Ninjas At The Vicarage

Gus and his lads came over yesterday and we had our first proper go at 45 Adventure.  We played my first completed scenario "Ninjas At The Vicarage".  It's based on a test game I ran some time back and involves Ninjas trying to seize the Rev Charles Featherstonehaugh and his journal.  Both the Rev and the book contain vital clues to ... well we'll find out about that later.

Robin had control of four Ninjas detailed to search the vicarage and capture the Reverend.  Gus and Peter took, respectively, the roles of the Hon Miranda Carlyle.  Miranda had learned that her Uncle Charles feared for his life and had flown (literally) down to Little Muttering with her Belgian pilot friend Pierre Baudouin.

The game began with villains and heroes approaching the vicarage from opposite corners of the board.

Miranda knocks at the front door whilst Pierre passes the vicar's Rolls.
Meanwhile, a ninja stealthily crosses the lawn. 

One of the ninjas checks out the rainwater butt (an encounter marker)
beside the garage.

As a result of the encounter marker, the vicar attempts to escape by
climbing out of a side window of the vicarage.

The vicar was able to escape off-board but he left behind a fierce hand-to-hand fight in the vicarage as Miranda, who had managed to find the journal in a locked desk drawer thanks to another encounter marker, tried to escape the clutches of the ninjas.

Miranda flees the vicarage... 

... but she's caught and taken down by a ninja.

The game ended in a draw with the Rev Featherstonehaugh rescued but villains in possession of his vital journal.  Who knows what further adventures await Miranda and Pierre?

Another Pulp Villain

Just knocked up this evening is this chap.  He's another from the Artizan Designs Enemy Agents blister.     He'll be joining the ranks of the secret alliance of ... well, let's leave that for now....

Arctic Strike Achieved!

Phew!  The Big Game is now behind us and I can begin to sit back and take stock.  Here are a few pics taken during setting up.  More to follow.

The southern table - outskirts of Bodø in the foreground.

Middle table (with northern table in the background).
That's Herjangenfjord in the foreground.

View of the hall during set-up.

That sodding ice-breaker - finished just before the game and serving
only as eye-candy!

Andy Canham's marvellous oil rig, near Tromso.

Nice roads by Steve Graham.

NATO's air support

A long shot of the northern table - Tromso to Lyngenfjord.

Arctic Strike - the stock-taking

So how am I doing with a week and a half to go?

I've done:

The terrain cloths
The fjord
All of the fjord edges except for those at Bjerkvik
Medby village
Three significant hills
Enough streams
Lake Hartvik
Andy's Soviets (all done)
Richard's American/British battlegroup (mostly done)
Jamie's Finns (two HQs to finish)
My Swedes (pretty much done)
The rules
The air support cards

Still to do:

Bjerkvik
Elvegaardsmoen Camp
Dalberg village
That &^$£ing ice-breaker
Some extra, surprise terrain features
Collect Stuart's Norwegians from Doncaster
Finalise some of the logistical arrangements

Piece of cake!

Bjerkvik and Merseyside

Progress continues on the terrain for Crisis Point: Arctic Strike.  I've more or less completed the streams and all of the coastal sections apart from the northern edge of the fjord.  This last section is the bit occupied by the town of Bjerkvik.  This is underway but there's not much to see yet:

The large building on the right is the partially completed Bjerkvik church - very much the most recognisable building in the town.  It will sit on a grassy mound on the eastern edge of my model Bjerkvik.

Production was slowed down slightly this weekend by an Easter family visit "back home" to Merseyside which gave me a chance to once more photograph one of my favourite views:

... and to visit Fort Perch Rock at New Brighton:

... where we stumbled across this biography of a friend of the family:

Pulp Villains

Fed up with building terrain for Crisis Point, I spent some time yesterday evening painting a couple of 28mm figures.  These are figures from the Artizan Designs' range entitled Thrilling Tales.

The first figure is from the Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare pack.  He's simply painted with everything except the face and tie just blocked in with no highlighting at all.

The next guy is also by Artizan but from the Enemy Agents pack.  he's had some very basic highlighting added to his black clothing. This looks awful in the photographs but is hardly noticeable in real life.  In which case it's probably not worth doing!

Both figures need varnishing and the first needs his base painting.

I'm thinking my Pulp villains might be some kind of international conspiracy of influential men preparing for "the forthcoming war against Bolshevism".  I quite fancy the idea of the Heroes' opponents including the Gestapo, Japanese agents, and elements within the British Establishment.

Many More Rivers To Cross

I've been blithely assuming I just need to add some river junctions and some marshy river source modules and my existing stream units will be sufficient for my table at Crisis Point: Arctic Strike.  However, today I got out the existing sections and decided I'm about 14 feet short of what I need!

So in between helping Millie build her decorated egg project for school, this FedEggs delivery van:

I've started a production line for river sections:

I'm having to adopt a high speed approach.  No painting the surfaces of the river sections - I'll just rely on the fact that the card is already black and will, with a coat of varnish, make a reasonable river bed.  A bit of ready-coloured 'gloop' for the banks and some static grass will have to do.