Congo - campaign Mungo Mah Lobeh, game 2, The Search for Deeper Knowledge

After having acquired enough to finance her expedition with the sale of fetishes, Mary will seek to acquire the skills necessary for her survival in the African wildlands from 3 "teachers". Ujuwa, go and maneuver to prevent it.

The "teachers": Koulibali, the guide, Mauree the wise man, and Ahoura the witch doctor

 

We are in the savannah, there are 3 huts in the center each housing one of the teachers, to retrieve them (or kidnap them depending on the camp) we use the rules for looting, so with each movement leaving or arriving at the huts we test ; on 5 or 6 the character is recovered. Others dice results mean either winning totem cards or giving them to your the opponent. Each camp deploys from the middle of the short sides. For first round, Night rule apply, you get stress if you move more than C or if you are far from your friends. There are 6 objectives in Dangerous Terrain areas (4 discoveries and 2 curses).

The Mary Kingsley Column (played by my campaign partner David) and its deployment:

-Mary Kingsley
- kirangozi Kiva 

- retired officer, Sir Mortimer

-2 bearers
-1 group of adventurers
-1 group of trained askaris
-1 group of ruga-rugas
-1 group of askaris
-1 group of young warriors

Ujuwa's column (mine!) and its deployment:

-Ujuwa

-the tribal chief M’otowanfa (P) 

-1 drum, Kuva (P) 

-1 sacred warrior (A)

-1 group of warriors 

-1 group of pygmy archers 

-1 group of bundukis 

-1 group of archers 

-1 group of young warriors

-1 group of scouts 

Turn 1,despite the stress penalties on the movement the two factions rush towards the huts; I don't think I've seen as much stress yet as at the end of this round.

Young warriors and Kuva the drummer quickly arrive at the first hut

The Kirangozi Kiva, leads the trained askaris to another hut

And Ujuwa and Mary, seek to get the "teacher" from the third hut

Finally the hyenas appear behind a group that they must have smelled full of sick and weaklings

A noter qu'à ce tour, en plus de la course vers les huttes, il y  avait les objectifs à prendre ce qui à généré pas mal de test de terrain; j'ai bien aimé les supplétifs de Mary qui découvrent une caisse abandonné de mousquets et qui les essayent dans une joyeuse cohue sur un groupe ami voisin qu'ils ont du confondre avec un animal sauvage. 

Note that this round, in addition to the race to the huts, there were the objectives to be taken which generated a lot of tests on dangerous terrain table; I really liked Mary's trained askaris who discovered an abandoned box of muskets and who tried them in a joyful mob on a neighboring friendly group that they must have mistaken for a wild animal. 

 

Turn 2:  I notice that the auxiliaries are very stressed, the group of warriors led by the chief M'otowanfa feels an opportunity to cover themselves with glory without too much risk thanks to the bonuses provided by the sacred warrior (1 additional attack die per stress of the opponent). And to be sure of my move, since my opponent kindly gave me lots of totem cards with his failed looting, I add a crocodile card for additional dice. 7 success against  3 ....... M’otowanfa the legend!

On the other side, a fairly complex struggle will take place around the huts.

For now Mary is hiding from Ujuwa

 

At the end of the turn M’otowanfa manages to kidnap the witch doctor from her hut. (we notice the hyenas who are always there to harass the poor askaris!)

Tun 3
Pygmy archers arrive as reinforcements to Ujuwa

Mary ambushes Ujuwa, first a shot from the ruga-rugas then she engages her group in melee; it must be said that he is starting to be very annoying, he has just launched at maximum power the ritual of the wild hunt on the adventurers who believed themselves hidden in a dangerous ground (well,it was really dangerous, the ritual disturbs a giant anthill, conclusion  loss and stressed to exhaustion).

 

Unfortunately the fight of Mary goes wrong and she has to retreat.

The hyenas are always there, near their pantry.

Tun 4: first heist !
While the situation is quite confused around the huts; - M'otowanfa comes to support - and I multiply the looting tests to get theses damn teachers. A lonely but courageous ruga ruga managed to recover the guide, and in the process Mary does the same on the other hut.

 

 

The two  groups with teachers quickly escape away from the masses of warriors  

 

A chase will follow until the end of the game. 

 

I believe at this point I got all the discoveries - and both curses are over (a story of foul smells and pretty vindictive monkeys)  

 

The surviving askaris ended up fleeing the hyenas, the latter wandering in search of new preys

 

The hyenas are messing around in M'otowanfa, they don't know the guy, an he adds  2 skins to his collection (let's be honest they ate one warrior, and the hyena survivor will have time to eat a toung warrior from a following group )

However, they will delay M'otowanfa in his pursuit, and so,  disappointed he will get his nerves on the last of the adventurers (I said the nerves - I had considered an alternative but we are all public)

Finally in the last round, in the very last segment of actions, I succeeded in the second hold-up by recovering one of the professors in extremis; a shot from the Ujuwa bundukis eliminated the lone ruga ruga accompanying the teacher, and a race of the warriors of M'otowanfa - extended thanks to the giraffe totem card-  allows me to recover him (one of my personal management of totem cards, always keep a giraffe card for the last round)

 

Finalement dans le dernier tour, dans le tout dernier segment d'actions je réussi le deuxième hold-up en récupérant l'un des professeurs in extrémis ; un tir des bundukis d'ujuwa élimine le ruga ruga accompagnant le prof, et une course des guerriers de M’otowanfa étendu grâce à la carte totem girafe me permet de le récupérer (une de mes règles personnelles, toujours garder une carte girafe pour le dernier tour - merci Benoît pour cette enseignement   - ainsi que celui sur l'art de la fuite  ).

Conclusion :large victory of Ujuwa.

 

Mary obtains 1 knowledge, with the previous one it makes 2, so she goes to level 2. 

Ujuwa obtains 2, he had 0, so he goes to level 2 too.

Chief M'otowanfa, increases his melee die by d6 to d8. 

Ujuwa gains 4 discoveries, which allows him to reach the threshold of 3 new talents (small bonuses valid once per adventure). 

Mary decides to continue her journey "over the water", the canoe trip is not so quiet and I will designate two groups who will have to draw a stress marker at the start of the next game. 

Ujuwa continues his journey through the villages, he meets an old friend who joins the gang, Momba (a champion), however his spiritual connection with the spirits diminishes a little.  

So level 2 for our two protagonists, and in terms of achievement point, 14 for Mary and 18 for Ujuwa