Take a look at this

[Stefan Haertel]

I think this could be interesting for some...
The terrain might be familiar to some of you.

 

[Morten Blaabjerg]

Looks interesting.. I'm looking forward to seeing more. I'll get back to you about the map...

 

[Alcibiaties of Athenae]

Hmm, Von Letow-Vorbek's east african campaign?

 

[Stefan Haertel]

Yes! This will be a guerilla-tactic-based scenario (somewhat like Jesús Balsinde's "Quest for El Dorado") about World War One in East-Africa.
OK, here's a little historical trivia: Who are the black units supposed to be (i.e. what were those units called in Germany's African colonies)?

Here are the other units I've put into consideration for using in this scenario.
The ships aren't my work. The first one was made by Morten Blaabjerg. The uniforms should be quite accurate, I think. Maybe the British (blue) are a little outdated, they're based on Boer War postcards, so if anyone could provide me with better pictures, if necessary... the Portugese and Belgian Congolese ones were made pretty much by guesswork based on the tiny black/white photographs I found at www.greatwar.org
Any comments?

 

[Stefan Haertel]

Forgot to attach

 

[Alcibiaties of Athenae]

If I remember correctly, the black troops were called "Askaris".

 

[Stefan Haertel]

That's what they're called.
Stay tuned for any news updates here.

 

[Morten Blaabjerg]

Here's an interesting link I stumbled upon, if you don't know it already. Nice historical photgraphs etc.

http://www.jaduland.de/kolonien/afrika/tanzania/index.html

 

[Boco]

Glad to see an experienced Scenario designer tackling this. A lot of odd events were directly or indirectly associated with this campaign.

The "Battle of the Bees" at Tanga (1914)

Reducing the German raids on the Kenya-Uganda railway by the ruse of marking water holes with "POISON" signs.

Koenigsberg vs the monitors in the Rufiji delta

The Naval Africa Expedition and the battles of Lake Tanganyika

The aborted Zeppelin relief mission in 1917


You may already know of these, or have better sources...

Campaign summary with more links
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/general_military/49415
Timeline and postcard pics
http://www.deutsche-schutzgebiete.de/ostafrika-english.htm (sorry, don't know the German URL)
Good description of the campaign
http://www.barnesreview.org/j/1996/1/Flinter7-14.html

This should be a fun one.

 

[Boco]

The British wore khaki shorts and short-sleeved shirts. All I could find about the Belgian colonial "Force Publique" is that they dressed like Senegalese Tirailleurs (blue jacket, red fez), but this may be out of date. They had dropped their predilection for canibalism by this time.

Despite their isolation, the Germans were perceived as having superior medical care. Here's a gem:

To me it has been a source of surprise that the German, who consistently drinks beer in huge quantities, takes little or no excercise..., should have performed such prodigies of endurance on trek.... One would have thought that the Englishman, who keeps his body fitter for games, eschews beer for his liver's sake..., would have done far better in this war.... That in all fairness he has not done so

(Dr. Dolby who served with the campaign)

Should become an advertising theme for African beer.

 

[Morten Blaabjerg]

Stefan, I got the map done, and just sent it to you earlier today. However it still needs a lot of work, but its probably best left with you since terrains and atmosphere of the graphics will probably play a big role for the kind of scen you're making. The map got a tad bit wide, but it can be 'squeezed' further if you want, with MapEdit.

Additionally, I'm improving constantly on the graphics work for my own scenario, so you might want to try out some of the new graphics. For instance, I made a new plateau/highlands graphic that looks & feels far better than the old one from the modpack. I've attached them to this post.

I'm also quite satisfied with the 'high grass' savannah, which will be perfect for the 'guerilla war' theme you're after. This kind of terrain was widespread over all of Africa, often measuring up to 8-10 feet, making it very difficult to spot the enemy and easy to hide in, but lethal to either attacker or defenderr, because bullets or arrows fired at random into the grass, could still hit anything in their direction and be deadly.

 

[Henrik]

Originally posted by Morten Blaabjerg

Additionally, I'm improving constantly on the graphics work for my own scenario, so you might want to try out some of the new graphics. For instance, I made a new plateau/highlands graphic that looks & feels far better than the old one from the modpack. I've attached them to this post.

I hope you dont mind if I borrow that as well

 

[Morten Blaabjerg]

Please do. I'm working on some mountains too, that fits better with these new highlands. I came to look at some engravings of the highlands in Africa, and realized that they needed a more 'rounded' epic look.

 

[Henrik]

I love the mountians you've allready made, but I will sure have a look at the new ones as well

One thing about your jungle/rainforest though: Don't you think that could need some improvement? As it is now the different terrains in that group differ very little...

 

[Morten Blaabjerg]

I assume you are talking about the 'new' terrain2 I sent you? I'll think about that. I want them to retain a kind of monotomy, but still be a bit varied. I remember I did try different approaches but ended up feeling they looked the best being basically the same. Off course, that could leave open a terrain slot in terrain2. -perhaps used for light vegetation/jungle as opposed to tropical rain forest.

I'm using the fallen trees of the forest as obstacles (units), so that provides some variety to the rainforest in itself.

 

[Henrik]

Lately I've been bussy working on that map you helped me with in the begining of this week, I am starting to get used to your rainforests/jungles though.
I did change the first slot of the terrain (the one that is used for when the terrain is not "grouped" at all) in order to make those one tile jungles in the west indies look better

Perhaps what should be done is some changes to the "border" slots of this terrain, in order to make the change from the jungle to the terrain next to it (for example the pampas in my case) less abrupt.

Pic from the map editor, part of the amazon (lots of swamps in there as well) :

 

[Henrik]

Cuba (with the same jungle but just the first slot of the terrain showing) :

 

[Henrik]

And finally the abrupt "stop" I was talking about:

(and yes I will stop thread jacking now )

 

[Morten Blaabjerg]

Lets continue the graphics discussion here..

Graphics Work in Progress

 

[WarVoid]

It's spelled "asikari" if I remember my Swahili correctly.

Just like the Boers are known as "Kaburu".

We need someone to do a Zulu scenario!!!