The Relief of
Bungstarter Station
Part Four - Conclusion
Continued from Part Three
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After regaining their courage the Ouazulu melt back into the jungle, where one fresh unit still waits. The Highlanders have now formed a moving square (with an open back). The hunters are taking the place of soldiers on the face of the square, with Lord Carstairs in the lead and the bearers protected inside. |
A full unit of Ouazulu rush two sides
of the square. The fighting is fierce. The Scots take four killed or wounded
(and one running back toward Bungstarter), but break the Ouazulu with rifle
fire and hand to hand combat. Lord Carstairs manages to blast his opponent
with his .577 Purdey double rifle, clubs a second man to death with it,
and finishes, feeling quite rejuvenated. No post-traumatic-stress syndrome
here, by Jove.
The fleeing trooper takes time to consider
and returns to the square, which narrows down to pass through the trail,
Lord Carstairs insisting on taking the lead. Sgt. McCamekasy objects, but
he is outranked by a Peer of the Realm. The remnants of the Ouazulu unit
from the woodlot rush the front and side of the square. Lord Carstairs blasts
yet another poor benighted sod with both barrels of the elephant gun, and
is feeling near to invulnerable, when the remnants of the Ookaballakonga
unit rush the group from the other side.
All the trooper's and hunters' ammunition has been used
up, and it becomes bayonet and hunting knife against spear and axe. One
strapping Ooka steps up to Lord Carstairs, avoids the butt of the hunting
rifle and manages to thrust a large assegais into the old man's torso. The
blade is deflected by the tintype of the Queen Empress which Lord C. always
carries in his hunting jacket. Unfortunately it is deflected in the direction
of his carotid artery. The Ooka thumps his chest and shouts "You're
no longer fighting dung-eating Ouazulu, white man!" He then advances
over Lord Carstairs' collapsed form to attack the lead bearer, who drops
a hundred-pound tusk on him, pointy end first, cleanly killing the only
native hero of the battle.
The Ookaballakonga run for the protection of the undergrowth,
and the way is clear for the relief party to make a dash for the launches.
All the loads are cached safely in the boats along with Lord Carstairs'
remains, more wood is brought on, and the loyal bearers are taken aboard,
as the launches' steam engines wheeze into life. Only one of the station's
civilians has been killed, and he had the opportunity to add no small sum
of honor to the family escutcheon.
The native musketmen on the far shore fire their last volley,
with minimal effect, as the launches slide into the murky waters of the
Ouazu. Some of the Askaris answer with a volley into the tree-lined shore,
but there is no way to tell whether any of the bullets find their marks.
The woodlot falls farther astern as the launches throb their way back downstream,
and the Relief of Bungstarter Station becomes a footnote in the turbulent
history of Southern Ouargistan.
Game Analysis
There were two striking features
of the game. The first was the psychological effect of the waiting, and
the drums, provided by a cheap tape entitled Drums of Passion bought in a zoo gift shop. Though not authentic
tribal music (one had to ignore the occasional samba whistle), the constant
rhythm of the drumming added amazingly to the tension for the British players,
as card after card was turned with no native forces to be seen. Where are
they? And, dash it all, don't those drums ever stop?
The second feature was the unforseen extent to which our experimental ongoing-action-card rules modification (see the Scenario page for a full description) hurt the Natives. It was found to be almost impossible to coordinate a simultaneous attack by two Native units against a British unit. Since just as many red cards come up as black, the British were always able to finish off one unit before having to deal with another. And since the Natives must have local numerical superiority to have a chance of winning, the Native forces tended to be frittered away in hopeless piecemeal attacks. Our system definitely needs a little work. It would have been a better-balanced game if we had simply played the straight Sword and the Flame/20th rules.
Still, the overall effect was very satisfactory. Everything was planned to maximize the tension for the British players. The Brits have a very small number of men. Steve was a bit shocked when he learned he would have to travel overland and back with only ten men, not yet realizing that the guns of the hunters would add to his firepower on the return journey. The stress of having only five volleys per unit also added to the uncertainty for the British players, as did the fact that they had no idea how many natives they were facing, or where they might be hiding. The Native musketmen, though practically worthless marksmen, and having only three volleys for the whole game (though the Brits did not know that), were calculated to add to the pressure without materially affecting the action. All in all, the effect was very similar to those old Hollywood jungle suspense movies, where the white guys are driven to desperation by the waiting and the tension before the natives actually get around to taking any hostile action. Heh, heh.
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