The Road to Samarcand

[Blackglengarry]

Has anyone read this?  It is a great book by Patrick O'Brian, the author of Master and Commander.  Anyways, I have been reading it and it made me realize that I have a bunch of copplestone back of beyond minis lying around...  What would be a good campaign ruleset for an archaeological expedition through the steps complete with bandits, mongols, yetis and helicopters?

[Sterling Moose]

I liked everything you wrote until you got to the helicopters bit!! 

[aecurtis]

It's a 1930's "helicopter".  To be honest, that one O'Brian novel that never did much for me--and it's as old as I am!

Allen

[Prof.Witchheimer]

not sure about helicopters but for that sort of game I would recommend Triumph&Tragedy. And I'm sure Björn would support you making some add.rules for helicopters or whatever

[Calimero]

I liked everything you wrote until you got to the helicopters bit!! 

an autogire(Fr) maybe?

[Cadet13]

An autogyro! Developed in the '20s, so plausible.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autogyro

It'd be cool to see one made in miniature...

[cuprum]

That Soviet autogyro A-7-3A

 These military vehicles actually produced a small batch. It is known that participated in the Russo-Finnish War and WWII

[Ataman]

Wow, that's very interesting Cuprum! I had thought the Germans were the only nation to put helicopters into limited production during the Second World War.

As for your question OP, I'd say go for it and grab yourself the Triumph and Tragedy rulebook. It's a great system and the setting of Back and Beyond is a great one.

[Hammers]

An autogyro is distinct from an helicopter as the top rotor doesn't provide thrust, just lift. It's VTOL capacity is thus less but it can fly slowly, just like a helicopter.

*adjusts his glasses and sucks on his pipe*

[Blackglengarry]

Does triumph and tragedy lend itself well to characters and campaign elements?

[Poliorketes]

Andrea Miniatures has a Model of an autogiro, though very expensive

[Cadet13]

There are a few 1:72 and 1:48 scale model kits for autogyros available, or so my google-fu tells me. And fairly affordable too.

[Hammers]

Does triumph and tragedy lend itself well to characters and campaign elements?

Bless your little white cotton socks, they are the very thing for it! They've got a strong story telling element in'um.

[Blackglengarry]

Excellent!  My plan is to rope my wife and my brothers into a campaign based on the road to Samarkand.  It will start in Peking.  An expedition will form to find an ancient lamasery in tibet.  Along the way the adventurers get attacked by bandits, stuck between two angry Chinese warlords, chased along the Old Silk Road by Mongols, face off with militant buddhist monks in tibet and finally meet the dreaded Yetis.


I have the copplestone archaeologist miniatures, the american adventurers and chinese assault troops.  I think that with some chinese rifleman, mounted mongols, monks and yetis I could pull this off.

[Wirelizard]

That all sounds awesomely pulpy, with a good mix of figures for re-use in future adventures too!

Good luck, take lots of photos, and write us awesome after-action reports!