GWONG ISLAND RESCUE (SW-Pulp)

This is a report of the New Years Eve edition of my Savage Worlds: Pulp Adventure game. It took place (SAVAGE) Sunday, 31 December 2006 between noon(ish) and (about) 4pm (planned that way so we could wrap things up in time for everyone to head home and get ready for their respective New Years Evening Shenanigans).

GWONG ISLAND RESCUE

Starring
Darren Morris as Oscar Carson, Private Investigator, and Charles Willington of Foreign Office
Joe Westfield as Harold Green, Eccentric Inventor and some of the crew of the S.S. Persephine
Amanda Plante as Josephine Pink, Acrobatic Aviator, and Henry Daventhorpe II H.M.S.S.
John Burt as Marcus Andres, first mate of the S.S. Persephone and some more crew members.
J.C. Barrett as Captain Lance Strongarm of the US Rocket Corps (and his trusty Rocketeers!)
Cory Loshney as Karl Von Kindershisse of the Gestapo, his agents Der Ubersturmfuhrer and Ilsa, She-wolf of the SS and their She-wolf minions.

… and of course myself, Tim Brown, as the rest of the bad guys General Wang Fu, Captain Harry Chang, and the Chinese Soldiers.

December 31st, 1936.

Dr. Rupert Von Liederhosen has gone missing from his expedition to study the ancient ruins of the Cham Peoples in the central highlands of French Indochina. It is thought that he is being held prisoner on Gwong island by the exiled Chinese Warlord General Wang Fu. General Fu may also be holding Dr. Liederhosen's beautiful niece, Dr. Clara Johansen, hostage and forcing Dr. Liederhosen to build some sort of super-bomb. He would probably use such a device to make the quarreling Warlords of China to recognize him as the new emperor of China. Then, perhaps, he might try to force the leaders of all the world’s nations to recognize him as ruler of the world! (BWA-HA-HA-HA-HA!!!)

Dr Francois Petitpoison, Dr. Liederhosen’s partner in the French-Indochina expedition, has informed their mutual friend Montana Black of the Doctor’s disappearance. Black set off to find with his intrepid group of adventurers; Oscar Carson, Derrek Braun, Harold Green and Josephine Pink, as well as Captian Joe Blackwell and the crew of the S.S. Persephone. On the trail of Dr. Liederhosen and General Fu their adventures took the Persephone to Hanoi, Shanghai, Kowloon, Luzon, and finally GWONG ISLAND! At Kowloon they met up with Henry Daventhorpe II of His Majesty’s Secret Service and Charles Willington of the Foreign Office who joined them on their hunt for the doctor.

They are not the only ones on the trail of Fu and Dr. Liederhosen. Captain Lance Strongarm, from his secret US Rocket Corps base on the Phillipines, has been monitoring the situation through listening posts and informants. His concern for the situation has grown considerably since he learned that Karl Von Kindershisse and his ultra-secret U-boat (U-666) has been sighted in the area.

Von Kindershisse had, in fact, provided funds for General Fu’s operation. Enough to set up a secret base and hire a personal army, as well as expenses arising from the mission to kidnap the Doctor and his niece and provide raw materials for the doctor’s experiments. This was all done with the understanding that the technology for the new super-bomb would be shared with his “investors”. Unfortunately General Fu neglected to inform his Nazi backers of the location of his secret base and simply disappeared with the money. Having located General Fu, through their own ring of informants and spies, the Nazis, too, are heading to Gwong Island to terminate General Fu (with extreme predjudice!) and recover any of their original investment that they can (i.e. The Bomb!).

THE GAME

As with most of my skirmish/adventure games of late I used Savage Worlds: Showdown skirmish rules. I made up a whole bunch of setting specific Freak Events from a rampaging Diplodicus to a volcanic eruption, or attacks by natives, large jungle cats, or swarms of Vampire Bats. None of them showed up however. I’ll keep them safe for next time….

The Island

The table was set up with General Fu’s secret base in the center. This consisted of six buildings/huts, one of which was surrounded by barbed wire. This is where Doctor Liederhosen and his device were being kept. Four of the huts each housed a squad of the Warlords regular troops. The remaining hut was General Fu’s HQ which also housed his personal bodyguard of special assault troops armed with SMGs and his trusty lieutenant Captain Harry Chang. Clara Johansen was also being kept in General Fu’s HQ where he could keep an eye on her.

Surrounding the compound to the south, east and west was jungle. Further into the jungle to the South were mountains (one of which was the not-so-dormant volcano…). On the north side was a beach and the ocean. Guarding the approach from the sea, at the north end of the compound, was a machinegun emplacement.

The Adventurers from the S.S. Persephone had rowed ashore during the night and secreted their rowboats in the jungle just off the beach. They were set up to approach the compound from the Northeast. Montana Black, however, was not with them. After leading this expedition from the outset, he was denied his chance to free Dr. Liederhosen and his beautiful niece personally. He severly stubbed his toe while climbing down into the row boats rendering him unable to walk and thus had to remain behind aboard the S.S. Persephone! (Curtis, the fellow who usually plays Monatana Black, phoned just before the game to inform me he wouldn’t be showing up….).

The special detachment of Nazis had paddled to shore from their U-boat on the other side of the island and trooped through the jungle approaching from the Southwest.

The U.S. Rocket Corps would fly in on the first turn from an aircraft carrier some distance off. Because they would be too short of fuel to return and likely wouldn’t be able to carry any bomb or hostages they recovered a small craft with a naval landing party was floating just off table awaiting Captain Strongarm’s signal.

At dawn the parties converged on the General’s compound…

(you should be able to click on the pictures below to se a bigger version... hopefullly)


Here's a bird's eye view of the island. To the right is the north end of the compound with the MG emplacement looking out over the beach. On the left is the prison hut surrounded by barbed wire. In the bottom right you can see some of the Crew of the Persephone lurking in their starting positions ar the edge of teh jungle.


Here's a close-up of that MG team.

Turn One

The Rocket Corps flew in high and fast from the Northwest. Hovering abouve the compound they made a quick aerial recce of the area.

This briefly caught the attention of the MG crew (which had been nearly sleeping at their post) and the sentry outside the prison hut. All of the other Chinese started off in their huts and “shaken” as they were all sleeping or just waking up. They spent their actions this turn trying to recover.

Most other characters and the Nazis spent the turn stealthily maneuvering in the jungle and observing the compound. Except for Marcus Andres and the four crew of the S.S. Persephone he was leading. They dashed out of the jungle to the nearest hut and started firing in the open windows at the bewildered Chinese. This caused the MG crew to wheel about and fire at them, with little effect however.

A couple of the Chinese units which were last to go had troops recover from their shaken status well enough (with a raise) to act. Three from one unit ran out of their huts and shot at the Rocket Corps above, and one of the Assault Troopers leaned out the window and let off a burst at the other group of Persephone crewmen (played by Joe) killing one!


There's some of the crew of the S.S. Persephone assaulting the Chinese barracks.


From left to right; a Tommie-gun armed crewman half off the picture, Josephine Pink (in the distance wearing a pith helmet), Harold Green (with another crewman hidden behind him), also quite hidden by foliage in the distance you can just make out Oscar Carson's fedora and the bottom of his trenchcoat, Henry Davnethorpe II, Charles Willington, and some more crew, including Marcus Andres hidden in the foliage.


She-wolves of teh SS lurking in the foliage.

Turn Two

The Rocket Corps slowed and maneuvered about. One group preparied to land at the Northwest end of the compound, the other, with Captain Strongarm, at the Southeast end behind the prison hut.

Chang joined the Assault Trooper at the window and also fired upon the Persephone crew shaking one.

Oscar Carson dashed out of the jungle. Taking cover by the corner of the HQ hut he shot at the Sentry by the Prison. The sentry, in turn, sought cover within the prison hut itself.

General Fu then leaned out one of the other windows of the HQ and shot at Carson causing two wounds (ouch!). Carson successfully soaked both of them, but burned two bennies in the process (one for the soak, one to re-roll his vigor test). Harold then charged forth and gave General Fu a blast from his G.N.O.M. (Ghost Neutralizer-o-matic). Harold had brought along this invention of his, which he believes will neutralize ghosts and other paranormal or supernatural beings, just in case he happened to run into any…. I does this by shocking them with a high power bolt of energy, so he figured it might do something to General Fu as well. He caused two wounds, but Genreal Fu soaked them and thus it left him with his hair standing on end and slightly smoldering, but no real damage.

The Machine gun teamed wheeled about again to fire at the Rocketeers, that were about to land right beside them, shaking one prompting a piloting roll, which he passed.

One of the Chinese in the building being attacked by Marcus recovered from their initial shock well enough to charge to the window and try and jab a crewman with his bayonet. He failed. Marcus then joined in this close combat and shot the Chinese soldier in the face with his pistol.

More Assault Troopers ran to the windows and started blazing away with their Bergmans. Another crewman went down and Billington was wounded (though he soaked it). The remaining two crewmen in the group were then shaken, due to a failed morale test. The crew recovered slightly later in the turn but failed to do anything productive. Willington, however blasted an Assault Trooper with his shotgun!

The Chinese in the hut at the Northwest corner of the compound stormed out of their building and shot at the Rocketeers preparing to land, killing one and shaking another.

The SS continued lurking in the Jungle.


The Heroes attack the HQ Building.

Turn Three

Captain Strongarm landed by the back window of the Prison hut and had a glance in the window. Spotting the shaken Chinese guard cowering inside he filled him full of lead from his Tommie-gun. Further investigating the room he spotted an elderly gentleman sitting on a chair. He fished the picture of Dr. Liederhosen out of his flight jacket and compared it to the gentleman within for a moment. Then, shouting to his troopers he bellowed “In here boys, I’ve found the Doc!”

Meanwhile, Marcus, at the other end of the compound dispatched another Chinese soldier within the building they were attacking while his crew shot at others unsuccessfully. One of the crew fired upon the MG crew killing one however.

The other crewmen attacking the HQ shot Captain Chang, who soaked.

One of the She-wolves tried to dash out of the jungle and toss a stick grenade into the building nearest them. She fumbled. Miserably. The grenade bounced of the sill and blew up at her feet killing her. The shrapnel, tearing through the soft walls of the bamboo hut, killed one Chinese soldier and shook the will of another. The rest just fired their MP-40s into the hut killing a second Soldier and causing the rest to be shaken by a failed morale check.

Chang shot another crewman and the remaining one in that group failed a morale check.

The Rocketeers at the North end of the base landed and opened up with the Tommie-guns. They wiped out the rest of the MG crew and two other Chinese soldiers.

The second group of She-wolves attacked again suffering casualties from grenade accidents. The remainder of the squad charged to the windows and gunned the remaining Chinese soldiers down full-auto style!

Harold zapped General Fu a second time causing a great build up of static electricity. Fu’s pants stuck to his legs uncomfortably for the rest of the game!

The Chinese soldiers in the middle building on the west side, finally got their wits about them and fired upon the She-wolves assaulting their brothers in the neighboring building, killing one.

Having had enough of watching the strange foreign devil zap his boss with electricity, one of Fu’s Assault Trooper bodyguards gives Harold a bit of the rata-tat-tat shaking him. The others exited the building and took cover at the corners to bring fire on some of the others entering their compound.

Willington let off another blast from his shotgun this time blasting Captain Chang. Captain Chang soaked it.


Rocketeers land at the North end of the compound and engage the HMG and Chinese Soldiers exiting the buildings.


The Adventurers and crew of the S.S. Persephone attacking the buildings along the east side of the compound.


Captain Lance Strongarm and the U.S. Rocket Corps to the rescue!


She-wolves attack the Southwest of the compound.

Turn Four

The Crew of the Persephone under Andres finished off the Chinese soldiers in the building they first attacked.

The Rocketeers with Captain Strongarm entered and secured the Prison hut. One fired a burst out a window at the Chinese Assault Trooper hiding around the corner of the next building, only managing to make him duck back temporarily. The Sergeant asked if the Doctor is indeed the Doctor and where The Bomb was. Liederhosen indicated that he was indeed himself and the bomb was, in fact, neatly packed away in the crate sitting in the middle of the room. The Sergeant asked Dr Liederhosen to leave with them and the good Doctor said “Not vitout my niece!”

Carson exchanged shots with one of the assault troopers hiding around the opposite corner of the building. Both missed each other. One of the other Assautl Troopers bursts found it’s mark causing Davnethorpe two wounds he was unable to soak!

General Fu decided things were getting a little hot, especially by the window. He grabbed for Dr. Johansen, giving her a few static shocks as they wrestled. Eventually he got his arm around her neck, held his gun to her head, and whippered in her ear; “It’s time we got out of here, you and I…”

Willington let fly with another blast from his shotgun at Chang, striking him soundly. Chang no longer has bennies to soak and was wounded. Chang however went next and recovered well enough to shoot back and Willington and wound him!

Marcus dashed out from between two buildings to shoot an Assault Trooper point blank. He rolled ones on both his shooting die and wild die. Not so good. Deciding that was worth blowing a bennie on a re-roll he managed to only upgade the shooting die to a two and rolled another one on his wild die… things were suddenly looking a little grim for Marcus.

The Chinese Soldiers in the middle building on the west side of the compound charged out of their hut to attack the SS troops in the neighboring building. They faltered a moment and rolled a 1 for their running. They didn’t quite make it there. Josephine Pink then shot one of these soldiers caught out in the open, shaking him.

The She-wolves started shooting and tossing grenades at the Rocketeers which had maneuvered around the building at the Northwest end of the compound. They killed one and wounded another.

At the other end of the compound their commander, Captain Strongarn fired the signal flare to call in the naval landing party.


Rocketeers shooting up the remaining Chinese Soldiers in the Northwest building come under fire from the She-wolves.

Turn Five

Darrin had to go home and start cooking for his New Years party and Amanda had to go pick up our daughter Keira from Grandma and Grandpa’s. So we said that their main characters (Carson and Pink), still being quite close to the jungle, retired along with their respective wounded wildcard extras (Billington and Daventhorpe II) to administer first aid… or something like that.

Harold finally got the G.N.O.M. dialed in and roasted the Chinese Assault Trooper around the corner of the HQ building.

Der Ubersturmfuhrer fired at the Chinese Soldiers in the open charging towards the building he now occupied. I think he killed at least two…

Pink finished off the Chinese soldier she had winged the previous turn and then faded into the Jungle with Daventhorpe.

Captain Strongarm bounded into the Prison hut and took up a position at the window opposite. While making a quick assessment of the situation he spotted the She-wolves of the SS in the building opposite and quickly let off a burst from his Tommie-gun…. She had dodge (-1), was at medium range (-2), and had full soft cover (-2), and he was firing full-auto (-2)…. so… he only needed an 11 to hit… on a d8… well he aced and hit her with a raise and then killed her deader than free expression in her fatherland…! BOO-YAH!

The dead She-wolf's comrades unleashed a torrent of automatic small arms fire back at Captain Strongarm, but failed to cause a scratch.

The Rocketeers at the North end of the compound rallied and regrouped behind the building. They then made their plan to move up building to building along their side of the compound as thing looked well under control along the other.

Dr. Clara Johansen struggled and broke free of Fu’s grasp and fled to the opposite corner of the building. Fu gave chase and thne grappling began again, but this time Clara was determined to fend off Fu.

Marcus lucked out and went before the remaining SMG –armed Chinese Assualt Trooper standing right in front of him. This time he shot him dead.

Karl Von Kindershisse attempted to intimidate the Rocketeers with a torrent of heavily accented verbal abuse and treats of the dire consequences of not surrendering to the might of the National Socialism. The Rocketeers sneered, snickered and shrugged and said; “who does that dumb kraut think he’s talkin’ too?!”

Insulted by the jeering retorts and catcalls that emanated from across the way the She-wolves unleashed another volley of automatic fire. This time, however, they took down two of the Rocketeers! GAH!

Moving on to the HQ building next door, the Crew under Marcus shot up the building but failed to hit any of it’s occupants.


A good, though slightly out of focus, overhead view of things around turn five. North is in the top right. The shiny spot in the top center of the picture by the Northwest building is the downed rocketeer. Betweem the Northeast building and the HQ building (center east) you can see marcus Andres that charged out to shoot the Assault Trooper point blank, while the rest of crew he was leading are still behind the Northeast building along with the injured Daventhorpe - who was about to leave. Littering the ground to the east of the HQ building are three other crew memebers, that Joe controlled, the fourth is cowering in cover between the two windows of the building. Standing in front of one of the windows is Harold trying to dail in his G.N.O.M. Beside him is Josephine Pink about to finish off one of the wounded chinese in the open. Two of those Chinese are already down, having just been shot by Der Ubersturmfuhrer. Captain Strongarm is still outback of the Prison building after firing off the signal flare.

Turn Six

Marcus and General Fu both got dealt Jokers. Marcus got to go first, though. Stepping over the dead trooper he ducked into the HQ building. There he saw Fu and Clara wrestling in the corner. He took a couple of steps over and joined the melee by shooting Fu in the head - he hit him and when he rolled for damage he aced again and again and again. The grand total was 36 damage. 7 wounds. Fu, still having a few bennies, tried his darnedest to soak. He soaked two of them. Not enough. His head exploded in a pinkish mist.

The rest of the crew under in his group charged into the building Tommie-gun and rifles blazing SAS-style! They took down the remaining hostiles… which, at that point, was actually only the wounded Captain Chang... who lacked bennies to save himself and so died in a hail of bullets… but still it looked like a remarkable feat of martial prowess.

Clara, covered with Fu’s brain bits, shocked by the sudden silence after the final burst of extreme violence within the headquarters building, fainted.

The Rocketeers at the north end started their house-to-house clearance by entering the building they were taking cover behind.

Joe also had to go at this point so he dashed Harold out into the open – to be sure of his shot – and let fly with another electro-blast. He hit Der Ubersturmfuhrer melting and fusing his shiny steel helmet to his head! He caused four wounds, but Der Ubersturrmfuhrer soaked one of them and thus remained in the game, though severely wounded!

The remaining Persephone crewman in the group that had been controlled by Joe, who was covering in cover just outside the HQ building, simply joined the rest of the crew under Marcus.

The She-wolves decided it was time for action! The group still in the jungle charged out MP-40s blazing! All three were shooting at Captain Strongarm! The first hit twice totaling two wounds after all soak rolls were worked out. So he, like his opposite across the way, was still in the game albeit severely wounded. The second She-wolf, however, finished him off.


Marcus Andres is the one on the left of the three crew pictures inside the HQ building here. He is standing over the headless body of General Fu. Dr. Clara Johansen, standing next to him, is about to faint.



Two shots of the last moments of Captain Lance Strongarm (the rocketeer not wearing a helmet). He is standing at the window Tommie-gun dueling with a half dozen SMG armed She-wolves.

Turn Seven

The remaining Rocketeers in the prison retaliated! They shot down two of the She-wolves and wounded the other.

The other Rocketeers stormed into the next building in line, capturing the only two remaining uninjured Chinese soldiers. They had been cowering in there for a turn or two having been shaken by a failed morale test after their aborted charge into the next building occupied by the SS.


Rocketeers moving up to do their house-to-house sweep.


The remains of the SS Special Detatchement. A Severely wounded Der Ubersturmfuhrer, Karl Von Kindershisse, and a wounded Shee-wolf. I think there was another She-wolf still standing in the part of the building cut off in the picture and Ilsa was still hiding in the jungle to the rear of the building.

Cory, at this point, decided to call it quits.

The remaining SS climbed out the back of the building and faded into the Jungle. Von Kindershisse, Ilsa, and the mangled Ubersturmfuhrer high-tailed it, along with the couple surviving she-wolves, overland to rendevous with their U-boat. They would have to console themselves with the fact that, though they didn’t get to kill him themselves, they were pretty sure General Fu didn’t make it out of that battle alive. Something about his hat flying out of the HQ window followed by a pinkish mist and globs of brain-like goo... They also did manage to take down their nemesis Captain Lance Strongarm. Without him to defend the free world they would get surely get another chance to recover the super-bomb technology! BWA-HA-HA-HA!!!

The Rocketeers finished their sweep of the base just in time for the naval landing party to arrive and cart away the bomb, the injured Rocketeers, and the body of their dearly departed Captain.

Dr. Liederhosen was reunited with his beloved Niece and they joined the remaining adventurers and crew aboard the S.S. Persephone for passage home to New England (their adopted home after fleeing their native Germany), abandoning the Indo-china expedition as it was clearly too dangerous a place in the dark and foreboding times.

The Figures

The all of the U.S. Rocket Corps, Dr. Liederhosen, Harold Green, and most of the SS are from Pulp Figures. The exception within the SS ranks was the Gestapo Agent, Karl von Kindershisse which is made by Artizan Designs.

General Wang Fu, Captain Harry Chang, the SMG Assault Troops, and the HMG team are all from Coppelstone Castings.

The rest of the Chinese are of my own making (See other posts on this blog).

The rest of the Adventurers; Carson, Pink, Daventhorpe II, and Willington are also from Coppelstone.

Marcus Andres and the crew of the S.S. Persephone were a mix of Foundry and Westwind WW2 French Resistance.

Thanks to everyone that showed up and participated.

Though Savage Sunday will carry on as usual most every week the next BIG EVENT Savage Pulp Adventure game will probably be the third annual installment of Tim’s Wargaming Birthday Bash, 25 February 2007. I’m thinking Egypt. Perhaps we’ll see the return of Colonel Dr. Deitrich Von Ravenhoff and his beautiful but dangerous assistant/daughter Heidi!?

Cheers!

Does this suck or does this rock? Please feel free to leave your own comments by clicking on the "# comments" link below. Thanks!