The League of Extraordinary Kriegspielers present.....
The Good, The Mad and The Damned.
(Friday 2nd till Sunday 4th December 2011)
China 192?
The Good
General Lee Fat Sum was unusual by the standards of Warlord China. He was a military leader who cared above all else for the welfare of his people. His benevolent rule of Jilin province in Chinese Manchuria from the beautiful - and strategic - city of Chang-Chun meant that even in the violent and constantly shifting alliances of the time, and no matter what barbarians were at the gate, his was a prosperous and bountiful land. It was therefore inevitable that he should be the object of envy by his many violent neighbours. His end was sudden and unpleasant. Poisoned at breakfast, he lingered on for a few days, his skin turning a hideous green hue, and his once beatific features savagely disfigured by suppurating buboes. There were many suspects, though none came forward to admit the deed. What was important was that Chang Chung was declared an open city, and the vultures began to circle.
The Mad
Der Baron, recently returned from two seasons of successful campaigning in Darkest Africa, and with the nice lakeside resort of Barongrad and Lake Chuffer added to his domains, was in an expansive mood. The 'Baronberg Corridor', that tenuous spit of land that connected Mongolia with the sea, was in need of expanding, and the 'unfortunate' death of that sanctimonious prig Lee 'pretty boy' Fat Sum presented an opportunity to round off his domains by liberating Manchuria. And the key to Manchuria was the city of Chang-Chun, its armaments factories and its rich store of natural resources, rumoured to include gold, platinum and even uranium. The Black Tent was duly erected on the border and invitations sent to all his key allies: White Russians, Tibetans, Mad Bob and his new best friends, the Japanese, who appeared to be particularly keen to help in all things Manchurian.
The Damned
General Hoo Jin Wanger was unusual even by the standards of Warlord China. He was a man of unspeakable cruelty and unspeakable personal habits, whose ambition and greed were legend and terrible, even by the morally corrupt and degenerate standards of the period. He claimed to be the lawful heir to the Qing dynasty, though no records could be found to substantiate this. An enemy of everyone who as much as looked in his direction or questioned his methods, he reserved a particular hatred for the French and British, who he had claimed "had burnt down my grandmothers house", a prosaic reference to the sack of the Qing Summer Palaces by French and British armies in 1860. He real obsession was tracking down the descendants of those involved and having them killed, usually in bizarre and humiliating circumstances. When the grandson of French general Montauban was found hanging from the Eiffel Tower in 192?, dressed in womens clothing, Wanger was implicated, though nothing could be proved. High on his list of targets was for example, Harry 'boy' Flashman, whose own grandfather had made off with more than his fair share of the the Summer Palace treasures (c.f. the Flashman papers, 'Flashman and the Dragon', et al). Also, Brigadier Linn, whose own great uncle had made a fortune shipping out the treasures on behalf of the Imperial forces. The list was long and exhaustive. However the death of his great rival Lee Fat Sum presented him with an ideal opportunity to realise his dream of a united China, astride the world stage, and restored to all its Imperial glories. Chang-Chun, with all its wealth and military stores, was to be the springboard to greatness. He therefore assembled an ungodly force of the usual Chinese rabble, some battle hardened ex-White Russians, a shady set of German 'advisors', and most damnably off all, an elite Brigade of Bolshevik ChON (Communist special units), whose task it was to hunt down and kill Der Baron. If ever there was one, this was certainly an army of the 'damned'.
Gentlemen, the scene is set.
And just in case you have forgotten, as always we are dealing with forces and powers well beyond our comprehension.........
chin chin
Steve
p.s. I know I owe a write up for our summer 2011 Opus, "The Mote in God's Eye". It will come, I promise......
18 December 2012, 11:27:24 AM