The Kaiser's Elephants

[dodge]

A great report, told with real flair

excellent stuff 

dodge

[Furt]

Beautiful game and beautiful report  Would love to see those encounter cards as well!

[Grimm]

Oh I like these Gore stuff !!
Also I wish to by a ``Plough the Earth`` T-shirt 

Grimm

[Plynkes]

There's really nothing special about the encounter markers or cards, lads.


Just a card for each animal, and two dummies. The markers are little piles of poo made from miliput. When an encounter is activated you draw a card from the deck and see what it is. We worked it like this: Mohammed, Flynn's right-hand-man, had the ability to spot (and activate) an encounter from 12". Bassy and Flynn could do it from 8". Both of these required the character to use the 'special action' order card that turn. Anyone bumbling within 4" of a poo marker would automatically set off the encounter.

Once an animal encounter had been activated, at the start of the next turn its initiative card was shuffled into the enemy deck, and the animal itself appeared at a random distance and direction from the marker, decided by using the blast template for artillery.

From then on the animal behaved in a way depending on the circumstances and its temperament (whether it had humans in its sight range, was being shot at or not, etc.). Each animal had its own 'personality' so they all didn't act the same way. Plough-the-Earth, for instance, always attacks humans if he can see any. The most likely thing a lion would do would just be to keep away from people (only a small chance of attacking). The ordinary elephant might attack if provoked, and the rhino was quite likely to. If nothing was bothering an animal, it either stayed where it was, or moved a small distance in a random direction.

Note there are no stats on the animal's cards. Again inspired by Saurian Safari we decided that hand-to-hand combat with wild ferocious animals was not a very sensible idea. So to discourage it, the animals automatically strike first (and hit), and cause a fixed number of wounds (based on animal type) to the unit they are attacking. If after that anybody is still going, they can try and fight the animal in normal T&T fashion.

The animals used the "Leader" wound table when taking damage, and most had multiple wounds. To bring down Plough-the-Earth you had to achieve a "kill" result. Wounds only serve to enrage him further.


The German police had their own set of programming, and weren't governed by the encounter system. The Scout arrived on a random turn, and the policemen a fixed number of turns after that. They basically moved steadily down the table in order to confiscate the dhow, but once they encountered the poachers more options opened up.


Poiter50, you know I cannot remember where I got my bell tents, I'm afraid. I know that Magister Militum make some:

http://www.magistermilitum.com/prodtype.asp?PT_ID=803&strPageHistory=cat

But I don't think that's where mine came from. Might have been, I really can't recall.

[Westfalia Chris]

Very nice idea! If you don´t have anything against a "semi-official" sanctioning, I could do a set of such event cards (just did some for a Demo game Björn held this weekend) for Africa and put it up on the website as a free download. If you would like to see your pictures used for the cards, please drop me a line with some more details on the animal attacks.

If you don´t want to have "the magic officialised", that´s fine with me, too, of course.

[twrchtrwyth]

Excellent stuff.

[Dr. The Viking]

What did you use to make the text and talk bobbles?

A standard painting programme?!

[dadlamassu]

Excellent stuff!

I recognise all the figures except the German Officer - where did you get him?

[Plynkes]

Dadlamassu: Renegade Miniatures early war command, chap on the right:



Thorbjørn: A piece of software called "Comic Life" that was all the rage here on the LAF a few months ago. http://plasq.com/comiclife-win
I may be wrong, but I thought when I got it you only had to pay for the deluxe version. That seems to have changed. Maybe I dreamt it.


Chris: I have no objection in principle to the idea. My only concern would be that it was all a bit cobbled-together, last-minute, ad-hoc or what-have-you. Might need a bit of tidying up or straightening out. Could be major flaws in it that, not being professional game designers, we didn't uncover. Alternatively, it might just be that we have low standards, and that it was crap. The initiative values for the animals for one thing, I had no idea what to give them so pretty much wrote down the first numbers that came into my head.

Worked okay though, so I'll send you the various bits and bobs via PM if you like (though probably not today).

[Mosstrooper]

You can get Bell tents from http://www.mainlymilitary.com/ ,they are listed under their 20mm range, I have 4 of the large ones and find they are okay for 25mm , think they are about £3 each

[Westfalia Chris]

Chris: I have no objection in principle to the idea. My only concern would be that it was all a bit cobbled-together, last-minute, ad-hoc or what-have-you. Might need a bit of tidying up or straightening out. Could be major flaws in it that, not being professional game designers, we didn't uncover. Alternatively, it might just be that we have low standards, and that it was crap. The initiative values for the animals for one thing, I had no idea what to give them so pretty much wrote down the first numbers that came into my head.

Worked okay though, so I'll send you the various bits and bobs via PM if you like (though probably not today).

Sure, take your time! I´ll be happy to see the stuff. Don´t worry, I´m convinced the rules can (and could) handle it.

[Chuckaroobob]

Way too cool!  Wilbur Smith's "Shout at the Devil" brought to life with lead!

[argsilverson]

Chris: I have no objection in principle to the idea. My only concern would be that it was all a bit cobbled-together, last-minute, ad-hoc or what-have-you. Might need a bit of tidying up or straightening out. Could be major flaws in it that, not being professional game designers, we didn't uncover. Alternatively, it might just be that we have low standards, and that it was crap. The initiative values for the animals for one thing, I had no idea what to give them so pretty much wrote down the first numbers that came into my head.

Worked okay though, so I'll send you the various bits and bobs via PM if you like (though probably not today).

Sure, take your time! I´ll be happy to see the stuff. Don´t worry, I´m convinced the rules can (and could) handle it.

Since both agree, it is an excellent idea to have cards in the website for download

[Driscoles]

I was lucky. I spent a couple of days in southern germany and now Iam back at home and can read this great report in one piece.
Thanks Plynkes !

[Admiral Benbow]

At least another hilarious report from the master of colonial storytelling ...
Love it!