The Keys to the Kingdom of Heaven

[Ignatieff]

Chaps

Next mini-League outing is next Saturday.  Here's the brief for the seven players taking part.  I will share the individual briefs, and promise to write a battle report, as well as all the usual photos.  This is a one day battle on a 12' x 6' table, unlike our normal 4 day uber-campaigns.

Enjoy!

Ignatieff



The League of Extraordinary Kriegspielers presents.......
The Keys to the Kingdom of Heaven
Saturday June 7th 2008

Background

It is 192? at the place on the on the map where Russia, China and Mongolia meet.  The last sparks of the Russian Civil War have moved to the Bolsheviks eastern frontier.
The Bolshevik 1st Cavalry Army under Red Ted Robinson, now fully recovered from the assassination attempt that all but killed him two years before in Tashkent (he remains hideously disfigured  - think the Elephant man meets Nikki Lauda) has struck east in a lightening campaign.  Just to the north another Bolshevik force, the 13th Siberian tank army, under the command of the cunning and cruel V.I. Blackwood, appears to be following the same route.  The two men are not friends or comrades.  Ideologically they sit at the extremes of the Bolshevik movement – Robinson is a supporter of Stalin, whilst Blackwood is extremely chummy with Trotsky.  Lenin himself refers to them as his ‘squabbling Clydesiders’. It is widely believed that Blackwood orchestrated the bomb plot against Red Ted, though mysteriously the actual perpetrators all met strange and unexplained deaths before coming to trial.

To the east lies the last remaining White Army in existence – that of the legendary Baron Ungern Von Sternberg.  This near mythical figure has created a new pan-Buddhist empire out of the chaos that followed the collapse of the Romanov Empire.  A series of successful military campaigns has stunned the civilised world (and all of his fellow Kriegspielers!).  He now controls a land mass that stretches from his capital Urga to Baronberg (nee Tsingtao) on the Pacific Ocean, albeit through the strategically vulnerable Baronzig corridor.  But all is not well.  Der Baron has not been seen for several weeks now, and there are rumours that he has shuffled off in his celestial chariot.  Other rumours talk of him as having ascended into heaven before returning as a higher form of life (suggestions on a postcard please).  Yet other tales from the bazaar talk off him being banged up in a Chinese choky on a drunk and disorderly charge involving a camel.  Whatever the truth, the fact is that Sepailov - his ever faithful ‘Teapot’- and the indomitable Chuffer Campbell have been running the show of late.

Somewhere in between these three approaching Apocalypses’ lies the strategically vital Chinese town of Zhwingwee. Its value is twofold.  Firstly it controls the important Pwein River crossing, and hence the gateway between the three competing powers in the region. Perhaps more importantly though is that it is the site of the single largest armaments factory in China, under the command of the disgraced warlord Slan Ties.  He has hired the notorious mercenary, ‘one-lobe’ Longhorn, a British ballistics expert (the name comes from an unusual injury picked up during the last few days of the war on the western front, from which he was not expected to survive).  He now plies his grim trade around the world’s war zones, selling his dark secrets of death to the highest bidder.

And, in the middle of this train crash waiting to happen, is an Italian archaeological expedition under Count Zeppo Capone.  He has been sent by the Vatican to discover the whereabouts of the lost keys of St.Peter. The keys, which feature in the Vatican coat–of-arms, were lost during the barbarian invasions of Italy in the 5th century AD.  Carried east, they were repeatedly captured by a succession of despotic princes and emperors, before being last recorded by Marco Polo in the late 13th century as being held by the great Mongol Emperor Kublai Khan.  Long thought to be only a physical metaphor of the Vatican’s claim to spiritual hegemony, a recently decoded Leonardo da Vinci codex refers to these keys as being described in a lost 7th century tract by Jacob of Edessa (633-708) as having originally being handed by God to King Solomon in the 10th century B.C..   Furthermore, there is reference in the Edessa document to the keys being in the possession of Moses and used to help the Israelites escape Egypt.  The current Pope believes therefore the keys are an object of awesome and terrible power, and need to be returned to the Vatican.

The stage is set. As always, we are dealing with powers beyond our comprehension.

 Individual briefs will be issued on the day of the game.

Steve Langan
01/06/08

[Poliorketes]

Sounds great! What kind of figures do you use for the Vatican Expedition?

[Prof.Witchheimer]

that's a top notch story, lots of great ideas, Steve!!

can't wait to see the report of the game 

[Driscoles]

Very good scenario idea. Iam curious on the photo report. Have a nice game Steve !
Björn

[Hammers]

Great set up, Steve. A novel biit, that part about St Peter's keys.

[argsilverson]

Yes, anxiously waiting for the photos. Should be inspiring

[Ignatieff]

Sounds great! What kind of figures do you use for the Vatican Expedition?

I have some Brigade games 'Alpini' WWI troops that I have been itching to use, so hence the Italian slant on the rock scrapers.

[PeteMurray]

A truly mad-sounding game! Take lots of pictures for us!

[Malamute]

A truly mad-sounding game! Take lots of pictures for us!

Ditton that

[Ignatieff]

Unfortunately game postponed for a few weeks - sick kids at my end. Will advise when dates are agreed.

p.s. Just received the new Lancia armoured car from 'Force of Arms' - beautiful piece, superb moulding, and easily compatible with my HLBS stuff!  Wooohoo!

[Helen]

I echo everyone's thoughts and comments! A lovely setting that should see the Prof's figure in action, no doubt!

This to me is a romantic lead adventure (okay, so its fiction - heck who cares!) and throwing in Italians (The Last crusade) as well, Viva el Christo !