"Using The Sword in Africa for Great War Africa..." Topic

Hi, I'd thought I'd throw this out. Can I use The Sword in Africa for the Great War in Africa?

I'd used a modified version of the rule set for WWI German East Africa between the Beligan Force Publique and East German Colonial forces. I'm wondering if I could also use French colonial forces vs. my colonial Germans too for Togoland or Cameroon. At least, that would be my goal for an eventual Germans vs. French Great War in Africa game.

Anyway, I'm thinking of doing some games with river steamers and gunship landings as part of a particular scenario.

Thanks,
Blake

Blake,

Should be possible. You might also want to take a look at Larry's variant "The Sword in Palestine" as it is directly WW1 "side-show" theater oriented.

Jim

The simple answer is yes – as Jim has mentioned there is a "Sword in Palestine" version as well as an Arab Revolt version. I use a combination for my games set in WW1 in Africa but with the Colonial Campaigns unit sizes of 1 officer plus 7 men.

I can't get into the TSATF site to check if they are still available ATM.

Hope this helps.

The question that springs to my mind is: how many machine guns were in Africa? 20th Ann edition has gatling guns, but machine guns were substantially better and would directly interact with groups charging each other. You'd have to figure out what kind of MGs would be in your locale and scenarios, and then decide how much to improve the gatling gun stats to accurately render the MGs.

The Sword In Palestine looks like one of the "six pages of tables" expansions and I suspect there are no new rules there.

If there were no machine guns in Africa or there will be no machine guns in your scenarios, you're golden, the rules are perfect.

Oh, they had machine guns in Africa.

If you're doing East Africe, have plenty of machine guns and the Feld Kompanies should be better than other troops. Perhaps FK with Brit statistics, Brit colonials as Egyptians, etc.

See Skirmish Campaign's Tanga.

I think The Sword in Africa would work just fine- I'd consider upgrading the askaris just a bit though. They were more disciplined and better equipped than the askaris of the late 19th century from what I've read.

The German askaris at least. Also, the Maxim gun was a staple of the Great War, but had been in use in Africa for at least twenty years by then. If you can do Omdurman, Colenso, or Abyssinia with TSATF, you should have no problem.

Based on RPM rates of fire for the various weapons, and if the "Gatling" in TSATF is taken to be the Naval model of 1879, then the Maxim Gun (and its variants) fires as 20 men.

TSATF equivalent fire effects for most 19th/Early 20th Century MG's are provided in the rules "The Sun Never Sets," but I will provide a PDF of those (and other) weapons stats upon request.

And for the idea of gaming in German East, well…"Heia Safari!"

Remember, TSATF is a set of small unit skirmish rules. It wasn't intended for full scale battles!

Anybody know where I can find a copy of The Sword in Africa rules

Thanks,

Dave

The rules are included in the 20th anniversary Edition TSATF, which is the current rule set.

Rick

Blake,

We now have available the TSATF variant The Sword in East Africa by Jay Stribling and the Jackson Gamers. I played in its inaugural game at Colonial Barracks IV and even tho' I was on the losing side (the Kaiser's troops were too much!), it captures the era perfectly IMO. Contact us if you're interested in ordering ($10 USA/Canada and $12 USD/International) as it's not on the website yet.