Third Annual Historicon Musical Wargame - The Sound of Music

My son Nick and I are going to be running another musical-based wargame at Historicon this year.  Last year we ran Spamalot, the year before it was Les Miserables.  This year it will be The Sound of Music, with some elements from other musical with nun or Nazi themes - it's surprising how frequently one of the two feature in popular musicals.  The game will be based on the last portion of The Sound of Music.  For those unfamiliar with the story, in late 1930s Austria, the failing novice Maria is sent to serve as governess to the annoyingly adorable seven children of the widower Capt von Trapp, a WWI hero of the Austrian Navy.  To make a long story shore, Maria brings happiness and music back into the grief-striken household.  She marries von Trapp just in time for the Nazi Anschluss.  The Nazis want to force von Trapp to take a commission in the Reich's Navy.  The family plans a rather ridiculous escape from the Salzburg Music Festival and, with the help of the nuns of Maria's former abbey, they "climb every mountain" and escape to a lucrative recording contract in America.  The game will cover the family's escape.



Here's what the table will look like.  I'm using a new Cigar Box mat and some Clever Paper buildings.  I'm going to do a separate blog entry on the scenery.



Here's Capt. von Trapp and Maria - I'm still working on painting the children.

 Here's some of the nuns of the Noneburg Abbey, part of the heavily armed choir in fact.  Lead by Sister Whoopy, a streetwise torch singer in hiding after witnessing a murder (see "Sister Act")

The rest of the nuns led by the tough but wise Mother Abbess - they remind of some of my grade school teachers.

Opposing them will be the frauleins of The Springtime for Hitler SS Brigade (See "The Producers")

Some Austrian Brown Shirts

Helping the von Trapps will be the Eidelweiss Battalion of the Austrian Resistance (Yodeling-capable)

A roadblock in the countryside.

Last year, NBC broadcast a live version of The Sound of Music starring Carrie Underwood. As a complication for the von Trapps, I've added a country singer who wants to replace the original far more talented Maria.

The chase is on!

Austrian police - they will be led by Gustav Schwartenegger, father to a future Governator of Kalifornia

Vince La Rocca, the mobster who wants to silence Sister Whoopy.

Here's a view of Salzburg.  I was trying of an "artificially picturesque" sort of atmosphere here.  I think the buildings and the mat give it a sort of movie set quality.