Ghost Archipelago - Rope Bridge and Swamps.

After a bit of a clear out in the man cave, I came across several items tucked away in the cupboard of shame, odds and ends from long gone projects, loose change purchases from shows, because you have to buy something right?

Or simply ideas that just needed that spark of inspiration to push them up the painting queue.

After last weeks fun encounter and having rolled for the next encounter which involves bridges and boats, so I had the perfect excuse to get this aquarium bridge finished, which I picked up several years ago.

The legs were a little on the high side, if you saw off the main struts they make for perfect steps to get on to the bridge.

Not a bad purchase for £8.00 and the perfect setting for some challenging encounters in Ghost Archipelago or any other pulp type game.

Keeping up with the theme of finishing other items from the cupboard of shame I added some extra grass to these to marshes which were unopened from a last minute purchase back in November.
Three items down... Not a bad mornings work.

Ghost Archipelago - #3 Crustacean Graveyard.

Back in the 80's when I was at school, Giant Rats, Slugs and Crabs were all the rage, all craving human flesh..... A bunch of us used to seek out these cheap paper backs and swap them every Friday in the play ground... A firm favourite of mine was Guy N Smiths Crab series hugh armoured crabs marching in land to destroy humanity but mostly sneaking up on midnight bathers... :-)

I had long fancied putting these nasty nippers into a scenario and Ghost Archipelago seemed like the perfect vehicle.

Another outing in the occasional Ghost Archipelago Campaign which see's Pirates, Marines and Atlantians in a three way battle in the islands and swamp lands.

After the last brusing encounter all three crews retreat into the hinterland frustrated at not being able to rescure their crewman, they stumble into the ruins of an ancient temple. Scattered amongst the ruins are the claws of several giant crabs, these razor sharp pincers fetch a pretty price on the open market. A quick sprint into the temple grab the prize and head home - Simple.

You need to be careful in the temple one wrong step and you risk falling on the sharp and jagged pincers, so tread carefully.

Guarding the temple and the treasures within are several crustaceans who will attack any potential trespassers in the area.

Everyone has the same idea rush in grab the valuable treasure and get out. Once again the Marines pick a fight with anyone within range and make short work of my Atlantians, killing one in the opening salvo and taking down Atmir the Warden. Fortunately he survies after rolling for wounds at the end of the battle but has lost a toe..... much to the amusement of my fellow gamers.

He really needs to swap his flip flops for boots.

With the Marines exchanging shots with the Atlantians, the Pirates make a run for it, grabbing the treasure and heading for the exit, but their path is blocked by a Crustacean.

Having seen the Marines take one down with musket fire Captain O'Keith seeks to go one better and launches an attack with his cutlass only to see it glance off the hardened shell.

The crew of the Sun Chaser join the melee but try as they might the nasty nipper would not go down, he continued to snap at his attackers, wounding a number of crewmen in the battle.

Meanwhile the Marines were advancing steadily through the temple and where forcing the Pirate rear guard out of the temple and stopping them from securing the central treasure.

As smoke of the sound of battle filled the temple hardly anyone heard the click click click getting ever closer.

It was now a straight fight between the Marines and Pirates each hell bent on securing the central treasure. Whilst the Atlantians hung around the side lines like annoying wasps at a picnic. Sniping at anyone within range.

As the battle raged on the Crabs moved towards the human combatants.

The Pirates had their fill and took off with their loot. The Marines were unable to take advantage of their victory as the temple was rapidly filling up with Crustaceans who were snapping the bones of the Captain Masters who had slipped and fell on the jagged floor.

With their leader KO's the Marines pulled back, leaving the temple to the crabs.

A great game with everyone securing two treasures each and casualties on all sides.
Next up an adventure in the Swamp lands and an excuse to paint up that sail boat that's tucked away somewhere in the depths of the garage.

Ghost Archipelago is turning into a midweek favourite.

Cutlass! - 4 Way Prisoner Hunt.

Easter Sunday and a simple low key affair. Four warring factions looking to bag themselves a bunch of prisoners who hold valuable information. But with Four factions and only three Prisoners some one is bound to lose.

The three Prisoners are chained up in the cente compound, the four gangs are tasked with entering the complex unchaining the prisoners and exiting the table. This Cutlass! encounter pits Arab against, Pirate, Marine and Atlantian.......

The view from the Marine Forces end of the table.

The view from the Atlantian side of the Table, no doors but plenty of windows.

Our poor unfortunate prisoners awaiting rescue. They can not be killed and will need to be escorted from the table.

The Pirates are the first to the complex rushing forward, after an initial swift advance a couple of poor command rolls leaves them with limited actions and a large door that simply would not budge.

Meanwhile the Atlantians move cautiously forward and content themselves by taking pot shots at the Pirates battering at the door.

The Royal Marines make steady progress through the undergrowth, quietly advancing whilst the others are distracted by each others moves.

The Arabs advance towards the main gate, swordsmen first followed by the musketmen.

The Arabs are first through the gate rushing towards the shackled prisoners.

Midway through the game and all sides have reached the complex walls, the Arabs are in the courtyard, whilst the Marines and Pirates struggle to clamber through doors and windows.

The Arabs grab themselves a prisoner and drag him to the main entrance, the first Pirate to enter the building is dispatched by one of the Arab Swordmen.

As the Arabs flood the main gate both Atlantians and Marines fire into their flanks looking to grab a prisoner as they leave the compound.

Meanwhile in the courtyard things are hotting up the Marines have grabbed a prisoner and are heading back to their entry point, meanwhile Pirate and Arab fight for the remaining detainee.

The Atlantians are set upon by the Arab defenders hacking him down.

With Blunderbus and Musket fire echoing through the adobe compound the Atlantian Officer to shot down as the Arabs grab the third prisoner and push him through the open door.

A cracking evenings gaming it could have gone to any one player, but in the end the Arabs won the day grabbing two prisoners to the Marines one. The Pirates and Atlantians were left with nothing.... 

apart from a number of casualties...

Cutlass! and it's unique reaction rule mechanism keeps the game flowing and gives every player the chance to take the initiative which is important for a 4 player game of this nature.

Definately a must for those less serious club nights....

Pistols at Dawn - A Cutlass! Scenario

After a few weeks of slowly plugging away at the Smugglers and Marines time to give them some table time and a refresh of the rules before considering how a rolling campaign campaign might look.

A very small scenario with a party of smugglers who have rowed up river and are looking to retrive their landed goods from a barn at the far side of town. The Government forces need to stop them.

I priced up each of the figures and armed them with what they were cast with, that provided me with $493 worth of privateers and $466 worth of Marines pretty even or so I thought.

The Smugglers split in to two groups looking to make there way through the town. Armed with Cutlass and Axes I should have guessed that they might be quite tasty in Hand to Hand.

The Marines step out into the street looking to block their path - A cornish stand off.

After the occasional pistol and musket shot one of the Marines looks to take advantage of a spooked smuggler and moves on the first group of tax dodgers. A poor idea on my part as a poor authority roll on the next turn allows the smugglers to surround the brave yet foolish trooper.

Meanwhile in the main street the Captain of the guard is confronted by to members of the gang has they attempt to rush forward to support the lone trooper. 

With the bulk of the patrol now drawn into an uneven brawl a number of the Marines are cut down, their muskets no defence against slashing Cutlasses and one Mariner who armed with nothing but a long spear dispatches two of the government men - Those exploding dice can be deadly.

The customs men are forced to withdraw.

The morale of this encounter - don't be cocky just because you have a flash uniform and play to your strengths, Marines are far better at standing back and shooting at their enemy rather than wading in with the bayonet it will only end badly.

After a few turns the rules turned at to be far more tactical in their nature than the original read through suggested, do you hold back on activations or use them all at once?

Attacking players from the side gives you an advantage but you in turn need to protect your flanks.

Once you are in combat your activations are soon used up reducing the ability to bring reinforcements in.  

Plenty to think about in the next outing - Now to read the campaign element.

Black Scorpion - Pirates & Smugglers of the Devon coast.

Another batch of Pirates and Smugglers complete from the chaps at Black Scorpion for use within their Cutlass! rules.

Cast in resin I was a little concerned at first, but they take paint well and contained very little flash, it will be interesting to see how they stand up to wear and tear on the table top as they are a touch on the light side.

I figured these fine fellows would be ideal for smuggling games in the coming months.

With the annual Devon holiday booked this year, there is an added interest this time around rather than the usual holiday hangout of Tea Shops and Seaside amusements. A chance to slip away to walk the Smuggler beaches from the 1700's that should make the kids happy. :-)

Reading up on the period there is a vivid picture of the Smuggling activity in area in the letters of  Philip Taylor, who was Collector of Customs at Weymouth from 1716.

During the winter of 1717-18 he wrote: "the running of great quantities of goods having of late very much increased" - the government tried to push through a bill for the prevention of smuggling. It fell down in the House of Lords and, as a result, reported Philip Taylor the following April, "the smuggling trade is prodigiously increased and they and all persons concerned with them are become more insolent than ever and dares any power to oppose them, which will very soon have a very bad influence on trade. Besides, as these smugglers are generally the dissatisfied part of the country, their riding in troops of thirty or forty armed men on the least appearance of an opportunity will be dangerous to the peace of the country as well as troublesome to the Government." The smugglers even had the audacity to claim - and they used the failure of the smuggling bill as their evidence, that they were now "tolerated in smuggling by the King, Lords and Commons."

The bill, - which, among other things, forbade the importation of cargoes in vessels of under fifty tons - finally became law twelve months later, but by then Taylor was writing in colourful style:

"The smuggling traders in these parts are grown to such a head that they bid defiance to all law and government. They come very often in gangs of sixty to one hundred men to the shore in disguise armed with swords, pistols, blunderbusses, carbines and quarterstaffs; and not only carry off the goods they land in defiance of officers, but beat, knock down and abuse whoever they meet in their way; so that travelling by night near the coast, and the peace of the country, are become very precarious; and if an effectual law be not speedily passed, nothing but a military force can support the officers in the discharge of duties."

Philip Taylor was not exaggerating when he reported that "the tumultuous and riotous proceedings of the smugglers is not anything abated but daily growing upon us". He went on: "Most of the smuggling trade in this country is now carried on by people in such great numbers, armed and disguised, that the officers, if they meet them, can't possibly oppose them therein, nor do otherwise than search for the goods in suspected places, which by means of the country's favouring the smugglers, very often proves ineffectual and expensive to the officers." But if they did get caught and sentenced, they could be hung!

Brandy and wine made up the bulk of the contraband cargoes landed in Dorset between 1716 and the mid-1730s, but many other commodities appear in the lists from time to time, including rum, coffee, tea, salt, pepper, cocoa beans, vinegar, cloth, silk handkerchiefs, tobacco, playing cards, foreign

paper and logwood sounds like an order to the guy's at Anisty is in order.

At Abbotsbury a young Customs officer, Joseph Hardy, was repeatedly ordered by Philip Taylor to retrieve the goods, but when he did so, he was obstructed by a gang of locals and immediately lost them again. Taylor commented sarcastically: "They [Hardy and Whitteridge] being both the most original fools I ever met with or heard of, in the scuffle of taking the goods away I can't find any blow was struck on either side and (it appears) that the heroical officers were directly frighted out of their goods."

Taylor recognised, though, that just about every person in Abbotsbury was an employee of the smugglers and concluded that the only way to settle the matter was to call in the army, who had been ordered to help the fight against smuggling when requested.

Accordingly he sent a message to Lieutenant Carr, commanding officer of Lord Irwin's Regiment of Horse quartered at Dorchester, and on November 16, Quartermaster William Thomson left the county town with Joseph Hardy and eighteen troops. On arriving at Abbotsbury, they found "a great mob of people gathering themselves about them" and Hardy summoned the parish constable and tithingman and asked them to help keep the peace. At the sight of the troops, Bradford the bailiff changed his attitude rather suddenly, handed over the keys and allowed Hardy to recapture the goods in the face of a vociferous but otherwise peaceful crowd.

Now there must be a scenario or two in that account.

Dick Turpin

All work and no play at the moment but a trip up north gave me the opportunity to mix in a little bit of historical fact with what's on the paint table.

Recently the paint table has been filled with Marines and Gentlemen, so why not throw an outlaw into the mix?

I give you Dick Turpin. 

Another find casting from Black Scorpion.

Our Dick wasn’t from York, was not dashing and did not even own a horse called Black Bess.

His grave in York is hidden in a back street alongside a housing estate and is pretty unremarkable. You really would not know it was here unless you were looking for it.

I was probably the only visitor recently apart from what looks like the markings of a drunk after a Friday night. The York sight seeing bus passes by his burial site but does not stop.

Turpin was tried and executed in York, most of his Highwayman crimes were commited in Essex. Whilst on the run he fled to Yorkshire. Where he continued he criminal adventures stealing horses under the guise of John Palmer.

He was unmasked whilst holed upon in York when he wrote to his brother asking for help.  His brother refused to pay the sixpence due on the letter and it was returned to the local post office – where Turpin’s old schoolmaster recognised his handwriting.

Unmasked he was caught and sentenced to death - All for the price of a stamp.

At his hanging at Tyburn, it is said that Turpin hired five professional mourners to follow him up the scaffold and he put on a show for the large crowd. His body was dug up by a labourer and taken to the garden of a surgeon, who paid for corpses for illegal medical dissection.  But the people of York people discovered what had happened and marched on the surgeon’s house and Turpin was laid to rest for good. 

The man very different from the myth a rather unimpressive criminal, much like his final resting place. 

But thanks to the Author Harrison Ainsworth and his 1834 novel Rookwood - Turpin became a legend after his death. Ainsworth inventing Black Bess and his ride to York.

Let's see if he can live up to the legend on the table top.

Until next time....

Saturday Paint Table - Gentlemen and Revenue Men.

Limited paint table action this week, but I did manage to finish off a couple of characters for Cutlass!.

With the Marines finished recently, I figured these two characters would be great for potential heroes or officer types.

My daughter has stepped in to suggest that my photgraphy is not the best and has offered up the following alternative pics. Secretly I have to admit the images are far sharper than my own, but she is relucant to become the full time PR manager for the blog :-)

I also finished off a couple of Revenue Men, the perfect opponents for Dick Turpin who is primed and waiting to join the fray.

Until next time.

Black Scorpion Miniatures - Royal Marines

Over recent months I have picked up at the occasional show the odd pack of Black Scorpion's Pirate range. Sculpted by Adam Clarke they are some of the finest looking miniatures around, cast in resin they were a touch lighter than what I was used to, but they took the paint well.

Was I distracted by the glass show case or loose change in my pocket who knows.

Black Scorpion's range contains figures for Pirates, Privateers and Royal Navy together with Pirate Dwarves, Elves and Orcs & Goblins, these more fantastical ranges are of little interest to me not when I can have them facing off against the Guardians of Atlantis and Mantics new Trident range.....

Nautical nonsense :-)

I knew they would come in handy for some Black Powder type skirmish gaming just not sure where.

Customers Men breaking up Smugglers and Wrecker gangs in Cornwall?

Scouting Parties in the Caribbean?

Taking on Highwaymen in the English Countryside?

Fighting off raids from Atlantis.

 

A pleasure to paint and something a little different from the Deserts of Egypt.

Slowly the lead mountain starts to shrink.

Smugglers and Wreckers.

The blog and hobby generally has really fallen behind in recent weeks, what with a couple of holidays and trying to play catch up at work to make up for the "rest". 

Devon was rather wet.

What did I expect for August in the UK?

However looking for things to pass the time I wandered into a couple book shops who had a number of small booklets on the Smugglers and Wreckers of North Devon. Perfect as I had been looking at the Black Scorpion range for several weeks thinking about how I could find a use for them.

 

During the 17th and 18th centuries smuggling or Free Trading was commonplace in the West Country and considered to be a very profitable way of life!

Smugglers were known to have used Lee, Ilfracombe, Heddon’s Mouth, Watermouth Cove and Morte. Some of the smuggling operations were clearly considerable; in 1785 a 96 gallon cask of rum  was found at Watermouth Cove and in 1801 224 gallons of gin and 164 gallons of brandy were found on the foreshore near Ilfracombe. 

Wrecking was another popular activity, as goods were washed ashore from a wrecked ship were regarded as common property. The wreckers of Mortehoe were notorious and feared by sailors it was said a sailor would rather drown than come ashore at near the men of Morte.
Any ship in trouble brought locals to the shore and in no time the ship would be destroyed and its cargo carried away. It was illegal to claim salvage from a wrecked ship if anyone was found alive on it. Therefore the wreckers would dispose of any survivors!
One of Mortehoe's most notorious wreckers was Elizabeth Berry, who it is thought used her pitchfork to drown sailors." (she was arrested for plundering the William and Jane in 1850 and given 21 days hard labour).

It seems that everyone was involved; in 1783 all the Ilfracombe pilot boats were suspected of smuggling and one, the Cornwall, was seized and cut up into three parts. An Ilfracombe Collector from 1804-1824, Thomas Rudd, was father in law to a known smuggler, Cooke, who was never caught. In 1825 the richest man in Combe Martin, John Dovell, was prosecuted for handling smuggled goods.

The most infamous smuggler in north Devon was Thomas Benson, who in 1747 became MP for Barnstaple. The following year he was granted a lease on Lundy Island and entered into contract with the Government to carry convicts abroad. 

However, he landed them on Lundy instead to run his smuggling operation. He became over confident and was fined for smuggling and stripped of his office. He didn’t pay and his lands in Bideford were seized. To recover his losses he persuaded the Captain of the Nightingale to fire it for the insurance, but the plan was discovered and he fled to Portugal. 

Now they sound like some cracking scenario's to me....
Just the tonic to kick start the hobby again....