Showing posts with label Pulp. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pulp. Show all posts

Wednesday, 21 June 2017

Daleks versus the Afrika Korps - A strange encounter

Last night the Shed hosted a rather strange game of bolt action. I was joined by Mark & Steve for what they though was going to be a rather simple pulpy skirmish on my desert boards.

To be frank I cobbled the idea together about an hour before they arrived having decided to shuffle around the desert boards from last weeks crusader game.

The focal point of the table was my Egyptian temple sitting in the valley of the lost kings. Access to the valley was through the wadis beyond the Oasis.


The Nazi's (Mark of course) were given this briefing

Egypt - 1937
Transcripts from Radio Messages sent by Colonel Werden to Heinrich Himmler -
Herr Himmler
I am delighted to report that the dig in Cairo is proceeding as instructed. I have been informed by the archaeological team that they are about to open the doors to the outer crypt. It appears that the tomb has remained untouched in all these years. I believe we are on the verge of a most exciting discovery…
Morale remains high amongst the team only dampened by this dreaded heat and dust

Herr Himmler
At the request of Professor Benoit we assembled a series of monitors and testing equipment around the tomb entrance. Initial results suggest a high level of radioactivity and electrical interference beyond the tomb door. We will proceed with caution.

Herr Himmler
Grave news – Professor Benoit and his team broke the seal on the crypt this morning and entered the tomb. Two hours later there was no sign of him and his exploratory party. I instructed Kapitan Funf to assemble a small squad to investigate – they have entered the tomb. Soon after a lone trooper emerged with severe burns. Before he died de stated that Kapitan Funf and his squad had been wiped out…his last words were…Vernichten, Vernichten, Vernichten


Attention: Colonel Herzog
Since the last encrypted message from Colonel Werden we have heard no news from the excavation camp. You are to proceed with all speed to the camp, assess the issue and make the necessary steps to ensure the contents of the tomb do NOT fall into enemy hands



The Nazi forces (seven squads of infantry would enter middle right)

To the South lay the combined forces assembled by British Intelligence (3 squads of Sikh infantry and four squads of friendly Bedouins). Steve was given this briefing

........................................................................................................................................................
British Intelligence Briefing
Recent radio chatter in Cairo has picked up a series of messages from a German exaction dig in the valley of the kings to none other than Heinrich Himmler in Germany.

These messages were encrypted but our boffins have done their best to decipher them..

Herr Himmler
I am delighted to ……..the dig in ……….is proceeding as ………. informed ……… team that ………….. to open the doors to the ………………... It appears ……………………..untouched………….. years. I believe ………….. discovery…
Morale …………………….team……………………. only dampened by this dreaded……………….

Herr Himmler
At the request of Professor Benoit ……………………………………..and testing equipment …………….tomb entrance. ………………………….results suggest a high level…………………………….. interference …………….. We will proceed with caution.

Herr Himmler
Grave ………… Professor Benoit ……………………..broke the seal…………..this morning and………………………... Two hours ………………………..no sign of him………………………………..  instructed Kapitan…………………………… investigate…………… Soon after…………………a …….trooper…………….severe burns. …………………………………………………..last words ………….Vernichten, Vernichten, Vernichten

Captain Rogers

An assault force has been assemble just outside the valley of the kings –your mission to investigate what has happened and to take steps on ensuring that Nazis do not leave the area with anything important.

The British forces would enter from the Oasis



The British forces advance into the desert....



Meanwhilst the Germans enter the table - both sides heading for the dig



Inevitably this mad rush forward ended in tears as a firefight erupted between the opposing forces in the tight canyons


Lead by the Bedouin horse the British surged forward



The Afrika Korps set up a defensive screen....




and quickly establisghed firing positions in the scattered ruins around the temple


At this point something strange happened - the pillars around the temple started to glow - each turn another started to glow - eventually forming an electrical web over the structure.

Local diggers ran from the crypt entrance waving a heiroglyphic covered cloth...

This they handed to the Afrika Korps commander - look carefully !! You can see a tardis and a dalek...clues for what was about to happen....






Despite the strange lightshow above the temple the firefight continued between the forces - Arab horse charghed into a unit of Nazis - a very effective charge - the very first I have witnessed in Bolt Action


By now the temple was bathed in blue light and emerging from the entrance were some strange pepperpot shapes....


Each turn more units more forth. It became obvious to Mark and Steve that there own firefight was no longer important - they had to defeat a common foe...


We used the Dalek rules for Bolt Action published here

https://boltactiontimelord.wordpress.com/tag/daleks/

The only major modification being small arms gaineds a +1 penetration at very close range (ie under 6")




At this point a strange blue box appeared and a man claiming to be called the Doctor arrived - he quickly explained to the British commander that the only way to stop this invasion was to switch off the grid - each pylon had a switch at its base (found on a 9+). The Doctor could automatically find these.

I suspect if the Doctor had tried to talk to the Nazis he might have been shot ! True to form they had tried to shoot the local diggers only to be beaten by the Daleks

 



The next hour saw a furious and bloody firefight around the temple as each turn more daleks arrived. Casualties on both sides were extremely high but the combined forces of humanity were switching down the pylons slowly


The Afrika Korps soon realised that a long range exchange of fire was not working against their armoured opponents - subtlety was thrown out the window and everything descended into a point blank firefight.


More daleks arrived - ( i have nearly 90 of these magazine toys)

Links to build here

http://shedwars.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/something-very-different-from-shed28mm.html



By now things were getting desparate - the humans were riunning out of troops and the Dalek grid was still operational


With a sustained charge the Bedouins, Sikhs and Germans pushed forward. Sacrificing their lives to switch off the pylons  - success !




A few rounds later the Dalek menace had been halted - only three Sikh soldiers remained

What fun !!

Tune in soon for another Shed report


Saturday, 1 October 2016

28mm Pulp Submarine

Sometime ago I built a tramp steamer for my pulp games and and at the time thought it might be fun to build a pulp submarine. But I didn't until now.

So with BLAM '16 rapidly approaching and the potential need for a submarine I set about the task. This was going to be crude, a bit crazy and fun. Believe it or not this is first piece of terrain I have built in almost six months ! Well with the shed finished there's a lot more ideas to follow this one.

I forgot to take some early photos of the build but will try and explain in words.

First up I cut a hardboard base for the shape of the waterline model. Its about 50cm long. You can see that the waist of the boat is wider in the middle for the floatation tanks?

The hull was then made from shaped pink foam stuck to the base board with 'Hard as Nails adhesive. The floatation tanks were off cuts from some framing timer I had knocking around and to get the rounded shape I used balls of greenstuff.

Onto the conning tower - this is just some simple wood dowel (about 3cm wide) and a slab of timber behind. I then wrapped around a piece of plastic card. The periscope tube is a piece of junk plastic.

The ladders are some old 10mm siege ladders from Kallistra and railings are just simple 5mm mesh

The deck has built up using some timber moldings. Again fixed with glue.

Finally the hatches are 25mm washers with tiddlywinks counters stuck on top







The Sub has then been given a complete paint job in black. Quite please with the result so far.



and then a grey basecoat



finally given a wash with brown ink and then highlighted with light grey. To finish off I painted a dark hull line around the base of the ship.






I mentioned that this was to complement my pulp steamer so it only seemed appropriate to put the two together...if interested in seeing the build of the steamer head here...

http://shedwars.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/pulp-tramp-steamer-full-speed-ahead.html





More soon...

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...