Indiana Jones and the lost Aquila: Part two

Part two: The code disc.

The villans secured the map indicating the location of the Lost Aquila, but discover that the map is useless without a special metal code disc. Indy had entrusted Sallah with the disc, but when he was overwhelmed by Don Lardo's henchmen in Part One, they took it from him and sold it to a local trader.

Now both Don Lardo and Indy have to find the trader holding the disc. He is walking somewhere in a nearby coastal town. The streets are almost deserted because a sandstorm is coming (jokers in the deck).

Don Lardo and the Italian marines start in the upper right corner and can leave by boat when they find the code disc. Indy and friends start in the upper left corner and can leave the table via any table edge when they have the code disc. Four civilians are randomly (activated by jokers in the deck) walking the streets. One of them has the disc.

The marines move out.

But the British agents accompanying Indy are faster and contact the first civilian.

No luck. The civilian doesn't have the disc. On to the next one. The sandstorm joker is dealt from the deck reducing visibility to 12" (and halves shooting ranges). The marines make use of the storm to fan out to intercept the other civilians.

Marino Punto almost reaches a civilian, but the civilian movement joker is dealt and he moves away.

Indy's group has better luck. The civilian moves towards Ginger, keen on selling him some beautiful pottery, but unfortunately no disc.

I say, good man, do you sell a metal disc by any chance?

While Ginger is talking to the salesman, Indy intercepts marino Monza and uses his whip to take him down.

The civilans keep moving. Don Lardo and tenente Strapazo are closing in on one of the remaining potential disc holders.

The sandstorm has passed, allowing both sides to start firing at each other in the town square. Marino Corsa goes down with a wound.

Ginger tries to stop Don Lardo but is put out of action by tenente Strapazo's SMG.

Marino Punto finally catches up with civilian number three. Again no disc.

No disc! No disc!

Civilian number four is now certain to hold the disc. Don Lardo reaches him first and takes possession of the disc. Indy and Smyth rush forward. Indy charges tenente Strapazo and knocks him senseless.

Don Lardo fires his revolver at Indy but misses. Indy charges the Don, striking him down. Smyth goes through Don Lardo's pockets and retrieves both the map and the code disc.

Meanwhile Rupert and Bertie are trying to clear the marines from the town square. This seems to go well at first as Corsa is wounded by Bertie's BAR fire.

Corsa recovers from his wound (queen of hearts card) however and, assisted by Punto, drops Bertie with a well aimed shot.

Corsa then moves on to beat Rupert in close combat.

Indy tells Smyth to take the map and disc to a safe place. While the marines carry Don Lardo, Strapazo and Monza to the ship, Indy recovers Rupert and Bertie.

Now in posession of both the map and the disc, Indy will travel to the deep desert to excavate the Aquila in the next game.

Although he was outmaneuvered by Indy this time, Don Lardo has enough resources to bribe officials and locals. It doesn't take him long to find out where Indy is going and prepare an ambush.

Will Don Lardo succeed in taking the Aquila from Indy? All will be revealed in part 3 of Indiana Jones & the lost Aquila.

 

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: