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.

Cold Wars 2015: Election Riots and Regency Zombies

This is a brief report on my trip to Cold Wars.  Given other engagements and renting a table in the flea market, I only got to game on Friday but it was a full and fun day.

In the afternoon I played on Zeb Cook's Baltimore Election Riots of 1856.  A delightful game once we got over the fact that people actually fought over whether James Buchanan or Millard Fillmore should be President.  It was the Democrats vs. the Know-Nothings and I was one of the latter - perfect casting I suppose.  The Democrats got an early lead in stuffing the ballot box and just as we were about to "make proper adjustments" to the vote, they absconded with the ballot box.  Even though poor Fillmore lost, we had a great time.

A slight disagreement over politics

I ran my Sharpe's Pride and Prejudice and Master and Commander and Zombies game and thought it went very well.  Originally scheduled for 8 players, I ended up with 14 players total but all seemed to have enjoyed the chaos and everyone got to have their moment.  We ended up playing to a conclusion in about 2 and 1/2 hours - special thanks to Steve Braun for helping me run the zombie hordes. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to take too many pictures.

The games was really about the romantic travails of the five Sisters Bennett, living in genteel poverty in Regency England.  Oh, and there's zombies.

The zombies were primarily a distraction from the players' objective of rescuing Lydia, the youngest of the Bennett sisters who had run off with the scoundrel Mr. Wickham.  The zombies did provide the advantage of bringing large numbers of eligible men into the area, in the form of Richard Sharpe and the 95th Rifles, Jack Aubrey and the crew of HMS Surprise, and the Scarlet Pimpernel and friends who were somewhat at a loss of occupation since the Reign of Terror ended. 

The dastardly Wickham's carriage was wrecked while trying to run over a horde of Unmentionables.  He took refuge in a nearby butcher shop, using poor Lydia as a human shield.  This allowed the rest of sisters, with the aid of the officers, to push their way through the zombies (after coming up with the stratagem of ringing the village church bell to attract the zombies away from the shop), round up a parson, and corner Wickham.  Mr. Darcy, who was smitten with Elizabeth, bribed Wickham into marrying Lydia, Dr. Stephen Maturin having found a cure that would prevent the girl from joining the undead.  The game happily ended with a joint wedding of all five sisters, Maturin and Richard Sharpe being among the grooms.

 Here's some other games I spotted:

Neat Gundam-style game with Lego buildings.

Not sure what type of game was going to be played here but a nice table.

Sci-fi game of some sort, nice interiors 

Beautiful F&I Wars game

Siege of Malta

Star Trek game with wonderful "terrain"

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies Playtest

As mentioned previously, I am preparing for Cold Wars next week where I will be running the Pride and Prejudice and Zombies game.  In addition to the characters from the novel, it will also include characters from the Aubrey-Maturin books as well as the Sharp series.  A couple of weeks ago, we did a play test with my regular gaming group and it seemed to go pretty well.

As in the novel, the focus of the game is on the romantic travails of the Sisters Bennett with the zombie apocalypse as a mere stumbling block in their pursuit of appropriate husbands. 

The Sisters Bennett

Mr. and Mrs. Bennett

The main plot involved the attempted seduction of the youngest sister, Lydia by the scoundrel Mr. Wickham.  Lydia has "eloped" with Wickham, thinking they will marry when in reality, Wickham has much less honorable intentions.  The rest of the zombie-fighting sisters led by the Elizabeth are in pursuit, aided by the wealthy but proud Mr. Darcy who hopes to win Elizabeth's heart.

In the meantime, Britain's military heroes have been recalled to battle England's Strange Plague.

The crew of the HMS Surprise is hard-pressed

That is until they lure the zombies into the path of the Army's rockets and their own powder cart.

Sharp dug in and let the rockets do his fighting.  They proved surprisingly accurate.

In the meantime, the Bennett hoped to use an acquaintance, Mr. Collins, a parson, to marry Lydia and Wickham, once they were apprehended.

The parson's wife is not looking too well.

Mr. Darcy aided by his aunt's ninjas

A damned nuisance for Mr. Wickham's seduction attempt.

The militia find themselves in an awkward position.

A certain lack of quality control at the burning fields.

The Reclaimers claimed

Mr. Darcy convinces Mr. Wickham to do the right thing.

A timely wedding.

A Zombie-off with Lady Catherine

First Game of Lion Rampant

I recently picked up the Lion Rampant from Osprey.  I recently got a chance to play out a game with a friend. We both enjoyed the game and it found it very well balanced.  The rules were simple but provided a enough flavor and distinction between the units to give a unique feel to the game.

This was a bit of a change for me - a pure historical game with no fantastical elements. We decided to run the Sausage and Mustard scenario wherein one player has to destroy four supply points.  I set these up as a small village in the center of the board.

We used the basic Early English and French retinues from the book with an additional 2 points to each side.  

The English had 2 mounted men at arms units, 2 foot sergeants, and a bowman unit that used the 2 extra points to upgrade to expert.  Their leader rolled a Rash characteristic and so became Lord Flashheart.  We randomly selected which side we were on and I got the English.

The French had two mounted men-at arms, one mounted sergeants, one foot sergeants, and one crossbowmen.  Their extra two points were spent on two units of serfs who were set up in the village.  The French Lord rolled Insipid and got to be called Sir Guy de la Wombat (of MP&THG fame).

The French had a bad series of activation rolls so my English pushed forward to the edge of the village pretty quickly.  Lord Flashheart plunged ahead to circle the village and routed the French mounted sergeants.

We treated most of the village as Cover but the church was both cover and rough.  This gave the serf the chance to actually put up a pretty decent fight, at least initially.

Lord Flashheart's charge continued until Sir Guy spotted him.  This began a series of Wild Charges back and forth that saw Sir Guy killed and his unit of men at arms destroyed (the rest of his retinue barely noticing).  The last unit of French men at arms gained vengeance however, and the rash Lord Flasheart ended his life in a single-man Wild Charge against four french knights. 

Meanwhile, the English foot pushed its way into the village, the bowman routing off the French crossbowmen and foot sergeants.  Despite a stout defense, the French serfs were driven from the church.

The English mounted men at arms destroyed the last of the French men-at-arms and then, with only two knights left, rousted the other serfs from the village.  At this point, the French player conceded that he would be unable to retake the village before my troops could burn it - they had already started one of the buildings on fire.  A very close run thing with the heavy casualties among the knights. Definitely will be playing this again.