Glenn, Mike and I got together to try out the rules The Men Who Would Be Kings. I've played once before but that was pre-pandemic. Mike and Glenn, never. We used the Colonial miniatures that I recently acquired and it was the first outing for my new Cigar Box Mat. The game would be played in my African Imagi-Nation of Butiwanto.......
The American Consulate had been receiving reports of Slavers operating near the Butawanto border with Bongolesia*. The Ambassador decided to send a detachment of Marines up the Itzwetta river to see if the Slave Trade could be disrupted. The object of the Marines were to burn 4 of the 7 huts in the Slavers encampment OR destroy 12 points of enemy forces for the win. The Slavers needed to destroy 2 of the 3 Marine units.
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| A finger of the Itzwetta river is on the left, a small swampy area forking off toward the middle of the map. In the upper right of the board is the Slaver camp. The swamp was declared impassible and the jungle brush was difficult. |
The Marines (Glenn) had three Regular Infantry units. In The Men Who Would Be Kings (TMWWBK) every unit has a Leader who is an individual with traits that might adjust the Unit he's leading's statistics.
Unit 1 - "Sporting Umpire" He will not let his men attack or fire on a pinned unit if another target is available...
Unit 2 - "Terrible Planner" He forgot to check to see if his men had enough ammo. Every time the unit shot it rolled a die. On a '1' it was out of ammo....
Unit 3 - "Shirker" He may have been a Marine, but he still was a shirker. His unit could not attack or fire until they were attacked or fired upon first....
Mike ran the Bongolesian Mercenaries. (Contrary to official Bongolesia history, in my Imagi-Nation, Bongolesia sent "Advisors" into Butiwanto the same way Cuba sent forces into Angola in the 1970s). Mike ran 3 units of Irregular Infantry, the "Bongolesian Enlisted Expeditionary Force".
Unit 1 - "Brutal" The Leader was feared and hated by his men. His Leadership was 5+ but the units Discipline was -2...
Unit 2 - "Bulletproof Bumbler" Horrible Leadership, 9+
Unit 3 - "Steady" Leadership of 6+
I took the Slavers and their compatriots, all also Irregular Infantry. (Compatriots by the fact that they are what I have to represent "hostiles".
Slavers - "Ugly" Really tough to look at....
Ruga-Ruga - "Coward" Unit he commands must stay a minimum of 6" from the Enemy. (This guaranteed that all rifle fire from this unit was at Long Range.....)
Arabs - "Damn fine Fellow" That's it, nothing more.
Zouve - "Yellow Belly" This Leader will never lead his unit into Close Combat with the Enemy.
With the Leaders generated and the forces mustered, the story begins......
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| Here are the starting positions. |
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| Glenn's three USMC units. They have forded the river and are at the edge of the trees waiting for the orders to move out.... | |
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| Mike has the B.E.E.F. ready to roll. See the unit in the left corner? That is the unit with the "Bulletproof Bumbler" Leader. More on him later... |
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| My guys. From L-R: The Ruga-Ruga, the Zouve, the Arabs and then the Slavers themselves.... |
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| The Slavers look confused, "What?", "Huh?", "Where?", "This way?", "No, this way.." "Huh, what?". | |
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| The fancy pants Zouve ready to go. |
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| Glenn's Marines move out. His plan was simple. Advance across the open areas "At the Double" to make the Jungle areas, Then fight off any defenders while torching the huts. |
For the most part Glenn's Marines had no trouble moving out. Being Regular Infantry they had to make Leadership tests to move, but being Marines, that was no problem...
I'm not 100% sure what Mike's plan was. He moved the B.E.E.F. to contact and firing range. Well, with two units at least. The "Bulletproof Bumbler" Leader had tons of excuses for not advancing. One turn he made sure his men all had their shoes tied. Another he wanted to make sure they all brought hankies in case of any allergies. Stuff like that. That unit failed and failed and failed to move......
My plan on the other hand was, well, horrible. Not thinking about the fact that all my units had Obsolete Rifles or Antiquated Muskets and that I would be out ranged by the Marines I charged blindly in an effort to kill or be killed. And as it turned out....keep reading...
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| My Slavers, having gotten their sense of direction straightened out, advance. Only to find the Marines waiting for them... |
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| Overhead view of the action. |
Mike has two of his three B.E.E.F. units moving out. The third unit's Leader was questioning his men as to what species of Butterfly was on the trail ahead of them and was it bad luck to cross it's path... My units have all advanced. I think it was at this point (when the shooting started) that my Arabs spent a couple of turns doubting the wisdom of getting into a fight with US Marines....
The Marines were ready to do what they get paid to do.
At this point I realized I could have my Ruga-Ruga "skirmish" which will let them make a half move away from the scary Marines to their right and still be able to shoot at the Marines, with half firing strength, to their front. Words of defiance were spoken and dice were rolled....
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| FIRST BLOOD TO THE RUGA-RUGA!! What I didn't realize was that this was the unit that couldn't shoot until fired upon. Uh-oh..... |
A serious firefight broke out in the center. Mike's middle B.E.E.F. Infantry and my Ruga-Ruga opened up on one of Glenn's Marines which returned fire on the Ruga-Ruga. My Zouve traded shots with the Marine's in the jungle and Mike moved his blue jacketed B.E.E.F. Infantry in a flanking maneuver around the terrain in front of them.
My Slavers got into position and fired completely ineffectually at the Marines in the cover (WHAT WAS I THINKING). My guys then fell victim to the Marines shooting back, taking out half the Slaver unit, then shooting first in the next turn, taking out the remaining figures.
The fight in the middle was bloody. The Zouves were cut down, but managed to get a few hits on the Marines in the cover. My Ruga-Ruga lost 8 of 10 figures. One of Glenn's Marine Units got caught in a three-way crossfire and were destroyed.
As the Slavers were getting wiped out I then thought that would be a good time to move the Arabs in for support (WHAT WAS I THINKING). On the next turn the Marines who just dealt with the Slavers got a few hits on and pinned the Arabs. On the next turn in a hail of 6s rolled, they wiped the Arabs out.
Mike hadn't lost anything and I have now lost 9 of 12 points of force.....
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| Immediate threats taken care of, huts begin to burn. This one is 2 of the 4 needed..... |
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| NEWS FLASH: US MARINES FORGET HOW TO MAKE FIRE!! |
Mike's "Bulletproof Bumbler" Leader finally runs out of excuses and moves his unit up. The other two B.E.E.F. units close in on the Marine unit that in in the cover. My two Ruga-Ruga get the heck out of the way. If they get killed we automatically lose. And when Glenn tried to "Attack" a hut to set it on fire he failed his Leadership roll! (A pile of dead figures can be seen by my yellow pinned markers).
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| The end as two more huts go up in flames... |
End game. Glenn's Marines in the cover almost get wiped out as they fight it out with Mike's three B.E.E.F. units. The other Marine's light a hut on fire and move to another. I tried to pin that unit with my last two Ruga-Ruga to prevent them from torching a 4th, but no luck.
A close run game. Mike and I came within two Marine figures for the win, or at least a tie game. But it wasn't to be. We all had a blast playing and agreed TMWWBK will be on the table again.
There are many adventures awaiting in Butiwanto.......
* The Imagi-Nation of Bongolesia and it's flag are used with the permission of their owner, Mike Murphy.
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