Testing, Testing...

No Darkest Africa this week; instead, work has begun on a historical scenario to be run at Overlord 2013 (15! Glorious! Years!).  The rules are going to be Rules of Engagament (albeit modified) as the majority of those involved in the planning/execution of this are familiar with them.  It'll be my first exposure to them, so it'll be interesting to see what they're like.

Tonight's focus- what historical action shall be recreated, and does it meet the criteria set by the committee for AWC's 2013 show participation game....?

Darkest Africa 11: First time, chance?

On the third day of the month of separation, Sha'ban, 1281*, my master did venture into Zanj, travelling as far east as possible in order to avoid those wretched northern slavers.  

This saw him enter those regions claimed by the Ruga-Ruga; as such, my master prepared for possible ambush by them.   To the left flank of our caravan was kept a mighty river, the width of which was certain to be greater than any missile which the Ruga-Ruga might throw at use.  However, this meant the path we took was  amost narrow one, and our force risked becomign stuck if a great obstacle were to reveal itself.  As such, Qurd and One-Eyed Abdullahi nimbly wove their way through the undergrowth that lay ahead.  In so doing, they soon revealed parties of Ruga-Ruga waiting to pounce.  Our noble swordsmen were at the caravan's head, and therefore unsheathed their blades and strode forth to do our enemy much mischief!  Pressing forward, they enabled the rest of our askari and baggage to progress unimpeded, although the Ruga-Ruga often came perilously close indeed, too close for comfort indeed.

Nevertheless, our baggage and force came through with little loss (especially compared to recent engagaments).  Victory at last!

*Early 1865

Darkest Africa 10: Slaves to (mis)fortune

On the twenty fifth day of the month of Pilgrimage, Dhu al-Hijjah, 1280*, my master did visit the Kaaba, and upon his return did set forth once more into that most mysterious continent.

However, in my master's absence, the vile "Turkish" slavers from the north had clearly been building their strength.  In his wisdom, my master laid an ambush, in the hope that this might grant him that victory which was elsuive in more open battle.  Sadly, this was not to be.  Whilst our loyal freemen stood their ground in combat with the foe, they were not strong enough prevail.  Likewise, our Baluchis once again proved their valiant nature, standing against an onslaught of swordsmen, warriors and spearmen, but they proved to be but as the tortoise that lies in the path of an elephant herd- an obstacle which is but brief.

Thus, we withdrew to the sounds of our captured freemen bewailing their fate, having fallen into the hands of the unscrupulous northern slavers...

On our return to Zanjibaar, to lick our wounds, it was learned that Baker had gone his own way from Speke and Grant, sighting Lake Victoria on the fifth day of the month of carrying, Shawwal**.  He appeared to make some claim about the equal importance of Lakes Albert and Victoria in relation to contributing to the Nile.  By now, it is understood that Baker has begun his return journey. 

*Late 1864

**14th March, 1864

Darkest Africa 9: Respect To The Ruga-Ruga

On the twenty first day of the month of respect, Rajab, 1280*, my master continued to recuperate from the heinous wrongs inflicted upon him by various denizens such as the Ngoni, Mangbetu and "Turkish" slavers from the north. 

He was therefore gladdened to hear that the Ruga-Ruga had attempted to raid the Turkish encampment, albeit with little success.  The raid was launched some time before dawn in an effort to minimise the effectiveness of the Turks' musketeers, but it would appear that this made little difference, given their standard ineffectiveness!

Despite advancing as rapidly as possible towards the Turk tents, the Ruga-Ruga found that sufficient warning of their raid had allowed the Turks to prepare; indeed, very soon all of their forces were in the area of the camp, with no doubt more to come.

Nevertheless, the redoubtable Ruga-Ruga hurled themselves at their Turkish foe, breaking the moral of various units and wiping out others; indeed, some of this fury was delivered by but a single Ruga-Ruga, no doubt avenging his fallen comrades.  However, by now the sun had well and truly risen, and with their strength spent, the Ruga-Ruga still found their path blocked by the Turks' elite swordsmen.  It was a small source of consolation to the Ruga-Ruga that the Turks still lacked any confidence to win the day, for in the distance they could be seen desperately trying to herd their slave coffle away from the Ruga-Ruga advance as quickly as possible!  Unfortunately for the Ruga-Ruga, demonstrating the superiority of their morale was not enough to carry the (newly-dawned) day. 

Reliable Ruga-Ruga warriors watch in disbelief as the Turk slave coffle legs it from the field of battle...

 

Position	Faction	Played	Won	Lost	Hongos
					Gained	Lost	Total
1	“Turks”	4	4	0	4	0	9
1	Mangbetu	3	2	1	2	1	6
3	Ngoni	5	2	3	2	3	4
3	Ruga-Ruga	3	1	2	1	2	4
3	Smythe-Bletherington	1	0	1	0	1	4
6	Zanzibar	4	1	3	1	3	3

*Early 1864

The Great British Beer Festival

What I sampled on my Thursday.

Brains' SA 4.2%
Highland's Orkney IPA 4.3%
Wells Bombardier 4.3%
Young's Special 4.5%
Dark Star's American Pale Ale 4.7% (This took Bronze overall, I believe)
Karg's Weissbier 5% (Unsurprisingly a German beer; prompted remarks along the lines of "What the hell is that?  Chicken stock?")
Aecht Shlenkerla's Rauchbier Marzen 5.1% (Also unsurprisingly German; very much smokey bacon in a pint glass)
Fat Cat's Marmalade Cat 5.5%
Milestone's Raspberry Wheat Beer 5.6% (Not to be confused with Berliner Weisse)
Kinver's Khyber 5.8% (Naturally, this provoked a round of Carry On Up The Khyber-inspired bandinage)
Greene King's 5X 12%

Having breakfasted on a rather nice fry-up, this was then all soaked up with a mixture of biltong, Cornish pasties, bratwurst (with currywurst ketchup; brilliant!) and fish and chips right at the end of the day.  Yum.

Mind you, for an event encouraging (sensible) drinking of real ales and so forth, it also sadly managed to push home how pricey the stuff is getting...

7TV: Red Storm Rising

Given how delightful today's weather has been, any chance of nipping outside to undercoat recently acquired miniatures was kiboshed.  This lost opportunity instead became a chance for me to work on slapping some more paint on villainous forces for 7TV.

Whilst the Fifth Reich (“Das vierte Reich nie bearbeitet.  Ich ziehe an um!” ) had been written up as opponents for the Man From F.R.A.N.C.E., the lead pile doesn't actually contain any of its denizens.  Instead- for various reasons- attention has turned to the Communist antagonists to be found within the 7TV canon, primarily the Iron Ceiling.  These chaps click with me for some reason! 

So from left (naturally) to right, and in various states of completion: The Iron Ceiling and sneaking in from Siberia, the remnants of the Menagerie.  Overseeing this is a lovely statue of Stalin.  At least, it's thought to be just a statue..

A close-up of the Sky-Pirates.  Basing and a matt varnish, and they're good to leap into action.

Travers on the left is at the same stage as the Sky Pirates.  The dozen security guards and two captains are catching up.

 

Cloud Commissar Rostov flanked by Cloud Captain Vodyanova on his right and bureaucratic buffoon Laszlo Minsky.  The figure used for Rostov isn't the one I initially was going to use.  However, when I popped open the pack, this chap struck me as a superior choice (he's so menacing he doesn't need to wave around a weapon, and he's somewhat more similar to Don PLeasant, the chap who played Rostov in 7TV's The Daredevils...).  I looked at various WWII and Cold War online images of Soviet uniforms, before mixing them all up.  These are nowhere near done, but Vodyanova's final look should reflect the inspiration for her colour scheme- the Night Witches! 

Ah, the backroom boffins (actually, what is the Soviet/Russian equivalent?  The UK has boffins, the USA has Geeks, so what do our Russian chums say?).  Hovering at the back are some of the Iron Ceiling's infiltrating Aero-Drones, with a whole bunch of Iron Comrades lined up in front of them.  Right at the back are some Matryoshka, which I won't need to elaborate on if you've seen the first Austin Powers film.  Honeytrap-tastic, and a darn sight more lethal.  Of course, all this clockwork kit doesn't mainatin itself, hence the toolkit-toting minion in the centre, and treacherous Dr Vostok's cabal of scientists in the foreground.  Lastly, to the left is a minion who has got what appears to be a portable barbecue kit on his back (clearly an optimist, given the 'summer' weather the UK's had recently...).

Lastly (and sneaking in from one of the Crooked Dice pdf-only offerings), the minions of scarlet-clad Soviet psychic, Grigori Morov.  Snuffling for subversives we have his Grunts, and behind Morov we have his augmented gorilla (Humanzee?) sidekick and a Mutoid waving a tentcle.  Quite.

In all, there's about 1000 Ratings worth of Extras, Co-Stars and Stars.  Madness, but to use an apocryphal quote of Comrade Stalin's, "quantity has a quality all of its own"...

Yes.  I really should sort out a camera suitable for these kind of pictures and close-ups...

And now for a commercial break...

Well, it's summer (just about), which means the latest Too Fat Lardies' Special has been released from stately Lard Island.  £6 for 118 pages of pdf'd gaming goodness, whether you dabble in Lard (by my reckoning nine of the TFL rulesets are represented in this special) or not.  

The contents are:

 

Migrating Dux - Using Dux Britanniarum in other settings.

St Barthelemy –  A classic I Ain't Been Shot Mum historical double-scenario set in Normandy 1944

Random Events in IABSM - Geoff Bond adds random events to IABSM

Just the Right Sort of Chap - Sidney Roundwood looks at characters in Mud & Blood

A Conversation with DZ - Richard Clarke in conversation with Major General John Drewienkiewicz about his Wargames in History books

Bull Run – An 1861 scenario for They Couldn’t Hit An Elephant

Bagging the Hex - Graham Riddle presents his ideas for Bag The Hun without a hex mat

Wrong Side of the Fleche - Mark Luther deploys his jaeger on the outskirts of Charleston in this scenario for Sharp Practice from the AWI

Glorious First of June.  - Admiral A large fleet actions scenario for Kiss Me Hardy

Quadrant 13 Designer’s Notes. - Robert Avery beams down to tell us all about his forthcoming Sci-Fi rules

Battle in the Orchard.- The PLO, the Southern Lebanese Army and the Israeli Defence force battle it out in this modern scenario for IABSM

BTH: The Italian Job – A scenario for Bag The Hun. 

Them that Ain’t Cowards, Follow Me! - A scenario for Sharpe Practice and ‘La Longue Carabine’ for the American War of Independence from the pen of James Schmidt

An Encounter for Alpha Company - A Charlie Don’t Surf Scenario from Ross Bowrage

A Lesson in Lard – Ross tells us about his experiences on the show circuit with CDS

On a Saxon Shore - A bonus raid scenario for Dux Britanniarum

The Last Stand of the Baron – A back end of nowhere scenario for Mud & Blood from the pen of Allan Coleman

August Storm - Charles Ekhart takes a look at the Soviet conquest of Manchuria in 1945

Decisions, Decisions: Applying the OODA loop.- Fat Nick explains the decision making process and how it impacts on wargames rules.

BTH: Zero 2 Hero -  A scenario for Bag the Hun

Meaty Dux – Adding some extra meat to the bones of Dux Britanniarum campaign system. 

The Roundwood Report - Sir Sidney Roundwood takes  his regular look at the world of Lard.

My plan is to peruse this in the back garden with something cold to drink, paying particular attention to the Dux Britanniarum articles...

Darkest Africa 8: The washing of the spears...

On the thirteenth day of the month of pilgrimage, Dhu al-Hijjah 1279*, my most devout master made his way to Mecca to visit the Qaaba, and thankfully avoided any violent unpleasantness.

It was not to be the case for the Mangbetu or the Ngoni, however, who both fell foul of the damned impious "Turkish" slavers and most violent Ruga-Ruga respectively.  I am led to believe that the 'bush telegraph' will relay the specific details of these ambushes to me at a later date.    

Elsewhere, and earlier this year, in the month of Separation, Sha'aban**, Baker is said to have finally met Speke and Gordon.  The latter were following the Nile to Egypt, having apparently discovered the source of the Nile (traditionally when my pagan forebears would disperse to seek water, appropriately enough).  In light of this, it is gossiped that there is nothing for Baker's own expedition to achieve.

Position	Faction	Played	Won	Lost	Hongos
					Gained	Lost	Total
1	“Turks”	3	3	0	3	0	8
1	Mangbetu	3	2	1	2	1	6
4	Ruga-Ruga	2	1	1	1	1	5
3	Ngoni	5	2	3	2	3	4
4	Smythe-Bletherington	1	0	1	0	1	4
6	Zanzibar	4	1	3	1	3	3

*Late 1863
**February, 1863