
Bearers flee whilst soldiers attack the ant (arrowed)
The ant finaly defeated
The reduced sized column homeward bound
  "The action was very costly to our dwindling numbers losing two bearers and all the food they were carrying, and a soldier .
It was up to me to successfully supply fresh meat for two days once the food ran out, before our eventual return to Jim's Landing" 


Each arrow hows a day's march and a red dot indicates a delay
It was a very long adventure, both in game turns (23 days) and the time to play it all out at a gentle ace took about four hours over three sittings iirc. Towards the end it was very tense as I'd really pushed the column before returning to Jim's Landing, with little room for error on the food front, though there was cash in hand and trade left  should we met anyone friendly to trade with. (we didn't) - we met slavers !
Despite giving trade to the slavers they were still hostile and are quite good at shooting and melee - I was so pleased there were not many more. The day after the Slaver fight, there more slavers, who after plying with trade , proved neutral to us and of course, low on food meant we got lost  too!

Because of the time the expedition was in the field, the river hexes, fights and some great loot Events the overall tot-up was a phenomenal $599 ! This is enough to give all four explorers another skill increase.


It was nail biting stuff and I enjoyed it !

In other News

I spent a lot of last week painting figures (another two units for the Sudan) but they're still only about 85% finished and I've spent a little time planning some new, very simple buildings and a rather larger build too.
 I'll be going to my closest wargame show "Border Reiver" this coming weekend, so next week's blog will be about the delights of the show.

That's it then for another week, hope you found something of interest and as always your comments are both welcomed and appreciated.

20 comments:

  1. Oh fantastic! Thank You for a next part

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    1. Thanks Michal, hope you enjoyed it as there will be a bit of a break for Jimland over thext few weeks

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  2. Good stuff Joe. Enjoy the Border Reiver show!

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    1. Thanks MJT, The Reiver show has been an excellent opportunity to catch up with friemds I haven;t seen in many years (over thrity in at least one case!) and it's also a very enjoyable midd;e-sized show to boot !

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  3. This looks to be a very long expedition and generally they seem to be getting longer, is that true and is it because you are being more successful each time so you're on an upward spiral?

    Looking forward to getting back to jimland.
    Cheers

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    1. Thanks Vagabond, as each expedition is mostly more profiable than the ;ast, it enables buying better troops (Soldiers instead of Askari) and the ability to cary more trade goods and thus so less battles; being able to afford pack animals to carrymore food etc. etc. Thus an umwards spiral of success -which can of course change at the turn of an event card !

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  4. Hi Joe, by heck this Jimland is becoming a bloody place, is their no friendly natives ? having more cash does help out & long trips are a great way to get more cash, provided you don't get killed that is:)

    Enjoy your show at the weekend & don't go spending all of your pocket money.

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    1. Thanks frank, success beeds success and the expedition met a few friendly natives, butn othing happened as we had enough food etc. early on (and a very good interpreter), but as time wore on and the interpreter was down, the locals became a bit more beliigerent. And as mentioned tp Vagabond, success breeds success!
      I'll no doubt enjoy the show, but my intended spending has been a bit curtailed as one of the trades I was relying on won;t be there (£50 saved) and I don;t think my order from another trader will be ready (£150 saved !), but I'll still find a few thing to spend my pocket money on as one of my all time favourite traders (Irregula Miniatures) are rumoured to be attending !

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  5. Great report! Missed out the stuck in the middle with you lyric!

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    1. Thanks Brummie, I'll reserve that lyric for a swamp situation.

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  6. Nice safari report, Zab. BTW, do you know why the indigenous natives are so hostile with the tourist excursions into their domain?

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    1. Thanks Jay, some are fiendly, most don't care, but there are others that complain about the mess left, the noise, the taking of flora and fauna without a by-your-leave and the fact that the intruders can;t speak the lingo and use the natives as cheap labour...
      ... but I may be wrong.

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    2. Nope. You are correct.

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  7. Worthy of Speke himself, great stuff!

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  8. Very entertaining excursion into the dark continent! Good looking figures too!
    Best Iain

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    1. Thanks Iain on both counts. I'm sorry tosay that my painting wwill never win any prizes and is no better than "average" and even sadder that it;s not going to get any better !(It's an age/health thing. Nevertheless they're mine and good enough for me and I'll take any compliments happily too !!

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  9. Great stuff Joe! Really fun reading 🙂
    Those figures carrying the bones, did you add those yourself or did they come like that?

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    1. Thanks Ivor, most of my figures are from "Old Glory UK" - Lost Worlds range iirc, as are all but four of the Bearers (the others are North Star).
      The bearerrs carrying Yusk are from the Old Glory bearers pacck but WArgames Fondry also do packs of bearers, some of whomare carrying Tusks, but of course are more ezpensive!

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