Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Back of Beyond => Topic started by: Ignatieff on March 02, 2013, 12:17:18 PM
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....Our last but one outing. A short campaign that kicked off end of October by email, and ended up with the usual three day lead carnage at the end of November at Ignatieff Towers...
Read on, dear reader, and prepare to be afraid, very afraid....
Durchfall.
Gotterundamerung in Urga
22-25th November 2012
“There's a one-eyed yellow idol
To the north of Kathmandu;
There's a little marble cross below the town;
And a brokenhearted woman
Tends the grave of 'Mad' Carew,
While the yellow god for ever gazes down”
(J.Milton Hayes 1911)
‘Mad Jack’ Carew did exist, was a British officer, was murdered, but was never officially seconded to Nepal. The idol in the poem disappeared from the north of Kathmandu in 192?.......
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/Durchfall045_zps6bed4461.jpg)
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Can't wait for more!
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more madness to come from the masters of BoB! I'm so impatient ;-)
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I say! Bravo that man :)
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And yes, before you ask, we do know what 'Durchfall' means. Its a phonetic play on 'Downfall', as the game is centred on Der Baron's last stand in Urga....
More in a minute....
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And yes, before you ask, we do know what 'Durchfall' means. Its a phonetic play on 'Downfall', as the game is centred on Der Baron's last stand in Urga....
More in a minute....
At last! Can't wait to see more.
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Durchfall – Der Baron’s Objectives & Army Lists
Background
After your crushing defeat at Chang Chun, there is an urgent need to restore order and reassert your authority. All the widely scattered forces of your Empire will need to be mobilized for the defence of Urga and the Fatherland!
Fortunately you have spent the ‘Years of Victory’ fortifying and modernizing your capital, and re-equipping your armies with the latest technologies. It is now time to declare total war on the Chinese Monkeys who won their lucky victory solely on the treachery of that swine Smirnoff. Oh how you look forward to devising a particularly creative and slow end to that miserable slug!
As you sat at your desk tending to your Bonsai plants on the third floor of the Imperial Palace, you momentarily wondered what those files were doing fluttering down from the surrounding government buildings. And from somewhere nearby, the sporadic sound of automatic gunfire punctured the otherwise still and bright October Sunday afternoon. Nothing too unusual in any of this you reasoned. ‘Teapot’ up to a bit of ‘house keeping’ no doubt. Somewhere in the far distance you heard what might be the crump of artillery. More likely it was a thunderstorm, much prevalent at this time of year.
The bronze doors of your office swung open rather too quickly. There was a sound of a commotion, over which the distinctive bull-dog growl of the British Ambassador, Sir Redvers Bullingdon, could be heard barking “I will see him now!”..Bullingdon and his military attaché in a smart Royal Navy uniform marched the full length of your office without the usual kowtow or formalities.
‘Your Excellency, I must speak with you now on a matter of the utmost importance and urgency’. Bullingdon’s face was crimson, never a good sign.
‘I am afraid, Herr Baron, the games up. The Chinese have invaded Mongolia from Manchuria in overwhelming force. HMG have it on good authority that a Bolshevik task force in poised near Irkutsk. Your armies are melting away, and HMG cannot stand idly by and watch the wanton slaughter of innocent civilians whilst your crazed cabal of advisors and psychopaths continue to delude you as to the real situation. I must therefore demand that you announce your abdication today, in return for which HMG will offer you a generous pension and an estate in Yorkshire’.
You knew for a fact that there were only some 150 British nationals in Urga, and maybe the same again throughout Mongolia. You also knew that the high profile Sir Harry ‘Boy’ Flashman had just arrived on a trade mission for his ‘Flashman Rubber Coy’ enterprise. Useful pawns all……
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/Durchfall074_zps8c6fd934.jpg)
Urga in happier times....
Objectives
1. Destroy the invading armies and reassert your authority in the region. Your hero, ‘Alt Fritz’, had faced much worse odds in his reign and had always prevailed. You will do likewise.
2. Protect your world famous ‘eight wonders of the modern world’ collection from marauding armies. These are scattered around Urga to impress your populace and awe visiting dignitaries. These are as follows:
- The Buddha of Kathmandu. A 12’ high metal idol of great age gifted to you by the people of Nepal
- The Tusks of Jonah’s whale. A present to you from a grateful Haile Selassie
- The real tomb of Genghis Khan. Recovered from a secret location south of Urga
- Sarcophagus of Ramesis II. A trophy from your successful Egyptian expedition a few years back. An object of great mystical power.
- The Kaiser’s Imperial train. Purchased from the German government in 191?. A lesson in hubris.
- ‘Kosmotechnische Gesellschaft’. An ancient meteor crystal, presented to you by Professor Houston Stewart Chamberlin, in which you believe that the theory of ‘Cosmic Ice’ will be proven before too long.
- The Spear of Destiny (naturlich!)
- The Ark of the Covenant. On loan from your good friend Halie Selassie.
(All of the above is curated for you by the esteemed British scientist, Houston Stewart Chamberlin)
3. Capture Smirnoff alive (and then the fun really begins!)
Armies
Army organization and movement: Note that the ‘Brigade’ is the smallest unit of manoeuvre on the map. All Brigades are assumed to take appropriate precautions on the march, at camp and for reconnaissance, etc. Army Groups are purely administrative units, and do not need to be kept together.
Total Army strength: c.14,000. Broken down: 6,100 infantry; 3,300 cavalry; 42 field guns; 42 HMGs; 8 tanks; 14 armoured cars; 8 un-armoured cars; 5 aircraft
1. Army Group West (3 Brigades).
Location: Kashgar. CinC: Chuffer Campbell. Morale: excellent
1st Asiatic cavalry Brigade: 800 sabres. Mixed regular white and irregular
Khirgiz horsemen. 1 battery of horse artillery (six guns).
103rd Infantry Brigade: 800 rifle in 3 battalions. One regular white officer,
one conscript Mongolian, one Chinese. 1 battery of HMG’s (six guns).
17th Shock Brigade: 600 rifles in 3 battalions. Two regular white officer,
one ex-German POWs. 2 batteries of HMGs (12 guns)
1st air reconnaissance squadron: three mono/bi planes. Fighters/light
bombers. Ex German and White pilots.
2. Army Group Centre (4 Brigades)
Location: Urga. CinC: Der Baron. Morale: Good
3rd Imperial Guard Brigade: 500 rifles in 2 battalions. Two white officer
battalions. 1 battery of HMG’s (6 guns). 1 battery of field artillery (six guns,
vehicle towed). 1 attached company of ‘cider men’.
101st Asiatic Cavalry Brigade: 600 sabres in three regiments. 1 Tibetan
Bodyguard regiment, 1 Chahar Mongol regiment, 1 mounted white officers
regiment. 1 battery of horse artillery (six guns). 2 batteries of tchankas
(eight carts).
32nd Combined Mechanised Brigade: 24 armoured vehicles, split (roughly)
1/3 steam tanks, 1/3 armoured cars, 1/3 unarmoured cars.
Colonel Panasonics Brigade of Observation (Shep): 500 rifles in 2
battalions (one marine, one regular infantry). 1 Cavalry Regiment (200
sabres). 3 armoured cars, 1 battery of field guns (six guns), 1 battery of
HMG’s (six guns). One aircraft (fighter/bomber).
3. Army Group North (2 Brigades)
Location: Kiakhta (due north of Urga on the Russian border). CinC: Colonel Lamas. Morale: Good
13th Border Brigade: 1000 rifles in four battalions. 2 Regular white Russian, 2 irregular Mongolians. 1 battery of field guns (six guns) 1 battery of HMGs (six guns)
77th Asiatic Cavalry Brigade: 500 sabres in 2 regiments. 1 white Russian, 1 irregular Tartar.
4. Army Group East (4 Brigades)
Location: Ude (SE of Urga). CinC: Colonel Alexitov. Morale: Good
11th Chinese Volunteer Brigade: 600 rifles in three regular battalions. 1 battery of HMG’s (six guns).
33rd Mongol Brigade: 800 rifles in two irregular battalions
2nd Asiatic Cavalry Brigade: 600 sabres in three regiments. 1 regular white officers, 1 regular Chahar Mongol, 1 irregular Mongol. 3 armoured cars. One battery of field artillery (six guns) 1 attached recon biplane.
4. Army Group South (3 Brigades)
Location: Nom (c.500 miles south west of Urga). CinC: Colonel Xin.
Morale: poor
1st Chinese Volunteer Brigade: 500 rifles in two regular battalions. 1 battery
of field guns (six guns).
2nd Chinese ‘Red Spear’ Gang Brigade: 800 mixed armed irregulars in 2
battalions.
Gobi Golden Horde: 600 sabres of 3 irregular Mongol cavalry regiments. 1
attached battery of HMG’s (six guns)
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/d779c1ab-077d-4fa5-a420-55794ad694e5_zps3d585ddd.jpg)
Der Baron in Asiatic Cavalry Division uniform...
Intelligence
You estimate the Chinese army coming from Chang Chun to be 10-15,000 strong. It has a powerful mechanised component and a strong air-force.
You have less knowledge of what might be coming from Russia, and from what direction, but an army of c.10,000 is possible. Rumour is that the army is largely made up of released convicts and poorly motivated conscripts.
The Dalai Lama may still be a friend, though he has retreated to Lhasa after the bruising defeat at Chang Chun. He will take some coaxing to play his part in propping up your regime. He may be able to deploy a quick reaction force (via zeppelin) of c.5,000 men.
The British have one company of Sikhs (c.120 men) plus a few machine gunsdeployed in and around their compound in Urga.
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/DSC00464.jpg)
Der Baron on manoeuvres....
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Durchfall – British Objectives and Forces
Background
Brigadier Linn’s tale….
You travelled down to London on the overnight from Glasgow Central. By the time you stepped off at Kings Cross, London was in a regular summer drizzle.
The taxi took you straight to the Foreign Office. Sir Walter did not keep you waiting long. But when his secretary took you to his room you would not have recognized the man you had last known eighteen months before.
His big frame seemed to have dropped flesh and there was a stoop in the square shoulders. His face had lost its rosiness and was red in patches, like that of a man who gets too little fresh air. His hair was much greyer and very thin about the temples, and there were lines of overwork below the eyes. But the eyes were the same as before, keen and kindly and shrewd, and there was no change in the firm set of the jaw.
'We must on no account be disturbed for the next hour,' he told his secretary. When the young man had gone he went across to both doors and turned the keys in them.
'Well, Brigadier Linn,' he said, flinging himself into a chair beside the fire. 'How do you like farming?'
'Right enough,' you said, 'though this isn't just the kind of profession I would have picked myself. It's a comfortless, muddy business. But it keeps me outdoors and fit. I do miss the old days however'.
Sir Walter Bullivant was looking unusually worried. On his desk you noticed three files. Yours you recognised. Beside it was an enormously thick file with the name 'Lord Gordon Grey - Top Secret', as well as a well thumbed copy of the pornographic novel, '50 shades of Hodden' that he was widely thought to have authored. The third one Sir Walter picked up and handed to you. 'Captain Jack Carew, R.N.' You noticed it had been red inked, indicating a closed case or deceased agent.
'We thought we would never have to reopen this case. However intelligence brought to us by our pundits' - he gestured to a shadowy figure squatting in the corner. 'Good God, a Pathan!' you thought to yourself - 'has made us think again. You see Carew was on the trail of a rumoured new technology, which would have changed the course of the war. However he was murdered north of Kathmandu before he could report back, and the case lapsed'.
He walked across to a cabinet and took out what looked like a dull grey piece of metal. 'We've just had this sent to us by our man in Manchuria'.
He tossed it onto the desk. You noticed it made no sound when it landed. 'Go on, pick it up'. He sounded strangely irritable. The metal was remarkably light, paper thin and incredibly flexible. Like aluminium, but much more so.
What happened next almost finished you off. You heard a click and looked up to see Sir Walter Bullivant, Head of the British Secret Service, pointing a .455 Webley revolver straight at your chest. Before you could react he pulled the trigger. You felt a slight shudder as the bullet hit the metal,which you held instinctively in from of your chest. But nothing else. Once you recovered your self composure (apart from a slight moistness 'fore and aft'), and realised that you weren't dead, you noticed that the metal had gone rock hard and stiff, and what looked like a copper splodge had appeared where the slug had hit it. 'Good God!' you muttered.
'God has nothing to do it' came a well educated voice from the Pathan who was now standing next to you. 'Lord Gordon Grey, at your service'. His hand was slightly clammy, but in the circumstances you barely noticed. He had a whiff of the night about him, and made you feel damned uneasy.
Bullivant coughed. 'Lord Grey here was on the trail of the original source, which was meant to be a strange statue - of the music hall ditty fame - near where Carew was murdered. But when he got there it had gone. Bought by none other than Baron Ungern Von Sternberg, the Monster of Mongolia himself. Locals said it was an offering to the new Ghengis Khan, and that Sternberg's agents paid handsomely for it'.
Grey place a small scrap of paper on the desk.
'They said it was 12 feet tall and looked like this'. It was charcoal sketch of a queer, ancient looking thing, yellowish grey, with just one large green eye in the centre of its head. It looked Mesopotamian or Summerian to you. 'And it was made of the metal that just saved your life'. You noticed the metal had returned to its previous flimsy state.
'We have to get our hands on it, or stop anyone else doing the same' said Bullivant, sounding purposeful. 'The Bolsheviks, or the Germans, would pay a fortune for this. The worrying thing is that we fear the Germans may already have. This piece of metal came from the remains of a new type of multi-barralled mortar that our old friend Von Stauffenberg deployed for the first time at the Battle of Chang Chun. He disappeared shortly afterward, and hasn't been heard of since'.
You asked the obvious question. 'How am I....'
'we' interjected Grey - you really weren't sure about this odd cove.
'How are we meant to get to Outer Mongolia, which is currently in the throws of a vicious war with its Chinese neighbours, and gain access to Urga, the most desolate and dangerous city on this earth, and return with a 20' high metal statue?'.
Bullivant smiled. 'we shall have to manufacture an...'incident'. Our ambassador there, Sir Redvers Bullingdon, has been given instructions to demand that Ungern Von Sternberg abdicate immediately to avert a bloody Civil War. We know this will throw the Monster into a rage, and he will seize Sir Redvers and the embassy staff and hold them hostage - or worse. We will, reluctantly, need to respond. Honour of the Empire and all that. Conveniently we have a crack Brigade of Indian Army troops just recently arrived in Shanghai from Calcutta. There's plenty of motor transport, the terrain once you are out of China is as flat as a pancake, and here are the necessary passes to clear the various warlord factions'. He laid down a fan of elaborately embroidered, tasseled and sealed documents. '20,000 gold sovereigns should also ease your passage, and Lord Grey here knows the lay of the land, lingo and the natives like his own Aberdeenshire estate'. Grey stayed silent.
This was now beginning to sound like your kind of adventure. 'One thing however'. Sir Walter was putting on his Crombie coat by this point. 'You will need to get in, free the hostages and seize the statue before it all kicks off'.
'Kicks off?' you asked.
'Yes, there are rumoured to be 20,000 Chinese and White Russians advancing from Manchuria, and half that number again of Bolsheviks heading over the western border. Looks like it'll be a proper scrum. Goodbye'. The door closed, and you were left with that leering loon Grey and the most madcap scheme of your career so far......
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/P1000160_zpsb3ec9f37.jpg)
Linn inspects the RGH
Your objectives
1. Recover the statue and bring it safely back into British hands.
2. If necessary, free the British hostages, and get them to safety.
3. Minimise British military casualties.
Your forces
'Task force Achilles' c.1,000 men all in..
CinC, Brigadier Donald Linn
2IC, Lord Gordon Grey
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/Durchfall029_zpsbfd156ff.jpg)
Linn in the flesh...(behind him, probably picking his pocket, is Count Neri Cappone, the Italian adventurer. Any resemblance between him and Paul Eaglestone of Empress Miniatures is purely coincidental...)
1 squadron of Skinners Horse (80 sabres)
1 squadron of Royal Gloucs Hussars (80 sabres)
1 coy of Gordon Highlanders (120 rifles)
1 coy of Argylls (120 rifles)
1 coy of Hampshires (120 rifles)
1 coy of Royal Marines (120 rifles)
1 coy of Royal Engineers (80 men)
(n.b. all infantry and engineers are truck mounted)
1 battery of QF 18 pdrs (six guns)
1 battery of 4" mountain guns (six guns)
2 sections of HMGs (12 vickers)
2 troops of RR armoured cars (Duke of Westminsters own). 6 cars.
2 troops of unarmoured cars (model T's and the like) 6 cars.
2 aircraft (Bristol bullet and Fe2b)
Further Intelligence:
- Lord Grey runs a semi-private 'pundit' system throughout China and east-central asia which if properly interrogated can give you accurate and timely information.
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/32efb463-c325-4db3-8f99-74b0b1a993ac_zpsb6054282.jpg)
A rare, grainy, snap of Lord Grey...
- Der Baron's total forces are estimated at c.10,000 men, but are widely scattered and of poor quality after his defeat at Chang Chun. Main concentrations are in Urga and Kashgar, one of his few remaining outposts.
- The Tibetans have pulled support from his cause.
- British Intelligence understand that a number of pseudo-private operations are being mounted to 'rescue' the statue. Most of these however are state sponsored, in one way or the other.
- You, Lord Grey and Task Force Achilles start in Shanghai, in October 192?
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Keep the story coming! I need to know what happens next!!!
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(https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQQA6bNa4WlmfIqwIMePJVd0Jtn_BXRB_6WybwaZAoxisGZTKssvw)
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OK! :D :D Always happy to see the Kriegspielers in action!!
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Absolutely love the Kriegspieler's stories. Surely someone in the UK needs to hire a good accountant, so I can move over there and join this group!! Keep the narrative coming!!! Great stuff.
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Steve,
Surely this is canon, so we will require a bottle list and a picture of the medal that the Beast awarded himself!!!!
LB
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Steve,
Surely this is canon, so we will require a bottle list and a picture of the medal that the Beast awarded himself!!!!
LB
The government changed the law after our last bottle count was posted ;) , so I'm afraid we cannot reveal the numbers, just to say they are 'modest'. The Beats wasnt in this game (he was playing his later ego, Col. Panasonic, 'ally' to Der Baron), but I can reveal top secret pics taken of the new Bukharan armoured Brigade on manoeuvre somewhere near Samarkand.....
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/Durchfall072_zps4db2b7d0.jpg)
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Durchfall – Chinese objectives and forces
Background
Chang Chun: June 192?
Your bum was getting sore. Sitting on this wooden horse holding a stick skywards for hours on end. Maybe you should have opted for ‘The Murat of Manchuria’. It scanned better as well. However Smirnoff had wanted that title for himself, so you went up a gear: ‘The Napoleon of Manchuria’. The painting is to be your version of ‘Napoleon crossing the Alps’, or as it is going to be in your case: ‘Wanger wading the Yangtze’, in anticipation of your final triumph. But before then Mongolia was the prize. Destroy Der Baron and take Mongolia and all China would prostrate itself before you. It was that simple. And following the capture of Chang Chun and its fabulous wealth you have been able to put together a modern army the likes of which had not been seen since the greatest days of the Ming dynasty. You, Hu Jjin Wanger, are the man of the moment. Time now to seize your destiny!
Objective
Capture Urga and destroy the forces of Der Baron once and for all. It would be convenient if Der loony could be included in the collateral damage as well.
Forces
Army organization and movement: Note that the ‘Brigade’ is the smallest unit of manoeuvre on the map. All Brigades are assumed to take appropriate precautions on the march, at camp and for reconnaissance, etc. Larger formations are purely administrative units, and do not need to be kept together. Movement is ‘a la Kriegspiel’, i.e. variable.
Total Army strength: c. 17,000. Broken down: 8,000 infantry; 4,800 cavalry; 78 field guns/mortars; 54 HMGs; 18 heavy guns; 108 armoured cars; 12 tanks; 12 aircraft
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/P1000173_zps4b360610.jpg)
Wanger's army on the march from Chang Chun. The British resident in the city described it as "An open sewer running through Manchuria. Each village could smell it several hours before it arrived"
1. Wanger’s Imperial Guard Division (4 Brigades)
Location: Chang Chun. CinC: General Foo Linn. Morale: excellent
1st Armoured cavalry Brigade: 24 armoured and unarmoured cars.
1st White Russian Bodyguard Brigade: 900 rifles in 3 battalions, 2 field batteries (12 guns), 2 HMG batteries (12 HMGs)
1st Chinese Assault Brigade: 1200 rifles and SMGs in 3 battalions, 2 field batteries (6 guns, 6 mortars), 2 rocket batteries (12 rockets), 2 HMG batteries (12 HMGs)
1st heavy artillery Brigade: 12 x 150mm howitzers, animal towed
1st Guards Air Observation: 6 light bombers/fighters
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/P1000171_zpsaca11c3e.jpg)
Wanger takes the salute...
2. Schneiber’s Chinese Storm Division (5 Brigades)
Location: Kirin. CinC: Colonel Rudi Schneiber. Morale: good
114th Infantry Brigade: 900 rifles in 3 battalions, 1 HMG battery (6 HMGs)
27th infantry Brigade: 900 rifles in 3 battalions, 1 field battery (6 mortars)
13th Austrian Brigade: 1200 rifles in three battalions, 1 HMG battery (6 HMGs)
3rd Cavalry Brigade: 900 sabres in three regiments (one camel mounted), 1 attached horse artillery battery (6 guns)
32nd heavy artillery battery (independent): 6 x 200m guns. Animal towed.
3. 13th Division (3 Brigades)
Location: Harbin. CinC: General Chin. Morale: fair
35th infantry Brigade: 800 rifles in 3 battalions, 1 HMG battery (6 HMGs)
125th infantry Brigade: 1200 rifles in 4 battalions
Tartar auxilieries: 900 sabres in 3 regiments (irregulars)
4. Count Pierre Smirnoff’s White Cavalry Division (4 Brigades)
Location: Chang Chun. CinC: Smirnoff himself. Morale: excellent
Don Cossack Brigade: 1200 sabres in 3 regiments. 2 batteries of tchankas (12 carriages)
White Russian Lieb Cavalry Brigade : 900 sabres in 3 regiments. 1 horse artillery battery (6 guns)
Kazakh Cavalry Brigade: 900 irregular sabres
350th motorised infantry Brigade: 900 White Russian rifles in 3 battalions, in a variety of motorised (and un-motorised) transport, 2 field batteries (12 guns)
Air observation squadron: 3 light aircraft
5. Count Pierre Smirnoff’s Armoured cavalry Division (4 Brigades)
Location: Chang Chun. CinC: Col Stefan Von Ravenstien. Morale: excellent
1st Armoured Brigade: 24 assorted armoured and unarmoured vehicles.
2nd Armoured Brigade: 24 assorted armoured and unarmoured vehicles
13th Armoured Brigade: 36 assorted armoured and unarmoured vehicles.
27th Heavy Tank Brigade: 12 tanks, 2 field batteries (12 guns)
Air observation squadron: 3 light aircraft.
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/P1000174_zps730fbf13.jpg)
Another view of the Urga liberation Army...
Intelligence
Der Baron’s army is rumoured to be in poor morale, dispersed around Mongolia, and short of equipment and ammunition.
His three best forces are in Urga, Ulan Nor and Kashgar, with around 3-4,000 men in each, all dug in.
Urga is rumoured to be being heavily fortified.
The British are rumoured to be allying with Der Baron. Certainly a British Brigade of c1,000 men ahs set off from Shanghai.
The Trans-Siberian railway line is under Red control as far as Irkutsk. Irkutsk itself is garrisoned by elements of the Siberian Soviet. The area east of there, and in particularly Trans Baikalia, is contested territory, with White bandit forces supported by elements of American and Japanese forces much in evidence.
Trotsky has put a bounty of 10,000 gold sovereigns on the head of Smirnoff.
A Red Army of c.25,000 men, well equipped, is assembling in Moscow.
....more soon......
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Durchfall – an interesting proposition to Smirnoff….
The fat chinaman in the opium den was emphatic. ‘This war is not about conquest, its about loot!’ he screamed, as he tottered unsteadily. What was that about a chinaman and opium pipe and a Scotsman and a bottle of whisky, you thought to yourself.
‘There are eight magnificent treasures in Urga, and some of them are possessed of the most amazing supernatural powers…’. With that he flailed round and fell straight on his flat yellow face. ‘And all of them worth a fortune!’ he screamed through a burble of blood and snot. Don’t know where he gets the energy from you thought, as the yellow dragon wrapped you in its cotton wool charms..
He then proceeded to list them, which by some quirk of drug abuse, you still remembered next morning:
- The Buddha of Kathmandu. A 12’ high metal idol of great age gifted to Der Baron by the people of Nepal
- The Tusks of Jonah’s whale. A present to Der Baron from a grateful Haile Selassie
- The real tomb of Genghis Khan. Recovered from a secret location south of Urga
- Sarcophagus of Ramesis II. A trophy from Der Barons Egyptian expedition a few years back. An object of great mystical power.
- The Kaiser’s Imperial train. Purchased from the German government in 191?. A lesson in hubris.
- ‘Kosmotechnische Gesellschaft’. An ancient meteor crystal, presented to Der Baron by Professor Houston Stewart Chamberlin, in which he believes that the theory of ‘Cosmic Ice’ will be proven before too long.
- The Spear of Destiny (naturlich!)
- The Ark of the Covenant. On loan from Der Baron’s good friend Halie Selassie.
Possibilities, possibilities…..
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/Durchfall105_zps9f172843.jpg)
Smirnoff's Armoured division in action around Urga
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Task Force Achilles motorised column struggling through a Chinese town...
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/P1000188_zpsb409b36b.jpg)
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/P1000177_zps9c989320.jpg)
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/P1000179_zpscdc74241.jpg)
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Durchfall – Bolshevik Objectives & Army Lists
Background
“And don’t even think of coming back if you fail this time!”
Trotsky slammed the heavy wooden doors of his office behind him as the two of you marched out. The mission was clear and simple. ‘Bring Der Baron back to Moscow in an iron cage, and secure Urga for the Revolution’. He had reiterated this over and over again. Obsessively, even by his standards. Urga was to be the jumping off point for the eastern thrust of revolutionary socialism. Its backward nomadic economy, combined by the ‘White Terror’ of Der baron and his cronies had made it ripe for Bolshevism. Trotsky was also at pains to point out that failure to win Mongolia would let either the old Imperial powers into Russia by the back door, or, even more sinisterly, the emerging regional super-power of Japan. None must succeed. And the International Revolution must prevail.
The overnight train to Ekaterinburg that snowy November evening was much busier than normal…..
3rd MONGOLIAN LIBERATION ARMY
Army organization and movement: Note that the ‘Brigade’ is the smallest unit of manoeuvre on the map. All Brigades are assumed to take appropriate precautions on the march, at camp and for reconnaissance, etc. Larger formations are purely administrative units, and do not need to be kept together. Movement is ‘a la Kriegspiel’, i.e. variable.
Total army strength: c.12,000. Broken down: 5,000 rifles, 2,300 sabres, 30 field guns, 48 HMGs, 12 tanks, 24 armoured cars, 12 aircraft, 1 armoured train, 3 unarmoured trains, 24 heavy guns.
Starts: Railway depot, Ekaterinburg, near the scene of the ‘cleansing’ of the Romanov pestilence.
CinC: Comrade Admiral V.I.Blackwood 2 I.C.: Comrade General Red Ted
Kukov’s Armoured Train Division
CinC: Major Kukov. Morale: excellent
1 x Armoured train, Capable of transporting one infantry/armoured cavalry Brigade or half a cavalry Brigade or six aircraft. Made up of 2 armoured wagons with field guns and LMGs. Transport wagons armed with LMG’s.
3 x unarmoured transport trains: each capable of carrying one infantry/armoured cavalry Brigade or half a cavalry Brigade or six aircraft.
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/P1000191_zpsac2932ea.jpg)
Russian armoured train, flanked by cavalry columns steaming through Siberia...
Spetlov’s Siberian Shock Brigade – 1300 rifles, 12 field guns & 12 HMGs
CinC: Colonel Spetlov. Morale: Excellent
1st Siberian Shock Battalion – 400 rifles
2nd Siberian Shock Battalion – 400 rifles
7rth Latvian Rifles – 200 rifles
Crimean Fleet Sailors Assault Battalion – 300 rifles
Red Fleet Independent HMG Battery –12 HMGs
1st Artillery Regiment – 12 field guns & 12 200mm off table guns
Rudnev’s Central Asian Independent Assault Brigade – 1800 rifles
CinC: Major Rudnev. Morale: poor
1st Assault Battalion – 500 rifles
11th Rifle Battalion – 500 rifles
13th Rifle Battalion – 400 rifles
14th Rifle Battalion – 400 rifles
Blinov’s Independent Cavalry Brigade – 900 sabres and 12 HMGs
CinC: Colonel Blinov. Morale: good
1st Turkistan Cavalry Regiment – 300 sabres
2nd Turkistan Cavalry Regiment – 300 sabres
10th Turkistan Cavalry Regiment – 300 sabres
1st Independent Cavalry MG Battery – 12 Tchankas
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/P1000203_zpsb9b932bf.jpg)
Lobovski’s Cossack Brigade – 1400 sabres, 6 field guns & 12 HMGs
CinC: Major Lobovski. Morale: poor
13th Crimean Cossack Regiment – 500 sabres
48th Cossack Regiment – 250 sabres
49th Cossack Regiment – 250 sabres
183rd Cavalry Regiment – 400 sabres
184th Cavalry Regiment – 400 sabres
4th Independent Cavalry MG Battery –12 Tchankas
135th horse artillery battery – 6 field guns
Duko’s “Defenders of the Revolution” Brigade: 1900 rifles, 12 field guns & 12 HMGs
CinC: Captain Duko. Morale: fair
3rd Cheka Battalion – 500 rifles
5th rifle battalion – 300 rifles
6th rifle battalion – 300 rifles
7th Red Sea Fleet Sailors Battalion – 300 rifles
Red guard Virgins Battalion – 500 rifles
171st field artillery battery – 6 field guns & 6 x 150mm off-table guns
172nd field artillery battery – 6 field guns & 6 x 150mm off table guns
350th Independent HMG battery – 12 guns
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/P1000200_zps3632a27c.jpg)
Red sailors salute their Comrades in the armoured car squadron!
Kolesnikov’s Armoured Cavalry Brigade – 36 armoured vehicles.
CinC: Colonel Kolesnikov. Morale: good
1st Recce Troop – 12 armoured cars
2nd Recce Troop – 12 armoured cars
Heavy Cavalry Troop – 12 tanks
Uncle Yuri’s “flying Avenger” air corps
CinC: Comrade pilot General, Yuri Gagarin. Morale: excellent
6 light bombers (mostly Junkers)
6 attack aircraft (mostly Fokkers)
Intelligence
After Der Baron’s crushing defeat at the hands of the Hu Jjing Wanger at Chang Chun, it’s rumoured that his army is in poor morale, dispersed around Mongolia, and short of equipment and ammunition.
His two best forces are in Urga and Kashgar, with around 2-3,000 men in each.
Urga is rumoured to be being heavily fortified.
The British are rumoured to be organising an expedition to Urga. They currently have a small garrison there.
The Chinese victor of Chang Chun, Hu Jjing Wanger, is rumoured to marching on Urga with a force of c.15,000 men, including the traitor Smirnoff. Trotsky has offered a personal reward of 10,000 British gold sovereigns for capturing or killing Smirnoff.
The Trans-Siberian railway line is under Red control as far as Irkutsk. Irkutsk itself is garrisoned by elements of the Siberian Soviet. The area east of there, and in particularly Trans Baikalia, is contested territory, with White bandit forces supported by elements of American and Japanese forces much in evidence.
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/P1000201_zps8f9b438d.jpg)
Bolshevik might on the march!
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/P1000193_zps67ffb511.jpg)
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/P1000202_zpsa665f131.jpg)
Artillery and machine gun coys defend the vital river crossing
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Durchfall – Tibetan objectives and forces
Background
Lake Namsto: October 192?
Background
The snows were early this year. A hard winter is coming. As you gazed out across the tranquil blue waters of Lake Namsto you couldn’t help but thinking you should have done more to stop things getting to this. The statue of the ‘spaceman’ had stood in the foothills of Kathmandu for over 1,000 years. It had been venerated by locals for all that time. However Der baron’s fame, and the grinding poverty of the region had made his generous offer of cash, and crops and protection in return for ‘looking after’ the statue in Urga seem reasonable at the time. Certainly Der baron didn’t know its real significance. He didn’t know that it talked to a place where men could move freely through time. He didn’t know that the statue was made by natives who stumbled across a man from the 23rd century and who worshipped him until he went back to whence he came. But the statue has gone, and Von Stauffenberg has discovered its secret: a metal from the future so powerful and flexible that it could change the course of world history. You thought at the time, during the battle of Chang Chun, that you had destroyed the mortar that Von Stauffenberg had made from the sample he had ‘found’. But perhaps not. There are too many armies now headed for Urga, and not just for the conquest of Mongolia. You must stop them all from finding what they are looking for, and destroy the statue for all time. The balance must be restored.
Objective
Stop the competing factions from acquiring the ‘one eyed yellow idol’, and return the universe to its natural order.
Help your fellow Buddhists against the untrammelled evils of communism, capitalism, greed and despair.
Armies
Army organization and movement: Note that the ‘Brigade’ is the smallest unit of manoeuvre on the map. All Brigades are assumed to take appropriate precautions on the march, at camp and for reconnaissance, etc. Larger formations are purely administrative units, and do not need to be kept together. Movement is ‘a la Kriegspiel’, i.e. variable.
Army totals: c.10,000. Split: 6,000 infantry; 1200 cavalry; 200 war dogs; 12 field guns; 6 jingals; 6 flametrhowers, 18 HMGs. Plus 6 attack zeppelins to transport and support this force.
1. Lhasa Horde (3 Brigades)
Location: Lhasa. CinC: Hunga Zin. Morale: excellent
Golden Warrior Brigade: 900 ‘Golden warrior’ monks in 3 battalions
Lhasa Defence Brigade: 1200 British trained regular infantry in 3 battalions. 1 attached battery of HMGs (6 guns), 1 attached battery of field guns (6 guns)
Serene Lake of Buddha Brigade: 1200 Tibetan irregular infantry in 2 battalions, 1 battery of attached jingals (6 guns)
2. Golden Sun Horde (3 Brigades)
Location: Lhasa. CinC: Anil Kamala. Morale: excellent
Tranquillity Brigade: 1200 Tibetan lancers with 200 war dogs
Noble life of Peace Brigade: 1500 Tibetan irregular infantry in 2 battalions, plus 6 flame throwers
Young Sons of Calmness Brigade: 1200 British trained regular infantry in 3 battalions. 2 batteries of HMGs (12 guns) and 1 field battery (6 guns)
Intelligence
Der Baron’s army is rumoured to be in poor morale, dispersed around Mongolia, and short of equipment and ammunition. He has about 8,000 effectives.
The Chinese are invading with an army of c.25,000, from Manchuria
The Trans-Siberian railway line is under Red control as far as Irkutsk. Irkutsk itself is garrisoned by elements of the Siberian Soviet. The area east of there, and in particularly Trans Baikalia, is contested territory, with White bandit forces supported by elements of American and Japanese forces much in evidence.
Trotsky has put a bounty of 10,000 gold sovereigns on the head of Smirnoff.
A Red Army of c.25,000 men, well equipped, is assembling in Moscow.
Trotsky and the British are the two most interested parties in the statue, but there may be more. The Chinese want Mongolia to give prestige and as a springboard for the conquest of all China.
The British have few troops in the region, mainly a garrison in Shanghai.
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Durchfall
Count Zepo Cappone & Major Fletcher’s brief.
Background
Count Zepo Capponi’s tale………
Moscow, June 192?
You had been to the Sandunovsky Bathhouse once before. In 191? before all the unpleasantness had kicked off. You, Mimi Castefiore (the Opera starlet), and a case of Krug. Fond memories. However Like everything else in Bolshevik Moscow, this once magnificent institution had not done well out the brave new socialist world. The paint was peeling and the lush baroque interior was covered in dust and reeked of cheap tobacco. Outside, jumpy Latvian riflemen checked paperwork in what appeared to you to be a random and unknowing way.
You had received the telegram on your Sicilian estate on a baking hot September afternoon. It spoke at length of your achievements and offered a glimpse of some as-yet-to-be-specified fabulous adventure. You were at a loose end, and curious, and so accepted the offer to come to Moscow to meet this mysterious suitor.
The central bathhouse room was impenetrable in dense wet steam, and you never saw the huge buttery yellow shape of the naked Mongol savage emerge. He grabbed you by the arms and politely, but very firmly, ushered you into a side room. You were immediately struck by the stunning blue and gold mosaic. And there, sitting alone on a plain cedar bench was the unmistakable figure of Leon Trotsky. Naked mind you, but definitely the infamous rebel rouser and chief military architect of a Revolution that had shaken the old world order to its very foundations. He was much smaller than you thought he would be.
‘We are rational men in an all-too-often irrational world, Comrade Count’. That last bit jarred. ‘And while the rational will always triumph over the irrational, sometimes even we are faced with a fact that cannot be understood, cannot be explained, and cannot be ignored’. The Mongol bodyguard shifted to the other side of the room, just to make sure you knew he was still there.
He threw a piece of what looked like a dull grey metal onto the floor. It made no sound when it bounced across the floor. ‘Pick it up Comrade Count’. The metal was remarkably light, paper thin and incredibly flexible. Like aluminium, but much more so. ‘Now hold it above your head’. As you nervously complied the Mongol suddenly whirled into action, a massive curved sword above his head (‘where did he get that from’ you thought, as your life flashed in front of you). Before you could move out of the way, the sword crashed into the thin metal tissue above your head.
You came to in Trotsky’s palatial Kremlin office. You gingerly touched the top of your head. All still there. On the table lay the metal shard, unmarked, and a Mongol sabre, bent out of shape and with a large chunk missing.
‘Remarkable is it not, Comrade Count’. Despite everything, that still irked. ‘We believe it is a metal that came down from a meteorite many thousands of years ago. In the foothills of Nepal. The natives, in their ignorance, believed it was the work of Gods, and made a statue out of it. And so it remained until two years ago when Baron Ungern Von Sternberg purchased it and took it to his capital, Urga’.
‘We would very much like to obtain the statue, and will pay handsomely for it. And we will allow you to take the scientific credit for its discovery’.
This was beginning to sound like your kind of adventure.
‘There is only one small problem however. Mongolia is falling apart, the Chinese are pouring across the Manchurian frontier, and we have the small matter of an unresolved Civil War in our own eastern back yard. However we have a plan’.
With an operatic twirl he pulled down a massive wall chart of Siberia, Mongolia and north-eastern China and explained in great detail, how he had put together a ‘Liberation Army’ of Mongolia. It was to be commanded by his two worst commanders – V.I. Blackwood and Red Ted – with the ranks filled with the worst scrapings of the Russian jails and prisoner of war camps: ‘counter-revolutionaries, white reactionaries and child killers to a man’. Its sole purpose was to provide a distraction for your mission. And remove a hefty food bill from the Bolshevik budget. He found all this immensely amusing.
‘With this chaos all around you, you will be able to slip into Urga with a small elite force and obtain the statue. I don’t care how you do it – buy it, steal it, or whatever, only get it to Irkutsk in one piece. We will provide you with men, weapons, and a means of getting there, and back. The rest is up to you’.
Major Fletcher’s tale……
The day started as every other one had since you were incarcerated in this underground pigsty, what felt like several lives and a hundred years ago. An ice-cold bucket of water slapped your grimy face and plastered matted hair across your eyes. Only this time there wasn’t the usual early morning kick to the midriff to go with it. You were dragged up at least four sets of stairs and led blinking into a central courtyard. You noticed bloody slime everywhere. ‘So this is it’ you thought. What started as a bit of fun and a war of liberation in the Baltic is to end up against a post in the Lubyanka. What was it that clown Dzerzhinsky said to you “"We represent in ourselves organized terror – this must be said very clearly." What a cock.
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/Durchfall030_zpscbf13b93.jpg)
Major Fletcher
The morning was clear and warm. Against one wall was a line of Latvian riflemen. Bayonets fixed and looking blankly ahead. The gates of the prison opened and in came a line of trucks, six, seven, eight, more. And out of the trucks came faces you hadn’t seen for three or more years….. Stiffiel, Klein, Vorklitz…and Moritz, big fat Moritiz! And dozens and dozens of others. What was going on? And then you realised when you saw that rogue Capponi step out of a big Bolshevik staff car. You were going home!
‘No, not home, not yet. We are going east for a few months. And then we are going home. As rich men’. The Italian was all sun and smiles and bonhomie as he always was. You felt good. You felt alive.
Objectives
1. Capture the statue and get it safely back to Irkutsk.
2. Extradite your men back safely from the war zone.
3. Get out of Bolshevik Russia
Forces
Army organization and movement: Note that the ‘Brigade’ is the smallest unit of manoeuvre on the map. All Brigades are assumed to take appropriate precautions on the march, at camp and for reconnaissance, etc. Larger formations are purely administrative units, and do not need to be kept together. Movement is ‘a la Kriegspiel’, i.e. variable.
CinC: Count Zepo Capponi. Knight Hospitalier, archaeologist and adventurer.
2IC: Major Arthur Fletcher. Professional soldier.
Total Army strength: c.2,500.
All forces raised from ex-POW’s and volunteers. Morale - excellent
Italian Brigade:
1st Arditi battalion: 400 rifles
23rd Alpini battalion: 300 rifles
13th Askari battalion: 330 rifles
1st HMG attachment: 12 machine guns
Savoia armoured cavalry detachment: 6 armoured cars/improvised machine gun carriers.
Baltische Landeswehr:
17th Friekorps Sturm battalion: 300 rifles
1st Baltische volunteers: 250 rifles
2nd Baltische volunteers: 250 rifles
501st engineer attachment: 300 assault engineers with heavy weapons.
113th field artillery: 12 guns.
In addition Trotsky has provided you with, what he calls, the ‘Lake Geneva to the Finland station’ option. A sealed train, based around the one that took Lenin to Russia in 1917, which can transport this entire column anyway along the Trans-Siberian railway. It can stop only once however, and at that point your entire force must disembark.
Intelligence
1. The Reds control the railway upto and including Irkutsk. After that its ‘the wild, wild west’, as Trotsky calls it.
2. Red intelligence reports that a large white armoured column is based just west of Verkhne (c.150 miles east of Irkutsk). It comprises a large delivery of allied war material, but is lightly guarded, as the Whites are short of manpower.
3. The Russian invasion of Mongolia is due to set out from Ekaterinburg in the next few weeks. Trotsky says it is about 10,000 men, including tanks, aircraft and heavy weapons. They have no idea that you exist.
4. The Chinese invasion is coming from Chang Chun. Some 15,000 troops are involved, including some good white forces under Count Smirnoff as well as all the usual oriental rubbish.
5. Der Baron has an estimated 10,000 men scattered around Mongolia. His troops are demoralised after their crushing defeat at Chang Chun, but they can still pack a punch. Major concentrations are reported in Urga, Kashgar and Nom. His 2IC, Chuffer Campbell is a talented field commander, and the sinister Count Panasonic, the Japanese ‘advisor’ is a veteran soldier. However Der Baron is desperate for allies… ‘maybe you could cuddle up to him’, was Trotsky’s helpful suggestion.
6. The British have a small mission in Urga, but are not expected to get involved in a big way.
7. The ‘one eyed yellow idol’ is one of eight, self proclaimed, ‘wonders of the world’ in Der Baron’s collection. The full list is:
- The Buddha of Kathmandu. A 12’ high metal idol of great age gifted to you by the people of Nepal. This is your target.
- The Tusks of Jonah’s whale. A present to Der baron from a grateful Haile Selassie
- The real tomb of Genghis Khan. Recovered from a secret location south of Urga
- Sarcophagus of Ramesis II. A trophy from Der Baron’s Egyptian expedition a few years back. An object of great mystical power.
- The Kaiser’s Imperial train. Purchased from the German government in 191?. A lesson in hubris.
- ‘Kosmotechnische Gesellschaft’. An ancient meteor crystal, presented to Der Baron by Professor Houston Stewart Chamberlin, in which he believes that the theory of ‘Cosmic Ice’ will be proven before too long.
- The Spear of Destiny. ‘acquired’ from the Kuntshaller museum in Vienna
- The Ark of the Covenant. On loan from his good friend Halie Selassie.
Some or all of these may be real. All of these will probably sell for money.
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Bullivant's Dilemna
The Head of British intelligence suspected that there was a spy at work. But for whom?
He had the following information...
“There's a one-eyed yellow idol
To the north of Kathmandu;
There's a little marble cross below the town;
And a brokenhearted woman
Tends the grave of 'Mad' Carew,
While the yellow god for ever gazes down”
(J.Milton Hayes 1911)
‘Mad Jack’ Carew did exist, was a British officer, was murdered, but was never officially seconded to Nepal. The idol in the poem disappeared from the north of Kathmandu in 192?.......
The Players
1. ‘Tinker’
Paul Eaglestone: Count Zepo Capone. Leading light in Italian Society, Knight Crusader of the Vatican, and sometime Central Asian adventurer. Accomplished archaeologist who shot to world wide fame when he discovered the Keys of the ‘Kingdom of Heaven’ (as featured on the Vatican Coat of Arms) in 191?. Rumoured to be well ‘connected’ in Sicilian society. Family dates back to the 12th century. Ennobled by Frederick Barbarossa in 1160. Owner of extensive wine (‘Conti de Capone’ a particularly noteworthy white wine), olive, lemon and orange estates. Family has had a contract with supplying the British Royal Navy with citrus fruits since the late 18th century. Properties in Sicily, Milan, Rome and Chicago.
Whereabouts: on his Sicilian estates.
Keith Ainslie: Major Arthur Fletcher. Ex-German Army. Baltic Prussian of Scottish descent. Won ‘Pour Le Merite’ in WWI whilst fighting on the eastern front. Extensive landholdings in Latvia and Estonia. Charismatic commander of the 'Baltische Landeswehr' in the recent Baltic wars. Captured by the Bolsheviks at the battle of Cesis (23rd June 1919), where he lost an arm.
Whereabouts: unknown, but rumoured to be rotting in a Cheka jail.
2. ‘Tailor’
Donald Linn: Brigadier Donald Linn. MC and bar, Emeritus Professor of Archaeology at Glasgow University and Visiting Professor of Asiatic Studies at Queens University, Belfast. An old Africa, India and central Asian hand. Deputy chairman of Airdrie football club. Prominent Freemason and member of the Orange Lodge. Advisor to the foreign office on Central Asia.
Whereabouts: Langbank, Scotland.
Neil Brookes: Lord Gordon Grey, VC. Polymath, Sybarite, adventurer and gentlemen of leisure at large. Family originally came from the Aberdeenshire area. Made their fortune buying up the world’s supplies of black thread when it became clear that Queen Victoria was dying. Related to the eponymous tea dynasty. Lives between his main residence on the south coast, London and his highland estates.
Scours the world with his constant companion, Dr. Le Petomane, in search of ancient obscure texts and manuscripts. Translated the Kama Sutra into Doric. Rumoured to be the author behind the book that shocked a generation: 'Fifty shades of hodden'.
Eton (expelled). Coldstream Guards (retired). Married to Mabel Dent Shaw (deceased). Spent some time at Osborne Naval College with the current Prince of Wales.
Won VC on Western front for single handedly capturing three German machine gun nests at Lys in 1918.
In recent years has worked for HMG in unspecified activities in the Central Asian theatre.
Controversy is never far behind him in whatever he gets upto however. In 191? Grey deepened his notoriety by having the last living Emperor Octopus in the world stolen from its enclosure at San Francisco Zoo. It is believed he had it killed, dried and ground up before smoking it. When released from a straitjacket five weeks later he pronounced himself "tired but happy."
Apparently blackballed by the Brighton and Hove Satanic Circle for fear he would bring them into disrepute.
Rumoured to be a lover of Agatha Christie, with whom he shared a passionate interest in archaeology. Reputed to be the man she shared a denouement with in the Swan Hotel in Harrogate.
Whereabouts: the family seat, Bruzing Manor, Great Bruzing, West Sussex.
3. ‘Soldier’
Rodger Williams: You are General Count Pierre Smirnoff, the last of your line, and revered Hetman of the Don Cossacks. You are the most decorated soldier of your age and the last of the line. You command the last White Cavalry in the field, and all the finest loyal cavalrymen left have flocked to your standard. Until your perfidious ‘volte face’ at Chang Chung, you were as poor as a serf and very short of weapons and ammunition. However as the newly appointed Governor (under the rule of Hu Jjin Wanger) you have now returned to the style in which you used to be accustomed. The tables of Biarritz await! (once you have finished the business in Urga)
Whereabouts: Chang Chung
Steve Dean: You are Colonel Stefan Von Ravenstien, a much decorated White Russian Guards cavalry officer. Like many in the Russian Imperial elite, your family was originally German. Indeed your cousin is Johann "Hans" Theodor von Ravenstein, the German war hero, and early proponent of armoured warfare. After the revolution you led a wanderers life, ending up commanding a unit of White Russian mounted police in Shanghai, idling away your off duty hours watching Chinese girls in cheap bikinis in the local baths. The telegram from your old comrade Smirnoff came as a complete bolt out of the blue. He wants you to join him in the march on Urga, and has a very novel proposition for you…..for which you readily accept. It is time to fight a proper war once more!
Whereabouts: Shanghai
4. ‘Spy’
?
5. ‘Rich Man’
Dave Ryan: You are Hu Jjin Wanger, victor of Chang Chung, victorious warlord of Fengtien Province. You are feared and revered in equal measure by friend and foe alike. The very whisper of your name has armies routing from the field in terror. And it is said in the palaces and castles of London England, that nannies frighten little children to sleep by threatening that 'Hu Jjin Wanger will come and cut of your heads!'.
Your destiny will not be fulfilled until you have united China in One Great Empire. Chang Chung was only an appetizer. Urga will be a starter, before the main dish: Peking and beyond! Your ambition for conquest and glory is only matched by your voracious opium habit, which is beginning to make distinguishing between what is real and what is not, difficult. If, nevertheless, enjoyable.
Paul Cooper: 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. After your heroics in Shanghai you are also the most famous soldier in Austria, having redeemed national military pride after the defeat in WWI. However over the years, you have acquired many powerful enemies. Your forthright style and reliance on the bayonet and hand grenade is not to everyone’s taste. However you are now getting into your stride with these adventures in China. And the mythical riches of Urga are calling you!....
6. ‘Poor Man’
Kevin Westwood: You are Major General Baron Ungern Von Sternberg, a White Russian officer of Baltic German descent. You are also ruler of Mongolia, Conqueror of Kashgar (with two bars), Celestial Warlord of the Peking Pocket, Beth Din first Dan (self appointed) and Khan of the known world. You truly believe yourself to be the descendent of Genghis Khan, and know that it is your destiny to recreate his world empire. Though talk throughout the bazaars is that you are barking mad (you later had the bazaars torched) you know that this is all a cunning front. Rather your savagery and cruelty are merely expressions of values from a different, happier, earlier age, which the fools of the so-called civilized world are unable to see that is where the world going. You are in a word, a man ahead of his time.
You command the ‘Asiatic Cavalry Division’, the front name for your united horde of Mongol, White Russian, German, Japanese and Buryat soldiers, all dedicated to your savage cause.
You have an insatiable hatred of the Bolsheviks, all non-Buddhists, fornication and strong drink. You feel that it is your duty to release them to another existence to save them from their collective miseries.
Over the past few years you have won world renown and fear for your enlightened success in Central Asia and beyond. Yours is now an Empire recognised by and kow-towed to by the soft living degenerate western world, and don’t you like reminding them of it!
However, your recent ‘reverse’ at Chang Chung has encouraged the cockroaches who nibble at the bib of your fame to presume upon themselves that they are somehow entitled to gaze upon your celestial greatness. Retribution will be swift and final!
Whereabouts: Festung Urga!
Your right hand man is the loyal Chuffer Campbell (Gibby), a man of ready wit and unrefined toilet habits, with whom you would trust your life. He has shown himself to be a resourceful and lucky commander over the years. He is organising the defence of your Empire.
Whereabouts: Urga
Adrian Shepherd: You are Colonel Panasonic, sinister leader of the Japanese mission to Ungern Von Sternberg. Thought to be the master-mind behind Japanese expansionist ambition in the region. Graduated with highest honours in physics and chemistry from Kyoto University. Hobbies: hunting, Elizabethan poets and ‘natural experimentation’. Fellow of the Kyoto ‘Natural Selection’ Club. Fought well at Chang Chung, though without success.
Whereabouts: Urga.
7. Beggar Man
Iain Blackwood: You are V.I. Blackwood, who after a series of botched operations, are currently back in favour with the Kremiln after your successful action in Chang Chung. However the politics in the Kremlin are taking on a violent and fatal aspect. Lenin’s power is clearly waning, while Stalin and Trotsky vie for the supreme power. Trotsky has appointed you ‘Supreme Commander of the Penal Army of Mongolia’, a desperate collection of the scrapings of the Revolutions detritus. Your orders are simple: destroy Der Baron. Or do not return.
Whereabouts: Moscow
Ted Robinson: You are Red Ted, who despite numerous setbacks, still dream the dream. You still remember the early days: ‘victorious Liberator of Tashkent’, they called you, ‘The Peoples poet’, etc, etc. You have come a long way from your early life as an armed uniformed lavatory attendant in Imperial Service, and you still beleive that you are a man of destiny. A new Napoleon, destined to free the Russian peoples from the Capitalist yoke of servitude and ignorance. Unfortunately your war record in the ‘Great Cause’ has been mixed so far, and so when your old comrade (and rival) V.I.Blackwood offered you a senior position in the ‘Penal Army of Mongolia’, who thought ‘Yes! This is my time’.
Whereabouts: Moscow
8. Thief
Peter Martin: You are the Dalai Lama, spiritual leader to millions of Buddhists the world over. You are also a Living God, and absolute ruler of the mysterious mountain kingdom of Tibet.
Laterally you have been supporting your ally, Der Baron, as he still maintains the façade of being a peace loving Buddhist. However after the debacle at Chang Chung you have retired to your mountain retreat to run your extensive international business holdings and meditate
However the still waters of the most sacred of lakes, Namsto, has indicated that all is not well with the world. You see yet another great disturbance in the force, and must commit yourself and your people into rebalancing the Ying and the Yang of the world’s energies.
Whereabouts: Lake Namtso
There was much to ponder........
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but I can reveal top secret pics taken of the new Bukharan armoured Brigade on manoeuvre somewhere near Samarkand.....
One is left to wonder how the Beast was able to get his hands on such advanced technology? ;)
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Great looking stuff!
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Campaign Rules and Maps
As with all our campaigns, the campaign rules themselves are loosely formulated. This gives flexibility and uncertainty - two important facets of any good campaign. The maps we used were taken from my trusty 1926 edition of the Times atlas, particularly plate 67 (Siberia), which was the main tactical map.
Durchfall Campaign Rules
1. There are no set distances for each move. You tell me what you want to do, and I will judge how far you get.
2. Each move is approximately two weeks long. However, again, this is fairly elastic.
3. Orders should be no more than one page long. I will not read or act on anything longer than that. Manipulating typeface sizes (min 10pt) will mean no orders get processed for you that move.
4. Your orders can be as detailed or as broad brush as you want.
5. If you do not submit orders by the deadline you will be penalised.
6. Army organization: Note that the ‘Brigade’ is the smallest unit of manoeuvre on the map. All Brigades are assumed to take appropriate precautions on the march, at camp and for reconnaissance, etc. Larger formations are purely administrative units, and do not need to be kept together. Remember, movement is ‘a la Kriegspiel’, i.e. variable.
7. Armies can be split as you require, with the Brigade the minimum unit size. However the larger number of dispersed units, the harder the command and control
8. Other than in the major cities, there are no roads worth the name in China at this period. Major arterial works tend to be railways and rivers. You can move very fast along these.
9. Supply should be traced back to a controlled marked city on the campaign map. If you get cut off you will soon run out of fuel, ammo and supplies. Modern armies without supplies have a significant ability to cause mayhem. You have been warned.
10. Control is defined as being the last man through there. There is no need to leave a garrison
11. Battles will be set up by me and will be elastic in scale and set up. It may end up representing the entire engagement if it is a small affair, or merely the point of decision in a major engagement.
12. All units are assumed to be equipped with the normal small arms of their type and time.
13. Some/all or none of you may receive side briefs in addition to the main brief.
And remember: “War starts at midnight” (not).
Good luck!
Steve
27/10/12
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/AsiaTopographical_zps2abe55a7.jpg)
and the rules were our very own 'Setting the East Ablaze', available from Caliver Books.
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/EastAblazeA.jpg)
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Excellent. Now I can finally prove to the Empress Christine where I was that weekend :D lol
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Excellent. Now I can finally prove to the Empress Christine where I was that weekend :D lol
Yes, finding that Bulgarian who looked like was a right pain. Pity we couldn't convince him to shave his wrestling 'tache though!
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I hope someone's told the local yeti and death worms to take cover. This is going to be awsome. :)
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It was nice of you, Count Ignatieff, so select such a flattering photograph.........
Could you not find one when I was breathing in?
Brigadier Linn
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It was nice of you, Count Ignatieff, so select such a flattering photograph.........
Could you not find one when I was breathing in?
Brigadier Linn
You were, don't you remember being tied into your corsets?
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Its madnes, Madness i tell you!!
Well played Gentlemen
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I remember somebody's corsets, I thought they were Lord Grey's. You know the vagaries of Grey's anatomy.
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I remember somebody's corsets, I thought they were Lord Grey's. You know the vagaries of Grey's anatomy.
True, true. I thought he wore them over his face, but that might be my imagination.
Anyway, on matters lead, next up: campaign reports and the battles! Will probably be next weekend however as I am on my travels during the week.
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Will probably be next weekend however as I am on my travels during the week.
Oh come on! Anything could happen in a week, I could walk under a bus on wednesday and then I'd never see it :'(
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Oh come on! Anything could happen in a week, I could walk under a bus on wednesday and then I'd never see it :'(
Don't worry, we have people everywhere....
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My oh my :o
Lovely set up and a cracking read to boot :-* 8)
cheers
James
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FANTASTIC STUFF!....Who says Christmas only comes once a year :D
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>:D >:D >:D. For some reason photo bucket keeps deleting pics..apologies for this. When I look into it, it (or the LAF site???) seems to be removing one of the brackets from the picture menu ident. >:D >:D >:D. Will work on this when I get home at the weekend.....
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As long as the ones it deletes are of my expanding gut, I'm happy.
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As long as the ones it deletes are of my expanding gut, I'm happy.
They aren't
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:D
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I haven't forgotten! Too much real life in the way at the moment. Will try and post some more this weekend. Here's a taster meantimes.....
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/image_zpsc04bec42.jpg)
White sniper amidst the ruins of Urga.....
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Will try and post some more this weekend.
Tease! ;)
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Oooooh nice one! I think I need a Red Sniper for my dudes...
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Oooooh nice one! I think I need a Red Sniper for my dudes...
You must! Duelling snipers are one of the highlights of our games. People take it sooooooo seriously!
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Would you use the same mini for a red sniper? I need to go on the hunt! :)
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You could do. However Great War Miniatures do a range of German snipers (who this guy is), so you can have a choice
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Now where was I….ah yes, the campaign…..apologies fellow LAFers, that siren temptress ‘Real Life’ has gotten in the way these last few weeks…..
For this campaign I doubled up the players. This kept the amount of orders I was processing to manageable size. Gone for ever are the days of 14 sets having to be juggled and made sense of. I’ve lost too many brain cells over the years doing that!
First out the traps was the unlikely combo of Count Pierre Smirnoff and his White Russians and the degenerate Chinese Warlord Hu Jjin Wanger. They had tasted victory at Chang Chun and now decided to play ‘winner takes all’ by assembling a huge army for a march on Urga to kick the wounded beast of Der Baron whilst he was down. They argued constantly on strategy and the smallest detail of tactics. Once, when Smirnoff protested that the army hadn’t put out flank guards, Wanger leaned across to him, his eyes glazed with the effects of Opium and grunted….’no point…Mongolian Death Worm munch coolies…’
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/P1000298_zps96e4f9bd.jpg)
The Mongolian Death worm was rarely seen, but widely believed to exist on a healthy diet of Chinese Coolie....
They opted for a direct route, via the desolate frontier town of Bogdy ola. So did the British, under Brigadier Linn and Lord Gordon Grey, who had landed their small, but perfectly formed force, at the ruins of the former Imperial forts at Taku. Der Baron had garrisoned the town, but on the approach of two massively superior forces, had wisely decided to fall back. He had also concluded a secret treaty with the Tibetans, who were double crossing the Chinese, who in turn thought that the Tibetans were going to bomb the town from high altitude with their zeppelins. The Chinese thought this faked attack a great success and thought they had Der Baron on the run. Little did they know….
Perhaps the greatest deception of the campaign was however Red Ted’s ‘March of the Tashkent Soviet’. This convinced all the other players that a massive Bolshevik flanking movement was taking place across the Taklakaman Desert, when in fact the Red hordes were speeding by armoured train across the Trans Siberian, ready to take up position just over the Mongolian border, due north of Urga.
They in turn were preceded by the adventurers Cappone and Major Duncan Fletcher, on a secret mission to Urga, bankrolled by Lenin himself….
The scene was set for the final act of Der Baron’s Bloody Reign: Durchfall in Urga!
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The Battle of Naylah Valley
At which the Chinese Warlords conducted a 'fox hunt' against the retreating Mongolians...
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/Durchfall060_zps401a8ace.jpg)
The Mongolians desperately trying to get their national gold reserves away from the advancing Chinese...
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/Durchfall063_zpsd11eabac.jpg)
British, Bolshevik and Japanese (Der Baron's staunchest allies in the end) fight it out in the valley west of Urga....
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/Durchfall056_zps9d163573.jpg)
The Chinese sported an impressive array of football banners....
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/Durchfall058_zpsa050755c.jpg)
The Mongol convoy approaches safety, watched by a British recon plane.
The game ended in a Mongolian victory, for despite suffering horrendous casualties, the state gold reserves were safely whisked away into the bowels of Urga...
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Absolutely spiffy
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The Battle of Selenga Valley, 192?
Meanwhile far to the north, in a heavily wooded valley running up from the shores of Lake Baikal, Cappone's and Fletcher's small elite force had infiltrated behind the White Russian lines. Lenin had alerted them to the presence of lightly guarded White armoured depot, from which they could acquire some much needed support for their push into Mongolia...
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/Durchfall044_zps2e39343f.jpg)
The terrain was dense and difficult to navigate, and the maps provided by Lenin's general staff 'not worth wiping your arse on' according to the veteran Freikorps commander Fletcher.
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/Durchfall051_zps4324e6e5.jpg)
The White Russian defenders also got a lucky spotting throw and started picking off the advancing German vehicle column
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/Durchfall043_zpsd143d08b.jpg)
Cappone deploys his elite askaris into the unfolding chaos...
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/Durchfall045_zps6bed4461.jpg)
the woods were dark, and units soon began to lose their way...
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/Durchfall042_zps57232315.jpg)
The Alpini were reminded of the foothills of their beloved Aosta valley...
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/Durchfall049_zpsaf73d942.jpg)
Cappone soon realised that a white linen suit was probably not the best outfit for this kind of operation. But the man had style!
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I love the planes but the Brisfit with invisible crew is clearly a nefarious plot to bamboozle the opponents lol
Invisible crew?!? They were working the box brownie camera fitted in the bottom of the fuselage! The control stick was held by a piece of gum and string meantimes...... ;)
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Thanks Ignatieff - that is tonight's nightmare sorted!
Lovely paint job but when I wake exhausted and bleary eyed I will curse you ;)
Just you wait to see what's coming in a few posts from now!!!! lol lol lol
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The battle of The Selenga Valley, contd....
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/Durchfall061_zps27b7e0c3.jpg)
As the exhausted Italian/German forces reached the river line surrounding the White depot, they were gladdened to see the welcome sight of some Red air support
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/Durchfall062_zpsba246f82.jpg)
Elite Freikorps assault grenadiers attempt to outflank the heavily dug-in whites
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/Durchfall050_zps71a3b2f9.jpg)
Whilst with the sound of bugles, the cries of 'Avanti!' and singing of the wonderful Italian national anthem, the Askaris storm across the river into the thinly held White lines
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The battle of Selenga Valley, Part III
The high tide of the German Italian advance had been reached. There were no more troops, no more guns, no more help from their Bolshevik paymasters...
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/Durchfall046_zps293e80db.jpg)
The Whites sensed victory, and in the failing light poured redoubled fire onto the allies
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/Durchfall044_zps2e39343f.jpg)
Fletcher orders the retreat, and the stormtroopers fall back....
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/Durchfall048_zps55990284.jpg)
The Askaris form a firing line to cover the retreat
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/Durchfall071_zpscda2bcbe.jpg)
...and the recriminations begin....
Next time......Durchfall - The battle for Urga!
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/Durchfall076_zps6f119f89.jpg)
Hu Jjin Wanger's desperate hordes storm forward....
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/Durchfall088_zps1a4c7aef.jpg)
Count Smirnoff's elite armoured formations, under the command of Von Ravenstein, advance into the cauldron that is Urga
More soon!.......
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Can't wait to see more! Will the Dali Soapy pull the Baron's fat out of the fire?!? Or at least his gold?
LB
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Can't wait to see how this turns out.
In the photo captioned "Hu Jjin Wanger's desperate hordes storm forward...." I think I see cavalry from Foundry, but I am stumped as to where you sourced those guys in conical hats. Care to share where you got them?
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Not impressed in the slightest...
Gnihihihihi...
Love it!
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Splendid, top hole, spiffing :-* :-*
cheers
James
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Can't wait to see how this turns out.
In the photo captioned "Hu Jjin Wanger's desperate hordes storm forward...." I think I see cavalry from Foundry, but I am stumped as to where you sourced those guys in conical hats. Care to share where you got them?
I think the guys in the traditional Chinese hats are from Dave Ryan's range (they're his figures in the game). Can't find them on the Caliver books website however....sorry.
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Cappone was robbed I tell you ROBBED!!!! ::)
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Cappone was robbed I tell you ROBBED!!!! ::)
Not that he's around to complain anymore....ooops, gave the end away!
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I think the guys in the traditional Chinese hats are from Dave Ryan's range (they're his figures in the game). Can't find them on the Caliver books website however....sorry.
Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. They are here:http://www.miniaturefigurines.co.uk/images/catalogue/FFM%2010.jpg
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Cappone was robbed I tell you ROBBED!!!! ::)
Well ... he might have brought misfortune upon himself ... ;)
"Take the bloody shot!"
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Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. They are here:http://www.miniaturefigurines.co.uk/images/catalogue/FFM%2010.jpg
Yup, Dave got them done after me hassling him for a year; they are based on are 19th early 20th C French Asian Tiraillieurs (I can't remember which i.e. Chinois, Ammanite etc, there is a picture of them in the Funken book).
Not bang on for Interwar or BoB but as the kriegspeilers are happily devoid (mostly) of button counters they will be appearing as the para-military arm of the Brown Tong Gang at some stage.
There is also a very unhistorical but very nice one with a Lewis gun.
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Excellent excellent… As usual we are left speechless!
Chinois, Ammanite etc
You mean "Annamites" (= from Annam) :)
"amanites" are mushroom lol
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That would be the domain of Smirnoff's alter-ego, the Belgian adventurer, Stroganoff. A man of extremely demanding tastes....
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Durchfall: The Battle for Urga
Der Barons army fell back for a last stand in Urga. The Bolsheviks had stormed across the northern border and lay poised some 10 miles outside the city. The British and White Russian mechanised units swung wide and attacked thecity from the west. The Chinese steamed straight up the eastern approaches. Der Baron and his Tibetan and Japanese allies dug in for a fight to the death!
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/Durchfall075_zpsd874b3f3.jpg)
The Chinese can best be described as a rolling carpet of lead.....
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/Durchfall080_zps947c16c0.jpg)
The attack suffered heavy casualties, but still Hu Jjin Wanger and his opium crazed coolie army pressed on..
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/Durchfall079_zps34fe020e.jpg)
Employing the most uptodate 19th century air power, wave after wave of Chinamen fell to the well prepared Mongolian defence, including booby trapped buildings (note the explosions in the buildings in the foreground...)
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(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/Durchfall074_zps07f3e350.jpg)
A view into the city, along the vital bridge the Chinese were trying to secure. Some of Der Baron's urban renewal projects are visible in the background. The weathered bronze statue of his hero, Baron Munchausen, a gift of the Schauffhausen Institute as a reward for 1,000 nights staying there, stands proudly in front of his piece de resistance, The Mongolian State Opera House
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/Durchfall078_zpsbed5131a.jpg)
Another fine view of the Chinese attack
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/Durchfall082_zps6690cb11.jpg)
Overlapping heavy machine gun fire, off-table artillery and the booby trapped buildings eventually took their toll however, and a much thinned out Chinese army eventually reached the bridge...
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(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/Durchfall089_zps99844732.jpg)
Elite Japanese infantry garrisoned the perennially popular Urga City prison. In the background, the Barons notorious steam tanks prowled the streets
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/Durchfall086_zps6bddc370.jpg)
Japanese marines dug in with more steam tank support
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/Durchfall091_zpsdc2ceba8.jpg)
The towns firework factory was ominously quiet.....
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(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/Durchfall085_zps9bf1fe30.jpg)
Meanwhile on the left (west) flank, elite British forces stormed forward, scoring an early success by shooting down the Japanese aircover. In the distance the massive White mechanised column can just be seen
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/Durchfall105_zps9f172843.jpg)
Smirnoff's improvised motorised guns wrecked havoc in Der Baron's forces...
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/Durchfall102_zps1a70cb3a.jpg)
Supporting white cavalry, aided by expert air support quickly punched through the stretched Tibetan and Mongolian lines
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(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/Durchfall101_zps1cf41daf.jpg)
Mongolian Chahar cavalry, under the command of Der Baron's loyal lieutenant, Chuffer Campbell, fall back across the main (southern) bridge to plug the gap in defences. Until this time Chuffer, in a central position, had dominated the approaches to the city, causing heavy casualties on both attacking wings.
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/Durchfall096_zps1c1a851d.jpg)
The high point of the Chinese advance. The last formed unit was cut down on the 'Bridge of Blood', Hu Jjin Wanger at their head. With his death, the Chinese army disintegrated.....Ominously for both Der Baron and the British/Chinese/White Russian alliance, a Bolshevik ground attack aircraft had appeared over the city, straffing all targets it could reach. The Reds had cunningly stayed out of the fray until all sides had been fatally weakened, before launching a devastating counter attack through the northern suburbs of Urga....
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Absolutely shocking how the beacon of civilisation, the defender of the defenseless 'Der Baron' is harrassed by hordes of chinese bandits, evil imperialists and fiendish bolchewiks. Thanks to the brave people of Urga who are helping him defending this jewel of cultural enlightenemnt that is Urga-
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Absolutely shocking how the beacon of civilisation, the defender of the defenseless 'Der Baron' is harrassed by hordes of chinese bandits, evil imperialists and fiendish bolchewiks. Thanks to the brave people of Urga who are helping him defending this jewel of cultural enlightenemnt that is Urga-
Well said. I am with Der Baron this weekend at a Scottish Ceilidh in Memmingen and a tour of the battlefields of Nordlingen and Blenheim. I will pass on your best wishes. A much misunderstood despot.
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(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/Durchfall087_zpsece85eca.jpg)
Smirnoff's left hook, before it became bogged down in vicious house to house fighting
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/Durchfall099_zps22461ff4.jpg)
The fighting moved ever closer to the centre of Urga. Der Baron, seen here directing operations from the roof of the Presidential palace remained confident of victory. Ordering an orderly withdrawal to the Presidential compound, the final defenders included elements of Cappones and Fletchers forces, who had joined Der Baron just before action. However they seemed to have a very healthy interest in the state vaults under the Palace....
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/Durchfall100_zps2bdbd7f2.jpg)
Cappone makes tracks for The Palace......
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Urga - the final hours!
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/Durchfall109_zps8e2402f7.jpg)
Overwhelming Bolshevik force pours onto the northern edge of the city. The exhausted allied attackers realised they couldn't win this battle. In the distance Der Baron defends the bunker complex in the presidential palace. Sounds of muffled explosions from the underground complex suggested all was not well..
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/Durchfall113_zps983e46ab.jpg)
Red flags over the Urga State Opera House! (this operation was to be adopted as the blueprint for the storming of the Reichstag some two decades later)
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/Durchfall104_zps4d9a8fdf.jpg)
The remaining Tibetan cavalry of Der Baron's bodyguard cavalry burst through a cordon of British yeomanry, as a strange yellow glow descends on Urga.....
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/Durchfall034_zps0c427420.jpg)
The Dalai Soapy detects a disturbance in the Force....
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/Durchfall111_zps387e6b02.jpg)
As jubilant Reds storm Der Baron's bunker complex....only to find he had fled south west of the city through the network of tunnels he had had constructed throughout Urga. In the basement the Reds found the scattered remains of Der Barons state treasures. Most of the gold had gone, but many of Urga's state attractions which Der Loony had accumulated during the glory years were still there: the Imperial railway carriage of the Kaiser, The Ark of the Covenant (both fakes), some weird crystals from southern Africa (c.f. The Mote in God's Eye). What was strange however, but barely noticed other than by some senior officers of the Cheka, was that the 'little yellow idol' of the central plot device (which was infact over 20 feet tall), had been blown apart by a person or persons unknown. And inside it a safe like container had been forced open.......
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Cappone and Fletcher had realised what no-one else had...that the secret of the idol was actually inside it. Using military engineering skills honed on the eastern front, Fletcher had managed to blow the idol open. Inside a secret internal safe was a strange woven metal material (what Lenin was after) as well as a map. The map was entitled 'Skull Island' and appeared to be situated somewhere in the South China Sea. Cappone could barely contain his excitement.....
So, with the campaign two-thirds through, Urga had fallen to the Bolsheviks. The Chinese, so victorious at Chang Chun, fell back to the border towns they had earlier captured, and engaged in a traditional bout of internal civil war as a successor of Hu Jjin Wanger was fought out. The Urga campaign became known in international circles as the First Partition of Mongolia. Der Baron was beaten, but not defeated however. He fled with the Imperial treasury and the remnants to Kashgar, where he set up a government in exile.
And what of the rest?
Brigadier Linn and Lord Grey were recalled in disgrace (again). Although they had managed to withdraw the majority of their force, British honour had been sullied. Smirnoff withdrew to the gaming tables of Biarritz, where agents of the French government approached him to be governor of Syria. His 2IC, Von Ravenstein (guest played by the legend hinself, Steve - The Boss - Dean), concluded that this mobile armoured warfare lark probably had a future and spent the next two decades perfecting the theory - and then the practice - back in Germany.The Japanese licked their wounds and waited, and honoured the spirit of their dead leader Colonel Panasonic. And The Dalai Soapy was much vexed by the turn of events, and feared for the Ying and Yang of the Universal Order.
However the campaign still had a final twist.......The Return to Skull Island!
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/Durchfall115_zps7f486f50.jpg)
Skull Island in all its terrifying glory
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/Durchfall129_zps3903a9c8.jpg)
What nameless horrors awaited The League???
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Great story, and skull island is a marvel to the eye!
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What a hero Cappone is!!!!
What Machiavellian brilliance!!!
Long Live Capone I hear the crowds shout!!!! :D
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Fantastic :-* :-*
cheers
James
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I'm still reading this wonderful thread again and again, and I've not yet fully understood the whole scenario and what lies behind :o
Scenarios - and relation afterwards - of skirmish wargaming is truly becoming the 10th Art (or the 11th Art ?), and Ignatieff is its prophet
o_o
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The reports of "The League of Extraordinary Kriegspielers" are absolutely wonderful and they were one of the main reasons why I eventually decided to register to the Lead Adventure forum. I just hope this one wasn't the last episode.
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Excellent!!!!....Cappone vs Kong, can't wait :D
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I'm still reading this wonderful thread again and again, and I've not yet fully understood the whole scenario and what lies behind :o
Scenarios - and relation afterwards - of skirmish wargaming is truly becoming the 10th Art (or the 11th Art ?), and Ignatieff is its prophet
o_o
It'll probably help if you go back and read Ignatieff's many previous posts on his League of Extraordinary Kreigspielers game universe, which took a sharp turn away from boring old "real" history sometime just after (or possibly turning) the Great War and has become increasingly bizarre and awesome!
Now I'm wondering how Tibetan zeppelin air pirates are equipped, and picturing leather flying helmets, except with crests on them like that awesome hat the Dalai Soapy is sporting!
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It'll probably help if you go back and read Ignatieff's many previous posts
I've read many of them …and it's always wonderful :o
which took a sharp turn away from boring old "real" history sometime just after (or possibly turning) the Great War
Well… in my opinion the trick is not to turn away from real history (and in fact, I am a lover of "boring old real history"!)
Turn away from history is easy, but does not bring anything more in itself. The genius in Ignatieff's scenarios - as I can see it - is that he did stick to real history as much as he could, then he diverted from real history when his bunch of players was mature enough to play their roles in an organised way outside history. o_o
History is the guideline. As in any artistic creation, you must know and respect the traditional guideline to be able to get free from it with good effect. That's what he is doing.
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I think those are what every wargames table wants to be when it grows up. :o :-* Outstanding!
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Cappone had heard of the legend of Skull Island, but until he found the map had never believed it. Rumour was that several years before Von Stauffenberg had landed there and claimed to shot several 40' tall monkeys. Complete bollocks of course, but what was interesting to him was the other story: that Von Stauffenberg had discovered some new metal alloy which he had incorporated into his multiple barrel mortar (cf Chang Chun). At least this is what Trotsky had told him at his odd briefing in the Moscow bathhouse. Whatever the truth, Cappone and Fletcher were determined to go to Skull Island and find out for themselves.......read on dear reader....
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/Durchfall010_zps04a04c2a.jpg)
Cappone's men headed straight for the massive carved skull monument, safety catches off and hand grenades primed
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/Durchfall008_zpsf37d7497.jpg)
As they approached the entrance they became aware in the dim light of a monsterous Mongolian Liche standing stationary in the gateway, wearing what appeared to be a Der Baron tribute outfit...
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/Durchfall014_zps428519d1.jpg)
A hail of automatic gunfire soon proved that it was dead. Very dead. However some of the more superstitious Italians were getting distinctly nervy....
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(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/Durchfall116_zps744c7740.jpg)
The adventurers had left their ship, The Maltese Knight, in a small harbour many miles from the statue of the monkeys head.
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/Durchfall007_zps8d4d2f88.jpg)
A cautious examination of the monkey skull had proved fruitless, and the party started heading back to the ship, when they began to notice strange yellow glows coming from the numerous decorative arches scattered around the terrain
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/Durchfall013_zpsfb62880c.jpg)
'Christ on a pedelo!' exclaimed Cappone, as out of one of the arches appeared what looked like a dinosaur. Not a huge one mind you, but something that was meant to have died out millions of years before. A quick squirt from the flamethrower crew soon had the beast screaming in agony
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(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/Durchfall015_zps81b0b16b.jpg)
As if from nowhere the party was suddenly attacked by three young raptors, eager to avenge their mothers singeing...men started to go down and the party began to lose its cohesion as men ran for cover.
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/Durchfall023_zps1947dfa4.jpg)
It was then that Fletcher spotted what looked like an unmanned monoplane coming towards them...
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/Durchfall117_zpsd3f22f5a.jpg)
hotly pursued by what looked like German pilots of flying dinausaurs..."I will never touch another pipe of opium ever again..." promised Cappone to himself.."on my mothers grave.."
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Outrageously entertaining lol....Please Dad, can i have another story before bed ::) :)
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(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/Durchfall119_zps1459d042.jpg)
Before turning their machine guns and 30mm canons on Cappone & Fletchers now terrified crew...
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/Durchfall137_zps32c6bce3.jpg)
Their enemies looked German, but Fletcher did not recognise the uniforms
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/Durchfall135_zps07b5495b.jpg)
But worse, much worse, was to follow. This little chap had the ability to make men's minds explode. Literally. All over their uniforms. Here one brave Alpini does his best to face up to the floating horror, seconds before his face explodes....
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(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/Durchfall022_zps00cb4c57.jpg)
Panic overtook the German/Italian force. Men scattered everywhere as bullets, wire guided rockets and canon shells rained it. The party broke into two. One headed west through the jungle, while Cappone headed straight for the boat...
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/Durchfall024_zps9943ef8d.jpg)
And as if things couldn't get any worse, nazis riding dinosaurs joined in.....
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/Durchfall016_zpsc24e6fd2.jpg)
And apes in boiler suits wielding RPGs and laptops (they were controlling the drones). By now morale tests were a constant....
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/Durchfall132_zps4a435027.jpg)
Some of whom could scoot across the board at speed!
And don't forget the female host of the Mongolian death worm!
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/Durchfall041_zpsea6148c0.jpg)
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(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/Durchfall139_zps4d1d641f.jpg)
Eventually Cappone (still immaculate in his white linen suit) and half of the party reached the precarious rope bridge....
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/Durchfall142_zpsef8c74a9.jpg)
Whereas the jungle party by this time had reached the safety of their (armed) merchantman, pursued by angry locals..
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/Durchfall140_zps98887445.jpg)
The crush on the bridge became desperate. Shoving and pushing resulted in some unfortunates (I.e. the 'extras') falling to the crocodile infested river below...
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lol Excellent! But......................
(http://i50.tinypic.com/6jdr7k.jpg)
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lol Excellent! But......................
(http://i50.tinypic.com/6jdr7k.jpg)
Not in my head ;)
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Cappone, at the head of the column, made a mental note to return to Skull Island to recover these astonishing time travelling portals. But it was not to be. I will leave the last words to his official hagiographer, his brother Cardinal Benedict Cappone:
"Capone, through brilliant leadership safely guided his, Fletchers and a number of other players teams safely to the bridge.
Whilst crossing first, to check it was safe of course, one of the villainous cretins at the back of the, rather long, queue fired at me hitting one of my followers. I responded with a burst from my Tommy gun hitting a few bystanders.
For some reason everybody seemed to blame Cappone and opened up killing my last two bodyguards and seriously wounding me.
In order to lose some of the hefty weight or responsibility I carried due to my endeavour’s to lead the rather disorganized rabble I rolled a couple of hand grenades down the rope bridge.
Unfortunately they went off injuring some more bystanders and breaking one of the supporting ropes.
Fletcher tried to help me as he ran past.
However as the angry mob rushed forward, no doubt to liberate the contents of my wallet, one of them attempted to injure my person.
Following an exchange of gun shots and several hits on my athletic bronzed body I succumbed to my wounds with the final words "run Fletcher, run “...
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/Durchfall141_zps31ccda1a.jpg)
A grief stricken Fletcher stands over the body of his fallen friend.
The few survivors sailed away, leaving Skull Island shrouded in the mists of he South China Sea....
And so who were the winners and losers?
Foremost amongst these were the Bolsheviks, who now control Urga and half of Mongolia
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/Durchfall035_zps7fdf6098.jpg)
Red Ted, seen here enjoying a bottle of celebratory cough mixture. Architect of the Bolshevik victory, his strategic deception with the 'March of the Tashkent Soviet' which confused friend and foe alike, will go down as his greatest moment yet. The shadowy figure of V.I.Blackwood (shadowy because he takes all the pics. And is therefore never in front of the lens!), shared in the glory as well.
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/Durchfall028_zpse679a15e.jpg)
Cappone (background, with that traditional Italian flair for style in his black tie and sneakers) and Brigadoer Linn in happier times. Linn was shipped back to England in disgrace, and retired to his estates near Langbank in Renfrewshire. He is rumoured to be working on a gentlemen's retail emporium idea in Edinburgh.
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/32efb463-c325-4db3-8f99-74b0b1a993ac_zpsb6054282.jpg)
Lord Gordon Grey, whereabouts unknown
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/d779c1ab-077d-4fa5-a420-55794ad694e5_zps3d585ddd.jpg)
Der Baron, bloodied but unbowed, is rumoured to be working on a new suite of super-weapons from his capital in exile of Kashgar.
And what of the mysterious 'Siegfried', the mysterious - and as yet undiscovered - Bolshevik spy. His Moscow paymasters were apparently much pleased with his efforts as he was rumoured to have been awarded a colonelcy in the Cheka. This notice appeared in the one and only edition of the Pink issued for this campaign (PM me if you want a copy):
"Message for Siegfried
Your Aunt Carla and Uncle Joe are missing you, and look forward to keep hearing about all your new friends. If you need anything just let us know. Also, we’ve heard that the trains up north, which as may you know weren’t working, have now been fixed and are running as normal, should you need them."
A fine little campaign, and an excellent weekend, summed up her in our team photo just before our traditional last night dinner in the bowels of Count Ignatieff's castle:
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/Durchfall038_zps2c4ea2e3.jpg)
So what next for the League?
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/Durchfall126_zps2119d08f.jpg)
Rumours have reached us that The Beast of Bukhara has taken deliver of several ultra-modern tanks, original destined for the US army, but diverted by a shadowy arms dealer in Minnesota, who trades under the false guise of an accountant....which has led to the Beast mobilising along his western border. Tensions are rising in the Middle East as France and Britain play out their age old rivalry in Palestine and Syria. There are stories of a strange star arising in the East, and the tribes of the Hijaz talk of a new prophet amongst them....The League will therefore return later in the summer in their next adventure: 'Through a Glass Darkly'
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(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh164/defoix/Durchfall%202012/Durchfall126_zps2119d08f.jpg)
Rumours have reached us that The Beast of Bukhara has taken deliver of several ultra-modern tanks, original destined for the US army, but diverted by a shadowy arms dealer in Minnesota, who trades under the false guise of an accountant
Lies! British propaganda! Or Red Propaganda! Or possibly leftover dreams from Der Baron's latest Coptic Carrot session! tr something like that!
Nevertheless, these patently false statements will not go unanswered!
My attorneys will be in contact with you good sir! lol ;) lol
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Excellent stuff.
Where did you get the apes from?...at a guess i presume the heads off gorilla castings :)
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Excellent stuff.
Where did you get the apes from?...at a guess i presume the heads off gorilla castings :)
Eureka do a planet of the apes type range
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Fantastic, will have to check those out :o
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Delightfully wacky reportage, sirs! :-* Silly hats are now a must for gaming with me! ;D :D
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Whoaa!! Whoa! Time out ....
I turned my back for a couple of minutes.
Flying dinosaurs, apes on motor-cycles, plants with brains ...
Stop it. It's silly ;)
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Simply splendiferous!