Welcome to my blog, the story of my continuing journey into the World of Zombie Wargames.

Monday 26 March 2018

Cartington takes Charge.

   The explorers - L to R, Fred, Henry, Doc, Al and Bertie.
After the turmoil of having the plumbing done and engineers fixing the central heating my wargaming endeavours have just about returned to what passes as normality.
It was of course time to return to another adventure in Jimland.
After the very successful previous Warton-Cartington expedition, the party was able to afford to outfit the largest expedition to date.
The 'large' starting expedition
Warton and Cartington were both able to expend a point each on one of their 'stats; I chose to bring up each of their save rolls to '15'.
The expedition would have five explorers, five Askari and ten bearers, all of the latter carrying food,
Joining  the expedition were three new Explorers, each with identical stats, a '10' in their respective field; a save roll of '12'; a shoot of '6' and a fight skill of '5'.
 New explorers cost a base $23 (giving 23 points to be spent on the three skills above), plus the cost of their respective field (normally $25), so losing an explorer is an expensive business.

Setting up the terrain for the first acton
One of the 'joys' (read drudgery) of gaming is setting up the game,  terrain figures, etc. in the first place, as I'd had the recent disruption to my gaming activities,this would take longer than I'd normally like - almost as long as the game itself !
So, onto the game itself:

From the journal of Frederick Carrington:

"After a brief sojourn at Jim's Landing I opted to lead our second expedition into Jimland noting that the abbreviation C/W expedition was far more pleasing than the W/C expedition!"
Adding the expedition and terrain
"We were joined by Jonathon Stannington MD, (a medical chap) Professor Alyosius Addycombe (a botanist of note) and  Bertand Balmoral , a Fellow at the Royal Institue of Biology.
My plan was to follow the trail SW to the coast, then follow it along until our food supplies forced us to return by a similar, parallel, slightly  more Northerly route".

"We reached the end of the trail on day one and were set upon by some rather rude Natives that tried ambushing us, but Henry had scouted their position well and we were ready for them!"
The column, rearranged to recieve the the Natives
" Of course we soon aw them off, having formed a firing line on the far bank We did lose an Askari, foolish chap, caught stuck in the mud and unable to free himself."
One of our bearers though also stuck even manged to kill one of our assailants."
"Our firing line took toll on the natives and they ran off. 
The furore of the Melee disturbed one of those large vicious arachnids that seem so prevalent in Jimland, but he took little interest in us and soon scuttled off."
The on-rushing natives (bottom right in case you hadn't noticed)
 "There was a village in the area,  , that the natives had emerged from and Al, even found time to find some new boring plant."

Natives still on-rushing but losing a man
Quite a first day!"









"The next day we discovered that the, by now, usual "Drums in the Night" still managed to scare one of our Askari off - superstitious whatnots."






The melee - Natives lose one man and an Askari falls victim to a club whilst a large spider makes an appearance

Losing another two men to rifle fire, the Natives runaway (top right)
"By day four one of our bearers was found to have been struck down by a fever.  It was decided not to touch any of the ten rations he carried"

And the spider runs off too.










"The next few days, saw Al, being particularly boring, finding another new plant species and Doc Stannington finding a Native snare, much to his chagrin, as he died from the strangulatory effects.
We shall have to see if we can find another Doc."

"There was evidence of an attempt at pilfering one night, but they were probably looking for trade good, of which we had none. The very next day a brush fire erupted in camp, with yet another Askari loses his life
. What is wrong with these chaps ?"

"With food supplies (and Askari) being very diminished, I decided to head for Jim's Landing arriving there 11 days after we had left."


The C-W expedition route.
Playing the game (bar the prep) only took about an hour as there was only the single engagement and overall the expedition achieved abut the same as the previous one, point-wise. (275 point this one; 297 the previous one). The loss of the Doc was a blow, but the other two newbie survivours won't have to be 'paid' for again, so overall a profit was made!
I've  also tried a new format for the write-up - input always welcome.
I still enjoyed the game, but look forward to the time when I have another party (player) for my native forces to pick on!

That's it then for this week, the painting of my Dervish forces goes on unabated and at the rate I'm going, all the 'fuzzies' should be just about finished by next week.

Thanks for taking the time to visit and as always your comments are both welcomed and appreciated. 

22 comments:

  1. A pleasant little stroll through Jimland for the boys ('cept the quack.) Keep it up methinks there's something out there to take to the RGS.

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    1. Thanks Irqan,there are plenty of surprises in Jimland that I've planned but it's pretty difficult surprising oneself.

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  2. Another great report Joe, oddly enough as I was reading I was thinking there's something different about this report & low & behold there was, I like the mew format :)

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    1. Thanks Frank, the current format is a much easier way to write up the game rather than a day by day account.; ittakes long enough already to write a post about the game (more time than the game took)

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  3. A nice instalment Joe. Shame about the Doc I am sure another will be found. These academics often like to wander the land in search of new plants with medicinal purposes.

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    1. Thanks Brummie, it's one of those things, 1 in 10 chance it was an explorer that got caught in the trap, 1 in 5 that it was the Doc and 8 in 20 that he wouldn't save.
      So just less than a half percent chance!

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  4. Hi Joe another exciting journey into Jimland, with quite a bit of new land explored.
    Shame about the doc, but I expect he can easily be replaced.
    Cheers

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    1. Thanks Vagabond,a little short (by two hexes) of what was intended, but a good expedition nonetheless. It does seem like there is an almost unlimited supply of folks that want to risk life and limb in Jimland.

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  5. Great to have another Jimland write-up after the central heating fix - do you turn up the thermostat to get the jungle ambience while you're playing? ;-)
    The new format works just fine for me, just like reading the "field notes" from the expedition (which I'm sure would become exaggerated and much expanded for the published 'diary')
    Shame about the doc sticking his head in a noose, but he seemed to have spent the rest of the expedition just hanging around anyway ;-)

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    1. Thanks WA, I tend not to have any heating in my games room, it's a very war, comfortable environment anyway and who wants sweat dripping on their journals?
      Thanks for the comment on the notes, I think it will be my format, for now, or at least as Cartington is in charge. The loss of the Doc was a blow, but the dice gods can be very fickle at times.

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  6. Jungle journaling at its best.

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    1. Thanks Jay, though I;m sure there are better jungle journalists out there.

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  7. Poor old Doc didn't fair too well, but another great adventure.

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    1. Thanks Michael, Doc didn't fair well at all did he ?

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  8. I say sir rather spiffing all round. Unless of course you happen to be the Doc. But Doc's do have a nose for trouble like you would not really believe. I am sure you will be able to recruit another should you see the need. I would recommend a German Dr. they seem just the ticket to me. Some do struggle with bed side manner but they do not take much shenanigans and skiving off!

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    1. Why thank you sir, your comments are noted and under consideration though the idea of a German in the midst may leave a bit of a sour taste in ones mouth.

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  9. Great stuff, Joe, and despite a minor melee being the height of action I could read about your characters' "Jimland" exploits all-day long. You've definitely found a hobby niche imho which always makes me click your blog when I see a new update is at hand :-)

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    1. Thanks Blaxx, I enjoy the game a lot and of course I'm really pleased that others are finding soe enjoyment in it too.

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  10. Poor old doc - don’t touch anything!

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    1. Thanks dGG, yep ol' whatshisname will be a sad loss (until replaced of course)

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