Rescue mission - South China

A week ago Tuesday we played a game based on a fictitious river in China during the late 1800's. The game had a British flotilla made up of a powerful gunboat and steam launches sailing up river to rescue the British commissioner, his family, a missionary, his wife and a Chinese official who are besieged by the local Chinese warlord and his pirate allies.
The warlord and pirates needed to capture all or any of the officials to hold them for ransom.
In addition to these adversaries there was a fort on the river occupied by Imperial troops who could be swayed to join the warlord if they could be bribed. This would be rolled for each turn with a 1 getting the troops and their gun to join the warlord and pirates.
And here we have the pictures that are worth a thousand words.

 The pirates at start.

The British rescue force at the start.

A look up river from the British side.

 The fort.

 The British officials residence guarded by a detachment of Indian troops. Also in attendance are his family, the missionaries, and the Chinese official.

 The pirates sail down river to stop the flotilla.

 Here we see the warlord trying to assault the residence.

 This picture shows a side wheel river boat that had been set on fire during the night before the British civilians could board and set sail. also in the center the pirates have started to board the large British gun boat. Steam launches are landing to assist the civilians.

 The British civilians have abandoned the residence while the East Indian troops hold the warlord's troops at bay.

 Civilians boarding a steam launch to freedom.

 The pirates capture the large gun boat!!

 

The civilians sail off to freedom.

We had four gamers on this occasion. Tom, Wendell, Bill and myself.
Bill and Wendell were the British while Tom and I were the warlord and pirates.
The game ended with mixed results as the British were able to rescue the civilians but did lose the large gun boat in the process.
It was a fun game with a lot of action.
Take care and good gaming,
Greg

A wonderful surprise!

Saturday morning at Adepticon my oldest son Gregory and his very creative wife Rebecca surprised me by coming to see my game. In addition to this most welcome and pleasant visit Rebecca had brought me a gift. She made a Magnificent Seven dice tower with their laser cutter. Words cannot describe my pleasure nor the dice tower so I have posted pictures for all to see.

 In the bottom is space to hold your dice.

When all closed up everything is lock together due to the design of the tower.
What a wonderful surprise!

Good Gaming!
Greg

Adepticon Magnificent Seven games

Well I got through my two games at Adepticon and the players enjoyed themselves. I also had a great time since all of my key points for running the games were met.
1. The rules were simple but conveyed the correct feeling of the scenario.
2. The setting was pleasant to look at and play on giving just enough detail without making it difficult to play.
3. It was fun. Everyone could relate to the characters because the movie was well viewed and enjoyed by most of the players.
4. It played fast. The first game lasted 2.5 hours and came to a decisive conclusion and the second game lasted 3.25 hours and also played to a decisive conclusion.
5. The rules were easy to understand. After the first 2 or 3 turns the players were playing the game pretty much on their own.

So here are the few pictures I was able to take during the chaos of running a game.
By the way, the gamer's goals were to do better than their movie counterparts did. In the movie the Seven killed the bandits leaders (Calvera and Santos) and drove the remaining bandits out of the town. The bandits killed 4 of the Seven and wounded one other.
Game #1 had 8 players.

So I only have three pictures from the first game and I will blame this on my camera which decided to act up and not turn on. Fortunately it was corrected and worked for the second game.
This game went very quickly with the Seven being assisted by a bad die roll that delayed the bandits response to them being in the village. After seven turns the Seven had driven the bandits from the town ( a failed morale roll after loosing 22 of their 32 figures in the game) and killed their leader Calvera.
The bandits killed one of the seven ( Bernardo) and wounded 3 others (Britt, Chico and Vin).
Victory to the Seven!!
Everyone had a good time and were all very good sports congratulating each other with many handshakes around the table. I then presented prizes that were supplied by the convention staff. These were very beautiful terrain pieces that could be used in many periods, historical and fantasy. Thanks and praise to Adepticon for these.

On to the second game.

Here while 11 gamers had signed up for the game only 6 showed up. This was a great disappointment for me but did not seem to bother those that played in the game. Another good point about this scenario is it can readily be scaled to the number of players from 2 to 11. So I divided the characters between 3 players for the Seven and 3 players for the Bandits.
Below are some shots from the game after we were into it as the set up can be seen above.

Early on in the game Chris climbed up on a roof for a clear field of fire ans Chico got into the bell tower.

 During an extended shoot out behind the buildings the villagers in building #7 were finally set free allowing them to take revenge on the bandits.

 Thus ensued a deadly combat in front of the buildings.

 Unfortunately the Seven were taking a beating also.

 A closeup of the villagers revenge.

 This gamed played out to the full 12 turns where on turn 12 the bandits finally failed their morale and fled the village.
So the casualties were both bandit leaders dead (Calvera and Santos).
our of the Seven dead (Lee, Britt, Bernardo and Harry) and two wounded (Chico and Vin).
Almost an exact replication of the movie with one additional character wounded (Chico).
It was very close to being a draw and it would have been a bandit victory if they had not fled from the village. So I declared a marginal victory for the Seven.
Again there much good sportsmanship, congratulations, thanks and handshakes all around.

All the players from both games were outstanding gentlemen and I would be proud to host and game with any of them at any time. Thanks to Adepticon for their support and mostly to the players who put the best and final touch on the game.

Good gaming to all and look for this game at Little Wars on Friday and Saturday.
Greg