Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Colonial Adventures => Topic started by: Ignatieff on May 04, 2011, 11:00:16 PM
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The League of Extraordinary Kriegspielers presents
THE MOTE IN GOD'S EYE
Thursday 4th till Monday 8th August 2011
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/HelixNebulaEyeofGod.jpg)
In 1824, the German astronomer Karl Ludwig Harding discovered the ‘Helix Nebula’, which became known as ‘The God’s Eye Nebula’. Almost exactly 100 years later, the eccentric Serbian inventor and pioneer of modern radio technology, Nikola Tesla, has detected faint radio waves emitting from the nebula, and has identified their target as ‘somewhere in southern Africa’. In the same year, Airdrie won their one and only Scottish Cup, watched on at Ibrox stadium by their proud Chairman, and hero of the defence of British East Africa, Brigadier Donald Linn (MC & bar).
Meanwhile on the Dark Continent itself, the uneasy peace that settled after the First Great African War (192?-2?) is under severe threat. A new scramble for precious resources has broken out. Vast quantities of oil have been discovered in Lake Nyasa, causing renewed tensions, and rumours of a new arms race, between German Tanganyika and the fledgling Republic of Nuovo Portugal. And just to the north-west, along the sensitive border region of Northern Rhodesia, German Tanganyika and Belgian Congo, the largest deposits of diamonds ever discovered on the planet has been unearthed. And to complicate matters more, a terrible and as yet unknown virus has emerged from the darkest heart of Africa, Mitumba region, sending streams of refugees out in every direction.
Meanwhile in the north, the Juba river demarcation between Kenya Colony and the Bukharan puppet state of Somalia remains on armed alert, whilst far away in Rome, Mussolini plots his revenge…. The Beast of Bukhara himself appears preoccupied elsewhere, and has recently been in Tokyo signing a cultural and economic co-operation pact with the emerging Japanese superpower. On the same day as the treaty was signed, The Beast’s great regional rival, Baron Ungern Von Sternberg, was annointed ‘Lion of Juddah’ and heir apparent by the Emperor of the Ethiops, Haile Selassie. In April, the world awoke to the astonishing news that Austrian archaeologists working high in the Rift Valley had unearthed the missing part of the Rosetta Stone, throwing new and startling light on the origins and purpose of this ancient text. And all the while the new empire of Bolshevik Russia continues to weave is ambitious web, amidst rumours of a devastating economic offensive that has sent shudders through the world’s stock markets…….
Gentlemen, the stage is set, the die is cast. And remember, as always, we are dealing with forces you cannot possibly comprehend…………..
May the 4th be with you……
to be continued......
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HUZZAH Another outing by the Kriegspielers :D
Can't wait for photos, reports etc 8)
cheers
James
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Hey Airdrie get a mention. Thats just up the road from me :o
Not that I follow football, to busy painting little lead figures :D
Looking forward to more reports and loads of photos please :D
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"Baron Ungern Von Sternberg, was annointed ‘Lion of Juddah’ "
Him no dread, I tink him a rude bwa lol
Looking forward to this 8)
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Huzzah!! But you can't fool me, the Beast will be back if only to grant himself a new metal......................and what about the myserious Red Can Man? :o :o
LB
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Looking forward to the pics etc!
Great title, by the way. I love Larry Niven and that's possibly my favourite of his novels ;D
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Is part of this game going to be in Falkirk.
The club name is mentioned?
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Huzzah! I'm looking forward to this! :D
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Very intriguing and if your past topics are anything to go by... this will be an absolute blast!
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Is part of this game going to be in Falkirk.
The club name is mentioned?
A subset will be there, but the details of this game are still toppo secret. Worth watching them tear each other apart trying to get the (as yet) non-existant briefs. Just ask them about Mad Bob, and why the Texas Rangers are on his tail, that'll get them scratching their chins. Or maybe why the Bolsheviks are heading up the Congo....
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The Briefs......
The Mote in God’s Eye Austrian brief
You are Colonel Walter Rudolph ‘Rudi’ Schneiber, hero of the Holy Roman Empire and winner of the highest military honour, the ‘Pour Le Merite’ for your exploits on the Italian front during WWI.
You had a ‘good war’ in the recent unpleasant business in East Africa. Much though it annoyed that little man Linn, the British Government was pleased by your timeliness in getting involved and helping ‘hold the line’ when the British were under severe pressure.
In return, they extended your permission to stay and allowed you to continue archaeological digging in the north-west Rift valley. Which was a stroke of luck, because you have unearthed perhaps the most fabulous discovery of the past 100 years: the lost sections of the Rosetta Stone. And what a find it is. It was thought that the Rosetta Stone was merely a multilingual stone from the time of Ptolemy. Oh no, oh no. What you have discovered changes everything. For one thing, the other parts of the stone you have uncovered are massive. The whole thing is some 4m x 3m. The bit found by the French in 1799 was therefore only a fragment. In addition to the Greek, Demotic and Hieroglyphics on the original fragments, the whole piece has Latin, Chinese, what looks like Aztec, and three more languages the likes of which you have never seen before. And the symbols, the strange yet oddly familiar symbols. For one, in the top right hand corner is the all seeing eye held in a triangle. Long thought to be a masonic symbol, and also found on the U.S. Dollar note. Beneath that, there seems to be a map, but not the likes of which you recognise. There are also three ‘boxes’ with what look like scientific formula. And all around the edge, in a hybrid semantic language, is a story, a tale of a journey. But you can’t figure it out here, in your desert camp. You need to get back to Vienna and the full resources of Vienna University. But what to do with the massive original stone? You are dealing with forces well beyond our comprehension, and this information can’t be allowed to fall into the wrong hands.
And there remains the small matter of the unfinished business with Der Baron and the stolen ‘Spear of Destiny’.
You start at the northern end of Lake Rudolph in north west Kenya Colony.
Objective
1. Decipher the secret of the lost fragments of the Rosetta stone
2. Do not let the stone or its secret fall into the ‘wrong’ hands
3. Recover the Spear of Destiny from der Baron.
Forces Available
Colonel Rudi Schneiber: + 2 leader Major Erwin Sikorsky: +1 leader
1 Lloyd Aviaitik reconnaissance aircraft
30 German and Austrian archaeologists
100 local diggers and workers.
You can of course equip a bigger expedition when you get back to Vienna.
Intelligence
The Pink will provide a fertile source of intelligence, as will the brief from your last ‘adventure’. However in addition to that, the following may be of use:
• Der Baron seems to have settled into a hash-induced existence in Abyssinia. The British took a lenient line with him, as The Beast of Bukhara remains their biggest fear. He and Haile Selassie have become the best of friends.
• The British have significantly reinforced Kenya Colony, with an eye on the Somali border in particular.
• A huge oil find has been made on Lake Nyasa, which looks like it might mean war between German Tanganyika and the newly independent Nuovo Portugal.
• A massive diamond find has been made in Katanga Province in Belgian Congo. Law and order appears to have broken down as every adventurer and criminal on the planet has headed south.
• The Belgian Congo government is led by a civil servant called Dr. Emille Shauffhausen (late of the Shauffhausen Institute), based in the capital Boma. However his control over the colony is weak, particularly in the interior. In these parts it is adventurers like the notorious Stroganoff who hold sway.
• There are rumours that ‘King Solomon’s Mines’ has been discovered, somewhere in Belgian Congo.
• The Beast of Bukhara has signed an economic and cultural treaty with Imperial Japan. It is not clear what this might mean.
• The Bukaharans have re-occupied the Comorros islands.
• It is now clear why Texas Ted bought up half the farms in Nyasaland. Oil. He has the extraction rights for the western half of Lake Nyasa. The corrupt British administration there, under Governor Richard Sims Donkins, turns a blind eye to most indiscretions, on account of this bonanza
• Brigadier Linn has been sent to Nyasaland to ‘root out corruption’ according to your sources in Mombasa. He is en route from Glasgow with the victorious Scottish Cup winning Airdrie team, of which he is chairman. They are playing exhibition games along the east coast of Africa, before heading for a big tournament in Nyasaland.
STEVE LANGAN 24/05/2011
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The Mote in God’s Eye Beast of Bukhara Brief
At last, a seat at ‘The Big Table’. The Japanese need oil and you need technology. You both feel shunned by the so-called ‘Great powers’ and you both share a virulent aggressive anti-communist doctrine. A marriage made in heaven.
Given what was going on Africa, you both realised that your fates were intertwined. The largest oil finds outside central Asia. Weak local governments (the Portuguese and the Germans), international indifference, and an emergent Japanese super-power itching to try out its new technology and brimming full of inspirational military strategy.
And so was born, Operation ‘Climb Mt. Somoni’ (after the highest peak in Central Asia). A joint Japanese-Bukharan naval invasion of German/Portuguese East Africa!
10,000 men, advanced naval, air and intelligence assets, the element of surprise and the strange Dr. Shitikamasata and his weird experiments…
But the operation will be a dangerous one. With long supply lines, a hostile environment (physically as well as militarily), and a British Empire on high alert after the recent incursion, you will need to be at your finest.
This is your moment. This is your chance to go from regional superpower to a global colossus. Attack! Attack! Attack!
You start in the Imperial Command Bunker underneath your palace in Bukhara.
Objectives
1. A major victory would be to conquer both colonies and avoid a confrontation with the British Empire
2. A significant victory would be to conquer one or the other.
Campaign Forces Available: c.10,000 men
Adrian Enver Pasha: +2 leader, ‘hero’. Admiral Takana: +1 ‘hero’, expert swordsman
6,000 Bukharan infantry, cavalry, armoured cars, artillery and air assets. Coastal flotilla of patrol boats based in the Comorros islands, with 800 of your 6,000 men stationed there.
Japanese naval assets, including an aircraft carrier (The ‘Midnight Blossom’ with 12 light bombers), two heavy cruisers, four destoyers and two submarines. Also six fuel tankers. 800 marines aboard the surface ships.
3,000 Japanese infantry, cavalry, artillery, light tanks and armoured cars.
Dr. Shitikamasata and his ‘top secret’ experiments.
This armada is based at Victoria in the Seychelles, which you have seized en route for Africa. It is 1124 miles east of Dar e Salaam. You need to keep your forward base secret for the time being.
Intelligence
The ‘Pink’ will of course provide a fertile source of intelligence, however in addition to that:
- The Comorros, which you obtained from the French government in return for oil concessions, could prove a useful staging post. You currently have a battalion of Bukharan regulars plus a coastal flotilla based there.
- There are strong rumours that the Germans and Portuguese are going to ‘kick off’ over the oil finds. This will open more opportunities for you, which you should take advantage of.
- The British have reinforced the border with Somalia. Invasion through there would be difficult, but a demonstration could be used
- There appears to be rumours of the discovery of King Solomon’s Mines, somewhere to the west of Nyasaland. You don’t put much store on it yourself.
- Belgian Congo has a new Governor, the world renowned Professor Emile Schaffhausen, late of the Lichtenstein based Schaffhausen Institute. He may be a man to talk to
- Brigadier Linn has been sent to Nyasaland to ‘root out corruption’ according to your sources in Mombasa. He is en route from Glasgow with the victorious Scottish Cup winning Airdrie team, of which he is chairman. They are playing exhibition games along the east coast of Africa, before heading for a big tournament in Nyasaland.
- Mad Bob is on the run from the Texas Rangers for the murder of Rachel Weiss. Apparently he has asked for 345 other serious offences to be taken into consideration. Texas Ted is assumed to be helping them.
- Zanzibar has been burnt to the ground following the recent disturbances there and failed Bolshevik invasion.
- The Bolsheviks have been very quiet of late.....almost....too quiet.
STEVE LANGAN 24/05/2011
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The Mote in God’s Eye Bolshevik brief
Lenin wasn’t in a good mood. Your last foray into Africa had ended in disaster. Defeated militarily and humiliated on the international stage. That and Chuggerchevsky going off the edge and thinking he’s a character from a Jules Verne novel. Normally all this would have meant a permanent suite in the Lubyanka (as well as the removal of all but the most vital of your organs), but those photographs of Dzerzhinksy came in useful after all. You always wondered why he was called ‘Felix the Cat’ by his enemies. You smiled to yourself.
“What’s so fucking funny?” yelled Lenin in that strange whine he had when he was particularly angry. The only other man in the room let out a snigger. Dr. Manfred Isaacs, the ‘Scientist’. The only man you were genuinely afraid of. As was Lenin you suspected.
“Well, as conventional warfare does not seem to have worked, its time for something more ‘unconventional’”. He looked across at Isaacs.
“Dr.Isaacs has located a radio pulse emitting from the Helix Nebula in the constellation of Aquarius. The so-called ‘God’s Eye’ nebula. Dr Isaacs?”
Isaac’s licked his lips in a disconcerting manner. He was a German Jew, who had spent years in the shadows of ‘advanced’ medical and physics research. You had seen for your own eyes what sort of monsters he had created, most recently at Lake Baikal. “There is more than a ‘pulse’ coming from the Helix Nebula. There is a signal, an activation signal. We don’t know what it is activating, but we can only surmise…” He gave the most disconcerting smile you had ever seen. It seemed to peer into the deepest blackness of your soul. “We can only surmise that it is a ‘superior’ intelligence”. He made word ‘superior’ sound like a particular act of depravity.
Lenin took over. “Comrade V.I.Blackwood. You are to take a small force of elite Cheka and Bolshevik naval forces to Africa. You will travel incognito and will be lightly armed. Dr.Isaacs will accompany you. He will bring some ‘enhancements’ to your military force”. Lenin almost spat out that last bit. “We have located the transmission target as residing somewhere in south-east Belgian Congo, in one of the most remote locations in the continent. You are to locate the site, and recover what technology exists at it, and bring it back to Russia. You will not fail this time”.
Objectives
Locate the receiving site of the Helix Nebula signal, and recover the technology for Bolshevik Russia. You will have to organise the expedition, choose a suitable landing location, and maintain secret cover. Intelligence gathering will be the key to a successful insertion and recovery.
Forces Available
V.I.Blackwood: + 2 leader, ‘hero’, marksman Dr. Manfred Isaacs: -2 leader. ‘Special powers’
100 of the very best Cheka, heavily armed
100 Kronstadt naval personnel
2 HMG’s
2 unarmoured machine gun carriers
50,000 gold sovereigns to oil your passage.
Intelligence
The ‘Pink’ will provide a fertile source of intelligence, however in addition to that:
- You still have a contact with ‘Major’ Dai Llewellyn Stroganoff in that corrupt sumphole of Belgian Congo. He may be of help, if only as a greedy fall guy
- There remains endemic drug related corruption in the sea ports of East Africa. Most of the trade is controlled by a loose network of notorious ‘Ruga-Ruga’ gangs, with some of whom you have cordial relationships, though no large measure of trust. You should use these connections to your advantage.
- Central Africa is criss-crossed by illegal slave routes and blood diamond traders. Most of the most notorious are Arabs from the east, and Belgians in the west. Many of these parties are large and heavily armed, and are rumoured to be in cahoots with local businessmen and state organisations. You need a slice of this action.
- Texas Ted has established himself as the big Cahuna in Nyasaland, buying up half the farms, and taken to dressing as Robert E. Lee.
- There are rumours of Communist agitation in Leopoldville. Again an opportunity.
- Stories abound about ‘King Solomon’s Mines’ being discovered in the mountains of south-east Belgian Congo. This may just be off the back of the diamond discoveries, but there are stories of archaeologists heading south to look for it.
- Brigadier Linn has been sent to Nyasaland to ‘root out corruption’. He is en route from Glasgow with the victorious Scottish Cup winning Airdrie team, of which he is chairman. They are playing exhibition games along the east coast of Africa, before heading for a big tournament in Nyasaland.
STEVE LANGAN 24/05/2011
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The Mote in God’s Eye British brief
Goal!!! Willie Russell’s second put the game beyond Hibernian in front of 65,000 fans at Ibrox. It was a dreich grey April afternoon, but one of your happiest. Lauded as the victor of Kenya colony’s defence against the odds, a nice new bar to your MC, and now your beloved Airdrie picking up the Scottish Cup for the first time ever. Aye, all that and a nice wee dram in the Ibrox trophy room.
However, there is no rest for the wicked, and you have to be on the packet boat first thing tomorrow morning. A new assignment: Nyasaland. The very name has become a byword for corruption and is need of some ‘corrective’ cleansing action. Including finding out what exactly yon Yank Texas Ted is really upto. He’s bought out half the farms in the colony, and has taken to dressing up as Robert E. Lee, would you believe. There is something very fishy about the whole affair. There has also been a lot of ballyhoo about the oil and diamond finds in the region. The problem is that most of it seems to be just outwith the borders of our colonies. You are to ensure that the British Empire is not disadvantaged in any scramble for resources, and are authorised to use force if necessary.
Before that, you need to make sure the Airdrie team don’t get too carried away tonight as they are coming with you on a tour of the colonies: Egypt, Kenya, German Tanganyika, Mozambique and then South Africa. Before putting on an exhibition tournament in Blantyre. Three solid months of fitba. You wished you hadn’t made that promise now at the post semi-final match party, but you never really did think they would beat Hibernian….
Lodge No.1 had given you a right good send off as well. They even brought out the sword of Prestor John, which you presented them with after the last caper. But was it just you, or was it glowing with an eerie cold blue light that night?
Objectives
1. Successfully arrive in Blantyre with Airdrie Football team. Extra points will be awarded for winning all your matches en route.
2. Root out corruption in Nyasaland, and assist the Texas Rangers in their pursuit and apprehension of Mad Bob.
3. Ensure that the British Empire secures its fair share of the recently discovered oil and diamonds in the region, by playing one side off against the other, and if necessary, armed intervention.
Campaign Forces Available in Nyasaland: c.1,800 men
Brigadier Linn: +2 leader, ‘hero’ Major Langan: +2 leader, ‘hero’.
Blantyre
1 coy Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders (150 men)
1 squadron of mounted yeomanry (80 men)
4/K.A.R. (600 men)
15/K.A.R. (600 men)
1 coy of HMG’s
1 battery of 18pdr guns
2 Rolls Royce Armoured Cars
plus various police units. Additional detachments, including air units, may be available from Northern Rhodesia should the need arise.
Intelligence
The ‘Pink’ will of course provide a fertile source of intelligence, however in addition to that:
- The War Office reckons it will all kick off between German Tanganyika and Nuovo Portugal. Both are as poor as church mice and these oil and diamond finds mean they have the chance of transforming their fortunes. The Captain of the Vital Spark has orders to go straight to South Africa from Kenya Colony if it does.
- The Indian Ocean is deemed safe. Since the sinking of the Red October the Bolsheviks have been lying low, no doubt upto no good, but not here.
- There is some suggestion that Nuovo Portugal is behind a lot of the corruption in Nyasa Land. They’ve reportedly being using it as aback door smuggling route.
- Mad Bob is reportedly hiding somewhere in Nyasaland, rumoured to be en-route for Katanga Province in the Belgian Congo. The Texas Rangers are on his tail for the murder of Rachel Weiz in the last campaign. He has gone ‘full Mexican’ by now, and should be considered public enemy number 1 in Nyasaland.
- It is now clear why Texas Ted bought up half the farms in Nyasaland. Oil. He has the extraction rights for the western half of Lake Nyasa.
- Belgian Congo, a good ally in WWI, has a new Governor, the world renowned Professor Emile Schaffhausen, late of the Lichtenstein based Schaffhausen Institute. He may be a man to talk to
- There appears to be rumours of the discovery of King Solomon’s Mines, somewhere to the west of Nyasaland. You don’t put much store on it yourself.
- Your radio operators in Blantyre have picked up a distress signal from an Italian big game hunting party in Katanga Province. Deuced strange place to go hunting ivory, as it really is ‘The Heart of Darkness’ around there. As is the fact that they had a radio set. Hmmm..
STEVE LANGAN 24/05/2011
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The Mote in God’s Eye Der Baron brief
Life in the Ancient Coptic Kingdom of Abyssinia appears to agree with you. The Christianity of the natives, an oasis of civilization in a sea of depraved atheists, is pleasant and refreshing. Your host, the amiable if eccentric Haile Selassie, is a cultured despot of the best kind. And you had come to appreciate the great and wise insight gained by daily use of hashish. Even if you couldn’t stop babbling. And you were always soo peckish.
You hadn’t thought much of it at first. The Spear of Destiny, which you never let out of your sight, began to glow a dim cold blue light one night. As the nights went by it grew gradually brighter, but not enough for you to mention it to your host. It was he who raised it first over dinner one evening. “Have you noticed anything with the Spear recently?” You said you had. “Well look at this”. He placed the ‘Cup of the Carpenter’ on the table. Despite being made of wood, this too glowed with an eerie blue glow. “This, my Lion of Judah, is not good. This means trouble”.
He then went on to tell you the most incredible tale. Of an ancient civilisation that came from the stars and settled in what was The Garden of Eden, far, far to south of here. Of how they had produced all the nations of the earth, and all the wisdom of the ages, but had, after the Garden had ‘changed’, spread across the four corners of the planet. He told you in incredible detail how all the holy men of old – including Jesus – had carried the main blood line of these aliens (“though not that bastard Mohammed”. He was very clear on this point), and how lots of this had been written down but had been lost. “The best bit was the Rosetta Stone” he said, giggling. The bit in the British Museum is thought to be ‘just’ a text with Greek, Demotic and Hieroglyphics. In fact it’s only a fragment of the real thing. Its shows not only all the languages of the earth, but a star map, and details of the technology they used to get here”. He hesitated for a second. “But we lost it”. He suddenly looked quite sad. “Somewhere down south. It was huuuuge!”. He suddenly started running around the room, waving and flapping his arms. “Yoh big!” before tripping on his robe and knocking himself unconscious on the marble floor.
When he came to, he was quite serious, which was unusual for him. “You need to find where the Garden is. It has technology in it that could destroy the world. Come with me”. He took you down into the treasure vaults of the Palace. Ancient rooms going back thousands of years ran off in seemingly limitless directions. He took you to a small vaulted chamber, and opened an ancient wooden box with an even older key, and pulled out a hessian sack. Suddenly the chamber glistened. Inside the sack was a large golden bowl, seemingly plain. You then noticed that there was a small pyramid raised at one corner. “The Garden is in a crater of the civilisations making. The ship they used crashed there. They built a fabulous city. Known as ‘Mote’. This, my Lion of Zion, is ‘The Mote in God’s Eye’”. He pointed a trembling finger at the small raised pyramid.
“But what of the blue glow on the Spear and the Cup of the Caprenter?” you asked. He looked straight at you. “It means they’re back”, he replied. “Who?” says you. He just tilted his head ever so slightly upwards, and raised his eyes to the heavens………….
Objectives
1. Discover the rest of the ‘Rosetta’ Stone and decipher what it says.
2. Locate ‘The Mote in God’s Eye’ and save the world.
Forces Available
Der Baron: +2 leader ‘Hero’ Chuffer Campbell: +3 leader (super) ‘Hero’
You have your usual dedicated Mongol and Tibetan fanatics, numbering over 800. Plus your Rastafarian bodyguard, some 400. You can call upon the slightly out-of-date Abyssinian armed forces, as well as your old friend Piet Tealief, down south. The question is, where to go? And how to get there without causing an international incident? A small force could get through, but might fail. A large force would meet serious problems getting there.
Intelligence
The ‘Pink’ will provide a fertile source of intelligence, however in addition to that:
• The British have significantly reinforced Kenya Colony, with an eye on the Somali border in particular.
• A huge oil find has been made on Lake Nyasa, which looks like it might mean war between German Tanganyika and the newly independent Nuovo Portugal.
• A massive diamond find has been made in Katanga Province in Belgian Congo. Law and order appears to have broken down as every adventurer and criminal on the planet has headed south.
• The Belgian Congo government is led by a civil servant called Dr. Emille Shauffhausen (late of the Shauffhausen Institute), based in the capital Boma. However his control over the colony is weak, particularly in the interior. In these parts it is adventurers like the notorious Stroganoff who hold sway.
• There are rumours that ‘King Solomon’s Mines’ has been discovered, somewhere in Belgian Congo.
• The Beast of Bukhara has signed an economic and cultural treaty with Imperial Japan. It is not clear what this might mean.
• The Bukaharans have re-occupied the Comorros islands.
• It is now clear why Texas Ted bought up half the farms in Nyasaland. Oil. He has the extraction rights for the western half of Lake Nyasa. The corrupt British administration there, under Governor Richard Sims Donkins, turns a blind eye to most indiscretions, on account of this bonanza
• Brigadier Linn has been sent to Nyasaland to ‘root out corruption’ according to your sources in Mombasa. He is en route from Glasgow with the victorious Scottish Cup winning Airdrie team, of which he is chairman. They are playing exhibition games along the east coast of Africa, before heading for a big tournament in Nyasaland.
• The Austrians are rumoured to be watching you, under the guise of an archaeological expedition at Lake Rudolph.
STEVE LANGAN 25/05/2011
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The Mote in God’s Eye German/White Russian brief
Having successfully defended your fledgling country against internal revolt and that pathetic incursion from the Portuguese, the job of nation building has now started in earnest. Von Lettow Vorbeck is full of grandiose improving schemes, but the perennial problem of money and resources remains. This is all the more galling now that the Portuguese have discovered a massive oil field (‘The Big Black One’) in Lake Nyasa, just over the nautical border-line. And while you have discovered some oil in your patch of the pond, the sight of those southern ‘Europeans’ filling their boots (and their exchequer) with black gold is more than galling. Some of your naval officers have taken upon themselves to mount covert operations in the Portuguese sector of the lake, which you fear may get out of hand. To the north, the British, in their lush temperate Kenya Colony (even the weather is better up there), still hold you in suspicion after the discovery of RedCan Man’s training base, whatever your protestations. However having successfully repelled two major invasions from their north their attentions are firmly fixed on the Juba river border with the Bukharan puppet state of Somalia and the sinister ancient kingdom of Abyssinia. To the west, the bloody Belgians have discovered the largest diamond fields ever found! Again, just across Lake Tanganyika. However it is unclear how much of this is actually making it to the Belgian exchequer, and how much is being spirited away by the legions of ne’er-do-wells who base themselves in that dark failed state. The one good piece of news is that the Indian Ocean is now clear of Bolsheviks and marauding submarines, so at least the important (but hardly lucrative) trade in sisal and coconut oil can resume!
However there is a new ‘Great Game’ afoot in south-central Africa. A Game of black gold and diamonds. The winners will take all, and the losers will be condemned to poverty and economic dependency, or even worse. At a State Council meeting in President Lettow Vorbeck’s mansion in Dar e Salaam, the leadership of German Tanganyika decide that they must play the Game, with force if necessary, to ensure the survival and future prosperity of their young country.
You are ordered to commence the construction of a new naval base at Wiedhafen and an oil rig construction yard at Sphinxhaven. Bismarkburg is also to be reinforced.
Objectives
1. Seize the major oil fields in the region and find a way of accessing the diamond wealth of Belgian Congo.
2. Avoid getting the British involved in any war. Its one thing fighting second-rate colonial powers, but a war on two fronts, as you know from that little affair a decade ago, is never really a good idea.
Campaign Forces Available: c.6,000 men
Von Stauffenberg: +2 leader, ‘hero’ Admiral Doleczech: +2 leader, ‘hero’.
In Dar es Salaam:
1 coy of Von Stauffenberg Assault Grenadiers – 250 men
1 coy of German assault engineers (BG9) – 125 men. They have now added dirigible power to their armoury
1 coy of White officers – 250 men
1 sqdn of White Russian Cossacks – 150 men.
1 battalion of loyal German Askaris – 600 men
2 coys of German HMG’s – 125 men
2 coys of Polizeitruppe – 300 men
Von Lutterbeck’s Flying Circus: 6 mixed German/White fighter aircraft: Albatrosses, DRI’s, Fokker DVII’s, etc.
1 battery of German 77mm field guns
2 German and 2 Russian armoured cars
The Grizelda – with 77mm deck gun plus various transports.
2 small gunboats, with 20mm Bofors cannons.
Elsewhere:
Kigoma: 1 company of Askaris (125 men) plus 2 HMG’s and 2 x 14” shore mounted naval guns. The re-floated ‘Graf von Goetzen’ is based here, with a naval crew of 125 men.
Bismarckburg: 1 coy of Askaris, 1 coy of White Russian infantry, ½ battery of German 75mm guns, ½ coy of White HMG’s.
Lindi: 2 companies of Polizeitruppe, 2 HMG’s – 400 men. 1 gun sloop with 40mm cannon.
Tanga: 1 company of Marines, 1/2 company of Polizeitruppe, 2 HMG’s, 1 battery of 75mm mountain guns, 1 seaplane, 3 small gunboats with 20mm cannon, 2 shore mounted 12” guns (c.500 men)
Longido: 1 coy of Russian officer infantry, 1 sqdn of Regular white cavalry, 1 coy of Askaris, 1 company of White HMG’s – 1, c.800 men.
Sphinxhaven: 1 company of Polizeitruppe plus 1 HMG – 150 men. 3 naval patrol boats, armed with 1 x 2” gun and 1HMG. 120 White Russian marines.
Tabora: 1 company of Polizeitruppe plus 1HMG – 150 men
Plus various localised police garrisons...
Intelligence
The ‘Pink’ will provide a fertile source of intelligence, however in addition to that:
Likoma island is the centre of the Portuguese oil extraction efforts. It is to there that the oil extracted from ‘The Big Black One’ (which is only 100m south of the border!) is carried. The island is a sump of corruption, with every adventurer and crook on the continent based there.
The oil infrastructure is mostly being fabricated at Mtengula.
The Portuguese/Tibetan base remains intact in the Mandimba mountains, and must be considered a major strategic threat.
S.O.A.P. Oil is bankrolling the investment in the oil extraction efforts for the Portuguese.
The endemic drug related corruption in the sea-ports of East Africa is as bad as ever. Most of the trade is controlled by a loose network of notorious ‘Ruga-Ruga’ gangs, some of whom you have cordial relations with, but none of whom you entirely trust. There is no sign however that they are organising themselves.
RedCan Man seems to have melted away into the central African void. The rumour is that he is working in the Belgian diamond fields.
Central Africa remains criss-crossed by illegal slave routes and blood diamond traders. Most of the most notorious are Arabs from the east, and Belgians in the west. Many of these parties are large and heavily armed, and are rumoured to be in cahoots with local businessmen and state organisations.
It is now clear why Texas Ted bought up half the farms in Nyasaland. Oil. He has the extraction rights for the western half of Lake Nyasa. The corrupt British administration there, under Governor Richard Sims Donkins, turns a blind eye to most indiscretions, on account of this bonanza.
The Belgian Congo government is led by a civil servant called Dr. Emile Schauffhausen (late of the Schauffhausen Institute), based in the capital Boma. However his control over the colony is weak, particularly in the interior. In these parts it is adventurers like the notorious Stroganoff who hold sway.
Brigadier Linn has been sent to Nyasaland to ‘root out corruption’ according to your sources in Mombasa. He is en route from Glasgow with the victorious Scottish Cup winning Airdrie team, of which he is chairman. They are playing exhibition games along the east coast of Africa, before heading for a big tournament in Nyasaland.
Rumours have reached you from Berlin of a major archaeological discovery by Schneiber somewhere in the Rift Valley.
STEVE LANGAN 24/05/2011
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The Mote in God’s Eye Professor Emile Schaffhausen’s brief
You are Professor Emile Schaffhausen, late of the Schaffhausen Institute in Lichtenstein. You have been appointed by the Belgian Government to the Governorship of the Belgian Congo. The Belgian’s are racked by guilt and remorse at the terrible regime perpetrated by Leopold II when the colony was his personal property and plaything. The evils perpetrated in those years have caused them to look for a man of enlightenment, learning and liberal values.
Unfortunately for the Belgians, that man is not you. The ‘world renowned’ Schaffhausen Institute and its liberal curriculum is an invention of your depraved and degenerate mind. You are in fact Victor Lustig (the man who ‘sold’ the Eiffel Tower), a Czech con-man and confidence trickster. You cannot believe your luck in landing this plum role. Top banana in one of the worlds most underexploited but richest colonies! Gold, iron ore and other minerals abound. And, as you landed, news came in that the largest ever diamond fields have been discovered in Katanga Province. Bingo! (think Terry Thomas at his very best).
However, as always, things are not quite as easy as they seem. Belgian Congo is a colony without law and order, a colony where the rule of law is the rule of ‘he with the biggest stick’. The discovery of diamonds makes things even worse, and the further you head into the interior, the weaker the rule of law and civilised behaviour becomes. Criminals and desperados abound. And the worst (but by no means the only one) is Dai Llewellyn Stroganoff. However given what might be coming to take their ‘slice of the action’, he might end up being useful. Having said that, the discovery of oil in Lake Nyasa and the surrounding countryside means that chaos is arriving from the four corners of the map.
Katanga Province has become the new wild-west. In Kabalo, the vital rail junction, the rule of law has collapsed. Armed camps are everywhere, with rival criminal gangs fighting for control of the diamond and other mineral wealth.
You must assert the rule of law. And make a very tidy return for yourself. You start the game in the capital Boma.
Objectives
1. Retake Kabalo for the ‘Government’
2. Loot Katanga Province seven ways
3. Park the blame on one of the other players.
Forces Available
Professor Emile Schaffhausen : +2 leader ‘Hero’. Speaks multiple languages fluently.
Randy Rodgers (a US mercenary): +2 leader (he is the military muscle)
In theory you have a large, functioning internal security force. In reality, you can rely on only the local forces in Boma:
2 x understrength battalions of ‘Force Publique’. 600 men
1 x battalion of Askaris. 400 men
2 HMG’s
1 field gun
1 decrepit biplane
‘Le Roi de Belgiques’. An ancient paddle steamer, with obsolete field guns and HMG’s.
Barges sufficient to tow the troops above
You may be able to hire native levies along the way, depending on your success. However this really is ‘The Heart of Darkness’. Trust no one.
Intelligence
The ‘Pink’ will provide a fertile source of intelligence, however in addition to that:
• As if things weren’t complicated enough, there are rumours that ‘Mad Bob’ is on his way to Katanga. He is being pursued by the Texas Rangers for the murder of Rachel Weiss (amongst other things). Texas Ted is helping them.
• There are rumours of Communist agitation in Leopoldville.
• It is now clear why Texas Ted bought up half the farms in Nyasaland. Oil. He has the extraction rights for the western half of Lake Nyasa.
• There are strong rumours that the Germans and the Portuguese are going to come to blows over an oil dispute regarding the finds in Lake Nyasa.
• Stories abound about ‘King Solomon’s Mines’ being discovered in the mountains of south-east Belgian Congo. This may just be off the back of the diamond discoveries, but there are stories of archaeologists heading south to look for it.
• Brigadier Linn has been sent to Nyasaland to ‘root out corruption’ according to your sources in Mombasa. He is en route from Glasgow with the victorious Scottish Cup winning Airdrie team, of which he is chairman. They are playing exhibition games along the east coast of Africa, before heading for a big tournament in Nyasaland.
• An Italian expedition has went missing in Katanga Province, reputedly searching for a lost ancient civilisation
STEVE LANGAN 24/05/2011
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The Mote in God’s Eye Prince Wolfgang von Hessen brief
You are Prinz Wolgang Von Hessen, born in 1896, twin brother to the current head of the House of Hesse, the Landgrave Phillip.
You are an international playboy, gifted amateur scientist, professional big game hunter, and….’The Hooded Claw’, master of disguise and international crime fighter. You are therefore a proto ‘Bruce Wayne’ type character.
Born into one of the most important families in Germany, you have become disillusioned with much of the modern world given the traumas of the recent Great War, in which many members of your family were slaughtered. You blame the relentless pace of progress in the last fifty years, and have developed a particular a hatred of all 'isms', communism, capitalism, etc., a stance made easier by your immense personal wealth. You therefore feel it as a burning personal responsibility to keep the pace of progress under control, destroying if need be, that which you deem dangerous.
You have therefore dedicated yourself to science, and your other great passion - big game hunting. Science and science alone can save the modern world from the darkness of inevitable self- destruction. The prejudices of the old world have been made terrible by the twin threats of industrialisation and hocus new religions like communism. You have therefore bankrolled the greatest scientific minds of the age to help work out a new way. Foremost amongst this is the crazy Serbian crackpot, Nikolai Tesla, whom you have appointed your personal scientific advisor. At a top-secret observatory deep in the Patagonian wilderness, Tesla has been scouring the night skies for signs of extra-terrestrial life. And at a secret underground laboratory deep in the forest wilderness of his native Germany, you and your advisors are hard at work on a new way, a third way.
In-between working out how to save the world, you spend your time as a socialite in New York and Berlin, or at one of your many properties in Germany, Italy, Spain, the Swiss Alps, the United States and Argentina.
Your work as the ‘Hooded Claw’ has cleared the streets of New York (Americans are always much more welcoming of these sorts of things) of thugs organized crime and ne’erdowells. You are blessed with a superb physique which makes you superior to most ‘mere mortals’, and superior science that Tesla has developed for you. The combination has gotten you a reputation in American press as a ‘superhero’.
Tesla’s most recent discovery is particularly exciting. He has discovered radio waves being emitted from the Helix Nebula, the so-called ‘God’s Eye Nebula’, and has pinpointed their target as a spot in one of the remotest parts of the Belgian Congo. You are determined to find this. You fear that the technology will place the world in an even darker place, and so you determine not to allow this ‘terrible beauty’ to fall into any other hands, even if that means destroying it.
Objectives
Locate the receiving site of the Helix Nebula signal, and recover the technology for your personal use. If you cannot recover it, destroy it. You will have to organise the expedition, choose a suitable landing location, and maintain top-secret cover. Intelligence gathering will be the key to a successful insertion and recovery. It may be useful to ally with another player, but it will remain an alliance of convenience.
Forces Available
Prinz Wolfgang von Hessen: + 2 leader, ‘hero’, marksman, master of disguise.
Kato, your faithful manservant: +1 leader, marksman
All the money required to hire and equip any size of expedition you care to. Obviously however, the larger the expedition, the more attention it will attract.
Intelligence
The ‘Pink’ will provide a fertile source of intelligence, however in addition to that:
- There are rumours in Blantyre of a Vatican sponsored Italian expedition in Katanga Province, apparently on the trail of the whereabouts of ‘King Solomon’s Mines’. You find this hard to believe.
- There are strong rumours that the Germans and Portuguese are going to ‘kick off’ over oil finds on lake Nyasa.
- Brigadier Linn has been sent to Nyasaland to restore ‘law and order’ in what is rumoured to be a corrupt British colony.
- It is now clear why Texas Ted bought up half the farms in Nyasaland. Oil. He has the extraction rights for the western half of Lake Nyasa.
- Mad Bob is on the run for the murder of Rachel Weiss (see ‘Return to the Heart of Darkeness’). The Texas Rangers are on his tail.
- The Belgian Congo government is led by a civil servant called Dr. Emille Shauffhausen (late of the Shauffhausen Institute), based in the capital Boma. However his control over the colony is weak, particularly in the interior. In these parts it is adventurers like the notorious Stroganoff who hold sway.
- Brigadier Linn has been sent to Nyasaland to ‘root out corruption’ according to your sources in Mombasa. He is en route from Glasgow with the victorious Scottish Cup winning Airdrie team, of which he is chairman. They are playing exhibition games along the east coast of Africa, before heading for a big tournament in Nyasaland.
STEVE LANGAN 24/05/2011
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The Mote in God’s Eye Mad Bob brief
The sound of the tin chair being dragged slowly across the rough stone floor got on your nerves. You reckoned you had to be somewhere in Mombassa. The architecture was too solid and too old to be anywhere else. The ties on your hands had constricted as they absorbed your sweat, and it was beginning to hurt like hell. You shouldn’t be here of course. You had smelt a rat, but the prospect of 10,000 Mexican silver dollars was too much to pass by without a sniff. No matter. You won’t be here for long.
“OK Bob..”. Texas Rangers. You hated those bastards. “We have you for the murder of Rachel Weiss, which almost certainly means the chair back home. But….”. Even his pause had a long annoying southern drawl “…if you were to tell us about your organisation and the people you work with, that might help. However if you were also to tell us where El Mariachi is holed up, that ‘might’ would almost certainly become a ’would’. You see Bob, you aren’t in the USA now and God knows where you will be tomorrow, and you will tell us what we want to know. And the longer it takes the more painful we’ll make it”
You couldn’t stop yourself from laughing out loud “It’s so amusing. The funny thing is you don’t even know we exist!” The Ranger stood up. “Well we do now Bob, and we’re quick learners”. You could tell he was getting irritated. Time to finish this. “You know nothing about us, but the first thing you should know, is that we have people everywhere. Am I right?” You turned to the shadowy figure in the corner who threw off his long dust coat and started gunning down the three Texas Rangers. They didn’t even have time to look surprised before their bodies hit the cold stone floor.
“You left it a bit fine that time Mariachi….”
The fast boat was waiting in the harbour. Within ten minutes you were heading south towards the burnt out city of Zanzibar….
Objectives
1. There’s a new Klondyke been declared in and around Lake Nyasa, and all along the border between Belgian Congo and Northern Rhodesia. The good news is it’s mostly the comedy states of German Tanganyika, Nuovo Portugal and Belgian Congo involved. Not one of them could run a bath, never mind a country. Locate where the collateral is and make sure you clean out as much as you can.
2. There is a rumour, probably nonsense, of a ‘City of Diamonds’ somewhere in the jungles of Nuovo Portugal or Belgian Congo. Sounds like something out of H.Rider Haggard to you. But worth verifying or sending some of the others on a wild goose chase. There’s been a lot of coverage about it in the papers, so there will be plenty of willing fools.
Forces Available
Mad Bob: + 2 leader El Mariachi: +1 leader
100 mad Mexican bastards, heavily armed.
6 HMG’s
2 un-armoured machine gun carriers
1 heavy mortar
Forged passports and papers in three different identities.
Intelligence
The ‘Pink’ will provide a fertile source of intelligence, however in addition to that:
- You still have a contact with ‘Major’ Dai Llewellyn Stroganoff in that corrupt sumphole of Belgian Congo. He may be of help, if only as a greedy fall guy
- There remains endemic drug related corruption in the sea ports of East Africa. Most of the trade is controlled by a loose network of notorious ‘Ruga-Ruga’ gangs, with some of whom you have cordial relationships, though no large measure of trust. You should use these connections to your advantage.
- Central Africa is criss-crossed by illegal slave routes and blood diamond traders. Most of the most notorious are Arabs from the east, and Belgians in the west. Many of these parties are large and heavily armed, and are rumoured to be in cahoots with local businessmen and state organisations. You need a slice of this action.
- Texas Ted has established himself as the big Cahuna in Nyasaland, buying up half the farms, and taken to dressing as Robert E. Lee. He will probably be working with the Texas Rangers, who will be hot on your tail. Possible patsy material.
- The Austrians are are making a lot about this City of Diamonds thing, based on their finds in the Rift Valley. Might be worth a side operation to find out what they’ve got.
- There are rumours of Communist agitation in Leopoldville. Again an opportunity.
- Zanzibar, still recovering from the civil disturbances there in February, can only be a short term base. The Rangers will be on your tail before too long. However an island in a big sea means you could send a lot of people in the wrong direction.
- Brigadier Linn has been sent to Nyasaland to ‘root out corruption’ according to your sources in Mombasa. He is en route from Glasgow with the victorious Scottish Cup winning Airdrie team, of which he is chairman. They are playing exhibition games along the east coast of Africa, before heading for a big tournament in Nyasaland.
STEVE LANGAN 24/05/2011
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Back to the Heart of Darkness Nuovo Portuguese brief
Things are looking up for the newly independent state of Nuovo Portugal. First was (obviously) the news that the Portuguese had given you independence, but second was the news that vast quantities of oil had been discovered under Lake Nyasa (which you kept secret until the Treaty was signed!). The only slight problem was that your find - ‘Big Black One’ – is technically in German Tanganyikan territorial waters. However a covert underwater operation and half a kilometre of underwater pipe soon moved it to your side of the pond!
On the back of this you have managed to obtain more and more modern weaponry for your troops, including a small naval flotilla for the lake. This has proven useful as the Germans have taken to patrolling aggressively, and border skirmishes are on the rise (you have never quite forgiven them for the incursion into your country looking for the Zeppelin base). Both sides have now opened up floating oil rigs on the lake, but ‘Big Black One’ is the one that produces 80% of the oil in the region.
Likoma island, in the middle of the lake, has now become a Klondyke, with ever adventurer and opportunist descending on the previously uninhabited island. You have of course set up a military and naval base there to protect your assets. The same goes for the coastal village of Mtengula, which is where a lot of the oil infrastructure is being fabricated.
News that a massive diamond field has been found at the southern end of Lake Tanganyika (on the Belgian end) has also raised your interest. Perhaps there are some in your end, or maybe there is a deal to be done with the Belgians? There is a new governor there, a civil servant by the name of Professor Emile Schaffhausen, late of the Lichtenstein based ‘Schaffhausen Institute’.
The rest of your fiefdom remains a byword for corruption, degenerate behaviour and loose living. Just the way you like it. You continue to rule with an iron fist and and continue to profit personally from this state of affairs.
Governor Richard Sims Donkin Rankine of Nyasaland, continues to be a good friend, though his appetite for drugs and women has developed from the voracious to the industrial, and he may be coming to the end of his usefuleness, particularly as the British are rumoured to be sending Brigadier Linn to Nyasaland to clean things up. However for the moment, it remains a critical element in your control of the Lake, and a useful ‘back door’, despite the interfering Christian missionaries. The ports of Livingstonia and Karonga are friendly naval bases. One thing puzzles you however. Texas Ted has bought out half the farms in Nyasaland and has taken to dressing as Robert E. Lee. It must have something to do with oil, diamonds or both.
You start the game in your capital, Mozambique.
Objective
1. Protect ‘Big Black One’ at all costs and aggressively defend your territory.
2. Find a way of obtaining economic advantage from the newly discovered diamond fields.
3. Discover King Solomon’s Mines, and loot them seven ways till Sunday
4. Ensure your grip over Nyasaland remains absolute. Use all options to ensure this happens, including war, assassination, economic sanctions, etc.
Campaign Forces Available: c.10,000 men in total (plus Tibetan ‘advisors’)
Governor Eufemia: + 2 leader, ‘Hero’. General Luis Fonseca: +1 leader
Mozambique: c.5,000 men in total
1 battalion of mounted Metropolitan infantry: 600 men
4 companies of ‘companhias indigenas’ (native troops), about 1,000 men in total
2 companies of elite ‘Guarda Republicana de Lourenco’ infantry, 500 men
2 companies of police - 300
4 squadrons of ‘Guarda’ cavalry, 500 men
3 armoured cars.
1 battery of ‘Guarda’ 75mm mountain guns
2 batteries of HMG’s
1 squadron of ‘Guarda’ air corps. 3 assorted two seater biplanes
c.1,000 ‘Ruga-Ruga’ irregulars.
Elsewhere:
Mandimba Mts.: Three Tibetan ‘war zeppelins’ and 500 fighting monks all in a secret mountain base.
Mpendas: 1 company each of police and native troops, 1 battery of 75mm mountain guns - 750 men
Kionga: 1 company each of police and native troops – 500 men; 1 river patrol boat with 2” gun, 1 coy of HMG’s. About 500 ‘Ruga-Ruga’ auxiliaries c.1,200 men in total.
Mtendo: 1 company of native troops, 2 dismounted 12” naval guns, 2 small gun boats – 500 men
Port Emelia: 1 company of native troops, 1 battery of 75mm field guns, 1 gun boat, 1 HMG coy, c.200 ‘Ruga-Ruga’ irregulars – 1,000 men.
Likoma Island: 4 companies of elite marines (800 men) plus six fast patrol boats armed with 2” pom-poms and HMG’s (200 men)
There are also various police units and garrison units in the south, none of which can be effectively deployed ‘out of theatre’.
Intelligence
The ‘Pink’ will provide a fertile source of intelligence, however in addition to that:
German East Africa, newly independent after WWI, is currently run by a German elite of the old school, under Feld Marschel Von Lettow-Vorbeck (hero of the WWI campaign in East Africa). He has employed a number of ex-Friekorps and White Russian mercenary soldiers and sailors, paid for by the rich sisal, coffee and rubber trade in the area. His two main field commanders are Von Stauffenberg (who has the title of Commissioner for Public Safety) and Admiral Doleczech, the infamous white mercenary, with elite elements of his old ‘Iron Division’. Main bases are Dar-E-Salaam (the capital), Lindi, Bagamoyo , Tanga, Moshi (Lake Victoria), Tabora and Kigoma (Lake Tanganiyka). Fort Bismarck at the southern end of the Lake is in the process of being re-built. Total forces at their disposal are estimated at 5,000 in total, mostly land and air units, with a small coastal defence force.
The Germans have built a new naval base at the Wiedhafen and are constructing their own oil fabrication plant at Sphinxhaven. They are both heavily fortified. They patrol aggressively along Lake Nyasa, and often stray into your territorial waters with impunity. You have lost three patrol boats to their aggression in just the last month, and are in no mood for any more.
You still are in possession of Col. Kurtz’s diaries, which you discovered in that little show up north. They include diagrams purporting to show King Solomon’s mines, though it not clear what part of Central Africa it is hidden in. One phrase he wrote sticks in your mind however “diamonds as big as houses, diamonds for as far as the eye can see..”. Hard not to be interested really.
Brigadier Linn has been sent to Nyasaland to ‘root out corruption’ according to your sources in Mombasa. He is en route from Glasgow with the victorious Scottish Cup winning Airdrie team, of which he is chairman. They are playing exhibition games along the east coast of Africa, before heading for a big tournament in Nyasaland.
Mad Bob is on the run from the Texas Rangers for the murder of Rachel Weiss. He is rumoured to be in northern Nyasaland.
STEVE LANGAN 24/05/2011
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The Mote in God’s Eye Stroganoff brief
It was sad to leave Zanzibar. The tall plumes of black smoke rose across the horizon like ink stains in a bright blue sea. You never could quite understand why you found the smell of roast human flesh quite so attractive either. What you saw in old Zanzibar town has made you quite peckish.
Anyway, enough sentimentality. You are off to Kabalo for your next business venture. Your men on the ground tell you that diamonds, lots of diamonds, have been discovered. Your trusty lacky, Sergeant Weissman (he of the gas experiments on the eastern front) has wired you to say that he has set up a compound in Kisengwa, about 60 miles west of Kabolo. This is where most of the finds have been centred around. Kabolo itself resembles a wild west frontier town, with felons and ner-do-wells of all races and nationalities outdoing each other in unimaginable criminality. It is however the major wholesale point for diamonds on account of the railway line to Lake Tanganyika and the tributary to the Congo, and therefore needs ‘controlling’.
The one nervousness you have is the newly appointed Governor of Belgian Congo. Professor Emile Schaffhausen, late of the Lichtenstein based Schaffhausen Institute, has been appointed on the dual charge of exploiting the fabulous mineral wealth of the colony (copper, cobalt and gold are also in much demand) and bringing Christianity and civilisation to the native population. This last part makes you itch. Uncle Leopold would be spinning in his grave.
No matter. The world belongs to men of vigour, insight and evil. With the help of the appropriate opiates you can rise to the first two challenges. The third comes naturally.
You start in the state capital of Boma.
Objective
1. Enforce complete control over the diamond trade in Katanga Province. There are rival gangs everywhere, and rumours of new ‘arrivals’ every week.
2. Take over Kabolo. It is the lungs and arteries of the region.
3. Keep the Colonial Government off your back.
It goes without saying that what you are undertaking is highly illegal and morally reprehensible, and therefore absolute discretion is required.
Forces Available
‘Major’ Stroganoff: + 2 leader Sergeant Weissman: +1 leader
150 Askaris and released criminals, 12 machine guns, some antiquated light artillery, several hundred pounds of slightly sweating high explosive and your beloved Daimler.
50,000 gold sovereigns. The profit from your last adventure.
250 pygmy cannibal ‘allies’
Sufficient porters to carry everything anywhere (about 1000 porters in all)
The M.V. Nostromo, based at Kabalo.
Intelligence
The ‘Pink’ will provide a fertile source of intelligence, however in addition to that:
Rumours abound that the diamond fields are proof that ‘King Solomon’s Mines’ are somewhere nearby. There are rumours of all the usual suspects heading south on the trail. You smell the chance to run some new Africa hands ragged.
The Portuguese have discovered a massive oil field in Lake Nyasa. Known as ‘The Big Black One’, it is the largest find ever in Africa. The neighbouring Germans are fizzing with anger as it was discovered just over the border from their bit of the Lake. Given that they are as poor as church mice, they may prove to be helpful friends. Likoma island is the main Portugueser base, along with Mtengula on the eastern shore. The Germans are building a naval base at Wiedhafen and a fabrication plant at Sphinxhaven. They are also strengthening the large naval base at Bismarckburg. A chance for some mischief methinks.
Kenya colony remains fixated with the threat to the north. Having repelled Der Baron and The Beast they have reinforced their borders.
The Belgian Congo authorities will turn a blind eye to all but the most outrageous flaunting of International law and common decency, particularly the further upriver you go. Once you near German and particularly British territory then societal norms (of a sort) return. There is however one place where ‘traditional values’ still hold sway: everything and anything goes in Portuguese East Africa.
Central Africa remains criss-crossed by illegal slave routes and blood diamond traders. Most of the most notorious are Arabs from the east, and Belgians in the west. Many of these parties are large and heavily armed, and are rumoured to be in cahoots with local businessmen and state organisations.
It is now clear why Texas Ted bought up half the farms in Nyasaland. Oil. He has the extraction rights for the western half of Lake Nyasa. The corrupt British administration there, under Governor Richard Sims Donkins, turns a blind eye to most indiscretions, on account of this bonanza.
Brigadier Linn has been sent to Nyasaland to ‘root out corruption’ according to your sources in Mombasa. He is en route from Glasgow with the victorious Scottish Cup winning Airdrie team, of which he is chairman. They are playing exhibition games along the east coast of Africa, before heading for a big tournament in Nyasaland.
Mad Bob is on the run from the Texas Rangers for the murder of Rachel Weiss. Apparently he has asked for 345 other serious offences to be taken into consideration. Texas Ted is assumed to be helping them.
STEVE LANGAN 24/05/2011
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The Mote in God’s Eye Texas Ted brief
The lazy sun drifted downwards, giant and orange and shimmering, into the watery horizon over Fort Alston. You took a long draw on the slightly dry Cuban stoggie and reflected on your good fortune. While the rest of the League were tearing themselves apart up north, you were getting on with the important business of making money. Oil. Lots of it. More than you had seen for a generation. Silent beneath the surface all around you. You’d bought up 200,000 acres of dusty farmland (though some of the higher stuff made damned fine coffee) in the knowledge that you were sitting on a fortune. The Houston’s could always smell the stuff, and you were no exception. Of course, that bout of ‘Lee fever’ had knocked you for six. But you were over that now, and you had your ‘1st Texas Volunteers’, as fine a company of soldiers you had ever set eyes on. Black of course, every man jack of them. And you did get kindof used to the flattering cut of Lee’s frock coat.
Things have hotted up recently though. There’s oil everywhere round here, and you have been working it like an El Paso whore. Mind you, the Portuguese seem have to struck bigger than most. ‘The Big Black One’ they are calling it. Oddly low down on the lake by your calculations, but that’s for the Germans and Portuguesers to fight over. And diamonds to, though those seem to have only been found in the lawless lands of Belgian Congo. And as always, when men and unspeakable wealth come together, legends. This time it’s the story of King Solomon’s Mines. You thought that was only a dime novel, but stories abound of a lost kingdom somewhere in the three mountain ranges in the south east of Belgian Congo, some 600 miles north west of here. You think you’ll keep an eye on that one, and be ready to move if it looks like shaking out.
One final thing. You had a surprise visit from Major McClintock, commanding officer of ‘E’ company, The Texas Rangers. “Long way from El Paso Frank” as he walked onto you porch. “It’s Mad Bob, Ted. He’s gone too far this time. The murder of Rachel Weiss means there’s a rope with his name on it. He’s already wanted in 14 counties of Texas. He’s been found guilty of murder, armed robbery of citizens, state banks and post offices. Also, the theft of sacred objects, arson in a state prison, perjury, bigamy, deserting his wife and children, organising prostitution, kidnapping, extortion, receiving stolen goods, selling stolen goods, passing counterfeit money and counter to the laws of this state, the condemned is found guilty of using marked cards. He’s already been condemned to death ‘in absentia’. He has killed three Rangers in Mombassa recently. He had a man on the inside. We think it was El Mariachi. We have to get this guy. Are you with us?”
Hard to say no after all that bastard had put you through. “Yup”……..
Objectives
1. Make sure you get more than your fair share of the oil finds. This aint a game no more
2. Prove the existence – or otherwise – of King Solomon’s mines, and use all your guts and take all the glory if it does exist.
3. Get Mad Bob to the Texas Rangers, dead or alive.
Campaign Forces Available in Nyasaland: c.1,000 men
Texas Ted: +2 leader, ‘hero’, marksman Lieutenant Eastwood: +2 ‘hero’, marksman
Your personal bodyguard: the 1st Texas Volunteers 120 men. Loyal, brave and cannibals. Regimental tune is ‘The Rising of the Moon”.
12 HMG’s
2 armoured cars
12 unarmoured machine gun carriers
c.100 Texas oil men. Hard bastards, armed to the teeth with all the modern small arms available in the mid 1920’s
1 spotter plane. Armed with LMG’s and bomb racks and modern radio equipment
6 mountain guns, ex US crews
6 fast patrol boats, ex US navy crews.
The ‘Texas Belle’. A paddle steamer on Lake Nyasa, based at Fort Johnston. Armed with 2” pom poms, HMG’s and two AA guns.
About 400 native workers, who can use small arms
Intelligence
The ‘Pink’ will of course provide a fertile source of intelligence, however in addition to that:
- Brigadier Linn has been sent to Nyasaland to ‘root out corruption’ according to your sources in Mombasa. He is en route from Glasgow with the victorious Scottish Cup winning Airdrie team, of which he is chairman. They are playing exhibition games along the east coast of Africa, before heading for a big tournament in Nyasaland.
- The Governor of Nyasaland is Governor Richard Sims Donkins, a very good friend of yours. He has been very helpful in ‘opening up’ the country to oil
- There is some suggestion that Nuovo Portugal is behind a lot of the corruption in Nyasa Land. They’ve reportedly being using it as aback door smuggling route.
- There are rumours in Blantyre of a Vatican sponsored Italian expedition in Katanga Province, apparently on the trail of the whereabouts of ‘King Solomon’s Mines’. You find this hard to believe.
- There are strong rumours that the Germans and Portuguese are going to ‘kick off’. This will open more opportunities for you, which you are determined to take advantage of.
- The Austrians have found an astonishing treasure in the Rift Valley.
STEVE LANGAN 23/05/2011
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Now to plum my memory and match it to the photos.......
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Yep! Photos, chop chop! ;D
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That's a lot of briefing. Someone clearly needs to write a book. He has one in him ;)
Sooo looking forward to the piccies :)
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Glad to see you back Ignatieff!
May the coming year brings you more happiness ....
... and more photos for us!
Interesting stuff the briefings, you should edit them and why not try to write some book!
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Glad to see you back Ignatieff!
May the coming year brings you more happiness ....
... and more photos for us!
Interesting stuff the briefings, you should edit them and why not try to write some book!
Kind words all, and all the very best to you sir. Book, yes. At some point a must. However photos and lead adventures first!
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Can't wait to see. Been looking forward to this for a bit. =)
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Hallelujah! Excellent stuff Ignatieff-can't wait to see the full write-up. I'm sure it will be worth the wait.
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Massively entertaining and a pleasure to read. A fierce imagination!
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Emile Schaffhausen ??? lol Somebodies been watching Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
These are great stuff and really give a feel for the slight amount of insanity that's involved 8)
Now then, photos are the thing :)
cheers
James
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Tap tap tap tap tap, sigh, tap tap tap tap ::) :D
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Astonishing ...as usual :o
I don't know what is most wonderful in your games: all this scenarios, and/or all these miniatures and things on the tables, and/or to maintain such a group of players who follow you everywhere in this o_o
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Move 1
The first move saw a flurry of activity from the usual suspects, much of it, as always, wildly wide of the mark.....
Texas Ted, now in the last stages of recuperating from 'Lee Fever' (in which he believed he was the eponymous American Civil War General), spent the time half wisely. The other half was spent training his 'Texas' infantry, few of which realised the lunacy of their position..
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/The%20Mote%20in%20Gods%20Eye%20-%20Summer%202011/DSC01576.jpg)
"Oh dear sweet Jesus!", thought Ted to himself. "How am I going to explain this one away?"
The rest of time he spent in valuable intelligence gathering, speaking to the now aged Rider Haggard about the lost cities of south central Africa. Haggard directed him to religious archives in Lisbon, many of which had lain undisturbed for many hundreds of years, but much of which was destroyed in the great earthquake of 1755
Meanwhile tensions rose in and around Lake Nyasa. The Portuguese discovery of oil (the so-called 'Big Black One') just inside their territory saw German Tanganyika launch a series of increasingly aggressive air patrols over the Portuguese discovery. With terrible consequences...
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/The%20Mote%20in%20Gods%20Eye%20-%20Summer%202011/DSC01573.jpg)
The last moments of pilot officer Meyer, shot down over Lake Nyasa by a Tibetan zeppelin in Portuguese employ....
If only the Germans had discovered that the scheming Portuguesers had actually found the oil in German territory and had run an underground pipe along the lake bed to their side of the border!
Meanwhile in Greenock...the victorious Airdrie Scottish Cup winning team set sail for their tour of British African colonies, which was to climax in a four way tournament in British Nyasaland, where their chairman, Brigadier Linn, had just been appointed to root out the corruption that had taken hold there.
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/The%20Mote%20in%20Gods%20Eye%20-%20Summer%202011/DSC01506.jpg)
The Airdrie team set sail from Greenock harbour aboard the S.S. Vital Spark. 4,000 bottles of Lanliq and 10,000 Gasper ciggies in the hold was all the preparation the boys needed.
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/The%20Mote%20in%20Gods%20Eye%20-%20Summer%202011/DSC01503.jpg)
This being Greenock in the 192?'s, the cold hand of Bolshevism was never far away. On the quay side a mobile propoganda van shows agitprop films to a disinterested crowd of women, monkeys and slackers....
Whilst in the northern end of Kenya the Austrian explorer Colonel Rudi Schneiber was coming to terms with the enormity of his discovery - the lost majority of the Rosetta stone. The stone had in addition to the languages that we already know of had Mayan, Aztec and Chinese characters, as well as what looked like three sets of scientific formulae. There was also what looked like a crude map of a crater, and, most sinisterly of all, an inscription of the all seeing eye, as seen on the US one dollar bill. Perhaps naively, he had decided to try and transport the stone back through Abyssinia, where Haile Silassie's new best friend, Baron Ungern Von Sternberg, intercepted the Austrian party. In return for safe passage, the Austrians agreed to allow Der Baron to photograph the Stone. Der Loony couldn't believe his luck. This was the missing information he was looking for. He called for an immediate mobilisation of the Abyssinian and Mongol armies and prepared to march south. Schneiber meanwhile headed back to Vienna, to scientific acclaim, but having handed the initiative to the most dangerous of enemies.
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/The%20Mote%20in%20Gods%20Eye%20-%20Summer%202011/DSC01512.jpg)
"Baron Ungern Von Sternberg I presume?"
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/The%20Mote%20in%20Gods%20Eye%20-%20Summer%202011/DSC01513.jpg)
A better view of the Austrian transport, the M.V. Kaiseren Maria
Meanwhile, deep in the heart of the Kundelundu Mountains in south east Belgian Congo, the supposedly 'lost' expedition of Count Neri Caponi is fighting for its life. Cut off, thought destroyed by disease...or worse...this brave Italian column had come within touching distance of a fabulous lost civilization (the apparently Roman ruins can be seen in the distance), when it was ambushed in the notorious Kawalanga Pass by none other than the fierce cannibal chief 'Bugsda' and his flesh eating crazed hordes... (http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/The%20Mote%20in%20Gods%20Eye%20-%20Summer%202011/DSC01542.jpg)
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/The%20Mote%20in%20Gods%20Eye%20-%20Summer%202011/DSC01550.jpg)
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/The%20Mote%20in%20Gods%20Eye%20-%20Summer%202011/DSC01524.jpg)
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/The%20Mote%20in%20Gods%20Eye%20-%20Summer%202011/DSC01551.jpg)
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/The%20Mote%20in%20Gods%20Eye%20-%20Summer%202011/DSC01556.jpg)
The Cannibal King Bugsda (in the mask), orchestrates the dance of death in the valley below...
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/The%20Mote%20in%20Gods%20Eye%20-%20Summer%202011/DSC01560.jpg)
Meanwhile, the other players plotted and manouvered....
More soon....
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Fabulous cornucopia as usual.
And that does look like Bugsda :)
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Good Stuff-can't wait to see more
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Great stuff - and that was only turn 1!
Can't wait to see more!
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Cannibal chief's about right lol It's almost like having a bit part in an epic movie 8)...........................almost ;)
Excellent Mr DeMille, can't wait for the sequal 8)
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At least - so much inspirational stuff again!
:-*
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Better than cinema. And I am only halfway through yet. :o
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Brilliant stuff, as ever. :-*
Can't wait for further installments of the latest escapades of The League. 8)
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As good as always :-* :-*
cheers
James
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Cannibal chief's about right lol It's almost like having a bit part in an epic movie 8)...........................almost ;)
I think I bought the chief of you via ebay......
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Great stuff, but how do you keep track of it all :D
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I think I bought the chief of you via ebay......
Ha! So you did :D I'm proud to have contributed to such an epic 8)
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Great stuff, but how do you keep track of it all :D
The voices in my head keep me straight........That and rigor around the orders (no more than one page and no smaller than ten point fonts), flexible timescales and movement (think 'Cross Fire' on a grand scale), and a long commute to work each day (two hours each way). It helps to have a narrative worked out beforehand, and if possible lead and nudge the players to the denoumont. Of course that doesnt always happen, and that can be a good thing, but it helps to have a fall back. I normally brief the campaign in March/April and aim to get four moves in (one every three-four weeks) until we have a four day leadfest at mine first weekend in August. It can be a horrible, horrible slog at times, but the sheer lunacy and madness and joy that comes with it at the other end makes it (usually) worth it. Mad players helps. The worst are those that take it too seriously (one campaign wonders), the most annoying are those that don't hit the order deadlines (ditto), and the best are those that don't do the first, do do the second and are creative enough to contribute to our in-house newspaper, 'The Illustrated Kashgar Sporting Pink' (which is neither illustrated, contains sport or is Pink). I usually get four or five of those out a campaign as well.
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Ha! So you did :D I'm proud to have contributed to such an epic 8)
And great work it was on your part as well. He ate many a hearty meal over the course of the campaign!
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What kind of campaigns rules are you using? Homebrew? Do the players game or plan on a map?
I would like to run such a campaign with the guys from our club, but it seems so complicated and laborous ...
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Move 2
Move 2 started with a bang!
The headline news was that the Scottish Cup, the worlds oldest football cup competition trophy, had been stolen from the Vital Spark. Mad Bob was suspected, which wasn't far from the truth. However the genius of the man was that he then inserted himself onto the Airdrie ship as a reporter for the Scottish Daily Record. His plans were going to go much further than a mere shiny trophy with big handles. Chaos was his middle name, and chaos was what he as weaving across the African continent. From the hordes of migrant Spanish and Mexican workers he was flooding the German, Portuguese and British colonies, the poisoning of the water supplies (for which only he sold the cure!), to the myriad of smaller, even more convoluted, schemes. Professor Moriarty himself would have had a permanent migraine trying to keep up with his schemes within schemes!
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/The%20Mote%20in%20Gods%20Eye%20-%20Summer%202011/DSC01603.jpg)
Mad Bob, El Mariachi and a deal going down.......
Meanwhile on the continents flash point, Lake Tanganyika, the Portuguese continued to pump out their ill gotten black gains, whilst the Germans buzzed and sniped impotently. The Portuguese player was quick to deploy his new wealth in more modern weaponry and equipment, whilst the Germans scraped by with WWI surplus kit. Meanwhile the British in Nyasaland watched, but could do little else. The financial crisis (orchestrated by the Cheka through the 'KEACH' corporation in Geneva) meant that they had had to strip kit out f the colonies. The most modern weaponry they had was this magnificent, but somewhat outofdate F2b.
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/The%20Mote%20in%20Gods%20Eye%20-%20Summer%202011/P8073877.jpg)
The legendary Portuguese oil well 'The Big Black One' pumps out its black gold, crewed by impressed labour...
Meanwhile Texas Ted's research had turned up gold in the Lisbon archives. The little known and almost forgotten tract 'The Confession of Francisco Alvares', which details the Dominican friars last testament before he died in Rome in 1540. In it he picks up from the story of Prester John and details a journey deep into the darkest heart of Africa. He tells how he sailed along a great and mighty river which ran east before heading south. He then claimed to have travelled high into a jungle covered mountain range, where he discovered a lost city, a city of great beauty, with architectural styles that copied the Romans, the Greeks, Chinese and Aztecs. Great quantities of diamonds were strewn around the lace, and right at the centre of the city was a great pyramid, over 100' high, made entirely out of diamonds. All the languages of the world were reportedly carved on the pyramid. The one he could read, in Latin, was - or so he claimed - almost word for word that of the 'Fall' from the Old Testament. The final pages of Alvares's tract were missing...
1,000 miles to the east, a nighttime attack took place on Dar es Salaam. The Germans blamed the Portuguese, but arrested the Prince Von Hessen ("just in case!"), the Portuguese claimed that the attack as fabricated by the Germans themselves, whilst the real culprit, the British escaped detection. A Bristol bulldog, with hidden markings and sporting false floats, had carried out a daring night attack causing chaos, destroying one of the zeppelin pens where the Germans were attempting to reassemble some second hand Zeppelins.
Meanwhile on the Congo, the Belgian slaver and pervert approached Kisengwa, well on with his mission to capture the strategically critical town of Kabolo, where rumors of atrocities and a terrible plague, we're beginning to seep out...
In an apparently unrelated incident, an obscure tribe of Portuguese East African Ngoni had renamed their capital 'Hampden'....
Whilst up north, Der Baron continued to try and decipher the secret of he Rosetta stone.
Meanwhile in New York, Wall street had crashed, the mysterious Keach Corporation was rumoured to have made a killing, and the western powers were running short of cash and credit.
Whilst far in the east, a Japanese invasion fleet had taken the Seychelles.....
Confused? You should try and umpire this stuff (and I'm only relating half of what was going on!)!!!!!
The key, as I said before, is keeping every players orders to one page, keep the campaign rules simple (one page - remember this is 'kriegspielling'), and reward madness!!!
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/The%20Mote%20in%20Gods%20Eye%20-%20Summer%202011/DSC01641.jpg)
2 gallons of two stroke, 150 rounds of ammo, 3 grenades and a box full of berets. Not much to fight a colonial war, even in 192?
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/The%20Mote%20in%20Gods%20Eye%20-%20Summer%202011/DSC01630.jpg)
Meanwhile the 'Big Man' in Kabolo, Dr. Bogo Phd, plotted how to tighten his stranglehold.
More next time
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What kind of campaigns rules are you using? Homebrew? Do the players game or plan on a map?
I would like to run such a campaign with the guys from our club, but it seems so complicated and laborous ...
Admiral, good to hear from you!
See above and below for your answers. We use contemporary maps and some modern summaries from books of the period. I will try and load them up when i get home. Its neither complicated nor laborious, but does however need good preplanning, organisation and discipline. We are now in our tenth year, and I've run game of upto 16 players. Hard work at times, yes, but well worth it.
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Awesome stuff-More please!
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Wonderful stuff! :D
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Oh, wish I were there! Amazing stuff!
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Move 3
The players start to cotton on to the fact that the real game is somewhere in south east Belgian Congo.....The game is therefore to stop as many as possible from getting there.
Meantimes Mad Bob has kidnapped the entire Airdrie football team, the Germans have stepped up their attacks on the Portuguese oil rigs and imposed a state of lockdown on the colony following the British attack on their zeppelin bases (which they still havent figured out), V.I.Blackwood has stepped through 'The Heart of Darkness' into Kabolo, to where Stroganoff has pitched up on the outskirts (to the sound of Captain Haddock playing 'Blue Bonnets o'er the Border' on his bagpipes, Brigadier Linn has arrived in Nyasaland to take charge of the pitiful defences, and Der Baron cautiously makes his way down the western Rift valleys. Mad Bob meantimes provides the quote of the move on his planned heist on 'Suliemans of Zanzibar', the Bank of Choice to the criminal class of Africa:
"It’s a trap, I know it a trap, so why not set up my own trap. For this round find the bank, determine the best lay out to set the trap, allocated building for either fire destruction opposite or buildings to take over. Suss out the bank and ensure that it is obvious that we are scoping the place out for a robbery. Start building a tunnel to the bank and see if I can get some of my people inside as bank workers, cleaners and potential customers"...the rest, as they say, is history.....
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/The%20Mote%20in%20Gods%20Eye%20-%20Summer%202011/DSC01684.jpg)
Texas Ted briefs the Texas Rangers, hot on the tail of Mad Bob....
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/The%20Mote%20in%20Gods%20Eye%20-%20Summer%202011/DSC01670.jpg)
Von Stauffenberg gives up even the pretence of being friendly to the Portuguese and launches daylight raids on their oil installations
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/The%20Mote%20in%20Gods%20Eye%20-%20Summer%202011/DSC01661.jpg)
Von Hessen is 'arrested' by H.M. forces on Lake Tanganyika before being freed on the news he has been appointed German ambassador to the Belgian Congo
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Excellent! Keep it coming
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Ooo, very nice 8) :-*
The fireworks factory is boxed up and ready to go. Should be in the post tomorrow morning :)
cheers
James
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Delightfully dotty stuff! :-* "It's a Mad Mad, Mad Mad World" set in Africa! lol
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What great fun and craziness.
I really love it all. :-*
Thank you for sharing it all.
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wow! that setup was... great! =)
thanks for sharing!
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Ooo, very nice 8) :-*
The fireworks factory is boxed up and ready to go. Should be in the post tomorrow morning :)
cheers
James
Tremendous!
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Thanks for posting…a really inspiring game and report. :-* :-*