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Ready New CONGO Boxed Sets For Expeditions By Wargames Foundry
August 12, 2016 by brennon
Wargames Foundry have joined forces with Studio Tomahawk to supply wargamers with a number of different boxed sets for CONGO. See what you make of them and make your choice...
The first of these sets is for the White Men Expedition which you can imagine taking to the plains or maybe even delving deep into the jungle in search of the next Tarzan or great ape.
Next up we have The Sultanate Of Zanzibar which might take a bit of offence to these white folk wandering around in their lands.
With an interesting mix of the modern and the ancient this is a set filled with possibilities when it comes to painting. Some bright colours would be fanatastic for this set.
Next up we have The Forest Tribes who have a few guns with them but mostly their weapons are those they would have originally used to defend their homes.
I love the Witch Doctor style character they have shown off here in the top left. This is certainly a period of history and world that is rarely explored on the tabletop so it will be fascinating to see how it all comes together.
Last but not least we have The African Kingdoms who are another interesting mix of native tribes.
The stories and narrative that you could weave here would be prime content for a pulp adventure. I can just see the stories being unravelled of lost kingdoms, fascinating explorations and wondrous treasures.
What do you think of this range?
"I can just see the stories being unravelled of lost kingdoms, fascinating explorations and wondrous treasures..."
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Obviously this range are some of the finest Foundry make, thanks to the epic talent of Mark Copplestone. I like the idea of these rules but they seem to be scenario led and it is unclear how many there are or how adaptable they are. In Saga they are very generic and make for easy reuse, from what I’ve read about Congo they seem quite specific. Has anyone got hold of a copy or seen a demo yet?
There is something about these that I really like. They have a simplicity to them that I find extremely appealing. AHHHH shiny syndrome must resist!
I learned a long time that “shiny”, in the end, always wins out over using ones brain. Instead of resisting, which we know is futule, just rent a bigger storage space =)
Zanzibaries were slavers they traded people with those white folk
Yeah, it wasn’t their lands that they’d be taking offence to white people wandering around in – it was other peoples’ lands that they were raiding themselves!
…not just white folk, way more were ‘sold’ to the arabic nations. Something like fourteen million.
Indeed you are correct to the Hejaz Arabe mainly but Studio Tomahawk created SAGA so this should be a good game if your into this era, Foundry are good but Northstar currently have some warbands on sale for this game http://www.northstarfigures.com/list.php?spo=1&page=1
All Africa were Slavers they’d go into the Jungles, take slaves then sell them to either Whites (most sent to South America I think it’s 20% North America 80% South America) or Arabs (Who castrated them).
I’m not going to focus on that I’m way more interested in grabbing an Indiana Jones and running through the Jungle making bad puns and running from boulders
Was at the Oldhammer Event at Foundry last weekend and kept catching brief glimpses of this one as they were running live games of this and have to say was so impressed bought a copy straight out and from both the laughter and the fact it looked loads of fun.
@zoidpinhead One does consider this one worth buying as its an nice fun break from a lot of other games if that helps.
Yes it does. Recommendations are always welcome.
I’m surprised no-one has mentioned the racial overtones or commented on the repression of native populations by dogmatic, Imperialistic empire-builders.
The Forest tribe has to be my favourite, but the Victorian/Edwardian styled lady with a pistol is awesome. After all, it is just a game.
Pleasant Surprised or disappointed?
All whites (but only weenie carriers really) should die because they are racist, bigot, CIS scum. Did I get all the key words right Jimmy? 😉
“I’m surprised no-one has mentioned the racial overtones or commented on the repression of native populations by dogmatic, Imperialistic empire-builders.” It’s hard for anyone to mention it when they don’t see it ,care or realize that it’s was racist or sexiest. But you can say the same thing about Conan. But then we are talking about a genre of hobbying that lets you play Nazi SS without a second thought so anything goes. But then I see Capt. NEMO as a freedom fighter and not a villain in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. So how I would run Congo would be very different then the scenarios they have in the books.
AAAAARGH! @unclejimmy! What have you started?
@unclejimmy I’ve commented on this when Congo has previously been trailed on this site. The first press release announcing the game (to my knowledge) was pretty bad.
Since then it’s appeared that the language has been more sober. I think that some people (not on this page, at the time of me writing), and some companies which make miniatures for this period / region trivialise things, but where that’s the case that’s not necessarily Studio Tomahawk’s fault.
The game looks attractively designed, with interesting mechanisms and the preview in Wargames Illustrated looks good.
I studied 19th Century African history at university so am interested in this period, and as a wargamer, I’m interested in gaming this period as long as it’s done with acknowledgement of the awful cruelties committed.
I don’t think any historical period is automatically ‘out of bounds’ to war gamers, although some subjects certainly ought to be approached with more care than others. I think colonial era wargaming is one of those, and games which emphasise or even risk celebrating imperialism and slavery definitely require careful consideration.
I hope Studio Tomahawk have struck the right balance, because this does look interesting, and there is plenty of historical, cultural and geographical interest to create a game from.
Ok on game of Congo.
The game on first read through does seem to be simple in its approach with clever mechanics and ideas that add in balance and playability. Something synonymous with Studio Tomahawk.
The random element of the game really does help balance up the factions and makes tactics much more important during play.
You select in advance 3 of 7 action cards and these determine what your miniatures will do during this turn. Each of the cards have an initiative factor, and this obviously determines who goes first.
The morale system is a nifty system and responds to certain terrifying or frightening situations, you draw a token which can affect actions like movement, shooting, or fighting. The fear element in the game goes under ‘Terror’ attack and allows players to instil terror in opponents, inflicting moral damage. This is useful when attacking players with crocodiles in the marsh.
Scenarios are on faux newspaper sheets and that’s a nice touch showing some thought to the games style.
Armies or Faction wise their are 4, The White Explorers – Quartermass, Livingstone, Bruce,
Stanley, Burton; African Kingdoms – North, Horn, southern, Eastern; Zanzibar Slavers, and the Forest Tribes.
Dice needed are D6, D8 & D10’s
The game looked from play and a brief read through rules and factions appear to be well balanced and the miniatures range from Wargames Foundry really add to the games appeal.
It had an elective mix of people playing and everyone seemed to be fully enjoying the game. As for ones self presently surprised.
All countries and settings have elements that are darker and more unpleasant than people may know and yes this is often overlooked unless one is or has a specific interest in that field of history, we do not know.
However while gaming can be useful in order to help educate people on some of those aspects its difficult as no one wants to play and game and be lectured on a subject that has different cultural interpretations depending on which side you live.
This is a game, its fun and as such as a player you play as you want to, if others have the same inclination they will game with you.
Thanks @mattadlard for the summary. I think that’s more or less what I’d gathered from the Wargames Illustrated article, but nice to hear confirmation from other people who’ve played / watched it being played that it works. It does sound very interesting.
Obviously war gaming has the potential to be offensive, and we all will have different levels of tolerance for the portrayal of different aspects of war. But there are some subjects that I think most of us wouldn’t touch (a game where players controlled Nazi death squads and competed to round up and kill as many civilians as possible or load them on to cattle trucks for example).
One of the troubles with colonial war gaming I think is that there doesn’t seem to be as much understanding or recognition in our culture more widely about just how awful it was, or how much impact it had on some societies. So while no one (or almost no one) is going to play a WWII game that glorifies Nazi attrocities, I think it’s much more common to see war games (and films, books, etc.) make light of the evils of colonialism.
It doesn’t mean games have to have a ‘moral education’ aspect to them, or even that they necessarily require you to know or learn a great deal about the historical period. But these days I would hope that games won’t perpetuate lazy stereotypes and I would hope that the authors of games would display some understanding of what they are handling.
The first signs – from the first press release about this game – weren’t good. But I hope that they’ve sorted it out, because everything else I’ve seen of it since then looks really interesting. And as I say, as someone who’s interested in the period and the region, I’d like to be able to play an interesting game set in it.
One did want to try and get a game or two in but was getting ones ass handed to them in Rogue Trader Game and then missed out on the other chance.
Key thing one saw and heard was the laughing from the game and peoples playing.
Ones overview was from catching the game being played and a brief glimpse through the rules on way back to place, however it does offer some interesting possibilities and and enough angles to play just against the tribe and animals like a Kong style game if the subject matter does not appeal.
Also meant to mention the game comes with play cards, counters, etc
I bought the Congo rulebook and have had a brief read through. It looks to be a fast fun little game as Saga is. I do like how the book is laid out and it has the adventure style Indiana Jones feel to it.
This is going to be a fast fun evening game with what looks like good interaction with lions, gorillas and the jungle terrain, looking forward to recreating some King Kong or Indiana Jones moments.
Did catch a post that sugested the game has a pulp, Indiana Jones feel, and that’s a god description.
it does indeed.