Ned's greatest Adventure (Part 2)

   The expedition moves onwards

Once more then,  another report from Jimland continuing with the fate of Edward Burlington Bt. (Ned) and his 'greatest' adventure, with the last post seeing Ned 'hors de combat'. In the 'Jimland' rules, if there is a Doctor present and anyone is a casualty then there is a chance that the doctor can revive them sufficiently to be carried (taking two personnel - usually bearers carrying nothing else, but unable to take any further part in the adventuring.  The doctor in this expedition has a skill of 7 and therefore required a '7' or less on a D20 to keep Ned alive.
So once more,
From the Journal of Frederick Cartington:

Bearers flee for cover or get stuck in the stream, the explorers take cover

 

 

"Although  Bert, our Doc, did all he could for poor Ned, he finally succumbed to the multiple axe and spear wounds inflicted upon his frail personage and with heavy heart I once more took control of the expedition, deciding to commemorate his death by continuing onwards, despite the setback - I'm sure Ned would have done the same."  
"No sooner had we ventured into unknown territory than we were beset upon by a large group of slavers whom we sent packing in great style"

The explorers in cover

A stuck bearer fights off two attackers, killing one

Slaver reinforcements are attacked by a snake.

The snake is wounded !

Horatio aids the hard-pressed bearer

The snake, bags a slaver, dying in the process, whilst Horatio and a Bearer bag another!

"Our exchange of shots with the slavers and our brave bearer's stalwart effort eventually proved too much for them and they thankfully fled"
"For the next week we pressed on into 'terra incognito' discovering a new plant species, having a wandering soldier join us and finding some valuable looking native  artifacts. We also lost a bearer (laden with food) to one of the very annoying native snares, whilst a friendly native wandered into camp wishing to join us as a bearer - for free!."
"Our good fortune was to last for as we broke camp in a swamp we were set upon by several hostiles. A combination of the swamp slowing them down and some excellent shooting soon saw these fellows off." 

The 'column' pre-warned of the native attack readies itself.

The opposition

The expedition's opening volley, - five shots four hits!

Time to flee for your lives!

The column, now in grasslands, once more readies itself for an attack.

"During the next several days, having found yet another interesting Dinosaur species , we were targetted by more natives whom Ebor had successfully spotted, so we readied ourselves for yet another confrontation" 

And that is where I'll be leaving it for this week, not quite such a cliffhanger this time.
Whilst many won't be interested in the chance that Ned died, as a statistician, I was as when I moved him into the forest I was 90% sure he would survive (his chance making his 'save' roll; coupled with the chance of his attacker hitting him and the doc not saving him the odds were just over 1% . The dice gods are really fickle at times!

Next week, I'll hopefully be able to take a short break fro this adventure and report upon the "Border Reiver" wargame show, providing I'm able to attend.
In the meantime I'm off to hospital for another exciting day of lying down ( it's a minor IV thing that takes all day and it'll be my third or so over the last several years (so nothing to get excited about really). It'll be a chance to take a rest from spousal care and a break from having my five-year old granddaughter for the bank-holiday weekend.

That's it then for another week, thanks for taking the time to visit and as always your comments are both welcomed and appreciated.

Ned's Greatest Expedition ?

Ned (left front of the column) and his improved expedition

With my enthusiasm for Jimland at a high and Ned surviving his last venture into the wilds of Jimland with great success (for Ned at least), it was the next day, in real time,  (about a month or so ago) that I made up another expedition with Ned still as leader.
So how would it turn out  ?
Read on...












Once more then,
From the Journal of Frederick Cartington
"Edward came good and with his newly found enthusiasm our column set off for the North-westward route around the lake to the North of Jim's Landing with a sizable column consisting of Ned (as leader of course); Bert, the Doc.; myself as Hunter; Ebor our scout and Horatio our interpreter. We were afforded the luxury of being accompanied by five Askari and a dozen  bearers,, all laden down with food loads  - enough to keep the expedition going for about a fortnight."
"By day two we were in uncharted territory and were immediately ambushed by natives, several of whom were armed with old decrepit rifles"

Four natives with hand to hand weapons on the left, three rifles on the right

The three native rifles, more a pest  than anything else

Four hand to hand natives hidden from view in the top left

One native rifleman moves into cover, the other two shoot to little effect.

The melee armed natives using cover to close to the column

All the column personnel head for cover...

 "Everyone that was armed decided to make a stand in a small group of trees, whilst our bearers fled away from danger, but for some reason unknown, Ned headed off alone to face the four natives bearing down upon us through the jungle"

...whilst the bearers do the same - away from the threat!

Ned has a save roll of 18/20. What could possibly go wrong ?

One down three to go!

Ned falls victim to a native axe! (notice too the large frog in the background)

"Our shooting managed to fell one of their riflemen and whilst we could hear some creature in the woods where Ned had disappeared into and the screams of the Natives. It all seemed too much for the native chaps who quickly fled the skirmish"
Upon investigation I found Ned lying in the jungle and called upon Doc to care for him"

So, the doc raced over over I rolled to see if Ned would survive, Doc's ability is 7/20, so a 35% chance of survival, I rolled the D20, with trepidation and I'll tell you the result next week. 

In other news my wife is getting well fast, probably due to my never-ending indenture servitude slavery - tender loving care and attention.

But that's all I've got for this week and so it's back to reality; thanks for taking the time to visit and as always your comments are both welcomed and appreciated.  

Ned's Last Chance?

    Card cutter - for that "professional" look to your event cards.

I'm returning once more to a game I played over a month ago. The significance of this particular game was that I had taken the time to re-cut my event cards as some were either significantly longer or wider than others by up to 3mm! This meant that whilst shuffling the cards the same ones came up more frequently than chance would allow (like playing cards with a shaved deck) - mostly the bad ones ! I also used my new card cutter (that rounds off the corners to make them look 'nicer'), shown in the photograph on the right:

Rather feeble looking expedition

Famed archaeologist and failed explorer, Edward Burlington Bt. (Ned)  once more had to set off into the wilds of Jinland with a mere $117 and had to return with significantly more before I had to decide whether or not to replace him.
With this in mind, he was accompanied by Fred (Hunter), Albert (Doc.),  Ebor (Scout), Horatio (Interpreter), two Askari (one carrying a food load) and a mere nine bearers all carrying food, leaving $3 in hand.
The initial plan to go North and East around the lake just North of Jim's Landing was abandoned in favour of a two day journey North again, but West of the Lake to follow the river that had been previously found.

Once more then:
From the Journal of Frederick Cartington

"Day one and, our journey Northwards across the river went without hindrance, even the Natives were friendly.  though  they did bargain us out of our cash, for no return of food".

"Day two brought both a prize and a surprise as at dawn we found a small amount of gold glittering in the morning sun but were later challenged by a not too friendly group of slavers.Their musketry proved inadequate for their chances of victory and of course we prevailed.
 

The slavers (with hidden rifles), one more interested in the camera than the column!

Let the shooting commence!

Two out of four shots hit  - the column is winning!

Two for no reply, then two more and they were off!

"Day three and the drums from the previous evening seemed to have scared one of our bearers off, coincidentally he was also the one carrying our gold loot! "

"Over the next several days, a combination of bad food, water animal attacks and natives snares and snake pits, cost us two food bearers and both our Askari. We had discovered the source of the 'river', a  large stream cascading down into the swamp sourced by the mountain.

The depleted column, two bearers carrying stricken Ebor

"The rest of the journey home was beset by hunger as all our food reserves were gone, and although I did manage to bring sustenance on two occasions, Ebor, huge man that he is needed carrying for want of food."

"Our return to Jim's landing was somewhat underwhelming and though we had found a new dinosaur species' fossil and yet more new animal species, it was a windstorm (costing the life of a bearer shortly before Jim's landing was in sight, that dampened our spirits"

Ned's route

So had the expedition been a success and would Ned be able to undertake another ?
 Well, the simple answer is yes! The points (cash) scored were substantially beyond his starting expenditure of $117, he now had $249 to spend on another expedition - no need for a new leader!

On a personal note, this adventure  (and the next) were both a consequence of my gaming a real opponent.

In other news, my wife is now home, after a successful hip operation and now requires care and rest, thank you for all your thoughts. It's exhausting work looking after her so not much time left for hobby-stuff, but it'll be OK ib a few weeks and I'll soon get back to being my normal lethargic, unenthusiastic self.

That's it then for another week thanks for taking the time to visit and as always your comments are both welcomed and appreciated.

Ben's second Adventure

Having been stuck in place by fog, they immediately faced hostile tribals

This is the second adventure in Jimland I've had with a living, breathing opponent and is a follow on from last week's post as Ben (Benoic) having had his first expedition slaughtered, started a second expedition that incorporated the only survivor from the first.
So with three new explorers, six Askari and ten bearers (all loaded down with food), they set of for pastures new.
Here follows a brief report on their exploits.

Hand to hand action everywhere

The natives were no match for the explorers and easily dealt with.

Day 2, more action!

The second action was a very confused affair as I tried "surrounding" the column.

Eight Natives, four rifles and four hand weapons came from North and South.

(Most of the terrain was placed by the explorers)

 A scorpion appeared....

...but soon departed.

Two native rifles took up their positions in cover

Everyone flees to cover or safety

Brave explorer taking on a native in melee

Brave, but foolish.

Elsewhere, there were successes though.

Finally the native resolve was broken.

Final situation (play spot the Native)

With two hostile encounters on the first two days and with an explorer and two Askari lost,  the expedition carried on for another eleven days before successfully returning to Jimland. Along the way they made the usual discoveries , got lost in swamps and such-like but no further hostile encounters took place.

We had played, with only a slight ten minute break, for about four hours and the time went very swiftly.
Playing as the natives was fun, but far more difficult than  I'd envisaged as my human opponent's terrain placement was far different than I'd expected.

Even though I've enjoyed playing solo, playing with an opponent was a far more rewarding experience and one I hope I'll have again soon.

In other news, time has been of the essence in this last week as real-life has eaten most of what I have had, leaving me very tired and lethargic, so sorry if my comments on any blog posts has been brief or missed! I can't see it get any better this week as more hospital and clinic visits are imminent too and hobby-related activities have taken a back-seat.

That's it then for this week, thanks for taking the time to visit and as always,  your comments are both welcomed and appreciated.

Adventuring with Ben

I was lucky enough to entice my mate Benoic (Ben for short) into visiting me for a game of something or other and as I had "Jimland" all ready to go he chose to chance his luck in the depths of adventure.
Ben had read a couple of my own adventures, so had a general understanding of the rules and plumped initially for a three man party, led by a prospector, "Edward Winsor" (he chose to name his characters, as mine, from the streets where he had lived in the south).
So with $317 in hand he led an expedition of three explorers, the leader (Prospector), a Scout (John Coalway) and a Hunter (Mark Phillips), a soldier, five Askari and nine bearers (all laden down with food), he set of along the south-east coast from Jim's Landing into "Terra Incognito"
So rather than give a blow-by-blow account of his adventure , as I have done, here is a picture account of his first expedition.

 Through, heat, an animal attack, a mysterious disappearance and a poisoned plant, the column is swiftly depleted after a mere three days."

The depleted column, after a mere four days!

The first encounter in the swamps! (three pygmies bottom centre left)

and more unfriendly pygmies to their rear (bottom right)

The column prepares to fend off the upcoming attack.

The natives close in on the column

...from both directions

The swamp may be their saviour

The familiar sight of bearers seeking safety.

The rear firing line, as the pygmies keep coming.

One pygmy bites the dust (erm, swamp?) and a wandering croc is wounded, whilst hand to hand fighting breaks out (top centre)

Slaughter everywhere, but the pygmies are reduced to 50%

Only the Hunter a an Askari survived the debacle in the swamp, but could things get worse ?
Well, yes they did, the Askari was found to have fled the next day having heard drums in the night!
After being lost in the swamp,  on his way home the now leader of the expedition and sole survivor, John Coalway successfully made his way home.

John Coalway's route

So with his return to Jim's landing, his less-than-successful adventure was over, but Ben had seemingly thoroughly enjoyed it., so much so that he wanted to undertake another adventure immediately. (which, of course, I was happy enough to do

So that's it then for this week, needless to say I had fun playing against a real-life opponent as the natives and I'll report of Ben's second adventure in Jimland next week.

Thanks for taking the time to visit and as always your thoughts,  questions and comments and greatly appreciated and welcomed.