Mayday: Part Two

Saturday Morning: Savage Worlds Pulp Adventure

Games started early Saturday morning at Mayday. Kick off for this event was at 8:30! I did it though; at zero hour I was there and set up – terrain, figures, unit cards, dice, hats…. everything was good to go!

RAID ON KOBANGA

Staring:

Chris van Tighem as Professor Henry Daventhorpe, Charlie Davis, and Sefu
Terry Silverthorn as Col. Jonathan Quincy Gordon and the escaped villagers
Warren Bridgewater as Capitaine Jean Francois Leduc and the Foreign Legionnaires
Kris Hougan as Captain Harold Black and Force Six from Cairo
John Burt (returning in his role) as First Mate Marcus Andres and the crew of the SS Persephone


And, as always, myself, Tim Brown, as the evil Nazi menace!

August 1938

Colonel Jonathan Quincy Gordon of His Majesty’s Secret Service has been following rumors of a secret Nazi research facility somewhere in Africa for months. He has crisscrossed North Africa a half-dozen times and traveled from Cairo to Johannesburg and back at least twice – by separate routes each time! Finally he has located the base, where it is rumored Nazi scientists are working on a secret weapon, in a small village near the coast in Tanzania (which of course, until the end of the Great War, was German East Africa…).

He was able to pinpoint the location because while he was in Mombassa. There he met five men that had escaped from a village that had been enslaved by the Nazis. SS thugs had forced the villagers to help build a new workshop. Fearing the Nazis meant to murder them all when they were finished their work the five men along with a half-dozen others tried to escape. The five made it; the others did not…. The survivors feared the worst for the remaining villagers. Gordon made a deal with them; if they would lead them to the village Gordon would promise them vengeance! They agreed.

Gordon immediately set about making preparations. He contacted his superiors in His Majesty’s Secret Service and they had Force Six from Cairo dispatched to his immediate aid.

He also contacted his friend Capitaine Jean Francois Leduc with the French Foreign Legion in Algiers who promised to bring a small force of handpicked NCOs. They would be grizzled veterans of the Great War as well as near continuous combat in North Africa for decades before and after.
Next he tracked down his friends Professor Henry Daventhorpe and Charlie Davis. No one knew more about the history and geography, respectively, of Central Africa than the two of them. Davis would also bring along his lifelong friend, and expert tracker, Sefu.

Last he learned that the S.S. Persephone was steaming for Suez bound for China with another load of surplus arms for one faction of Chinese Warlords or another. It would take little convincing for them to provide transportation for the expedition – especially since it was (almost) on the way…

The force assembled in Cairo and boarded the S.S. Persephone and they made their way down the Suez. With the description of the village provided by the natives plans were made for their assault. Unfortunately they could not provide any information about the nature of the weapons being developed there.

Arriving at the nearest point on the coast to the village the Persephone dropped anchor and the force rowed ashore at dusk. They made the trek overland through the night guided by the escaped natives. By dawn they reached Kobanga.

They laid low for the day observing the comings and goings in the village. There were no natives to be seen. The garrison seemed light and the security lax. There was perhaps a squad of German regulars and two small patrols of native Shutztruppen. Either they expected no trouble or were defended by some unknown force. They could not determine the nature of any secret weapons that might be under development from their observations. It was decided they would raid the compound at dawn….

(Here’s where the game began…)
(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


The players (from the left); Terry (with his back to the camera), Warren, Kris, Chris, and John. Silly hats were required (all were provided by myself). I need to get a French Kepi, I had to give Warren a black beret (berets are sort of French, right?). I’ve since picked up better hat for John (for the next time he plays Marcus… Fallcon ?); a nice Greek fisherman’s hat.


That’s me with my own silly hat (and John), somewhat later in the game….

In the pre-dawn light of the following morning the force approached the sleepy village. Gordon and the villagers advanced on the right flank, circling around the west of the village. The legionnaires and Force Six took up the center approaching the north end of the village. Davis, Daventhorpe, Sefu, and the landing party from the Persephone were on the left, circling around the east of the village.


The initial set up of the force.


The raiders had a bit of bad luck off the start as a sentry happened to spot one of the Persephone’s crew as he darted from one dune to another. A shot from the Shutztruppen’s Mauser rang out and was followed shortly by the report of the other sentries rifles and the sounds of general commotion and the alarm being raised within the village.

The first to respond were the second patrol of Shutztruppen. They poured from the village hoping to make the excellent cover of some ruined buildings on the outskirts. Unfortunately Force Six was already in position and cut every last one of them down in a hail of automatic weapons fire!


Shutztruppen, cut down as they tried to move out of the village.

A section of German Panzer-Grenadiers stationed in a building on the north end of town sprang into action. The section’s machine-gunner hastily set up his MG34 in the window and brought some fire down on the advancing legionnaires. They quickly ducked into cover behind a building off to the left.

The German machine-gunner then shifted his attention to Force Six who had taken up their position off to his right. Force Six was busy bringing withering covering fire down on the sentries as the heroes on the left advanced into the village. Having more or less silenced the sentries in the vicinity they turned their attention to the machine-gunner. The volume, accuracy and sheer ferocity of their fire cause the German to duck back from the window for a spell, quite shaken. When he had gathered his wits he returned to the window only to get a bullet in his temple for his troubles.

The rest of the panzer-grenadiers had left the building. some were exchanging fire with Sefu, Daventhorpe, and the crew from the Persephone, who were entering the village from the east. Others were engaging the returned villagers, who were entering the village from the other direction, in brutal hand to hand combat.

Der Ubersturmfuhrer had already charged out of the SS headquarter building and had run into the returned villagers.


Der Ubersturmfuhrer fighting with a pair of the escaped villagers. A panzer-grenadier is moving up to help.


Gordon and the Foreign Legionnaires maneuver around the west end of the village.


At the top left you can see Force Six in position giving covering fire as Daventhorpe, Sefu, Davis (trailing behind – hobbling as fast as he can on his ruined leg which had been shattered by a Russian bullet in that Ambush in Timbogo), and some of the Persephone’s crewmen.

First Mate Marcus Andres and some of his crew had flanked further around the east end of the village. Andres peered in one of the windows of a newer looking building. Casting his eyes about the room he recognized many of the mechanical tools and parts in this machine shop… others he did not. Then he spotted some movement. Through a doorway in a room beyond he spotted a man in a lab coat briskly pacing back and forth while wringing his hands and looking frightfully worried.


First Mate Marcus Andres leads his men around the newly built workshop.

Andres, being a cold, efficient man with no love for the Nazis nor their sympathizers or collaborators, leveled his automatic at the man, took aim and executed him on the spot with a bullet through his head. The scientist probably never knew what hit him. Andres and his men then continued on their way around the east end of the village.

Meanwhile, the Foreign Legionnaires, rounding the corner of the village took down a sentry on top of a building only to start taking sub-machinegun fire from within. They took cove from the window and fired into the growing melee between the villagers and the Nazis.


Legionairres firing into the melee. The compound’s commandant Colonel-Doctor Dietrich von Ravenhoff has joined the melee.


Same melee from the other side.

Sefu and Daventhorpe had taken down the Panzer-grenadiers firing at them only to start taking fire from the schmisser-toting She-Wolves hiding in the entrance to the headquarter building. Daventhorpe caught a stray bullet in the arm taking him out of the action for the rest of the game. (it’s not the bullet with your name on it you need to worry about… it’s all those labeled “to whom it may concern”… if you throw enough bullets at someone in this game you’ll hit them eventually….)


The action at the East end of the village with Davnethorpe on the ground!


Andres enters the village from the Southeast.

Gordon had made his way to the Southwest corner of town only to finder Karl von Kindershisse waiting there in ambush. The two exchanged some close range shots and then backed off to cover around the corners of the headquarters building.

Ilsa, the Uber-She-Wolf, came running around the corner to von Kindershisse’s aid. Andres, who had, meanwhile, entered the town from the Southeast, had a clear shot at her down the street and took it. His shot clipped her arm. As Ilsa reeled around to see where the shot had come from, Gordon shot her in the back and she collapsed to the ground in a heap.


Karl von Kindershisse hides in cover while Ilsa, the Ubershe-wolf, lies bleeding in the street. Gordon, barely visible, hides around the opposite corner.

Then things really started to go bad for the Nazis. First Von Ravenhoff, the panzer-grenadiers, and Der Ubersturmfuhrer were taken down by a combination of the villagers furious close combat fighting and shots from both the Legionnaires at one end and Sefu and some of the Persephone crew at the other. Then the She-wolves, who had been blazing away for a number of turns(all the while being dealt a series of deuces), ran out of bullets. CLICK! They may be hot but they don’t know sweet tweet about fire control.

Sefu and Davis rushed them seeking vengeance for their comrade Daventhorpe. The Legionnaires joined them and took down the she-wolves in a short sharp melee, during which Sefu himself was seriously wounded.


The melee with the She-wolves.


Enraged by the loss of Ilsa, von Kindershisse rushed Gordon and tried shooting him pointblank. Gordon shrugged off the first shots and tried to box the Gestapo agent. The natives rushed to Gordon’s aid, and together they took down the Nazi.

Meanwhile the crew of the Persephone had begn searching the buildings. Where were the secret weapons? It didn’t take them long to find out. As one group rounded the corner into the front of the workshop the found themselves toe-to-tow with a metal behemoth! The giant robot singed all the hair off one of the crew and turned all his clothes to ash with it’s heat ray but left him otherwise unscathed. The crewmen unleashed a torrent of fire at the metal monster but bullets bounced off like they were made of rubber. Before they could turn to flee another crewman was stomped on and crushed under he giant feet of the hulk.

The men of Force Six had rushed forward. Corporal McLeod, the demolitions expert, had a rucksack crammed with explosives. Head readied a short detonator, stormed into the workshop, lobbed the pack at the beast, turned on his heals and bolted.


Corporal McLeod faces the Giant Nazi Robot.

The explosion rocked the compound and threw debris everywhere sending everyone diving for cover. When the dust settled the workshop was gone, only a pile of rubble remained in it’s place. Everyone looked on to see if there was anything left of the Giant Robot. To their horror the rubble shifted and the robot struggled to sit up.

Quick-thinking Andres announced that his men had just found the ammunition dump and told everyone else to run! They did. The wounded were quickly gathered up and carried or dragged away.

“Find some way to make that dump blow sky high, boys” Marcus called to his crewmen, “but not before we can get clear. I’m going to try and bring it over…”

He then proceeded to shout and fire shots at the robot to gets it’s attention as is struggled to get to its feet. It was damaged so it took some time and it lumbered slowly over the broken ground of the ruined workshop, but this all gave time for the crew to jury-rig a fuse of sorts and make their escape out the back window. Marcus kept firing and leading the robot in the direction of the ammo dump, dodging the heat rays all the while. When he figured it was close enough he ducked into the building, dashed to the back, flew through the window and fled after his men towards the hills.

When the explosion went off the shock knocked everyone to the ground and threw debris for hundreds of yards in every direction. The town was completely flattened.

When they later searched the ruins a few parts of the robot were recovered. These were collected together to be brought back to England. All files about the research were apparently destroyed. Any human remains they came across were buried but there wasn’t many. When they were done they began their trek back to the coast and to the Persephone who would take them back to Cairo…

okay so the game ended with the first explosion – I made up the rest to give the tale some closure…. The damage from the blast gave the robot two wounds. The crewmen had found the ammo dump and we decided that’s how it would have ended, we just didn’t bother playing it out as the pizza had arrived early and players had been wandering away from the table to get theirs and the time was just about up anyway…

Thanks to all those who took part in the game.

Next up is Mayday: Part Three – Saturday Afternoon.

(hey if you got this far why not leave a comment below!)

Mayday: Part One

Friday Night: Canvas Eagles

This past Friday I rented a car and drove up to Edmonton (Alberta, Canada; ~500km Northwestish of the gaming center of the universe: Saskatoon) for Mayday. First off I have to give a big thanks to Mr. Bob Barnetson for putting on a spectacular convention. It was overall very well organized and a whole lot of FUN!

Anyway I got into town just in time for Supper and toodled on over to the War Room (the one in Edmonton, not the one in my basement) for some Canvas Eagles .

The game was a maniac ongoing mega air battle with up to a dozen players or so at any given time. As planes got shot down you just brought on a new plane or new players rotated in. The winner was to be the first player to shoot down three planes – or whoever was still alive and had the most kills when the game wrapped up.

On turn two my first pilot in an SE5a got shot down. Bob, who was running it, just told me to start again at the edge of the table. So, on turn three I flew on again…. Straight into a hail of bullets and watched my second pilot go down. One of them was a pilot kill – in addition to other damage… I can’t remember what exactly brought the other one down.

Twenty-minuters…?! Hell, I’m more like a twenty-seconder!?

I was out of the game for a bit as it was getting popular and other people cycled in. A number of turns later I flew in again. This time I was flying for the Fatherland in some version of an Albatross. I had this miraculous ability to, no matter what I did or where I went, I always ended up in SOMEONE’S sites… every damn turn! After about four turns every one of the square boxes on my engine, fuselage, wings, AND tail were all crossed off (i.e. just shy of critical damage on all of them!)! Must have looked like a flying block of Swiss cheese! Then someone, Tom I think, shot me up again and set me aflame! I spent three futile turns trying to put the flames out (and, of course being shot at by others!) before bursting into a ball of flame and smoke.

I was certainly the first to have three planes shot down… that’s got to count for something!

Tom of Red Claw Gaming was the victor shooting down three huns! BOO-YAH TOM! (…and a little plug-ola for you brother!)


Mr. Chris Van Tighem eyeing me suspiciously out of the corner of his eye. CVT started out with a DR.1 and hung in there for quite a while. Eventually he was shot down and came back on as a Zeppelin and made a mess of the RFC!


More of CVT and Bob’s wee planes.

Stay tuned for more! Coming up next is Part Two; Saturday morning's Savage Worlds Pulp Adventure game!

Hero's Gambit 2006: Sunday Afternoon

Hero's Gambit 2006 Game Reports

Part VI: Sunday Afternoon

The last one.

Sunday afternoon was another Savage Worlds skirmish this time set in Vietnam (Tour of Darkness). For this game we had many of the usual suspects; the Jeffs, John Burt, Darrin, and a new player named Lloyd.

The Jeffs and Darrin, regular players in my Tour of Darkness campaign were probably mightily tired of seeing the same damn village as they have been secretly helping me play-test the scenario for the convention with minor changes each time for some weeks beforehand. (There will be more variety in future games, lads, hang in there! ...wait until I get the NVA painted up!) The Jeffs, Darrin, and Lloyd each had a wildcard squad leader and two fire teams of extras, John played the platoon commander.

Jeff P. took his regular (though somewhat reduced by previous action) Weapons Squad commanded by Sgt. Ronald Hicks, a jovial but clueless gambling addict. Darrin played Sgt. Dane Lyles, the alcoholic commander of Third Squad. Jeff C. played SSgt. Wallace Owen McDaniel, a stubborn, hard-ass, korean vet and the meanest, ugliest mother f@*ker the poor saps under him ever met. McDaniel is the Platoon Sergeant but lacking regular players he usually commands the platoon as well as personally leading second squad. However having two new players today I gave Lloyd Sgt. Edward Graham, the nominal, though rarely present commander of Second Squad, and John played Lt. Nathan R. Johnson the Platoon commander. Johnson is a west-pointer and formerly a star quarterback and so he has an annoying habit of using football analogies when trying to explain anything. McDaniels was thus relegated to his official role of second in command and lead first squad into battle today - which is nominally commanded by another occasional player that was busy playing in the Flames of War tournament.

So I mentioned that I had stayed up past 2AM marshaling troops and writing out unit cards for this game. I was really REwriting out unit cards for all my "bad guys" as the ones I had were rather beat up and scribbled on and I wanted everything to be clean and organized looking and this was a demo at a convention. Appearance is everything, right? Well after handing out the unit cards to the players I wanted to get mine ready, though out of sight and hidden in the box with all the figures I would be controlling, so they would have no idea what they were to be facing. I searched through everything; the figure box, the terrain box, every book I had with me. Twice. Three times. No such luck...I forgot them ALL at home. At that point I seriously just about cried. So after apologizing to the players I hastily scribbled out the necessary info onto some scrap pieces of paper. So much for neat and tidy appearances....

The Platoon is the blue team (aero-rifle platoon) of X-ray troop, 1/8th Cavalry, First Cavalry Division (Airmoble). It is the spring of 1966 and the Division in the middle of Operation Masher/White Wing in Bong Son Province of the Republic of Viet Nam. I briefed John of the situation and then let him formulate his plan and brief his subordinates. The situation was a White team (scout/observation helicopters) of their troop flew over the village earlier in the morning and thought something looked suspicious. Not much activity on the ground for a village of it's size. So the Blue Team was to be send in to sniff things our supported but the Red Team's gunships. The village was surrounded by mountain and jungle to the south and west and rice paddies to the north and east.

(remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


Happy players for Tour of Darkness and the General Layout of the table. From left to right; Lloyd, Jeff P., John, and Darrin. I supplied the boonie hats and wore one myself. While I was in Calgary for Fallcon I stood in Crown Surplus for some time pondering a reproduction NVA Pith Helmet but eventually decided that $65 was a bit much for a fiberglass reproduction.

John had his slicks land the troops in a large semicircle in the rice paddies to the north and east of the village. The troops then converged on the village from the two sides. As my initial (hostile) units were hidden and on hold I just told them all to do double moves (moving twice as far as they normally would) until I thought they were close to where I would start firing on them. After each of their moves I moved the villagers that were scattered about the village. They quickly ran into their houses as the Americans approached. They did two such moves and then I dealt them in as McDaniels and First Squad were entering the village in the south east corner very close to where one of the teams of VC local militia were waiting in ambush.


That's Jeff C. on the right. This is just at the beginning of the game. The people in the town are villagers heading for their huts. Most of the Americans are still in the rice paddies.

When one of First Squad's fire team's card came up they ran into the village intending to go prone between two huts. As they were running right through the killing zone of the local VC militia I decided to interupt. I won the opposed agility test and so squeezed off a couple shots from their bolt-action rifles at the cavalry troopers but missed. The fire team carried on to their intended position and went prone.


Members of the First Squad enter the village.


Throughout the turn I revealed the other two teams; another local VC militia and a support team of Main force VC, shooting at Americans that blundered into my sights.

A B-40 rocket missed wildly and when whistling over head and blew up in the rice paddy. An RPK opened up and sent a volley of bullets down to the far end of the village where Lyles team of FNG's were standing out in the open. Some of the Main Force VC took down two members of First Squad. But the Americans were giving better than they got.


Second Squad advances towards the village.

Some of Second Squad had entered a building full of villagers, as did Sgt. Lyles, and the other fire team of First squad. I had been dealing in the villagers and one turn they pulled two jokers... well.... now was as good as any to get rid of the white devils that were ruining their country. The villagers in building with part of Second Squad and the one with Sgt. Lyles ATTACKED!

Bennies saved Lyles’ ass and even numbers and body armour saved Second Squad. One of the VC near the hut where Second Squad was being attacked rushed in to help their fellow villagers.

One of the troops of the First Squad fire team also occupying a hut with villagers detailed one of it's members to keep an eye on their fellow occupants.

The villagers and VC were quickly overpowered and taken out of action. A little TOO quickly! I had intended that a couple of them would be still in the bushes when the second wave showed up. The Americans would see a burst of flames off in the jungle "like a flame thrower". The remaining VC would burst out of the jungle running like madmen. If the Americans didn't just gun them all down the VC would run up to them and beg the Americans to save them...

Well there was no opportunity for such dramatics so the Fire Lizards and Cham Zombies burst out of the Jungle unannounced. A couple of the zombies stopped to feed on downed Americans and VC the rest swarmed through the village.

One of the Fire Lizards belched fire in the window of a hut now occupied by McDaniels and the remaining two members of the first fire team to enter the village. McDaniels successfully leapt out a window but the other two remained. By pure luck (and bad dice rolling on my part) they both survived though one was shaken.


The Zombies and Fire Lizards enter the village.

A Vietnamese Sorcerer was also with the group successfully cast a puppet spell on one of the two Americans in the hut previously occupied by McDaniels. Later on their action card the one trooper fired off a point blank burst at the other MISSING! Lucky for the players; it just wasn't my day for dice rolling.


More of the Zombies and Fire Lizards in the Village.


McDaniels fighting a Fire Lizard.

Most of the Zombies and fire Lizards were quickly taken care of and I had to wrap the game up rather quickly as it became too distracting and impossible to carry on with people taking down tables all around us and noisily dropping them and clanking chairs onto their respective piles. There was nearly 40 minutes to go in the time slot but over enthusiastic volunteers were unconcerned with such things.

The figures I used were a mix from a wide variety of manufacturers. The Americans were mostly West Wind with a few Assault Group. I like the Assault Group figures, they're much nicer and more accurate, but the West Wind ones can't be beat for price! It's a nice quick way to get a full platoon on the table. The VC were a mix of West Wind, Assault Group and ... uh... I can't remember the name of the other maker... out of England... they make Vietnam and Zulu war stuff... for some reason I think Corps or Team might be in their name... whatever. The Zombies are a mix of West Wind, Coppelstone, and Reaper. The Fire Lizards are Reaper Basilisks. The buildings were scratch built out of 1/8" MDF and various widths and shapes of pasta.


I had a cold all weekend and started the convention with a sore throat. Each evening after having to shout to be heard for hours in the noisy auditorium I could barely speak. Two or three days later I was still having a bit of trouble speaking and my ears were still ringing from all the noise.... but DANG it was a good time!

Hope to see more of you come out next year!

Cheers everyone and thanks again to all that participated!

Hero's Gambit 2006: Sunday Morning

Hero's Gambit 2006 Game Reports

Part V: Sunday Morning

Again with the staying up waaaaay toooo late. I was up until just past 2am Sunday morning, again, writing out unit cards for the Savage Worlds game... more on that later....

Stumbled into the Albert Community Center around quarter to nine once again and started setting up another Contemptible Little Armies game #2. This time it was August 1914. Originally I had planned a scenario based on the 8th Brigade's defense of the salient at Mons 23 August 1914. Friday morning with 72 figures left to paint I was still under the delusion that I could get it done in time if I painted all day and came home and painted a couple more hours each night. Around two in the afternoon I gave up on that idea. Instead I started to formulate a scenario that could be played out with figures I already had available. The scenario ended up being a simple German set piece attack across a river towards a strategically important Belgian city.

John Bertolini, John Burt, Gary and Trent showed up to play this one. John Bertolini, Gary and Trent played the Germans and John Burt played the defenders. I gave John Burt the option of defending with either a regiment of Belgians (three battalions), plus a battalion of the British Naval Brigade, supported by two batteries of Belgian Artillery, a Belgian MG detachment and a Royal Marine MG detachment OR two battalions of British Regulars, supported by a two British MG detachments and three Royal Artillery batteries. John went with the Belgian option.

I made John Bertolini overall commander of the German Division and in charge of the Divisional assets (two MG detachments, a field artillery battery, and a regiment of Uhlans). Gary and Trent each took a brigade of two regiments (a total of 6 battalions each. John also had four batteries off table firing two turns of preliminary bombardment which he had to plot out before the game started and figures were set up.

John Burt surprised The German high command by not setting up his forces where Herr Bertolini expected thus his preliminary bombardment was not quite so effective. Here's how things looked to start:

(remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


Note: all of these figures were modeled and cast and painted by either John Bertolini or myself (with the exception of the guns which were mostly Houston Models -I think...?- and the British MG team which was made by Reveirsco). John made the Germans and Belgians, I made the British Naval Brigade figures. I painted the British, the Belgians, and about half of the German infantry, John painted the rest.

In the foreground is the strategically important Belgian city and the Belgian defenses beyond. One of John's surprises was to deploy a battalion of Belgian and the Battalion of British Sailors right up at the river on either side of the bridge. The other surprise was that the guns and MGs were set up out in the open where they had good fields of fire, rather than hidden in the cover of the woods. The woods close to the center of the picture on the Belgian side of the river and some woods just off to the right were flattened by the preparatory artillery barrage. The Belgian battalions deployed by them took a couple casualties but nothing severe, the Belgian MG by the woods escaped unscathed.

Trent's Forces made up the center and right of the German advance (center and left of the picture above). Gary's battalion hugged the west side of the table and the terrain places along there (the big mass of Feldgrau in the top right of the picture above).

Trent's forces surged forward and took a severe beating in the process. They eventually crossed the river. Two crossed by way of the bridge, the rest by crossing the river itself. They eventually pushed back and broke the Belgians defending the riverbanks. They later fought their way on to the Belgian second line of defense and pushed them back. Others exchanged fire with the British Sailors for a time, taking pressure off of Gary's ponderous advance up the left, before making their own way across the river to aid with the rest of their own brigades attack. The remnants of the Belgian second battalion and the German brigade then held their positions and exchanged small arms fire for the rest of the game. Of the 78 figures that made up the German Brigade Trent commanded only eight remained at the end of the game. The gallant Belgians sold themselves dearly indeed!


John's Support troops followed along behind Trent's advance up the center. The Field gun and MGs move very slowly and aren't the most useful things in the attack. The Cavalry followed up the infantry in the center to exploit any gains.
The cavalry followed some of the infantry across the bridge and charged down the belgian MG detachment up the center road but were mauled in the process and the survivors called it a day after. The MGs and Field guns eventually made it into positions on the river and hailed bullets and shells down on the Belgian second line of defense. One MG detachment even took out a Belgian field gun battery.


Gary's troops made a slow advance through the rough terrain up the western edge of the table. the took some fire from the Sailors, lost some men to the river and a large number to the Belgian artillery that were happily off of their original target. but they eventually made their way out of the woods, took out the RM MGs and the other Belgian Artillery battery and marched on a couple of (nearly) full strength battalions into the belgian town in close order columns. He probably lost about half of his original number in the process.

When the dust settled the Germans had taken both their objectives; the bridge AND the city. But it certainly cost them. John lost about half of his original four battalions strength, both MGs and both guns. The Germans lost close to three quarters of their infantry division (12 battalions of infantry plus the cavalry regiment).

We lunched at the Nutana Cafe. We had lunch there on the Sunday of the previous year's Hero's Gambit. I broke with "tradition" and didn't have the same thing I had last year.

We returned to find people sitting around my table eating their lunch, despite the dozens of empty tables around them. They apparently mistook my ground cloth as a table cloth?!

Hero’s Gambit 2006: Saturday Evening

Hero’s Gambit 2006 Game Reports

Part IV: Saturday Evening

After Supper at Szechuan Kitchen with CVT, John and Brenda, Darrin and Mike, I returned to the convention.

Next up was the I Ain't Been Shot, Mum game run by Gary Chappell. Also playing were John Burt, Tim Miller, and Trent from Regina. John and I played the Germans and Tim and Trent played the French. Unfortunately the last of my batteries died just as the game got under way so I have no pictures of the event.

The scenario was set in June of 1940 during the Blitzkrieg in the west. Our small German reconnaissance force had been looking for placed to cross a river and found an undefended ford. We had quickly crossed and set up a hasty defensive position and sent for reinforcements. The French realizing their oversight of that ford counterattacked quickly.

We had a platoon of infantry on the French side of the river. They were supported by a Pak 35, an HMG, an ATR, and a light mortar (50mm). Just opposite them on the other (German) side of the ford was a squad of pioneers hiding in some bushed with a flame thrower. In the bushes on the other side of the road was a second Pak 35 waiting in ambush.

The French attacked with 3 full platoons of infantry, two HMGs, a light mortar, five FT-17 tanks armed with MGs, a 75mm howitzer and a bit later a Char B lumbered up the road. It wasn't long before they over ran our positions on their side of the river. Just then some reinforcements arrived in the form of a Pzkw 35 and a Pzkw 38t. As the Char B rumbled up to the ford the pioneers lit it up with the flamethrower bailing out the crew. A squad of Frenchmen made one attempt at crossing the river but was thrown back by the pioneers. After that it more or less bogged down and I had to say, "I surrender" as it was 11pm and I had to get home and make some more preparations for the next days games....

Stay tuned for The Hero's Gambit Report Part V: Sunday Morning! 


Hero’s Gambit 2006: Saturday Afternoon

Hero’s Gambit 2006 Game Reports

Part III: Saturday Afternoon

After a quick wander down to Broadway to pick up some munchies I headed back to the convention to set up the next game.

Saturday Afternoon was the first of two Savage Worlds games that I ran. The Savage Worlds games were, by far, the best attended games I organized for he weekend. The one on Saturday afternoon was a Rippers: the Horror Wars, a skirmish game of Victorian horror. I had six participants! Jeff C., Jeff P., John Burt, CVT, Keith, and Darrin. Some played characters they use in my regular game others used ones I had on hand. Jeff C. brought along his own. Each player had a Wildcard Ripper and a unit of extras under their command. I played all the "bad guys".

Darrin played his regular character Dr. Albert Osbourne, a chemist of note and distiller of monster essences. He also had with him a unit of four "irregulars" (or “agents”, as I prefer to call them). Jeff P. had Lt. William Armstrong of the local Regiment and four Soldiers of the Queen under his command. Keith played Jock McGurn the famed Scottish monster hunter and four Highland Clansmen. John Burt played Sir Albert Plunkett, Gentleman Explorer and four Wolfenjagers, Chris played a holy man simply known as "the Choir Master" who brought along with him 8 choirboys. Jeff C. brought along an Explorer, whom I think was named Klaus, and four hired guns.

The Heroes were gathered from a number of Lodges, by some very important members of the Rippers organization, to go on a very important hunt. A large pack of werewolves had been terrorizing a small town in rural England for some time and this full moon that was to end. They were known to gather in a clearing just north of town. The hunters spread out around the area and at sundown and closed in to "tighten the noose". They were in for a little more that they originally bargained for. In the clearing, on the night of this full moon, there were more that just a pack of werewolves. A number of Cabal members had gathered there for a meeting.

In the clearing were all the monsters that I was running. They included a rather nasty Vampire; the Countess Mariana de Rouge and her four Cossack Guardsmen, a quartet of Nosferatu that she also brought along, Simon de Loupe a Werewolf (what's with all these Frenchy monsters in a rural English village...?), Four wolfmen, a pack of six wolves, Dr Jekyll, and an invisible man.

To start off, as the players moved in, I had them do group stealth rolls versus my monsters notice rolls whenever the monsters cards came up to see how close they could sneak up. By the middle of the second turn, however the "choirmaster" had charged out of the woods and tried to hack down one of the wolfmen with his sword, immediately thereafter the highland clansmen let off a volley from their flintlock pistols and all the sneaking about was through.

My first monster card to come up after that was the Werewolf; Simon de Loupe. Because I had too many cards to keep track of and I wanted to get things going I charged him into contact with the Highlanders... instead of baying at the moon which would be the normal thing for him to start off with (causes all opponents to make a spirit check or be shaken..!). The wolfmen attacked the choirmaster and his young apprentices. A couple of the Wolves went after Klaus and his hired guns but after a couple of them were shot down before they could even get there they joined the wolfmen in some easier game. The Nosferatu made for the woods between the choir and the highlanders hoping to make a break for it. Jekyll and the invisible man headed for some woods at the other end of the clearing hoping to make for town and escape. The countess turned into a cloud of mist and the Cossack guardsmen exchanged shots and advanced towards the soldiers.

The Agents attempted to come to the aid of the choirboys but bumped into the Nosferatu coming out of a stand of trees. The highlanders all ganged up on the Werewolf and took him down in a turn or two.


The Choirmaster is fighting a wolf, here, in the foreground. His Choirboys are being eaten by wolves and wolfmen behind him, further back is Dr. Albert Osbourne and his agents fighting the Nosferatu. Most of the figures are from Westwinds Vampire Wars line, Dr. Osbourne is from the Foundry's Old West English Gentlemen pack and the Choirmaster is an Essex (I think..?) ECW puritan preacher.

The Countess, realizing there was little danger to her from these hunters, and that she could get away quicker on foot than in mist form she turned back and followed her Cossack Guardsmen. Jekyll hid in a stand of trees as he saw the Wolfenjagers approaching from the town, but the invisible man pressed on. He attacked Sir Albert as they passed each other on the bridge. The Wolfenjagers quickly came to Sir Albert's aid and surrounded the invisible man, though still had difficulty landing a good blow (him being invisible and all!).


Sir Albert and the Wolfenjagers leave the town and are attacked by the invisible man on the bridge. Plunkett and Wolfenjagers are Westwind, the invisible man... well that's a Games Workshop LOTR figure "Frodo with ring", only $15.99... no I'm only kidding it's just an empty base…

The Cossacks and the soldiers mostly did each other in. The vampire rushed in and finished off the Lieutenant and the last of his men. Klaus and his hired guns were moving in that same direction and shot up the last of the Cossack guard.

Sir Albert left the Wolfenjagers to finish off (or at least keep busy) the invisible man, and after ducking the invisible mans free attack headed off for the copse of wood occupied by Dr. Jekyll.

The Choirmaster held his own against a group of wolves and wolfmen that surrounded him but he could not save his choirboys. The agents and Dr. Obsourne continued their fight with the Nosferatu. The Highlanders, moving through the woods, came to their aid.


Jock McGurn and the Highlanders charging through the woods to aid the agents. Agents are again Westwind, the Highlanders are Old Glory ECW Highlanders.

The Vampire, having finished off the soldiers charged into fight the hired guns quickly striking one of them down.

The Highlanders and Agents finished off the Nosferatu and moved on to rescue the last (of eight) choirboys that hadn't yet been devoured by wolves and wolfmen.

Sir Albert caught up with Dr. Jekyll (who after a dozen turns STILL hadn't been dealt a face card which would turn him into Hyde...!) and shot him down with his impaler. Jekyll soaked it, but then Sir Albert just chased him down and did him in with his sword.

The invisible man being wounded by now and unable to give anywhere near as good as he had gotten decided to give the wolfenjager the slip. Ducking four free attacks he made his way back across the bridge and down the country lane.

The Choirmaster, the Highlanders and Agents finished off the last of the wolfmen and wolves and made for the melee in the woods on the other end of the clearing between the vampire and the hired guns. Realizing the situation was quite hopeless the vampire turned into a mist again and floated up into the dark sky. Some swore they hear a groan on the wind that said "next tiiiiiiime......"


The survivors converge on the Countess Maria. The Countess in from the Foundry Swashbucklers line. The explorers/hired guns she is in battle with are the figures Jeff brought along with him and I'm pretty sure they are Foundry as well, the rest in the background I believe I've already mentioned. 



An overall view of the clearing in the woods and the town across the river and happy players at Hero's Gambit V. From Left to right; Keith, Darrin and Chris.


More happy players; the Jeffs.


Stay tuned for The Hero's Gambit Report Part IV: Saturday Evening! 


Hero's Gambit 2006: Saturday Morning

Hero's Gambit 2006 Game Reports

Part II: Saturday Morning

I stayed up until 3 am Saturday morning getting things ready for the Rippers game in the afternoon.... It was a little silly….

I Stumbled into the Convention around quarter to nine to find John already set up for his Ever Victorious Armies Napoleonic game.

Signed up for this were Gary, Joe and Myself. Gary took the French, Joe and I the Russians. We were given written orders, which I assume were more or less the same: Take and hold the crossroads in the center of the table. In are orders were also a note that unidentified Cavalry had been spotted to the south. Joe and I divided up our forces, each taking a brigade of Infantry and regiment of cavalry. I also took the battery of Guns and the ADC, Joe got the C-in-C.

Then John rolled for random weather. Mud.

Well now that EVERYTHING was bad going that quickly negated the usefulness of the Cavalry. Cavalry and Infantry in column or skirmish order would move 1d6" per turn. Infantry in line; 1d6-2". Guns could not move at all. We alternated deploying units. I wanted to hold off the gun for a bit to see where Gary was setting up the French, as the gun would not be moving once it was set up. I also wanted to hold off on the cavalry to see where his cavalry went. Even thought they would be going painfully slow they could still menace and infantry that they DID reach so I wanted to deploy my cavalry to block his. My infantry I decided to advance in columns as far as I could so I set up three in a column with one in skirmish order before it to screen them. Joe more or less did the same with his, though he did send one battalion off on his own around some woods on our right flank that Gary had set up one of his Cavalry units opposite. We hoped the column could get up to the road and form square before the cavalry got there effectively blocking that cavalry unit from getting round our flank as it was obviously hoping to do.

I'll let the pictures tell the rest of the story... All of these figures are either Scruby 30mm figures or figures John has modeled and cast on his own. Most were painted by John, though I think a few of those fine looking Russian Infantry were painted by myself at one point. I must say this was by far the most attractive game at the convention. The stunningly beautiful figures and excellent lighting conditions in the morning meant I got a LOT of really great looking photos. It was hard to choose which ones to actually send and which ones not to clog your email boxes with...!

(remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


The French set up, center and right. On their left was another regiment of Cavalry.


An overall view of the field of battle. To the right and below in the picture are the Russians. Above and to the left of the picture are the French.


Both sides advancing towards the crossroads. In the foreground are the Russians.


Same thing from further back.


The big mess at the crossroads. The fellows in the foreground are Russians, again, commanded by myself. Eventually they were utterly destroyed, but sold themselves dearly. Combined with Joes Infantry Square destroying the cavalry on our right we did well in the center and right. Unfortunately the French Lancers and Cuirassiers had driven off our two initial regiments of cavalry (Hussars...maybe?) and the reinforcing Russian Cuirassiers that arrived on turn five much to the surprise of both sides. We held these crossroads, but not for very long.

My skirmishing battalion pushed forward from the carnage of the infantry battle at the crossroads while Joe's battalion moved on to the crossroads to consolidate and form squares. My skirmishers took the French guns but Joes infantry couldn't all get formed up in time and the French cavlary rode them down in slow motion in the mud.

My ADC that had been following the skirmishers for a lack of better things to do found himself rather close to the French ADC and C-in-C and so rode after them catching the French ADC. We fought out the skirmish as cavlary units of one fighting each other. The result was both units lost d6-2 casualties and so both died. We decided that what really happened was that they slapped each other with their gloves until they fell off their horses into the mud, then they called upon their valets/seconds to fetch the dueling pistols whereupon they shot each other dead at ten paces.