GANGBUSTERS in the Lion's Den

The long black touring car entered the farm lot from state highway F with a long smooth left hand turn.  The bump onto the gravel and dirt punctuated the long trip from Chicago and the dust began to play in the swell of the cars wash as it trundled down the quiet country lane.  The rest of the organization was waiting at the first farm house on the left ahead.  Splitting the money from the heist was to be an easy but punctilious affair.

Waiting on the side road was the State Police.  Illinois' finest were out in ambush.  Now the "cat had hit the fan."

An aggressive chase leads the gang into nervous rancorous shouting inside the black gangster car.  "What do I do?!"  "Cut through the damn yard!"

And with a shudder and the loud cracking of white farm fence the giant black car crashes to a halt half way through the fence and partially into the yard of the gang's "safe house."  The squeal of police rubber on gravel shrieks behind as the state boys slam physically into the gangsters car!

Federal agents arrive on the scene as well. They too take the impetuous crash route to the scene.

Shots echo out as the cops unload a shotgun into the cab of the Chi town cruiser.  Return fire from a Thompson Sub machine gun rattles the front end of the police cruiser and blow out it's front windshield. Blood, glass, and anger fly about in a melee of gunfire.

The Feds take the house under cover and fire their revolvers at the structure.  The gang in the house fire back with a Thompson and shotgun - ratifying the gangs heavy firepower advantage.

What the gang lacks is an easy way out and numbers.  The cops just keep arriving.  This had to be a tip off of some sort.

The melee continues as the gang tries to consolidate and get the hell off the table!

And another squad of state police cover the back entrance.

Mistakes would be made and a lot of lives needlessly lost as inexperience of the state police and impetuous nature of the gang had each side run pell mell into a hail of gunfire in the open farm yard.

After the guns have quit firing we see a front yard littered with both sides casualties.  The gang was subdued but alive.  The cops were bloodied but they too would recover.  You just aren't supposed to run into the open when a Thompson sub machine gun is playing across the yard.

The very bottom of this scene shows an unaccounted for gang member push a brief case under the farm fence and then crawl under after it himself.  The valise is smeared with his blood and he rolls over into the high grass and stairs at the sky.  Will he survive and make it to the road and freedom....Tune in next time for Gangbusters!!

The game was played on a 6x8 table using 54mm MARX Untouchables and knock-off police figures.  The  rules system was Bleeding Kansas by Ken Van Pelt.  A skirmish set of game rules using 1D10.  Move, shoot, saving throw, and after action wound results that play into long campaign style gaming.  Light rpg qualities also abound. 

HOTT Wargame in the Lion's Den

The Secondhand Lions gathered to play a Hordes of the Things scenario created using Battlemasters figures and some Games Workshop items thrown in.  The story begins in the decline of the Empire and the overrun western reaches of the kingdom that have fallen to the "unclean"ones.  The Beastman bellows on the rutting field where once the choirs of the western wall performed in the great hall.

The host of beastmen assemble to go into the marsh and attack the empire.

The crumbling towers of the once beautiful empire city of the western wall.  A beastman herd stone can be seen erected in the distance.  Deployed within the ruins is a herd of beastman and their magi leader on the parapet of the gate.

The Empire has assembled a host of knights errant to combat the great gathering.

Grunting and bellowing.

The beasts look into the distance as the empire assembles it's knights.

The beasts try and hide in the marshy bad going and wait out the attack.  It must come mustn't it?

Noone said there'd be birds.  The Empire host has called on help from the heavens in the pressence of an aerial hero.  Scratch one magician.

The empire attack does come.  The hammer and anvil begin to ring out!

Hordes of the Things in it's glory.  This game featured two 70+ point armies.  We used 3D6 to roll for AP and the two generals of the side would share one common die.  Gave some good results and some command friction.

This horrible shot is the only one I got of the sub-general minotaur being attacked by two aerial heros from the empire. This was the game ender move by the empire and they won very easily with 40AP to about 16AP.

Thanks for looking in. 

Virunga Gorilla Scenario

For a very long time I have had this scenario running through my imagination.  I have the National Geographic magazine that has the article about the Virunga Gorilla massacre of 2008.  While reading this tragedy I realized that as source material for a wargame there was ripe ideas of multi forced cross objective gaming to be created based on this content.  The Virunga park is home to mountain gorillas, park rangers, two rebel militia groups, Congolese army troops, United Nations troops, poachers, and regular civilians just eking out an existence in the most agriculturally diverse spot on earth. Gaming fresh topics is always at risk of being trite or unsympathetic to the horrors suffered by the involved cultures.  I assure you that this is the case in all eras regardless of time period, but something uncomfortable always crops up if the conflict is very recent.  Without any qualms I explore and recreate in 54mm the conflict and mission objectives in the Virunga National park surrounding the charcoal poaching industry and it's insidious effects on the gorilla environment and the organizations that are supposed to protect the gorilla habitat and the gorillas themselves.

The above image is a park road withing the Virunga National Park.  We see truck traffic bringing supplies and charcoal into Goma, a city near the park.  Poachers can be seen in this aerial view working a charcoal kiln - turning hardwood trees into fuel charcoal for the population of Goma.

Nearby a gorilla family enjoys the depths of the verdant jungle.  Senkwekwe the giant silver back reigns over his family of females and infant gorillas.

Senkwekwe approaches our groups photographer.  Curious but not violent.

Pregame shot of the scenario on a 12x6' table.  We are looking north from Goma outskirts to the beginning of the jungle terrain of the park.  UN vehicles are seen in the foreground.

Counter view also pregame.  We see the mountain gorillas in the foreground and the charcoal fires.

Our Secondhand Lions have arrived for the evenings game and are looking over their deployments and troops.  Here the Goma Citizens Committee is beginning set up.

 

The FDLR are rolling into action.  This is the Hutu organization known as the Democratic Federation for the Liberation of Rwanda.  They make their home in the vastness of the park and use their AK47 credit card to take what they want.  They are motivated by charcoal industry poaching, killing the CNDP, drugs, recruitment of ethnic Hutu's to their militia and will protect the gorillas as a national treasure.

The Force Publique and the Goma Committee fast at work setting up for the scenario.

Goma Committee sector is located in the slum and the IDP compound (internally displaced persons).  They are motivated by a subsistence dependency on the illegal charcoal industry and drugs.  They are frequently the targets of all other groups atrocities against citizens.  The city of Goma heats and cooks on charcoal and is an estimated $300 billion industry a year.

Disenfranchised Congolese army defectors have set up  shop in the park and use the moniker The National Congress for the Peoples Defence.  Their motivation is on illegal charcoal trade, killing the FDLR, drugs, and they have been accused of killing gorillas for food.

This view is looking from the CNDP lines into the city of GOMA just east of the UN compound.

 CNDP have set up a roadblock to control the flow of charcoal into the city.  They have negotiated a tax on the Goma Committee for passage for two vehicles.

 Goma Committee travel through Virunga bringing in the "goods".

 Charcoal trade from the air.  We see Goma Committee using forced citizen labor to harvest illegal park charcoal.

 The smug FDLR commanders with their SUV convoy travel to interrupt the Virunga-Goma road.

Goma Committee load up and roll.  The park roads are treacherous to vehicle and people alike. Chits under the figures are motivational victory objectives White is charcoal, red is civilian, blue was drugs, and black was gorillas encounter.  The four different sides each had a different point value for these motivational chits.  Collecting them was part of the game action and interaction and bartering with them helped paint the scene of my imagined scenario.

 Virunga-Goma road from the air.  Goma Committee in the act of loading up charcoal.

 CNDP has cut the road and also has control of another charcoal kiln.

 Goma Committee is on the radio and awaits the return of their squads from the park.

 The UN and Force Publique rolls out of the UN compound to interdict the Goma Committee and to go into the park for a patrol of the charcoal industry.

 Goma Committee watches warily as the UN Force Publique approaches.  "What are your intentions?" (in your best islander, Afrikaner,third worlder voice).

 CNDP has this park entrance under heavy control.  UN can't come through and the committee is going to pay to come through...

 Force Publique first squad pays heavily for their intrusion on park grounds.

 CNDP and FDLR firefight in the jungle.  Heavy firepower echos through the park.

 Goma Committee heads off-road rather than gauntlet the firefight.

Action shot.

All in all at the end it was a Goma Committee supposed victory with more charcoal chits.  Each cultural group had a list of objectives that included: charcoal, citizens, drugs, enemy KIA, gorilla encounter.   Each of these items was weighted on a chart to be worth more or less in points.  Each group rolled a D6 before the game and referenced the chart to see what area of interest they were going to concentrate on for the scenario.  This created cross purposes and in the final count the FDLR won on enemy KIA's even though the Goma Committee had swept nearly all the chits from the charcoal, drug industry.

The game was played using GASLIGHT rules.  Each side had four activation cards for squads and vehicles.  Each side had leaders with all the variable abilities from the game and those came into play nicely.  I think GASLIGHT worked well for this skirmish.  The sustain rolls for the vehicles were explained as terrain related.  The ability to tweak the stats for the different forces also made intuitive sense.  This would make a nice convention presentation and would be a way to enlighten people to the conditions and concerns we have in our world.
I recommend the Nat Geo article.  Google Virunga Gorilla Murders and watch the videos on Nat Geo and YouTube.  Very interesting world we live in.
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/07/virunga/jenkins-text