All the cattle in the world belong to the Gaasai!

The game was played out on a table 8 feet by 6 feet.

NOTE:  If I was doing it again I would have more but smaller villages of say 2-3 huts with proportionately fewer occupants and cattle.

00000007.jpg (54982 bytes) The valley of the Wa'Kombolo tribe looking towards the Gaasai lands far away beyond the yellow ruins of the old Arab town.  In the centre is the Prince's village.

The fields are carpet tiles, the pallisades are made from toothpicks, the huts from card and the dead trees are heather roots. 

00000008.jpg (56548 bytes) The smaller village before the raid.  

Again the huts are card, the "boma" is a Christmas decoration, the hills are polystyrene and most of the plants are aquarium plastics cut up and mounted on clay bases.

00000009.jpg (54622 bytes) The Gaasai enter the valley.  
00000010.jpg (55721 bytes) The Gaasai veterans charge up the hill to extinguish the beacon and kill the drummer.  The heroic fellow beats the warning even as the Gaasai spear him to death.  (He did roll exceedingly high on his morale test).
00000011.jpg (56196 bytes) The villagers are alerted and start to drive the cattle to safety.  They are slow to move because they expect to be milked and not herded away.  The warriors begin to assemble.

The fences are Irregular Miniatures metal ones.  Almost all the figures are Foundry Darkest Africa Range.  The cattle come from a variety of maunfacturers, Foundry (Darkest Africa, Indian Mutiny, Boer War etc), Irrecular and Platoon 20.

00000012.jpg (56334 bytes) At the Prince's village things are happening as well.  The cattle are being collected and the most important Royal White cattle are being brought back over the brook.  
00000013.jpg (55631 bytes) The defenders sally out without realising who it that they to fight.
00000014.jpg (55673 bytes) Down by the swamp the women and children start to drive off the cattle.

The swamp grass in the background is made from paper and mounted on bases.  It looks very effective but take a long long time to make.

00000015.jpg (56069 bytes) The Gaasai column advances having driven off skirmishers from the flanks.
00000016.jpg (54740 bytes) Ahead of them the war lions of the Simbasai are unleashed, killing two hunters and chasing off two more.

The lions, I think, are old Minifigs ones from their Gladiators Range.

00000017.jpg (54913 bytes) The defenders of the first village are destroyed in hand-to-hand fighting and their two archers flee.

The little counters indicate a "wounded" model, a crimson one would mean crippled and the dead are replaced with casualty figures (or black counters)

00000019.jpg (54838 bytes) Ahead of the main column the Prince sallies out to block the route.  The Gaasai halt while the fighting to their rear continues.
00000020.jpg (54927 bytes) The rear of the Gaasai column comes under a spirited attack.   But the timely arrival of the rearguard turns the tide.  To the right background the victorious Gaasai are returning with cattle from the first village.
00000021.jpg (54755 bytes) The Wa'Kombolo reinforcements are routed.  Now these Gaasai warriors rush forward to engage the Prince.
00000022.jpg (55266 bytes) Not waiting for them to arrive the Prince sends out a flanking column to rescue the stolen cattle.  In flurry of spears his men are all but wiped out by the Gaasai but they inflict heavy casualties in return.
  At this point the digital camera broke down!
  The main battle lines closed.  The two witch doctors stepped forward and cursed each other, hurling spells and abuse at each other until the Wa'Kombolo witchdoctor rushed in and killed the Gaasai shaman.  With a great shout the Wa'Kombolo charged the Gaasai who could only stand and throw spears.  As chance would have it, his volley accounted for nearly a third of the attackers and their witchdoctor.   

Taking heart from this they fell upon the Wa'Kombolo and Gizaku cut down Prince Tubifelli.  Tubifelli was crippled so severely that he had to be dragged off.  This signalled the end of the fighting.   

  The Gaasai made good their escape but were one cow short of a victory.  

The Wa'Kombolo had lost 8 cattle, killed 7 Gaasai but had taken no prisoners.  In addition their prince was grievously injured.  

  The result was a marginal victory for the Gaasai.

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