"The Man Eaters of Tsavo" Topic

I was reading this memoir the other day and thought what an intriguing game, but how to do it?

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I was thinking of a two player game almost like "Battleship", but where the human hunters had to place their ambush in one of several camps strung out along the railway. The feline hunters, on the other hand, could pick whatever camp to attack. Neither would know the locations ahead of time. The atttacks could be played out as scenarios, where the lion(s) would have to sneak in, grab a coolie, and drag him away. If the lion happens to attack where the human hunters are located, they get to take a shot, etc. If the lions attack an adjacent camp, the hunters will hear the screams and run to help, hopefully to catch the lions before they escape. In reality the lions pretty much had their own way in most attacks, but I would allow the workers to try and fight back with whatever they could pick up. The lions would cause terror and have stealthy moves.

If the lions attack a camp that is too far for the hunters to reach you could just announce 'another dead coolie', or play it out as lopsided game.

Another idea is a solo version where one could make a map of the camps and place the hunters-always two, the author and another white hunter in ambush, and then lay a playing card face down on each camp-let's say 5-10 camps for the sake of it,
On a 'king' card you have a lion attack. If you get two kings, then the pair of lions have split and each attacks a different camp, etc.

Did you see the movie "The Ghost and the darkness" it's about that story and is pretty good.

A couple of games:
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Don't forget to have the Great White Hunter player speak in proper Victorian syntax while he's attempting to bag the nasty brutes.

Also, if several camps are raided, have him come up with off-the-wall ideas (Patterson's hiding in the goods wagon, his trap with the two men with rifles, etc.).

Last time I was in Chicago I checked out the Tsavo exhibit at the Field Museum. They have the skins of the actual beasts mounted in a pretty cool setting and they're big.

DM

You might want to use lioness figures, as Tsavo lions don't have manes. But they are also big, so you might have to use a lioness of a bigger scale.

Those two games were pretty cool, thanks.
I like the traps idea. In real life the goods wagon stunt almost got Patterson killed!

I also saw that the lions were a maneless variety. A bit VSF, but what about uising a couple of those Pleistoscene lions? I think they may have been maneless and about 1/3 larger than a modern African lion? I don't know of anyone makes a figure of that beast:

Speaking of science fiction, the basic scenario of human workers being stalked by some carnivore -in the similar vein to Alien-could be used instead of African lions vs coolies.

Don-

Aren't they something to see? When I was in Chicago last, I almost *dragged* my friends who live there to the Field Museum, and they were suitably impressed.

MM,

As large as they are, I believe they said that the skins experienced a significant degree of shrinkage in the curing process and with age. Pretty impressive.

DM