More Congo Cinema

I've found a couple more 1960s Congo themed movies for motivation, gaming ideas and inspiration.

First is the 1969 Italian film, the The Seven Red Berets, or various similar titles in various languages. I haven't seen this one, so can't really comment further yet.  

Next is a 2011 French Biopic from Canal+ about the the mercenary Bob Denard and titled Mister Bob.

 

 

Here are a few more stills from Mister Bob.   There are some evocative action scenes and the acting isn't bad.  Mobutu certainly come across as a dangerous man to know.

 

October Hammer

As it is October it seems like there should be some Russian Civil war content.  October Hammer are a set of fast paced rules for the Russian Revolution based on the Nordic Weasel Trench Hammer system.

Nordic Weasel Games produce a lot of niche and innovative projects, in a sort of stream of consciousness from the fertile brain of designer Ivan Sorensen.  Definitely worth a look.

Here are some notes from our first game(s) using October Hammer.  It was back at the beginning of the year but it's taken me ages to get around to posting anything.  The pictures were from this and later OH games if my memory serves.

In our first game we had four players and me as umpire but that quickly broke down into two games either side of the bridge objective and river line.  The Whites using the Volunteer army list as a basis attacked and had a slight advantage in quality versus the Red Army’s slight advantage in numbers but most troops were using standard stats.

On the east bank the Whites manoeuvred impressively to form a powerful attack that was horribly gunned down by maxim fire.  Brutal!  On the west bank the Whites advanced in better cover and with an armoured car in support and took out most of the Red Rifle units and MGs in the centre.  Neither side really got any cavalry into action and the Armoured Cars seemed rather dominating but we made lots of mistakes so I’ve no idea if that’s a fair judgement.  We didn't use the ACs in the later games.

I generally liked the mechanics, although they took a bit of getting used to.  The shooting is quite variable with units sometimes wiped away in very short order and at others clinging on for ages.  The game is not very attritional or predictable.  

The order choices make a big difference and there is seldom an obvious pick, making the gameplay fun but luck a heavy element.  Some parts of the rules could do with a bit more defining.  e.g. With artillery we were unsure if they could move and fire or withdraw/redeploy and at what rates and with what effects from terrain.  We forced shooting at the closest target after the first game, as some of the ganging up seemed gamey.  We also used half speed in bad going instead of -2″ as it was more intuitive.  You could tweak the stats a bit to reflect unit quality and special RCW circumstances.  e.g. RCW MGs were often short of ammo and either unreliable or badly manned, so universal -2 on the hit number is maybe too good.  Although, several were knocked out in our games, so that might not be necessary.  

On ranges we used 24″ for rifles 36″ for MGs and 60″ for field guns as the maximum.  We were playing on roughly 8’x6′ each side of the river, so it made sense given the large playing area.  We also only used the leader casualties within 12″ but mostly forgot to roll anyway.

So, on balance a good fun game with potential for tweaking to taste.  As a general note, I liked the quite elegant mechanics and the rules are good value for what you get even if a little incomplete.  They could also be adapted easily with ideas from other variants in the series.

We played a few more games after this first one and all were fast and furious.  I'm still unsure what set will end up as our go-to RCW/BoB rules, partly due to the large armies we've now amassed, but October Hammer was fun and original.   So, I don't regret this foray at all and would gladly play this or other Nordic Weasel games in the future. 

I made some unit cards for the games we played.  Shamelessly copying the great design from the Great War resource page on the Jozi's Tin Man blog. See specifically here for the cards.  I have uploaded my versions here in case they are of use to anyone else.

The cards were made on a great free vector graphics program called Inkscape.  I have included a copy of the files in PDF and the original SVG format, so you can print them or edit them.  The SVG format isn't previewing correctly in my Google account but the files open okay in Inkscape for me. Jozi used paperclips to mark the hits but we just used markers on the cards or white board pens on laminated cards.

Congo Progress 3 The ANC

These last few figures are for the Armée Nationale Congolaise (ANC).  They are more of the Mongrel miniatures Congo Crisis Mercenaries some with M1 Helmet African Heads from Empress miniatures.

The TAG African General at the back is a great figure and really looks the part for an ANC officer.

The M1 African faces are a bit caricature and not as good as Perry NNC ones but the helmets are nice and they make the figures look different to the Mercs.

Congo Progress 2 The Simbas

Sadly, the Mongrel Congo range was never completed, so finding something to use for the Simbas was more of a challenge.  I cobbled together a selection of figures from TAG to use with liberal head swaps and a bit of basic sculpting.

Most of the source figures are from the TAG Viet Cong and African Irregular lines with a few WW2 US Marines.  The heads used are Natal Native Contingent from the Perry Victorian range.

The TAG figures match the Mongrel Mercs pretty well in size and sculpting style.  Eureka do some lovely African Wars figures but they are a bit smaller and more slender than the Mongrel and TAG figures.  So they can be saved for another day.

 

I have sculpted on some animal hides, feathers and dreadlocks to a few of the figures to try to create the classic Simba look but I didn't go overboard and many will just be in khaki or green with perhaps a bit of leopard skin painted on.  I might add some more primitively armed and dressed tribal militia, as 'Jeunesse', later but their actual combat effectiveness must have been minimal against modern automatic weapons.

 

  

Despite their traditional affectations and use of magic, the Simbas were supposed to be a modern army, the "Armée Populaire de Libération" (APL), so could and did use support weapons.  I might add some vehicles for them eventually.

Congo Progress 1 The Mercs

I have finally made some small progress on my 1960s Congo forces.  First here are some mercenaries.  The figures are the old Mongrel Miniatures line, still available from Badger Games in the US.

These will be ideal for 5 Commando & 6 Commando of the ANC who spearheaded the fight against the Simbas.  While these sculpts are spot on, there are few such good source figures available.  I therefore can't be too pedantic and don't intend to worry about the small details.  A reasonable overall impression will have to be good enough. 

The mercenaries are largely as cast but with a few head swaps.  One at the back in the picture below has another Empress Indochina head and the TAG figure on the right will be my not-yet-headless Roland.

These last few are more based on the slightly earlier Katangese Succession era of the Congo Crisis but can be used for later as well.  They are Mongrel Cold War British with head swaps from Empress Miniatures French Indochina range.  I'll paint them in camouflage jackets and they can serve as Belgian troops too.  I'm going to get some more Mongrel Mercs to mix with more of these Brits and paint them up as Belgian Paras. 

These WW2 14th Army Brits from TAG will serve as Katangese Gendarmes.  I have removed the bayonets and some of the kit to better match the lightly equipped Gendarmes.

Congo Crisis Cinema

Some inspiration and background for the Congo Crisis.  First is the famous footage from the 1966 Italian film Africa Addio. 

The clip above is a semi-sanitised montage version with Lauren O'Connell's great rendition of the Warren Zevon classic, Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner over the top.  It starts with Mike Hoare talking, moves onto some footage of the CIA backed Cuban emigre airforce, then ends with the attack on Boende by elements of 5 Commando in late 1964.

The full film, titled Africa: Blood and Guts in English, is available on YouTube but be warned it's pretty brutal stuff.  Probably NSFW and definitely not suitable for kids.  The section on the Congo Crisis starts here.

Next is the historical bio-pic of the Siege of Jadotville.  This film is set in the early stages of the crisis during Moise Tshombe’s attempt to have the province of Katanga secede from the newly independent Congo.

A small garrison of Irish UN troops are surrounded and attacked by the European mercenary led Katangese Gendarmerie.

For a bit less reality there is Jack Cardiff's adaptation of the Wilbur Smith novel The Dark of the Sun, also released under that title and as The Mercenaries. 

 

 

A group of mercenaries and Congolese soldiers race to recover a hoard of diamonds, and rescue some stranded settlers on the way, before the advancing Simbas can overrun them.   

They have a pretty good stab at the mercenary uniforms and even the Simbas, which makes for something different from the usual WW2 subject matter for these type of films.

 

There's a nice game of the film over on Lead Adventure Forum here and some other Congo related games here and here.  

Another movie to put on while you paint, is the Wild Geese, for which Mike Hoare was a consultant.  The film clearly draws several themes from the period of the crisis and its aftermath. 

An interesting bit of trivia is that John Kani's character in the film, Jessie Blake (above right), was the inspiration for the Action Man figure, Tom Stone, after designers saw early work on the film.

 

 

Last is the 1980 film The Dogs of War.  This latter was based on the book of the same name by Frederick Forsyth.  Forsyth was accused at one point of genuinely plotting a coup and the book was later described as "a textbook for mercenaries".  Several copycat coups have been attempted including one to take over Equatorial Guinea in 2004 that involved Mark Thatcher, son of the former British PM.

 

 

As a postscript, I have read online some dispute that Thompson submachine guns were used by the mercenaries in the Congo.  I found these two pictures from the period to show they were.

This first shows Spanish mercenaries from 6 Commando with ANC General Bobozo from this interesting photostream here.

The second shows some mercenaries attached to 7 Commando in 1964 from this website here.  A gold mine of excellent photos on the Jeeps used.

The Congo Crisis

I have made a start on a new project to build some armies based on the extended 1960s Congo Crisis including the 1964 Simba Rebellion and the 1966-7 Stanleyville Mutinies. There are a host of factions and events to model, plus lots of interesting forces and characters.  There are presidential assassinations, post-colonial tyrants, UN peacekeepers, white mercenaries, Marxist rebels, witch doctors, Cuban exiles, Belgian paratroopers, the CIA and even Ernesto "Che" Guevara.  

The events surrounding the independence of the former Belgian Congo are a horrific human tradegy that has led to decades of civil war across the region but are surprisingly little known about today.  Nevertheless, these 'interesting times', while a nightmare for those involved, make a suitable backdrop for wargames. 

Independence saw a very rapid breakdown of order.  An army mutiny and an attempted succession by the province of Katanga resulted in widespread Belgian intervention, the overthrow and execution of the first elected president, Patrice Lumumba, and ultimately the deployment of large numbers of UN peacekeepers.   

Significant fighting occurred, especially between the UN forces and the mercenary backed Katangese gendarmerie.  The most famous incident from this period was the siege and controversial surrender of the Irish UN garrison at Jodotville.

By 1964 the Katangese independence movement had been defeated and the UN mission was over.  The focus then moved to the north east of the country where Lumumbist forces had seized control, declaring the "Free Republic of the Congo" (République Libre du Congo).  These rebels, known as the Simbas, combined a mix of marxism and mysticism to motivate their troops and would certainly make for a very interesting and unique wargames army.

The Armée Nationale Congolaise (ANC) under the command of general Joseph-Désiré Mobutu made extensive use of Mercenary forces to spearhead their repression of the Simba rebellion.  Most famously 'Mad Mike' Hoare's 'Wild Geese' of 5 Commando, seen here advancing north to Stanleyville in late 1964.

Belgian Paratroopers simultaneously seized Stanleyville airfield in Operation Dragon Rouge to rescue and evacuate the settlers held by the rebels.

Two brief mutinies by Katangese and mercenary forces in 1966 and 1967 end the period with their withdrawal into Rawanda,  This left Mobotu firmly in control of the country, which he renamed Zaire and ruled until deposed in 1997 by forces loyal to the former Simba, Laurent-Désiré Kabila.

I'm going to use 28mm figures and in that scale the only truly suitable figures for this period are the old Mongrel miniatures Wild Geese, now available from Badger Games in the US.  Although, being Paul Hicks' sculpts they have stood the test of time.  There will however, have to be quite a bit of conversion and artistic licence to give an impression of the forces involved.