PIER PRESSURE

OR

"How Captain Billy Blue Lost the Huntress to Perfidious Action!"

Listen dear reader as I recount the latest action in the unfolding story of Captain William Azure Marrow and the perfidious crew of the Huntress.  Now, the voyage back from the island of the dead can be described as wretched and horrible as the casualties moaned incessantly and the haunting image of fighting dead and rotting corpses in the stench filled jungle landscape caused more nightmares than real danger but nonetheless made the below decks of the Huntress a living nightmare as the wounded died and the mentally scarred died a little inside.

Moored at the pier in the port of Southwest, the Huntress crew poured eagerly into the town and wanted to pour their fears into a bottle at the Bollocks Mollusk.  One member of the crew had sequestered a portion of the disgruntled and terrified men into the longshoremen warehouse and filled their minds with the belief that Captain William Morrow or "Blue Billy" as he was known was only too eager to lead them all back to the same horror filled island of monsters they had just barely escaped.  Steeling their resolve they decide to mutiny and take the ship from Billy.  They had grand plans of safer and saner mayhem!?!

Billy entertains at the local tavern, the Bollocks Mollusk and tries to recruit men to replenish his dead and missing crew.

Out on the pier the men begin to argue.  Arguing turns to fighting.  Sides are taken and the mutiny is under way!

Billy sees the fighting in the streets of Southwest and fortifies the "Silly Snail" tavern.

Captain Rubidenus Fuchia at the longshoremen warehouse yells to Billy, "your not leaving with us this time you crazy old pirate."

Inside the warehouse the Fuchia mutineers fortify and fight!

On board the Huntress the mutiny divides what is left of the standing watch.  Toe to toe the men fight for and against the old captain.

Meanwhile the town watch mobilizes and will restore order to both sides of the mutiny.  The Governor of the port calls out the local military.

Pier pressure.

Active painters look on as their minis vie for control of the deck of the ship and the pier.

The table is alive from end to end with action and adventure!

Captain Billy's crew and loyals seem to be in control of the ship and pier and then.

The battle teeters a little and Billy knows he must make a break for the ship.

Rally boys.  To the ship!!

Out of the tavern they pour.  Sobered by the thought that if they don't make it they will be on shore leave for an extended period.

The attack on the longshoremen warehouse sees hand to hand fighting and then a resounding repulse and retreat!

Billy retires to his room at the Mollusk.

Violet stands proudly on deck of his new ship and sets sail for points unknown and new adventure!

The painting table is alive during lunch shifts...

fini.

Proserpina

........begin transmission.................

The Kuritan commander smiled thinly to himself. Those Separatist bastards were doomed.

When the report came through that a recon patrol had uncovered a base on the fringe of the Dead Zone, he thought it was too good to be true. Still, he had questions.

Video feeds from the patrol showed clusters of buildings and definite organization, but what were they up to? The patrol reported encountering a small force of one light and one medium Mech...hardly a sizable defense force. The fact that they kept the patrol from seeing anything of import by rushing to the attack said that they were hiding something. Surely there was more to this tale. Where were the people? The infantry and tanks? No, something didn't add up.

He sighed. It wouldn't matter much longer. Kuritan High Command, upon hearing of the base, had ordered a tactical strike of the area via orbital bombardment. Whatever the Separatists had built would be slag and ash come dawn.

..........Proserpina, Kuritan controlled Amerigo 3057....

Tales of Captain Blue Billy Bones

Game One

 in Which We Meet Captain Billy on his way out of town...

Gather near dear reader and listen close to this story of pirates and high adventure.  For I am about to recount the stories I've seen and heard of the infamous pirate captain Blue Billy.  Blue Billy was captured once and held in the admiralty cellars for crimes on the high seas.  His bail was set so high no captain could ever hope to have been set free.  But others had no idea the lengths to which Billy's crew and brethren would gather to help out their loved leader.  The brethren of the seas did post Billy's bail and had him set free on a Tuesday afternoon.

They arrived in force and tied up to the quay in the harbor.  South by Southwest was the port of call and Captain Blue was being held in a brick admiralty building in the shore district.  His bail was delivered and the debt payed to the sea commissioners but the town's people would have none of it!  When word spread that Blue Billy's crew had paid his bail the town went into an immediate uproar.

The hardies are on the wharf and itching to have their captain returned to their midst.

All hell breaks loose in the admiralty building as glass is broken by towns folk and pirate alike in an attempt to turn the building into a fortress.  The crack of pistol ball and musket alike echo in the naval buildings vast interior.  Blue Billy is freed and the bail retaken.

Meanwhile, outside the natives are quite restless. 

The towns folk want to run up and stab that pirate in the eye.

Mobs of citizenry are called out to arms to recapture the villain captain and hang him immediately from one of the stately green space oaks.  The admiralty building remains fortified with Billy's Blue Crew elite.  The tavern across the street is a gathering storm for the pirates to evade.  The "Bollocks Mollusk" is the rallying point for the towns violently active citizenry. Every window of the Silly Snail has an armed citizen bent on tagging Billy Blue.

The longshoremen pour from their warehouse and are screaming violent threats to Billy and the pirate crews.

Cool as ice, Blue Billy eyes an apple he has snatched from the desk of the shore clerk.  As a cacophony of noise and violence erupts outside our hero/villain contemplates his snack time.

Outside the window the Bollocks Mollusk is a riot of activity.

 

Help arrives from offshore.  The Vermilion Captain and Captain Violet are arriving in force to set up a safe cordon for Blue Billy to escape to the waiting ships.

Snack time can wait I gotta get out of this place - if it's the last thing I ever do!

Battle lines are drawn in the streets of Southwest.  Gunfire and knife fights are the scene.

Billy sets foot on the wharf..... Will he make it?

Yea.  The town is in shambles.  Captain Violet takes a musket ball from the Longshoreman foreman and can be seen rolling in the surf.  His crew rallied with a dramatic success that would suggest they were glad to be rid of him?!

The fight is over and Billy can be seen safe aboard the pirate ship "Huntress."  The game was played using G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. and 54mm plastic pirates.  The buildings, scenery, figures and table are part of the Strategic Gaming Club that meets after school at Southwest High School in Kansas City.  This new club is a game friendly  environment for students that meets weekly from 3:00-5:30.

Yes the kids paint the miniatures. Yes, I have a hand in teaching them the rudiments of miniatures wargaming.

 Game Two

In Which we see Billy Adventure to Skull Island and the land of the dead...

Oh now that's a scary place.  They're all dead.  No one has ever been to the land of the dead on skull island and returned to tell the tale...

The fabled cave of the other side.  Beyond which lies fabulous cash and prizes.

Guarded by a legion of dead pirates

and what's this?  Our intrepid Captain Blue has anchored just off shore and is sending the away boats to fill the water casks.  Is he mad?  Does he have a death wish?!

Once the men of the "Huntress" set foot on the shore of Skull Island, they hear a cry of the damned and dead from the island's interior.  Coming out of the jungle is a tangle of bones and weapons as pack after pack of undead pirates clash with the living for a battle of souls.

Wave attacks of undead.

The men of the shore party are nearly left to their fate as more away boats are loaded for an attempt on the cave of "Beyond".

"The jungle was full of dead and dying..." Captain Vermilion, lead officer of the Huntress on the away team onshore on Skull Island.  (He did not return.)

The howls of the evil skeletal attackers nearly drowned out the pistol fire and cannonade from the "Huntress".

The final moments of Captain Orange.  "Take that you damned dirty stack of bones."

This encounter lasted three consecutive turns of scuffle and save as the skeletal leader and the pirate leader both attacked parried and rolled saves.  Finally they were locked in a death grip with one dead and the other deader.

The Steadfast Tin Soldier

As the holiday season approaches this looks to be a fine project for the 54mm enthusiast.  The tin soldier is excited by the prospect.... (from the blog   http://ilikethethingsilike.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-steadfast-tin-soldier.html#comment-form )

Recruits 2012 Stalingrad in 54mm a Lion's Den Master work!

The Secondhand Lion's club presented a legacy game for the Recruits 2012 fall convention.  This game was played for years in our clubhouse and was presented at Recruits #1.  The game is a unique WW2 experience in 54mm and is played on a stunningly detailed board that was created in our youth in the garages of the Lion's Den artists Ken Van Pelt and Jon Mark Haworth.  The full club was involved in this build by helping out where their skills could be utilized.  The Russian troops where painted commune style by assembling the full club for a paint night with each member painting their part of the figure and then passing it on to the next person for their paint.  This wonderful club event has held a place in our repertoire for years.  It is wonderful for it to receive the legacy status at Recruits 2012!  Here is a look at the game and the successful player strategy that carried them through two tables of the encounter.

Terry Carr adjusts and instructs the German platoon commander.

The game is played by having all active gamers on the same side. (German mechanized platoon in an assault on the tractor factory in Stalingrad.  The name also goes by the moniker "Mamayev Kurgan.")

The Germans move into areas of the game table and in each area the referee draws a card referenced to an encounter table that brings into play the Russian troops and equipment.  The encounters can be very wide ranging from areas that are obscured with smoke and fire to areas that have troops entrenched and ready for defence of the motherland.

Jon Haworth, the master sculptor and Ken Van Pelt the self proclaimed wargamer extroidinaire oversee the game in it's glory.

Images like these are why we all game with miniatures.

Great thanks to a gamer that grew up in the Lion's Den to see the club become the Secondhand Lions.

Terry Carr.

 

 More images of tabletop miniature gaming that keeps us all coming back for one more tumble of the dice.

The players encounterd a T34 just rolling off the production line.  The Stug and the Panzer III bounced rounds off of the unpainted turret and hull of the beast and as the crew of the novice just born T34 buttoned up and went into action, a chill ran through the German crews as the tank shrugged off the attacks and began the slow clank and squeal of the T34 turret to give it's response shot.

 

Roll Credits and fade to black ..........

"N" Country A Celebrated Vietnam Game Scenario

This year's Recruits convention in Lee's Summit was the 10th anniversary and twentieth show put on by the high school gaming club.  To celebrate this milestone a lot of the original show game masters were contacted and asked if they would reprise their first contribution to this amazing show and venue.  This convention is a showcase of talent in the mid-west and draws a diverse crowd from the region.  The games are really well conceived and well executed.  I participated in the first year event and our club ran two games.  We put on our Vietnam N scale scenario and also the 54mm large Stalingrad game.  Jon Haworth and myself decided to honor the request of the convention staffers and bring back for the crowd a "command performance" game.  The fist game we will look at in this post is the Vietnam game called, "N" country.  This game is a programmed scenario that puts all the players on the American side as part of an air mobile infantry battalion.  The commands played by each player interact in a battalion level sweep of a valley in the central highlands of Vietnam.  The players are all assumed to be located in a rear echelon airbase and will be transported by helicopter into the area of operation.  Once placed on the gaming table all contact back to the battalion headquarters is conducted with radio protocol and call sign acknowledgement. 

In this image we see the opening strategy session with the battalion commander, Brad, looking over the AOO maps.  Planning his search and destroy mission.  There is a radio antennae broadcasting from this valley and his battalion has been tasked to search several of the villages in the area and take out the enemy broadcast capability.  Ryan, Kaelan, and Bill await their company orders for the sweep.  Each of them will command a company of infantry that will be air lifted into the valley.

 Screened from the players at the battalion headquarters is the Bangh Tiem valley in the central highlands.  This aerial view shows the peaceful villages and tranquil rice paddies amid the jungle canopy in the mountains.

 This view shows the mountain player game screen.  When your platoon is at battalion base you as a player are required to remain at the game table.  When you deploy, you are obviously allowed to be at the wargame table

Here we see D deploying Bravo company under the command of Kaelan, into the valley.  Bravo company would encounter several VC patrols running a screen or picket for a main force NVA company.

Bravo company is being supported by gunships.  Bravo company had to use marker smoke to keep from getting hit with friendly fire.

Gunships swirl above the jungle canopy. Artillery called in by Bravo is marked on the map with the golf tee.  NVA in the treeline. Bravo moving into the foreground.  The valley is alive in the background with more action.

Click pictures for a close up view.

Napalm strike takes out a NVA/VC position.

As the mission ends, enemy troops are seen moving into position along the rice paddies watching as the last of the US troops are airlifted back to the battalion HQ.

WWI Storm Trooper Warpspawn Games

Took the platoon over the top this vacation for two solo games of Storm Trooper.  In the first run I knew I was taking a chance and got caught in the open.  My platoon is near the computer keyboard in the photo and the advance went through the machine gun nest, communication trench and then three open ground areas where we met our end.

Played immediately after by sending second platoon up the same route.  Only this time I was very patient and removed all threats along the way.  Had a nice afternoon of solo gaming with this great card game.  This is a print and play that I made by downloading art from the internet and the game is on Warpspawn games.