The British Crown is in a bit of a pickle. Lord Ashcroft, the British envoy to the Tzar of Russia, was on his way to Vancouver Canada, when he was seized by Irish Fineans. It is believed that they have taken him to Paddy McDougles processing factory on the US Canadian Border. A military incursion into the US is out of the question! Their must be plausible deniability. So, a call has gone out to all soldiers of fortune to bring Lord Ashcroft home. The adventurers that bring him home will be greatly awarded (and more importantly rewarded)! It’s time to crack on and show the others what for!
Time for another In Her Majesties Name Pulp game. I finally got to pull out my Crescent Root factory complex! The scenario was designed to be collaborative, yet competitive. The mission was to find Lord Ashcroft and get him off the board at players entry point. The game would be played at night, with daylight coming on turn eight. There were six clue markers on the table (all in buildings). One was Lord Ashcroft and the other five were random results. The markers would be activated when a figure moved into contact and passed a pluck test. Followed by a roll of a D10 for effect. On a roll of 1-2 a poison trap was sprung and the player would have to take a Pluck test or get knocked down. If they failed, they would have to take another pluck test to survive. On a 3-3-6 they would find a military rifle that they could use. On a result of 7-10 they would find some gold and get two victory points. Lord Ashcroft would be worth twenty points and each player would receive two points for every guard killed and ten if they achieved their secondary objectives.
As mentioned, the game would be played at night. However, if the guards set of the alarm, two things would happen. First, the local National Guard forces from a nearby military base would arrive at daybreak. Second, a turn after the alarm went off, the factory lights would come on and all areas inside the walls would be lit as daylight. There were eight guards on duty patrolling the factory and one guard dog chained up.
We had four players and each rolled up their secondary missions. The Boar Komando and German Schutztruppen Freiwillige rolled up that they had to be attacked first. Professory Esterhazy rolled up he had to take out more opponents than Teddy Rosenfeld. Teddy rolled up that Esterhazy had to survive the encounter.
All the forced entered from their respective corners and everything was quite. However, the Boers being Boers got bored and then opened up on the guards upon entering the complex! This started a mad rush with the guards setting off the alarm on turn three. So much for stealth!
Each group now began to search quickly to try to find Lord Ashcroft and remove as many guards as possible. Everyone continued to collaborate and slowly clear the board. However, professor Esterhazy suspected he would be located in the main house at the center of the complex and worked his team into the house, to be reward with finding Lord Ashcroft tied up. The team quickly released him to find out that the gentlemanly collaboration had taken a turn, with the Schutztruppen and Rosenfeld’s teams surrounding the building to “liberate” the Lord themselves! While this was going on, the Boers stalked the table and took out all the guards and found some gold booty to boot!
Esterhazy tried to board up in the building, but the two groups were able to overwhelm him. This then led to inter fighting between the Schutztruppen and Rosenfeld’s teams! However, this took a great deal of time and the National Guard arrived. Their would be no escaping with Lord Ashcroft. However, the Boers had taken in quite a haul and were able to escape with their gold intact!
- Manteuffel