Quest of the Tiki Mask, a prelude to a Pulp adventure

In the last six months or so I have become a fan of pulp gaming. I guess the inner 12 year-old in me remembers and enjoys the genre from days gone by. Plus, I can include a variety of different decades in the same game and throw in impossibly large animals and bugs. A good way to get a wide variety of figures on the table. The rules were a bit of a mixture I created using a simple spy game "Meet me by the Pots on the Edge of the Souk" from issue 390 of Wargames Illustrated and Pulp Alley. I think it went well.

Now that I have my own wargame room I can leave the 4'x4' table set up and make changes as need, including a different set if I need to. I am planning on turning this into a campaign game that should bring me through the end of the year or at least until I get bored with it. I have included a variety of factions each having the same main objective to find and control the famed Enchanted Tiki Mask of Bronze. To extend the game and in keeping with the flavor of the period, I am using a system of stunned, knocked out or gone missing for my main characters instead of killing them off. Henchmen on the other hand always seem to be killed and then recycled so that is how I plan to start.

PRELUDE
Our story begins in Polynesia where the tiki mask has gone missing from the Museé des antiquités de Polynésie. The fabled Enchanted Tiki Mask of Bronze is believed to be the icon of the great Polynesian warrior chief Haruki.

 Race Bannon, husband and wife archaeologists Etta and Dr. Milton Cornelius and Royal Geographic cartographer Benjamin Fanning have been making their way through the Japanese forest near Mount Kaimon and the Kaimondake volcano several hundred kilometers east across the East China Sea from Shanghai in search of Dr. Benton Quest. 

Dr. Quest has been missing from the explorers for more than a week. The team, including Dr. Quest, had been searching the area on a tip that the fabled Enchanted Tiki Mask of Bronze.  Dr. Quest had mysteriously vanished from their camp at the base of Kaimondake volcano four days earlier. 

Little do they know that evil masterminds Ernst Stavro Blofeld and Dr. Napoleon Zin have captured Dr. Quest and are forcing him to work on a sinister experiment they are hatching together. The project will use the mystical powers from the Enchanted Tiki Mask of Bronze.

 They are hidden in a remote costal village not far from the volcano guarded by Zin’s Samurai bodyguards.

Meanwhile a foreign spy, arriving by boat, who does not know the Tiki Mask or Dr. Quest has been captured, has been sent to confirm Zin and Blofeld have been working on a plot together. Once confirmed, he may be required to liquidate them.

 To make matters worse, a group of French Foreign Legion, led by Maj. Andrea Francois and his crazy Sgt. Eugene Olivier along with four Legionnaires have been dispatched from their base in French Indochina to find the mask rumored to be in the area and claim it back for French Polynesia.

SCENARIO OBJECTIVES

The Explorers must find Dr. Quest as their main objective. Secondary objective is to locate the Enchanted Tiki Mask of Bronze and return with it.

Evil Masterminds must have Dr. Quest utilize the mystical powers of the Enchanted Tiki Mask of Bronze to use for their sinister deeds in creating a mind control device. To track Dr. Quest's progress: Each turn I roll against Dr. Quest’s CV (spy game combat value) to determine how he is proceeding. He must complete the experiment within six (6) full turns for the device to be completed.

The Foreign Spy must confirm that Zin and Blofeld are working together. To confirm I roll against his CV if he sees them together [He must pass his CV against both Zin and Blofeld ie: 2 rolls against CV for a positive confirmation]. If he is able to confirm they are in fact working together, he must successfully roll against his CV to send a secret message back to his base and also must roll against his CV before receiving an order to eliminate them.

FFL must locate the Enchanted Tiki Mask of Bronze and be in possession of it until the end of the game to return it safely.

Stay tuned for the next installment where the action begins in the Japanese forest near Mount Kaimon.

Continue to Part One Quest of the Tiki Mask, a Pulp adventure here.

French Foreign Legion - Légion Étrangère - WWII

I know it has been a long while since my last post so I'll try to get back up to speed now that we are entering the summer months and I should have a bit more hobby time. I planned for 2017 to be spent mostly working on World War Two miniatures. Northwest Europe mid-late war to be exact. I have had some deviation to other periods to break it up a bit but I have remained somewhat focused on my project. I didn't really plan on doing anything desert related but I was trolling the web looking for reference photos on painting some StuG III's and came upon some desert photos. Well a couple of clicks later I saw a post about the French Foreign Legion's 13th Demi-Brigade defense of Bir Hakeim. One thing led to another and soon I found myself trying to find metal miniatures in 20mm. Just for a small side project I told myself. Besides, who doesn't love the mystery and intrigue of the legion?

Now how to establish a harem in the Laundry Room Barracks and slip this lass past General ze Wife.

There are some nice offerings in 28mm but if you are interested in 20mm (1/72) figs like I am,  you will really need to do some digging or plan on doing plastic conversions of your own. I found a guy in France who does conversions/sculpting for this period and he casts his miniatures in small batches. I quickly purchased the three sets of miniatures he had on hand totaling about 61 figures including command, mortar teams, artillery teams, MG teams and fighting men. Most of the poses are unique with little repetition so you get a wide variety of useful figures.

Yes I know they didn't all fight in their Kepi Blanc but hey, it's the legion and they look cool.

The more I dug into and researched the 13e DBLE I realized I would be expanding this project from painting a few squads to creating the full brigade (well, a representation of it anyway). I am now on the lookout for figures to use for French colonial forces at the time including some pretty cool units that I will get to in future posts.

Defense of Bir Hakeim 26 May-11 June, 1942

13^e Demi-Brigade de Légion Étrangère

The brigade was created in 1940, and with the Senegalese Tirailleur Regiment of Tchad became one of the two regiments which rallied as a constituted unit of the Free French Forces. The 13e DBLE would be part of most major campaigns the armed forces of France during WWII.

The legion's defense of Bir Hakeim along with the 1st Free French Brigade against the DAK and Italians had lengthened the Axis supply route around the south end of the Gazala line while causing them losses. It also gave the British time to recover in the wake of their defeat at the Cauldron and regroup and set up a defense for the First battle of El Alamein. 

Bir Hakeim, Libya

Their are some fun story lines that could be used as wargame scenarios or objectives like French General Marie-Pierre Koenig's affair with English nurse and ambulance driver Susan Travers, the only women to formally be enrolled in the Legion Etrangere. She was an Adjudant-chef which is similar to the rank of lieutenant. Perhaps  a victory condition or points is to capture her (sorry, just thinking out loud).

So after searching and finding my first figures, doing some research on the unit, finding some reference photos for painting/modeling I have completed about thirty of my guys thus far. Not huge progress, but steady progress as I continue my year of World War Two. I have also bought and painted a fort I can use for them to defend as well. It is Italeri's African House. A great model although a tad pricey but I think it was worth it. I will get some use out of it for my moderns as well I think and perhaps 19th Century Legionnaires on their quest to colonize north Africa. Did I just say that? Slap me. I really don't need another period. Arghhh, to late. I already ordered some figures. Oh, well...more to come on this.

So here are some photos of what I have completed so far. If you have any questions please feel free to ask. I'm not expert in WWII or specifically the desert campaigns but I've done a bunch of research to date and can hopefully steer you in the right direction for information. Thanks for checking this post out.

Italeri 6139-African House. Aprox $50 US.

A few of the 20mm Guilhem Dalou figures for scale using the Italeri building model.

Not a fighting set-up, just wanted to show how many figures the fort could hold. This is about 30 figs on the walkway. The roof also is removable to allow figures to shoot out the windows and there is a nice courtyard where more figures, vehicles, etc. could be. My guess is you could get about 100 figures total inside the fort if you wanted to.