Conflict in the Congo with Studio Tomahawk's Congo

The treasure of Makoko Mbe

Over the christmas I managed to catch up with General Franco and we had a game of studio Tomahawk’s Congo rules.  The Rules are hollywood themed colonial adventures with players taking the roles of the great white hunter, tribal chiefs, etc and leading their retinue to glory. The Activation sequence is pretty clever with players having a hand of cards themed around their fraction. Each card lets your perform a couple of actions, like move a unit or shot with a unit. Each round consists of playing a small subset of cards chosen by the player played out according to initiative. High initiative cards tend to have less actions but more likely to occur sooner which is a nice trade off.

Welcome to the jungle

young native warriors in the services of the savers

For the game I picked the explorer fraction by major Kincaid, Franco got the Zanzibar slavers  led by El’ke’hab. Both fractions were looking for the treasure of Makoko Mbe guarded by its dreaded guardians.

Slavers on the prowl

Warriors Vs gorilla

El’ke’hab retinue arrived first and promptly ran into an angry gorilla enraged they had encroached on his banana tree patch. The slavers replied with a devastating volley which hit everything except the gorilla who promptly chased the slavers out of his banana patch. On the other side of the jungle Major Kincaid’s men made good time and took up positions near the suspect ruins of Makoko Mbe preparing to engage its dreaded defenders .

Kincaid's men face off against the gaurdians

While the salvers also race to the teasure

The dreaded defenders guarding of Makoko Mbe turned out to be bunch of natives with pointy sticks.  Pointy sticks fared badly against a wall of martini-henry rifles and the defenders were soon dispersed.  Meanwhile, the slavers finally dispatched the gorilla only for another to appear at the next opportunity. Concerned the explorers might steal the treasure a band of warriors allied to the slavers raced into the temple to look for the treasure.  

The slavers have a lot of problems with Gorillas and get stuck in a protracted combat with the primates 

Unsupported the slaver warriors race to the teasure site

Kincaid's men open fire in the slaver warriors who promptly ran away. With kincaid covering the entrance his askaris enter the temple and found the treasure. Most of the slavers were busy in a furious shootout with a gorilla(!). But one band broke away and moved towards the ruins. 

Kincaids rifles make short work of the Guardians

Kincaids askari move in and start searching for the treasure

Kincaid’s askaris made a prompt departure with the treasure in hand. The Slavers fire their first and only volley at the explorer column and managed to take out Major Kincaid. With the treasure  in their position the explorer expedition drag the injured Kincaid away to claim victory. While the slavers had to be happy with two gorilla trophies they had managed to collect

The Zanzibar slaver finally manages to clear the area of gorillas

Askari find the treasure

Overall it was a good game. I had thought about buying the book before it was released last year but declined. Partly because I am not keen on getting big hardback rulebooks with lots of glitter (tokens, cards etc), partly because I like a slightly bigger model count in my games. The rules are fine but I will probably a stick to “The men who be kings” for colonial era escapades. 

Kincaids askari make a quick exit with the teasure but the Slaverrs last gesture is to shot down kincaid.

That is all for now thanks for stopping by