Chain Home radar array

 

Another little kit from Sarissa Precision.  This is a coastal early warning radar array, part of the system codenamed Chain Home.   This was the first early warning radar network in the world, and the first military radar system to reach operational status, built by the Royal Air Force (RAF) before and during the Second World War to detect and track aircraft.  A nice objective for WW2 games.

I added some barbed wire around the structure to deter people from climbing it but it didn't put off that stupid boy.

Mausoleum

Another MDF kit from Sarissa to enhance the graveyard encounters in Perilous Tales and other figures games.  Just 9cm square (plus the steps) so nice and compact, and perfect as a small temple or mausoleum.

The MDF kit uses cardboard for the roof and for the middle columns on the three walls, building up the base and capital using a few pieces to give it more depth.  The kit ingeniously used narrow pieces of MDF along the corners to represent fluting on the columns.  After priming, it looked like this.

I drybrushed with greys and white before adding separate washes of umber and green to represent dirt and moss/lichen.

I added a strip of cardboard along the pitch of the roof, painted it copper and then tarnished with a wash of turquoise.

The vines are embroidery thread soaked in watered-down PVA and then teased apart with tweezers to form thinner branches growing along the brickwork.  Two different shades of flock form the leaves.  Tufts of grass were applied around the base with some fallen leaves collected around the steps.

Using image software, I created small mosaics and printed them on to glossy card and fitted them to the door and building pediments.

The larger has a pair of dragons in the foreground, the smaller a capital D.  So who on earth could be resting in this mausoleum...?

The roof is removable so the occupant of the crypt can be hidden inside ready to leap out on our unsuspecting heroes.  Back to painting figures now ready for a game using this piece of scenery.

Episode 204: Marion Ravenwood and the Lost Archaeologist of Imhotep

It wasn't planned as a two-parter but following a cliff-hanger ending last episode (and some encouragement in the excellent Perilous Tales Facebook group), the Director decided to make a sequel to find out the fate of Indiana Jones.

The board was set up as before but with Indy tied up in the sarcophagus on the temple plinth.  So for this episode, a different character took top billing:

"Following the abduction of Indiana Jones by the Mummy of Imhotep, the surviving members of the expedition took the unconscious Marion back to Cairo where a second cousin of Sallah was able to supply an antidote that brought her fully back to life.  Marion recruited Indy’s seaplane pilot, Jock Lindsay, to the gang and then led them back to the temple to try to rescue Indy, find the fourth and final canopic jar, and deal with the Mummy once and for all time."

The game objectives were Rescue the Prisoner, Find the Precious and Kill the Master.

Marion began the episode by revealing the High Priest, who wounded her but not before he took a fair few bullet wounds from Sallah and Jock who had their Eyes Peeled.

In the second turn, Marion finished him off but a further two cultists appeared and ambushed Marion (again) and Marcus.

The following turn, Sallah and Marion ganged up on the Cultist whilst Marcus and Jock did the same on the other, and luckily both were despatched.

Marion healed some of her wounds whilst Henry scarpered away, having failed a Horror Check.  Then Sallah unsuccessfully attempted to use his Handy trait to discover the remaining canopic jar.  Marion boldly rushed towards the plinth to rescue Indiana, prompting the reveal of two threat markers - the Mummy and Bugs! (an enduring peril in place over a wide area unfortunately including the plinth).

Marion took a lot of wounds from the two threats but then, learning a lesson from the ...ahem... technical rehearsal of the episode, decided that attempting to retreat from combat and allow her colleagues to all shoot the Mummy, made more sense than trying to fight hand-to-hand.

Of course this couldn't last long, as the Mummy's reaction on being shot was Step Forward, so he quickly closed the gap on the firing squad.  Meanwhile, Sallah failed another couple of times to dig up the jar but Henry stepped forward and found it straight away.

The Mummy then inflicted 8 wounds on Jock which would have taken him out of action completely.  The Director used the Last Ditch ability to rewind the tape, reset positions and let the Mummy roll again, causing just two wounds and keeping Jock in the game.

The Mummy had taken a lot of wounds by this point and, appropriately enough, Marion was the one to finish him off whilst Sallah and Henry moved to the plinth to rescue Indy.

In the next threat check, Sallah and Marion failed their Horror Checks and retreated, whilst Henry was ambushed by another cultist and a sandstorm blew up.

The Cultist took a couple of bullets and then inflicted 6 wounds on Henry.  Before Henry could respond, he had to endure biting bugs as he activated within 6" of the peril and sadly they took him out of action.  The small silver lining was that with the Cultist no longer engaged in hand-to-hand, Marcus could take revenge for Henry by shooting him dead.

Sallah took 4 wounds from the Bugs (they were vicious) as he moved back to the plinth and began to help Indy.  Jock joined in and together they freed Indiana from the sarcophagus.

At this point, the objectives were all accomplished but the only end game condition (threat level 10) hadn't yet been reached.  The Director decided the team should attempt to escape the bugs, and with a few more snaps at their heels, that's what they did.

Although they had lost Henry, they had recovered Indiana (3 points) and in addition found the fourth canopic jar (3) and killed the Mummy (3).  With the leader Marion surviving the adventure for another 1 point, the final score was 10, graded A for "a truly heroic performance".

The survivors' photo with the corpse of the Mummy and his four canopic jars:

Episode 203: Indiana Jones and the Lost Mummy of Imhotep

 First outing for the Indiana Jones team I painted this week.

I put them together from individual miniatures, mainly from Pulp Figures packs, so that I could get figures that best represented my favourite characters from the Indiana Jones films.  Fortunately I found a seller on eBay selling Pulp Figures miniatures separately.  From left to right we have:

• Marcus Brody: "Claus" (PLP005) from Artizan Designs' Thrilling Tales range 
• Sallah: "Mr M" from Sinister Spies (PHP 03)
• Indiana Jones: "Carson Smith" from Rugged Heroes (PHP 02)
• Marion Ravenwood: "Meg Masters" from Dangerous Dames 2 (PHP 19)
• Henry Jones Sr.: "Reggie York" from Stalwart Companions (PHP 10)

They were pitched against Copplestone Castings' Mummy (a gift from Adrian) and a group of Cultists (from North Star's Rangers of Shadow Deep range - a gift from Andy).

I used the Mummy stats and Desert Dig Site location from the Perilous Tales rules.  Like the Mummy films, the rules have Imhotep believe that one of the adventurers is the reincarnation of their love, Princess Anankha, and he will attempt to escape with that character.  The objectives were to Stop The Ritual, Recover the Canopic Jars (repurposing the Recover Equipment objective) and Kill the Master.

This was also the first time I've used my desert mat and my Egyptian scenery - another excellent eBay purchase of painted plastercast columns, statues and other features.  The threat markers were deployed in the standard pattern.

I started with Marcus and Sallah in the bottom half of the playing area, with the rest in the top half.  Henry used his Eagle Eyes to discover that the top most threat marker was Blazing Heat so that could be avoided for the rest of the game.  Indiana pushed on into the centre revealing an unhelpfully positioned "Thousand Cuts" marker.  This inflicts a 3 Skill attack whenever a hero activates within 6" for the remainder of the game, so it couldn't have been in a worse position.  But it was an opportunity to use some of my bugs counters to represent the threat.

As the threat level increased, a cultist ambushed Marcus but he was despatched by Marcus and Sallah in the following turn.  

Indy recklessly moved through the bugs and revealed three threat markers simultaneously.  One of these was a sandstorm, reducing visibility to 6 inches.  The others were the High Priest and a Cultist.

They inflicted a lot of wounds on Indy but with Marion's help he was luckily able to defeat them both, and Marion partially healed him the following turn.

Indiana spent a couple of turns interacting with the idol to Stop the Ritual.  The others defeated the last cultist whilst Indy and Marion tried to escape the bugs.  Indy succeeded but Marion sadly succumbed to the bugs' bites before she was able to move - despite the use of the Last Ditch rule to re-roll the attack.

Sallah was the first to find a canopic jar at the base of one of the columns.

Marcus found another and then Sallah discovered the third.  With the ritual stopped, three jars retrieved and only one threat marker left, the team were feeling pretty confident.

They gathered behind the sarcophagus and Sallah and Marcus had their Eyes Peeled as Indy triggered the Mummy's threat marker.  The object of Imhotep's affections was randomly selected... and the dice said it was Indiana Jones.  However, on checking the activation rules for the Mummy, I realised that with the "Princess" within 1" of him, and both within 3" of the villainous table edge, they were able to escape together and the game ended.

The final score was 3 for stopping the ritual and 3 for finding the jars.  A point for the leader surviving didn't feel right as although Indiana wasn't killed (unlike poor Marion), he may now have to endure a fate worse than death.  A total of 6 is ranked C: "Adequate, I shall give you a shilling for it".  Looking forward to playing this again and seeing how the Mummy rules play out should he appear earlier on in the game.