The League of Extraordinary Kriegspielers presents........

[Ignatieff]

Cappone was robbed I tell you ROBBED!!!! 

Not that he's around to complain anymore....ooops, gave the end away!

[coggon]

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

[Keith]

Cappone was robbed I tell you ROBBED!!!! 

Well ... he might have brought misfortune upon himself ... 

"Take the bloody shot!"

[smirnoff]

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.

[Patrice]

Excellent excellent… As usual we are left speechless!

Chinois, Ammanite etc

You mean "Annamites" (= from Annam)
"amanites" are mushroom

[Ignatieff]

That would be the domain of Smirnoff's alter-ego, the Belgian adventurer, Stroganoff. A man of extremely demanding tastes....

[Ignatieff]

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!


The Chinese can best be described as a rolling carpet of lead.....


The attack suffered heavy casualties, but still Hu Jjin Wanger and his opium crazed coolie army pressed on..


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...)

[Ignatieff]

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


Another fine view of the Chinese attack


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...

[Ignatieff]

Elite Japanese infantry garrisoned the perennially popular Urga City prison.  In the background, the Barons notorious steam tanks prowled the streets


Japanese marines dug in with more steam tank support


The towns firework factory was ominously quiet.....

[Ignatieff]

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


Smirnoff's improvised motorised guns wrecked havoc in Der Baron's forces...


Supporting white cavalry, aided by expert air support quickly punched through the stretched Tibetan and Mongolian lines

[Ignatieff]

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.


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....

[Poliorketes]

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-

[Ignatieff]

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.

[Ignatieff]

Smirnoff's left hook, before it became bogged down in vicious house to house fighting


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....


Cappone makes tracks for The Palace......

[Ignatieff]

Urga - the final hours!


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..


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)


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.....


The Dalai Soapy detects a disturbance in the Force....


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.......