IN HER MAJESTY'S NAME: GAS, GAS, GAS!

The Wednesday game two weeks ago saw my Scotland Yard taking on David's Prussians in a 'marked for death' scenario.

Special Branch move to take some long shots at the Prussian leader, while the coppers keep the Doctor, my leader for the night, safe. 

A well placed gas grenade, fired by rocket launcher, lands amongst Special Branch.

The gas takes out my long range option.

The doctor is escorted to safety.

Another gas grenade lands close.

The doctor succumbs.
With my leader hors de combat, it is another victory to the damned Prussians.

With this being a quick victory to David, we had a deep discussion about gas grenades, particularly fired by rocket launchers, and how they are dominating games. We read and reread the rules and were convinced we were doing things right. We posted to the IHMN Facebook group and got a definitive answer from Craig Cartmell (no higher authority than the author!) that after the grenade launcher hits a spot, a separate roll to hit must be made against each target in the blast radius.

We will see what effect this has on the use of gas grenades in a future game.
  

IHMN: CATCH THAT PIGEON NOW!

Our most recent game of In Her Majesty's Name saw David's Prussians taking on Del's Star Theatre Players.  

 The scenario was 'Stop the Pigeon'. Having played this scenario before, I know it can be tricky chasing down the randomly moving pigeon to recover the message. The scene was ' Cathedral' so David came up with terrain representing a ruined place of worship.

 The pigeon didn't move far from it's starting position, finding some succulent bugs in the temple. Meanwhile both factions converged on it.

 The Prussians set about things in their usual, efficient way. Using a grenade launcher to fire poison gas at the poor bird (and anything else that got in the way!). The pigeon expired and was collected by a Prussian wearing a primitive gas mask.

 The Star Theatre will be short of two stage hands following another well aimed gas grenade.

 An overview of the contested area. Showing off David's own design gas grenade burst markers, complete with a counter to mark the durstion of the cloud.

 The early design gas mask was going to need some more work on it: the pigeon collector had been affected.

 The Prusian medic rushed to his assistance. The Players moved round to try to cut off the line of escape. Good use of the 'Mesmerism' talent allowed them to fight off a Prussian attempt to stop this move.

 The pigeon, with the all important message, was now making it's way to the Prussian lines in the firm grasp of the Prussian Medic.

Two further gas grenades, this time thrown, ended any attempt to stop the pigeon leaving the table.

Another interesting and entertaining game. The gas grenades had a significant effect on the outcome of this game. They are effective, but at 7 pts each, can be expensive as 4 or 5 can be equivalent to a character. David had 8 in total. 4 out of 6 used hit their target. The use of gas masks is not foolproof, but does increase the odds of surviving. I think that they may now become standard police issue!

IHMN: BATTLE FOR THE ATTIC.

My Scotland Yard company took on Del's Star Theatre Players. 

The scenario was 'King of the Hill'. The 'hill' in this case was a great looking house, intended for Morheim, that David had put together.

           My coppers make their way onto the table. Where is the Great Detective?

                                   

                                    The Players make their way towards the target.

 The Good Doctor and a Special Branch plod make it into the building and head for the attic.

                  One of the Players attacks and disrupts the copper's supporting units.

  A view of the combat in the house.

 Most of the coppers had gone round the back of the building to come in the back door, so that allowed the Players to concentrate their forces, The Good Doctor fell early. One by one the other coppers were picked off.

After losing all but three of my coppers, and only taking down two Stage Hands, I conceded, as Del was well ahead on VPs.

Even though I lost this game, it was enjoyable. Our nrrative style of gaming helps to create atmosphere. One thing I should mention: the Great Detective was involved in the game. He has aquired the Master Of Disguise talent and was one of my Special Branch plods. He did not get an opportunity to reveal himself (ooh, er, missus!) to his advantage.

IHMN: BRING HIM BACK ALIVE!

Our Wednesday game this week saw my Scotland Yard company take on David's Tottenkopf Battalion company. The scenario was Bring him back alive! Scotland Yard had become aware of a threat to John Cayley, an aeronautical engineer. They had to ensure his safety before the Damned Prussians got to him or to make sure that they couldn't benefit from his knowledge, killing him if that's what it takes!

The Tottenkopf make their way into the engineering works.

The coppers of Scotland Yard make their approach from the other end.

Sergeant Forbes is felled by a rifle bullet. The good Dr Fraser rushes to his aid. Meanwhile, two constables rush to the foot of the stairs, determined to test out their Edison arc truncheons on the Prussians on the balcony.



One of the Prussians fires a grenade launcher and manages to land a grenade in the centre of the group. The poison gas grenade takes out both coppers and Dr Fraser. 

The two constables scatter to avoid a gas grenade rolled down the stairs. Meanwhile Herr Doktor and his hench men emerge with their prisoner.

The end of the game, the Prussians make their escape. One of the Tottenkopf Kommandos bayonet charges constable Piece, which stops him from attempting to shoot Cayley.

Not shown in the pictures was a brief but decisive action inside the engineering works. Chief Inspector Straight and three men tried to approach through the turbine hall. They were stopped by accurate rifle fire and two poison grenades which made the hall impassible. The men had to take the long way round and were too late to influence the outcome. It was a decisive victory for the Prussians, who won by 39 VP to 2 VP.

This was the first outing for David's Tottenkpf. I don't think that even he expected the poison gas grenades to be so effective. They do cost a bit, and have to be paid for individually and, now they have been seen in action, simple countermeasures and tactics can be employed.

I had also tweaked my coppers to allow use of equipment and talents from the expansions. Sadly, I never got close enough to use the arc truncheons much. You may also wonder what happened to Professor House, the consulting detective? He was there, although he was using his 'master of disguise talent' but never got in to a position to make a really effective 'reveal'. He did make himself known to use his 'erudite wit' in the last turn.

Despite the loss, I enjoyed the game. It was played in a spirit of narrative interpretation, which reall helped create a great gaming atmosphere.

IN HER MAJESTY'S NAME: BREAKTHROUGH!

A week past Wednesday, rather than our usual games night at David's, we decided to game at the Geek Room's games night, which is held in the function room at the Brig O' Dee Bar.

 David's Secret Service team was taking on Del's Star Theatre Players. The scenario was 'Breakthrough'.

With both teams small, Del took the' attack is the best form of defence stance' and attacked, appart from his hunter, who decided to hold back and pick off any enemy getting past her colleagues with rifle fire.

David unleashed his Ape. This is a fast and deadly creature.

                                      A fierce battle was joined near the edge of the board.

In the end, despite casualties on both sides, David got enough figures off the board to leave Del looking for snookers to win on victory points. One of the characters that escaped had the famed Duquesne Scroll.

An exciting game. The atmosphere of the game was not like one of our normal games. This probably had something to do with being in a club setting. Our games are normally accompanied with a lot of chat and cups of tea. At the Geek Room the game was more focused and flew by.

MY GAMING WEEK.

Apologies for the gap in posting. I have been busy. I have built up a backlog of photos and games to blog about. I'll go with the most recent, as I am more likely to remember how the games went! Some of the posts may end up as just acollection of pictures.

 

This past week I managed two nights of Gaming.

 

On Wednesday, I took on Del in our latest game of In Her Majesties Name. We played the 'Bad Jack' scenario, involving an escaped mutated lab experiment, with both factions trying to track it down.  

The opening positions.

Using a bit of narrative gaming, we determined that the monster was being developed by Del's faction and they were determined to destroy it, and any  evidence pointing to them. Scotland Yard were there to protect the populace, destroy the monster: and it's owners!

The Monster.

Del managed to find a suitable figure from his collection.Here it is, on the roof of David's Wulsung building which stood in as the lab.

The monster escapes.

David controlled the monster, it would always attack the nearest figure in sight, until then it moved randomly.

The monster attacks Del's mutants. The Yard moves round the back of the building.

Both sides converged. Del's mutants got in first and attacked the monster

The Yard move in, taking fire from Del's supporting characters.

The Yard firing line moves into close range. The hits, though not killing it, have made the monster go Berserk!

In the last two moves, some characters are knocked down and one wounded, but subsequently saved by the medical skills of the Good Doctor!

The game started off with Del's force attacking the monster, but not making any impression. My Scotland Yard were more cautious. They formed a firing line and used volley fire. This caused some hits on the combatants, but good pluck rolls meant no kills. The rest of the Yard moved round the back of the lab, and engaged the rest of Del's force. The game ended in a draw, with the only loss being one of Del's mutants.

The game was really enjoyable. It ended up in a great mass melee, with no one gaining the upper hand and suffering no casualties. The monster broke free. It will no doubt make an appearance in future scenarios.

I had not expected to be gaming on Thursday, but Rick's business meeting had been cancelled, so he arranged a couple of boardgames at short notice. We had another go at Trenchzone http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/68387/trenchzone. Rick had acquired the Tactical Advantage expansion.

We used hidden deployment, masked by the game box.

I set up looking to send an assault down my right flank. I managed to build up my forces and take out Rick's fortifications.



Early stages of the game. Note the Tactical Advantage cards.

My tactical advantage card gave me a melee advantage in one section. The other two cards were decoys. I sent my attack over the top, knowing I had a 'charge' card which would allow me to move two zones at once.  

Later in the game. The attack from my right trenchzone is hit by a gas attack. Rick also played a 'Rain'card, stopping movement by the attack. To make matters worse, he also played an 'engineering' card to add wire to the zone that I had already cleared.

Rick had other ideas! He stopped my attack by playing a 'rain' card, This stopped forward movement as long as the card was in play (stayed for three turns!), He then attacked with gas. This also lasted three turns. This, and artillery bombardment, destroyed my attack, earning 2 VP.

He then launched an attack of his own. His tactical advantage card added extra forces to each attack. As he had destroyed my artillery and most of my pillboxes, he was able to attack my middle trenchzone. He managed to break in, and win the game.

This was more enjoyable than our last attempt, as we had a better understanding of the game. It has a lot or replayability. More importantly, it brings home the futility of this type of warfare.

This game took so long that we were not able to have a go at Manouvre. We did have a go at http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/42898/pocket-battles-celts-vs-romans. , but it was just a quick familiarisation.

A busy two nights gaming.

MY GAMING WEEK: IN HER MAJESTY'S NAME AND C&C NAPOLEONICS.

I have had a break from blogging for a month or so, for a number of reasons. I am back and looking to post on a reasonably reasonable basis.

This past week has seen me playing a new game and an old favourite. On Wednesday, we had a game of In Her Majesty's Name. This was an all in game just to try out the rules. David set up the scenario, using some of the terrain that he has constructed. The scenario was simple, capture the scientist in the engine house in Kew Gardens and get him off the table!

              The engine house that David constructed with the Airfix beam engine inside.

It ended up being a race between my Scotland Yard company and Derek and David's companies. We managed to give the shooting and combat rules a good test. There were a lot of extreme rolls on the go: about a dozen each of 1s an 10s, which were automatic failures and passes respectively. I was deemed to have won the race, but the result was not the purpose of this game. Here are a few photos from the game.

  On Thursday, Rick & I played a Commands & Colors Napoleonic scenario, using the terrain from the La Platavilla Don Featherstone tribute game from last year. I took the British. I had to set up my forces before Rick deployed the French. This simulated the morning mist screening the French advance. The river was fordable, but was in spate and infantry units ran the risk of losing hits if they crossed the river.

                                                                Starting deployments.
When the French deployment was revealed (Rick had deployed the French, taken a photo, then took then off the table) I found that I had fallen for the ruse and had deployed to defend the bridge, rather than anticipate cavalry attacks over the river.

The game became a race to redistibute my forces to meet the cavalry threat before they got across the river. Here are some photos of the game.

There was an air of inevitability about the French cavalry attack. They brushed aside the only British cavalry unit before falling on the flank. The French attacked across the bridge to keep my forces in place. The cards even added to the narrative: for the first four moves I had no centre section cards. This modeled the confusion that would have been felt in the British centre. In the end, i managed to form a defence with a few units, but ultimately lost seven blocks to nil. A decisive victory for the French.

 

A very enjoyable week of gaming.