Friday 23 August 2024

Carry On Up The Jungle By Following That Camel....


Two theatres of the Great War of a particular interest....


East Africa - obviously nowhere near as detailed as the board game Schutztruppe but a great primer all the same


The siren call of the desert.... I can almost hear Maurice Jarre's epic soundtrack to one of my all-time favourite films.....

No, this is not about the two Carry On films - rather it is fleshing out the why's and wherefore's of my current flight of fancy, a WW1 naval campaign based around East Africa, the Arabian peninsula and Madasahatta.

By a huge twist of fate - aka a convoluted internet search - and following an industrial quantity of assorted disposals, I was able to acquire the two games you see above. These are by Decision Games and are part of their 'Mini Games' series. Of the two the Lawrence of Arabia title is a solitaire game whilst Lettow-Vorbeck is designed for two players. Either way I reckon that both can be played solo - I have 'form' in doing this so it will not be a problem!

There is no real connection with my planned campaign style set up with either of these two games other than that the subject matter is of relevance. Having said that, the idea of 'point to point' movement would translate into a Portable Wargame  Campaign type of set up - especially if Madasahatta could be accorded similar treatment.

That is not something I would do BUT, I know a man that might..... :-)

Madasahatta would of course be a naval hub in all this as its location would be astride the routes into the Red Sea as well as towards East Africa. 

Needless to say I now have rather a lot to think about!

2 comments:

Steve J. said...

Excellent stuff there David! I think both campaigns are the most interesting in WWI, after the early opening moves on both the Western and Eastern fronts. Nice idea to link both theatres:).

David Crook said...

Hi Steve J,

I would have only considered linking the two thanks to Madasahatta as it would tie in between the two nicely. Very much in the nature of an imagi-nation what if!

All the best,

DC