Cards and Fun

A game, and some thoughts..

More painting proceeding (posts re that later), some thoughts re. tweaking Mr. Babbage (ditto) - but first, an experimental battle....

Messin' in The Ruins...

The Eyes and Ears of Sandi have brought to the attention of the Authorities  rumours that the Right Hon. Wallace Morg-Rhys, entrepreneur, demon of the Lagos Stock Exchange and, it is whispered, slave trader By Appointment to the Emirs of the Gulf (aka "Posh Wally"), has slipped over the border from The German Territories with an unauthorised expedition, armed to the teeth, into the lands of the Lulanga......
Rather than place temptation in the way of the good folk of the Lulanga, once one of the more notorious of the slaver tribes in Sandi's Patch but, officially at least, reformed, Captain Hamilton of the Hausas has been dispatched to the mysterious "City of The Dead", where Morg-Rhys is said to be encamped, in order to intercept the errant Right Hon. and invite him, in no uncertain terms, to Headquarters, so that he might explain his actions to Commissioner Sanders face to face..

A platoon of Hausa Police and two Maxims to accompany this little visit...

The plan is simple:

A pre-dawn approach from the south. Maxim One to move furtively round the left flank to cover the exit of the old citadel, where Morg-Rhys is thought to be encamped. Maxim Two and one Section to do the same on the right flank.
A single Section will hold on the south east to cover two sides of the citadel.

 

Hamilton will hold with two Sections for five moves in the buildings at the jumping-off point until he believes that his covering units are in position. He will then move forward and attempt to call out the Right Hon.

There is to be no shooting unless attacked. The element of surprise is paramount. 

Once all the police are in place Morg-Rhys will hopefully see the hopelessness of the situation and agree to discuss this "Misunderstanding" without the need for violence...

Oh, did we tell Hamilton that there is a small Lulanga settlement in the north east corner of the ruins...?

Using my usual "Hidden Enemy" card trick (each unit tests, with modifiers, at the end of each move to see if anything is spotted/they are shot at) the guys move off. Move two Maxim One has to draw a card - but it was a false alarm (Hearts - blinds or blanks... Phew)... The rest of the lads sneak through the ruins without incident until....

 

Ooops: on Hamilton's right there is a call for a card draw - two Lulanga shooters (Spades).... Oh dear....

The ranging throw gives a Nine. Plenty of cover, so no problems finding a place for the shooters...

No casualties, but the silence of the morning has been shattered..... The Hausa elect to return fire.. Oh great.... The group in the citadel get a rude awakening...

They're not the only ones... A whole bunch of lads wake up in the village and come to investigate (card-driven)... 

They charge the Hausa...

 

With shots shattering the morning Hamilton realises he needs to act swiftly. Luckily the dice are with him - and he hurries his reserve towards Maxim One, which is now in position covering the citadel entrance....

In the citadel Morg-Rhys is unsure what to do - and his men stand idle and he hesitates... THIS is good - he has some 10 rifles at least.. Suddenly another turn of the card and.....

Six more Lulanga shooters spring up - and start loosing at Maxim One...

Hamilton rushes his reserve over to support, and the combined firepower sees the Lulanga off...

Meanwhile, over on the right there is some sharp hand-to hand fighting as the villagers charge home. There is no love lost between these two former slaver peoples (nobody like competition) and the fight is swift but fierce, leaving only three Hausa and the Lulanga chief fit to stand....

Meanwhile, Hamilton calls out to Morg-Rhys... After all, the police are only there to "protect" him from the naughty locals -  and to clear up any unfortunate "misunderstanding" over border controls..... 

Morg-Rhys loses his bottle, accepts this as a way out, and brings his party down from the citadel - and so to Headquarters; and an awkward conversation with Commissioner Sanders.....

That was a fun little game using SP style tokens for the Leadership draw and a normal playing card deck using three suits with values allocated. 

More posting re. thoughts and painting shortly. As always thoughts and critiques welcome... 

A Little Further...

Minor Progress.

Forgot to say: the other week I was playing around with the map terrain types and the "personality" of the various Peoples of The River..

Certain tribes will be woodland/cultivar peoples. These will be the main Player tribes.

The swamps will be the home of renegades and exiles.

The deepest forests will be the home of the Ama-Pygmy.

To the North is the land of the Great King and his feared "regiments". According to the books he can field 40,000 warriors....

The fierce, slave-raiding Islamised Bomongo in the North East are famous for their cavalry and swordsmen (non-canon, but what the hey...).

Interfering French to the North West. Nosey Germans to the South East and South West.

Still lots to on the Project but I got the Hausa Police painted up a couple of weeks back too (forgot to post?) so apart from any Bomongo cavalry, more pygmies, some more "personality" and distinctive tribal folk am pretty much nearly there for basic bods fighting bods.



Once I get the Play Table free of half-painted "ruins" I'll produce a demonstration game. Or maybe use the ruins in the game?  Who knows...

Back to work Sunday.

And so it goes.....

Some progress

Plodding along. Paid work has been utterly crazy and weather hot, plus She Who Must Be Obeyed has set up her Zoom Station in my "Play Room", so not as much progress has been made as might have been wished - and what there has been has been disjointed and a tad erratic.......

A little rough and random "building" (can one "build" ruins) for the (somewhat eclectic ?) "Lost City" - something too easy to drift into but which is strangely therapeutic..

Also above; a few "20mm" Irregular Miniatures Patham/Sikh bods completed, which painted up nicely, a semi-completed Ju-Ju tree, a "stony base" which will serve both as a "Mysterious Pool" and as a base for the Ju-Ju tree when it's in a village.

I also dug out my veteran old "Ould Regiment" (painted up in the 80s ?) for a Spring clean and check..

I had thought about giving them a dark wash, as they are bit "Toy Soldier" bright, but the Jury's opinion on FB was leave them as they are, and really I agree, so I'll content myself with adding some sand to their bases... I gave them a couple of extra non-coms/officers (below - as if there weren't already too many chiefs) from HaT, even if these do look a little delicate next to the Esci and RSM chaps, plus painted one of the mounted officers in a Patrol Jacket.

It did strike me that the HaT figures, with their rather tall helmets, if given trousers rather than gaiters, might paint up as Victorian policemen*... Hmm.....
(Though, seriously Denyer.. Why..??**)
 

(** Then I suddenly remembered an article from a 1970-80s Military Modelling or a wargames magazine with a "Chasing armed anarchists" linear scenario based on a real incident in London.. I have "civilians" in the form of Boers waiting to be painted.... And will still have the magazine squirrelled away.... Oh dear.... With such thoughts are new projects born....)

The rough and ready semi naked chap at the side is for a planned "Naked Prey" scenario (not seen the movie for decades but watched it online the other week). 



Meanwhile:

Dug out my old copy of Callwell and from this have sketched out some adaptions to TMWWBK's "Mr. Babbage" rules, with tweaks specifically for "Hill Tribes" and "Bush Warfare". Need to play-test these, then I'll "publish". 

The Project....

Some progress on the "Not Sanders of the River" project: card values for the Player and Non-Player Tribal Chiefs to "play" against each other (right click; "open link in new tab" to see them better).

The cards will provide "imponderables" for the campaign element, affect players' Influence" (good) and their levels on the "Infringement Track" (bad - the higher the level, the greater the risk of the British deciding to step in) and, in many circumstances, act as a "scenario generator" for my on-table games.

I'm toying with using two decks, a blue backed and a red backed one, to provide more options, since the ideas keep coming... I need to set-to and draw out the "final" map..... Part of me wants to do it by hand, but I have been looking at some of the mapping software out there... Hmm....... 

Meanwhile, in less "creative" (aka lazy) moments, as the man said "When all other trusts fail, turn to Flashman" - even if it has made me feel guilty about my stalled "Russians In Central Asia" project...

Onwards - and with occasional sideways detours - upwards...

Lockdown Post..

Quick Update.

Am still working (emergency service) so not a huge personal change the last few weeks, but there has been little Project progress none the less.... Some map-making and plotting on the "Sanders of the River" project (redrawing the map - still in draft stage - working out and experimenting with campaign rules etc. - see pics) some painting and prop building and refurbishment (river craft, Ju-Ju hut etc.)...

Also some unconnected painting..

1) 15mm (actually nearer 18mm, but what the hey) Blue Moon to add to my Musketeer RPG forces; some Royal Sentries ("Guards! Guards!")



Some mounted Cardinal's Guard and some civilians.



Had to have a skirmish or two.. Not my usual scale, but the Blue Moon figures are full of character, and paint up a treat... Couldn't be bothered to set out a table, so used some RPG tiles and my House Rules. Great fun....







As usual, wonder if I can "multi-purpose" any.... Hobbit ladies for 1/72 anyone..? Hmm... Not sure...




2) Discovered, while trawling, Elheim 20mm bods a few weeks back. Bought an explorer type bod (in the background below) for the "Sanders" project... Somehow ended painting some cheap plastic dinosaurs ("Lost World" connection..?)... 

Then (worse) was tempted into getting and painting-up something off-topic altogether....



"Betty's Seven" anyone...?



Plus messing about making "alien trees"... Oh dear...

What with all of the above, some writing, painting up some different "native tribes" for the Sanders game (post to follow), planning a Russian 19thC Central Asian project and some board gaming (plus house repairs) it has been a busy month...

All reenactment has been cancelled, so I should get time to work on The Project over the next few weeks.

I will also fight and publish a "Demo game" - to save me having to repeat myself on various fora as to my methods/madness.....

Hope everyone is getting through the current madness as well as can be expected.

Watch this space...