The Bordurian Incursion Part 5

Fording the Wasz

After having been pushed back across the Zkrem, the Syldavians are prepared to block the Bordurian advance at the river Wasz.

When The Bordurian light infantry arrives at the ford there seems to be only a small group of Syldavians.

The Syldavians have to fall back under the increasing Bordurian fire.

But then the Syldavian machine gun and militia deploy.

The Bordurians who were moving towards the ford are hit by machine gun fire and take shock.

For a moment the Bordurian dash towards the ford seems to succeed when the Syldavian machine gun jams, but then more Syldavian units deploy, blasting away at the Bordurian light infantry.

While one Bordurian unit collapses, another unit tries to wade through the deeper part of the river Wasz. Bordurian conscripts and a machine gun provide cover fire.

However, this is as far as the Bordurians will get. Although they manage to break the Syldavian line troops, their machine gun becomes jammed for the rest of the game.

The Bordurian light infantry breaks under unrelenting fire from the Syldavian force and limps to the safety of the woods.

Although Force Morale for neither the Syldavians nor Bordurians is close to zero, it is low enough to make it impossible for the Bordurians to achive their objective. The Bordurians withdraw.

Victory!

 

The final confrontation of the campaign will take place near the village of Waswa. Will the Syldavians succeed in pushing the Bordurians further back or can the Bordurians retain the conquered lands between the border and the river Wasz? Stay tuned for the final episode of The Bordurian Incursion ;-)

Corn fields

It's too hot to paint miniatures over here so time to make some terrain. 

For the American Civil War games I've got planned, corn fields are needed. I read several "how to make your own corn field" blog and forum posts. One of those used plastic plants from IKEA (Fejka:; actually this mean "fake" in Swedish. It is the fake Rosemerry plant; Thanks CommissarMoody for finding the right name). I couldn't remember where I read that so after buying two pots of Fejka, I tried to reconstruct the steps from memory.

First I cut off all the individual stalks and straightened the bent ones out by putting them in very hot water (use tweezers!). The hot water causes the plastic stalks to straighten. Then I drilled holes in strips of MDF (strips make storage easier and miniatures could be placed in the field by leaving room between 2 strips), glued the stalks in the holes and covered the MDF with woodglue and sand.

In addition to the strips of corn, I decided to make one small rectangular corn field. Just in time I realised that if I put all the stalks in, I wouldn't be able to reach the base to paint it.

All MDF parts painted.

After drybrushing with a light sand colour, I glued a bit of mixed Italian herbs between the stalks and some static grass at the edges.

Insert the remainder of the stalks and the corn field is ready for a game.

Of course I remembered the blog with the Fejka tutorial after finishing the corn field:

John Bond's corn field.

After again admiring Mr Bond's superior detailing and scratchbuilding skills, the one thing I wished I'd remembered is allowing sufficient space between the stalks for miniatures.  

And possibly to make the stalks shorter. They are now quite tall.

I can't do anything about the rectangular field, but the corn strips were designed to solve this problem.

Two Fejka plants worth of corn fields:

  

The Bordurian Incursion Part 4

To the Zkrem!

The Bordurians turned the tables on the Syldavians in the previous game. In full retreat, the Syldavians are driven back towards the river Zkrem. Before they are able to cross safely the Bordurians make a flank attack.

A large formation of Bordurian conscripts take up position on a wooded hill and blast away at Syldavian light infantry.

Fortunately a group of Syldavian skirmishers can provide some support.

But mounting shock forces the Syldavian light infantry to fall back. Where they are being rallied by a holy man.

More Syldavian light infantry deploy, plus a group of Syldavian militia.

The Syldavians put pressure on the Bordurian conscripts. But then the first groups of Bordurian Light infantry arrive.

The massive block of conscripts begins to crumble under the relentless Syldavian fire. And then the Bordurian conscript leader is wounded!

But the main Syldavian light infantry line has also collapsed and has to be replaced by two groups of Syldavian line infantry.

The Bordurians are moving faster than the Syldavians and in addition are able to fill their depleted line with fresh groups of Bordurian light infantry.

The Syldavians are taking a beating. More Syldavian light infantry has to withdraw due to shock and they are unable to bring their militia into position.

When the Bordurians make progress in taking the Syldavian line groups apart, the Syldavians call it a day and flee.

This means the Bordurians can push on victoriously, capturing the town of Volodj and march towards the river Wasz.

The Syldavians have demolished the bridge at Volodj, forcing the Bordurians towards the only place where the Wasz is fordable.

Here they have prepared a warm welcome for the Bordurians in the upcoming game....

Indiana Jones and the lost Aquila: Part one

I came up with a new Indiana Jones Fistful of Lead campaign to play with my son.

The story so far:

In 25 BC a Roman legion of 10000 legionnairs under the command of Aelius Gallus was defeated in  battle against the Kingdom of Sheba. During its retreat the legion's aquila was lost. Local tribesmen hid the aquila in a temple which was covered by sand during a violent sand storm and lost. The tribesmen did however make a map of the temple's location.

Fast forward to 1934: The Italian adventurer and fascist count Don Lardo has picked up the trail of the lost aquila in the no mans land between North Yemen and Saudi Arabia. By order of Mussolini himself he is sent to retrieve the aquila, so it can be used for propaganda purposes in the upcoming Italian invasion of Ethiopia.

However, Indiana Jones has acquired the map, indicating the location of the temple alledgely containing the lost aquila and has been asked to join a British expedition by his old friend Rupert Jenkins (British secret service) to find the aquila before Don Lardo does.

Part one: The Map

Indy, Rupert, Bertie and Sallah are staying at the house of one of Sallah's friends. While they are away to buy supplies for the trip to the deep desert, Don Lardo's men create a diversion to lure everybody away from the house so he and his men can search the house for the map.

My son chose to play the villains and positioned the marines and local henchmen around the house while Don Lardo and signore Cattiva went inside the house to search for the map.

I covered in on the enclosure openings with Indy, Rupert and Sallah while Bertie took up a sniper position on top of the rocks.

While Rupert and Marino Punto exchanged fire, signore Cattiva snuck out the back door and aimed his revolver at Sallah who was only armed with a shovel.

Fortunately Sallah's turn came first and he rushed Cattiva, whacking him with the shovel.

Meanwhile Bertie tried to keep to local henchmen off Sallah's back with supressive fire.

Alas! The henchmen attacked Sallah from behind and although Sallah managed to inflict some shock and a wound he was overwhelmed and put out of action.

During this fight, Don Lardo has found the map and runs from the house towards safety (leaving the table with the map wins the game).

To prevent Don Lardo's escape, Indy shoots him in the leg.

Rupert tries to take out marino Punto, but not only runs out of ammo, he also takes a wound from Punto's rifle fire.

Punto runs to Don Lardo and grabs the map.

Signore Cattiva has snuck around the building and is about to shoot Indy in the back when he is put out of action by accurate fire from Bertie.

Unable to hit or reach the running Punto, Indy uses his action to incapacitate marino Corsa with his whip.

Still out of ammo and hampered by his wound, Rupert tries to intercept Punto.

But Punto wins the round of close combat. 

Both Indy and Don Lardo are now going after Punto.

Rupert makes his recovery roll and gets up once more. Unfortunately his revolver is still out of ammo...

Marino Punto is on the edge of the table and...

He gets the first turn, leaving the table with the map and securing a victory for the villains!

All is not lost yet. The villains still need to find the aquila. So stay tuned for Part 2!