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Hi Chaps,

So after reading this months Wargames Illustrated I am quite tempted to start playing 'Death in the Dark Continent' by North Star.

I've never done any historical gaming before so perhaps it is quite a strange starting point and maybe I should start with something a little more main stream like the civil war or Napoleonic wars, but I've just finished reading a couple of books about the insane bravery and stamina of the explorers who discovered the source of the Nile (i.e. Livingstone, Specke, Burton and Stanley) and the Boer settlers in the Transvaal and find the setting very evocative.
Also the magazine article made the rules sound really elegant and the book is only £25 quid so what the hell I'm going for it!

Have any of you played with the rules, or does anyone have any advice on getting started?

I'm looking at the Ruga-Ruga to begin with and maybe some more primitive tribesmen to represent a smallish slave raid. The books I've read really highlighted the importance of slave taking in East Africa even after the trade died out in the west as the Ottomans had no moral objection to buying.

I haven't had any experience playing, but I have known it as a popular game in the community for some time. And I read the same WI issue and am now very interested in it too. I have some Boers and Zulus lying around from a brief foray into the Anglo-Zulu war I made a few years ago, and since DitDC looks like it doesn't need a lot of models, I've probably got two forces already. The only advice I have for starting is general advice for any new wargame; Buy the rulebook first, then plan a force. Because you might find yourself drawn to another faction entirely!

Sage advice indeed! I have never understood people who buy a massive army for a game that they have never played. I also hate having a pile of unpainted minis to do.

I have the rulebook now and it is pretty good, I haven't really got my head around the rules yet but I enjoyed the army lists and the history sections.
Looking at the recommended points values, you need quite a lot of models to play. Native infantry bases with muskets are about 11 points and the recommended points values are around 300 points so that's 81 models per side!
Civilised forces have much higher points per base cost so that can alleviate it a bit...

I've been collecting so plastic plants so I can make some forest/jungle terrain. I'm going to have to figure out how to make African grassland though, I didn't really appreciate how much of west Africa is Savannah and that is where most of the coolest armies are based.
One thing I don't particularly like is how restrictive geography is in the setting, most tribes had a small range and didn't travel around much so it is difficult to find a reason for say the Force Publique to be fighting the Abyssinians or the Zulus for example.

 Kroem wrote:

One thing I don't particularly like is how restrictive geography is in the setting, most tribes had a small range and didn't travel around much so it is difficult to find a reason for say the Force Publique to be fighting the Abyssinians or the Zulus for example.

I dare say that is the price we have to pay to play historical war games. The amount of times I've tried to figure out how my Bolt Action WW2 Chinese Guerillas would end up fighting the Germans...

Haha true, I guess I should stop worrying about it and love the bomb :-p

I love DitDC, played it loads. I started off by painting up two opposing forces to get others into it.

Great! Nice to see it has good reviews from players.

I'm still working on the terrain atm as that has some overlap with my 40k models so won't be wasted if I change my mind.

I plan to do the same, are there any armies that you would recommend as being particularly fun to play as?
Do they play it in Firestorm games in Caerdydd? I could do with an with an excuse to drop by haha!

Cheers
Kroem