Big Chain of Command - France 1940

Back in the good old days BCE* when we were allowed to gather around a tabletop, I staged a 28mm early WW2 game using Big Chain of Command on a 8’x6’ table.  The game pitted the advancing German forces against the stalwart French defenders with both sides having armoured support.  Here are some pictures from the game:

*Before the Covid Era 😀

Perilous Island - Chapter 3: Hai Phong Manhunt

The package our adventurers daringly recovered in Hong Kong contained a grotesque stone idol and a  dozen photographs of strange ruins and strange beasts. How could such things exist? The package offers no clues to Lord Darrow's current whereabouts; however, the smeared label lists the originating location as the city of Hai Phong. Our heroes continue to follow the trail to determine the whereabouts of Lord Darrow and what magnificent discoveries he has uncovered. 

Reaching Hai Phong and making inquiries into Lord Darrow's activities reveals that he had befriended an old sailor, who most of the locals consider quite mad, mainly due to his outlandish tales of a lost island inhabited by man-eating lizards, tribes of flesh hungry cannibals, and unfathomable terrors.  

Lord Darrow spent many weeks alone with the old sailor before departing on his expedition to locations unknown. Although the old sailor departed with Lord Darrow, he mysteriously reappeared with two other members of the Darrow Expedition in a local hospital, the old sailor nearly blinded by, they assumed, exposure from the sun. 

After the other two survivors died in mysterious circumstances, the old sailor escaped the hospital and is rumored to be hiding in the back alleys of Hai Phong. Can our explorers find the crazy old sailor and find out what he knows? 

After plenty of high jinks, including Dick O’Donnell commandeering a motor boat and some impressive diving antics from Tarzan, the old sailor is located.

“Listen and listen well. The road before you is beset with many perils… Others turned back but Darrow went on… some died… we ran away… the monster... the monster protects the godless isle… Genesis… they died… the doctor tortured the others... they died… I got away... stay away from the hospital… 4:17... he lives in death...” 

Peace washes over the old sailor's leather cracked face. With his last breath, he reveals several important pages of Darrow's personal journal, one containing the coordinates of this Perilous Island! 

Do our heroes dare to journey there and can they find anyone mad enough to help them?

MWS Open Day: Beyond the Pale

Back in June last year (how long ago that seems!), I ran a 28mm game set in Tudor Ireland using the Irregular Wars: Conflict at the World’s End.  Here are some pictures of that game:

Perilous Island - Chapter 2: At Death's Door

Lady Darrow’s correspondence starts a trail to one of Lord Darrow’s follow explorers, Jonathan Carnahan.  After arriving in Hong Kong, our intrepid explorers find Carnahan tortured and unconscious body inside his ransacked apartment. Any clues here would have been taken by his vicious attackers. Unexpectedly, a messenger arrives from the local Customs Authority regarding a package from Hai Phong — addressed from none other than Lord Darrow!

With Carnahan unconscious in hospital, Lord Darrow still missing, and Customs unwilling to relinquish the package leaves our adventurers little choice but to take matters into their own hands. Learning the package has been moved to a long term storage facility, they formulated plans for a daring night raid on the building.

Each of the groups approached the facility from different directions, seeking to avoid the attention of the armed guards.

After sneaking through the shadows and various scuffles with the guards they began to search the yard and the warehouse.

After a shoot out and some fisticuffs the package was found and with a daring leap from the upper floor of the warehouse over the heads of their frustrated opposition one of our leagues dashed off with another lead to Lord Darrow!

The Battle of Speyerbach 1703

Sometime ago, when we were allowed to meet at my local club, we had an other outing for my 15mm War of Spanish Succession figures using the Twilight of the Sun King rules for a re-creation of the Battle of Speyerbach.  Here are some photos of the game (please excuse the fact that quite a few units are by necessity proxies):

Perilous Island - Chapter 1: Tonkin Troubles

And so started the intro to the players for our Pulp Alley campaign. This was many moons ago and certainly BCE (Before the Covid Era) but I thought I would set out something of an account now - of course I don’t doubt each of the players will have their own vivid, and no doubt entirely contradictory, recollections of the games!

We had a variety of famous and infamous characters bringing their own ‘leagues’ to pursue the search for the relics of the Enocheans.  These included Biggles and friends; Tarzan, Dick O’Donnell (any resemblance to a character from the Mummy movies is entirely co-incidental) and comrades; the sinister Doctor Koo and the Wing Tong; and finally, General Zorn with his Zeppelintruppen.

Our adventure started with the various leagues stumbling across information about Lord Darrow’s daughter, who might have information regarding her father, undertaking an archeological dig somewhere in the jungles of Tonkin.  Our heroes set off to find her and protect her from the attentions of our less principled leagues.

Lady Darrow’s dig was finally located but things immediately got interesting: