Thursday 29 October 2015

The Scales of Anubis - The Balance of Souls part 5

Well we finally managed to play the fifth part of my Pulp Campaign - the Scales of Anubis....

Drums roll...Orchestra starts....

I give you the...



It is probably worth giving a bit of a recap at this point...agencies have travelled across the globe to secure the five missing pieces of the fable artefact known as the Scales of Anubis. Nobody knows (including me) what might happen if these parts can be brought back together and assembled.

What is known is that the Scales were used by Anubis, the Jackal headed god to determine where a mans soul could enter the afterlife...could these scales open the door to the afterlife ? might Anubis return to judge or wreak his havoc on the world? the possibilities are endless and merely constrained by my imagination ;-)

So far we have visited Egypt, Central America, England, Iraq and now we are off to Germany...




Its the late Summer of 1940, the Nazi's managed to procur what they thought was the final piece of the Scales from a mysterious agent simply known as the Ghost and have brought this item to Wewelsburg - one of the many centres of paranormal investigations set up by Himmler in the 1930's



Under the command of Colonel Grunz an number of eminent scientists are evaluating the veracity of this final piece before it is combined with the other four pieces in Nazi possession. The scientists are staying in the picturesque village of Wewelsburg down the valley.







As you can see from the table the village is in the south, Wewelsburg castle is in the North and midway between the two is an airfield.





The forces of Good lead by PITH have learned that the final piece is now in Nazi hands and this represents their last chance (maybe) of denying the all the components to the sinister Germans, A crack unit of Commandoes has been parachuted into the area with three key missions.

Sieze the final piece (believed to be in the castle, eliminate as many of the scientists as possible and escape via the German airfield.








This was going to be a tough ask but these guys were all veterans and up for the job !

I umpired the game and with six players had three on each opposing team. Experience has shown that Pulp Alley does not really work for such big engagements so once again we switched to Bolt Action.

The Pith Forces consisted of

12 units of Commandos (six strong)- all veterans with variety of weapons
3 officers

Arrayed against them were 12 units (again six figures strong) of German Infantry and Nazi She Wolves (all classified as Regular) - 4 units in the village, 4 units in the castle and 4 units at the Airfield. All these areas had their own commanders.

Plenty of wheeled transport was laid across the table for the forces to use.

In addition the Germans had a broken down armoured car outside the Airfield. This was just a pile of junk but it gave the British some fearful thoughts and as the game progressed they got more and more nervous when it did not move.



All the scientists (Nazi Officers) were in the village. On turn four I informed the Germans that the Balance of Souls (the fifth part of the scales) was in fact NOT in the castle but actually in the village. One of the scientists decided that he wanted to carry on his investigations in the tavern and had taken it from the castle. This was not known by the British who were doing their best not to get killed.

If I had to summarise the game from an umpires perspective I was somewhat surprised by the actions of the British.

They only made a lack lustre attack on the village, they got bogged down trying to seize the airfield and they singularly failed to attack the castle. In hindsight I probably made the scenario too tough but with some thought and lucky dice rolls they might have been more successful. Hope they don't think I am being unfair in my appraisal...

A few pictures from the game...






 







 


















As you have probably gathered the British assault was unsuccessful and the Nazis now have the final piece (the authenticity of the item was proven)

So the Nazi's now have the fabled artefact...the world is on the brink of war...what happens next.

The final thrilling part of this campaign is coming soon in...




16 comments:

  1. Looks great, I can't wait for the final showdown. Slightly odd to see a YMCA Tea Car in Wewelsburg - perhaps it was parachuted in with the Commandos to keep their spirits up.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great stuff, I'm looking forward to the next installment - but, they blew up the tea car? To a British person, that's a causus belli in itself! ;)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Fantastic table! That is a great looking game.
    As far as the Brits not being intrepid enough, I have found that in umpire designed and planned scenarios, players are naturally more timid because they expect surprises/traps. In one on one (not umpired) games, the unknowns have much less of potential impact.

    On a selfish note. Who is the manufacturer of the brighter trees with bare trunks on your table?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Sir

      I sourced the trees from a Chinese ebay seller - cannot recall which one

      Delete
  4. That's a fantastic setup. Really has a lot of eye candy!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Excellent looking table and game ! , Tony

    ReplyDelete
  6. Another superb installment! Can anyone stop the damned Nazis? Or will this be like the end of Raiders....?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Such fun, and what a great table...

    ReplyDelete
  8. What a fantastic looking battlefield, beautiful!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thanks for the wonderful game, as ever. From my point of view, as one of the British forces, the combination of two blockhouses and the armoured car made me very wary. I was intending to attack the castle but without nearby support (the other British force took ages to get up onto the plateau) I didn't feel I could take on both the airfield and the castle troops on my own, so I waited for reinforcements (and waited and waited!)

    ReplyDelete
  10. Super looking table and great yarn! But, no tea.....

    ReplyDelete
  11. Brilliant stuff Eric and a great reward for your efforts.

    ReplyDelete
  12. They hit the tea van! THOSE ANIMALS!!

    ReplyDelete
  13. This is a great campaign loving the story! Is there a part 6? Great blog!

    ReplyDelete