Weird War I action

Tuesday evening is game night with Arthur's friend Oliver and his dad Tyler.  This week, Arthur came up with a novel setting - somewhere on the Western Front in WWI, nefarious cultists are trying to complete some mystic rites to summon strange creatures from beyond the veil.  Arthur took the scenario from the Fistful of Lead supplement Tales of Horror but changed the setting to the Western Front.  

Arthur set up three factions.  First up, army troopers including a chaplain with special abilities to counter the summoned creatures.

Four cultists - a leader and three guards.

And a selection of creatures that can be summoned.  The spiders need one successful test to summon, the apparition needs two successes and the big beastie needs three consective successes across multiple turns.

The guards line up in the trenches as their leader begins summoning at the altar.

The guards get into a firefight with the advancing soldiers.  Puffs of smoke signify shock.  The officer uses the abandoned artillery piece as cover, but is still wounded.

The cultists summon giant spiders, which wound one of the soldiers.

Despite his wound, the officer moves up to rescue his wounded trooper.

Fierce fighting in the trenches as the cultist guards hold off the soldiers, allowing time for their leader to summon a greater monster.

After three consecutive successes over three turns, the greater beast is summoned!  I was able to use cards that allow rerolls to help get those successes!

The beastie instantly turns on the cultist that summoned him!

He tries to defend himself, but is quickly defeated and is soon monster food.

The soldiers pour fire onto the monster as the chaplain works to undo the summoning.

After some tense conflict, with the monster distracted by gunfire, the chaplain successfully banishes the beastie back to its home dimension.  The Earth is safe, for for how much longer?

Battle of Ballantyne Pier take 1

On Friday at the Trumpeters' Bonsor monthly game night, Lisa and I put on our first attempt at gaming the Battle of Ballantyne Pier.  We played this using modified Fistful of Lead.  See my previous posts for more background on the real battle and on our special rules for the scenario. We had great interest in the game.  Even though I initially thought to limit participation to four players, we ended up with eight - three playing the police (Vancouver Police, BC Provincial Police and RCMP), and five playing the longshoremen. 

The police (Vancouver Police Dept in blue) lined up in front of the tracks.  Heatley Ave running south from the police line, and the Ballantyne Pier warehouse behind them.

Reference material set out for anyone interested.

Striking longshoremen advance up Heatley Ave from Powell Street.

VPD line.

Mounted RCMP arrive behind the strikers.

Mounted cop charges a union leader from behind.  Thanks to some terrific rolling by the union man and an abysmal roll from the mountie, the policeman is knocked off his horse!

But then the second mountie takes out the union man.

VPD deploys tear gas.

Mounties maintain pressure on the rear of the march.

Strikers on Heatley Ave are dispersed but the flanking group can be seen advancing on the left.

Strikers rally and charge the police line!

Strikers on the left flank push past the BC Provincial Police, leading to victory for the strikers!

Police Reinforcements

 The city police need reinforcements to confront the striking workers!  So I recruited these fellows from Pulp Figures.

The police are now supported by a very small mounted contingent.  As I researched the Battle of Ballantyne Pier, I found that there was contingent of 20 Vancouver Police on horseback, in addition to around 36 mounted RCMP.  I reached out to Bob Murch with an idea to convert some mounted Mexican Federales into VPD.  Bob was intrigued and added a few police heads to aid with the conversion.  

I trimmed the officer's sabre into a billyclub (rider on the right), and did a hand swap for the rider on the left.  And then ended up using a different hand in the final version, as I found another that looked better.

Here is the final result.  The riderless horse is from Victrix, and will come into play if one of the horsemen gets unseated.

Here a group photo of the city police force to date.

Freddie

 I haven't forgotten Annie's Women of the Resistance!  This is Freddie Oversteegen, sister of Truus and friend of Hannie.   Freddie was the little sister, but was still very active in their resistance activities, hiding Jewish children and assassinating German soldiers.

Union Strikers' Bases for Multiple Figures

For the union strike games, there will be groups of 4-6 strikers on a single base.  Rather than decorate group bases to look like the street or wherever the game takes place, they will be on bases inspired by protest signs.  I asked on LAF for advice on suitable labour-related slogans, and here are the results!

The bases themselves are little MDF signs from the dollar store.  Here are the slogans.  I added a shorter form of each slogan on the post for when the main version is obscured.

The bases can easily fit four figures, but there's room to squeeze in a few more if desired. 

For now figures will just rest on top of each sign - if figures falling over becomes too much of a problem then I will look at using poster tack putty, and hope that it doesn't pull off the paint!

The canoe flotilla increases!

 Here is another canoe to add to my growing flotilla.

I now have 4 canoes for Northern adventurers!

Characters and profiles for Battle of Ballantyne Pier (also draft)

 Following on my previous post, here are some profiles for the Battle of Ballantyne Pier.  I'm looking for ideas for FFoL traits for each of these characters and groups, so please make suggestions in the comments!

Great history of the battle on the BC Labour Heritage Centre Website:  https://www.labourheritagecentre.ca/collection/the-march-to-ballantyne-pier/

VPD Chief Constable Colonel W W Foster, CMG, DSO, VD - WWI veteran of the Somme and Vimy Ridge, 5 times Mentioned in Dispatches, with a strong history of union busting in Vancouver.  Traits:  Veteran (d12), Leader, Fearless, Disperse the Crowd (aka Read the Riot Act).  Revolver, billy club.

VPD Constables:  d10.  Deployed in pairs.  Revolver and billy club.

BCPP Constables:  d10.  Deployed in pairs, initial deployment is hidden.  Player may choose to place them in the any of the boxcars or in one of the buildings along Heatley Ave.  Revolver and billy club.

Mounted Police (RCMP). d10.  Deployed singly.  Mounted.  Running attack (after close combat attack, may use remaining movement to engage another target or move clear of current opponent).  Thundering charge (+1 to close combat roll when charging). 

 International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), Local 500:

Union Leader Mickey O'Rourke, VC, MM.  d10.  Leader, Fearless (ignore penalties for multiple shock markers on recovery rolls), Rally/Increase Fervour.  Improvised weapons.

Union Leader Oscar Salonen, Finnish Canadian labour leader.  d10.  Leader, Rally/Increase Fervour, Coolheaded (+1 to Shaken recovery rolls).  Improvised weapons.

Union President Ivan Emery.  d10.  Leader, Rally/Increase Fervour, Strategist (draws an extra card).  Improvised weapons.  (Emery actually missed the march, as he'd been arrested just before the march began!)

Union Leader George Brown.  d10.  Leader, Rally/Increase Fervour, Sharp Tongued (in close combat make an easy (3+) test to force opponent to reroll attack).  Improvised weapons.

8 Groups of 4 longshoremen.  d8.  Improvised weapons.  2 groups per union leader.