Graham's Wargames : VSF Gentlemen in the Jungle

I had Henry over the other day to give my VSF variant of Sellswords and Spellslingers another trial run through. We played two games of the African set adventure I am planing to run at the Tring Wargames Club next week, so it was also a chance for me to test the scenario in advance of the public game. The aim is to try and recover bearers who have been chased off by an attack by local tribesmen. There are 12 markers on the table to be searched, which can be a dummy, a cowing bearer or a captured bearer guarded by a native warrior.

The first game did not go well, for the very first activation of the game my Hunter failed an activation roll, stepped on a poisonous snake and took a HP of damage! Everything went downhill from there. I got jumped on early and failed at least half of my activation rolls for the first four or five turns. Almost all the newly arriving monsters/reinforcements came on in my corner, at one point I had 2 large apes, 3 poisonous giant frogs and about a dozen tribesmen all within 6" of my PCs. I lost two PCs before I'd even located a bearer. Henry fared a little better at first, he was the first to find one of the bearers, but in a single turn every thing went wrong, one of his PCs got into bow range of the 3 warrior women, who then activated and stuck 3 arrows into the unfortunate gentleman, killing him outright! In the end we each escaped with 2 bearers, but lost 3 PCs between up, half of our party.

The table layout before the PCs entered from the closest edge. The red markers are the objectives to be searched.

Ambush, my scientist takes a wound.

My Soldier of Fortune spots something interesting in the bushes, but decides that the apes can keep it!

Henry's Gentleman Adventurer spots the first porter.

Henry's Soldier of Fortune drops riddled with arrows.

The second game went better, at least at first. We both had several turns with PCs making all 3 activation rolls, sometimes even getting 4 activations on occasion. The first warriors to try and close were shot down and we grabbed a porter each without too much bother. Then things started to go wrong and two hordes of warriors turned up just behind us. Henry's scientist took most of them out with a couple of his Exploding Globes (grenades), the rest were shot down or finished off in close combat.

In the meantime my scientist grabbed a porter and passed by the bulk of the foes to spot another porter guarded by a solitary warrior. Unfortunately when he tried to shoot the guard his pistol jammed! Fortunately my hunter got into a position to take a shot and dropped the guard. The scientist scooped up the second porter and headed towards the table edge. As he neared the edge he failed an activation which brought three giant poisonous frogs on in the jungle close by. Fortunately he managed to slip past and escape with the porters.

By now the rest of the PCs were getting swamped by a flood of enemies. Mt Hunter was charged by a horde of 3 warriors but fortunately passed three activations and dropped them all with successive shots. Henry's Soldier of Fortune was not so lucky and went down in close combat, shortly followed by his Gentleman Adventurer.

My Hunter and Soldier of Fortune moved towards the table edge, covering Henry's scientist as he hustled a solitary porter off the table. At the last minute my Hunter doubled back to check a objective which turned out to be a porter with a guard. The Hunter took the warrior out, then she grabbed the ported and rushed off the table just as another horde of warriors started closing in.

This meant Henry got 1 porter, but lost 2 PCs, whilst I got 3 porters and saved all my PCs, so that game was a clear win for me!