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Photography has been a personal and professional interest of mine for more than twenty years. One particular area of photography that has long fascinated me is frontier photography of the United States. I was turned on to the period in the 1973 classic Wisconsin Death Trip by Michael Lesy which frames a late 19th-century town’s life in photos ranging from the deeply personal to the macabre. Given the complexity and expense of early photography, I’ve always thought of the personal, logistical and financial choices made in people capturing images in the late 19th through early 20th century.
Photographs of American frontier people and their possessions have always held a big pull for me. In the photo at top (from the Nebraska State Historical Society’s Prairie Settlement collection) a family has chosen to hire a photographer to document them on the new frontier. Aside from the family in the foreground…
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The Second part of Barbarian Conspiracy campaign using the excellent Sword and Spear Rules! Will the Barbarians be able to hold off the Romans and defend their ill gotten gains? This time the Picts have been upgraded to mighty Attecotti Warriors but the Romans have brought real soldiers led by the Elder Theodosius himself. You can read about the game and see the photos of the battle by clicking the link.
Magnus leads the cavalry forward
Aelle, the Saxon High King and Barbarian General
The battle field with the Romans deployed in front of their watch tower.
The Barbarian Conspiracy of 367AD: First Scenario. River Crossing.
You can read all about the Battle here complete with Gallery images of the Battle itself.
Octha on the Barbarian left wing
Fullofaudes in the Roman Centre defending the ford
The view down river from the Roman right.
Planning for a Sword and Spear game, depicting the barbarian conspiracy of 367 AD.
Details can be found in the Barbarian Conspiracy page.
We began with Mike’s innovative scenario for his World Cup game based on the CIS CUP. Mike and Bruce fought it out to a close finish whilst Phil was left behind. In the end Bruce won on points after grabbing first and second place. Phil came a distant last consistently losing out in penalty shoot outs.
Next up was another great game of K2 which Phil managed just to win with Mike second and Bruce last. Bruce got a man to the highest point but could not get him home safely.
Finally Phil introduced Mike and Bruce to the storytelling The Hobbit green dragon inn card game. Everyone had quite a tough time finishing their narrative successfully but had fun trying.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1744629938/dungeon-saga-the-dwarf-kings-quest
Mike and Darryl took on Phil’s Necromancer in this playtest of the Beta rules for the above Kickstarter game. We printed out the rules and cards and took on the introductory adventures A and B. These are really designed to introduce new players to the basic mechanics against simple skeleton warriors. For terrain we used our Dwarven Forge Dungeon and Cavern tiles and added some painted figures.
In adventure A the two Fighters raced through the corridor smashing skeletons. As they were re-animated the players realised they could block the corridor very effectively with the dwarf’s Feat whilst the Barbarian headed towards the door. The skeletons were thus trapped by the dwarf whilst the barbarian forced the door open and it was an easy victory.
In adventure B the players realised the mage and the archer were much more fragile. Still once they had dealt with the initial wave of skeletons they soon had the sense to advance along to the main room. This was in fact no problem for them and whilst the mage held up the skeletons with feat of stone spells the archer eventually was able to get the final door open and it was another victory for the players though perhaps a little harder this time.
Overall a promising game and once we have more variety with different monsters, characters and items I think this will be fun to play. Works very well with the Dwarven Forge terrain to give a true 3D feel. I’m not sure I would ever get round to painting the KS figures now though. Have some proxies ready painted (from LoTR, em4 and Dungeon Command) and the figures unpainted should do for the monsters.
Bruce introduced Mike, Phil and Darryl to his new game:
legion of honor
It is a bit like En Garde played with cards and d10 simulating the experience of raw recruits as they try to capture Napoleon’s notice and rise through the ranks without being killed, executed or captured. Darryl was a lowly sergeant compared to the other sous-lieutenant’s but captured the notice of one of Napoleon’s relatives in an affair du Coeur. He joined Phil in the Regicide and seemed to make lots of money. Phil did quite well with experience, glory and money but had a bad campaign falling prisoner in the North which stalled his progress during the War in Italy. He even got to meet a Lady who was quite out of his league. Mike seemed to have the most fun; getting diseased, robbed, captured, wounded over and over and driving off hordes of Mafiosi; but was always where the main action was not. He was volunteered for a dangerous mission by Bruce and came off very well. Bruce was nearly always the senior officer with astounding success in capturing Napoleon’s notice, especially through his incredible bravery and valiant actions during the Italian Campaign.
Lot’s of fun and certainly one to play again. The vagaries of fortune can be quite brutal.
After that we played Love Letter which was a clever little card game which Darryl won.
We played the next instalment in our campaign (see below). Gaarkhan purchased a new Ax and the Heroes set off to aid Mak Eshka Ray in his revenge in the Loose Cannon Scenario. Upon entering the Imperial complex Mak leapt into the empty AT and began to wreak havoc. Though the Imperials were able to wound both his comrades he proved to be invulnerable in the AT. With all the Stormtroopers and Guards defeated the players gained Victory, claiming Mak Eshka Ray’s special Shadow Suit combat armour and a few credits.
Death Angel: We tried this out for the first time and made it to the last room relatively unscathed only to realise we were completely overwhelmed and outmatched with no chance of victory at all!
Tonight we are planning to play the next mission in our campaign.
So far Darryl ( Mak Eshka Ray), Mike (Ghaarkhan) and Bruce (Fenn Signis) have taken on Phil’s Imperial Military forces.
In the first scenario Aftermath the Rebels were victorious and followed this up with a victory in Spice Job thus gaining the Chewbacca ally. Next up was Viper’s Den. This proved unlucky for the Rebels who sent the wookie to try and decode a really complicated console and then were caught completely unawares by the sudden appearance of General Weiss. A first Victory for the Empire!
The next side mission planned is Viper’s Den and the open Story Mission is Fly Solo.
So far the Rebels have 50 credits in the bank and Chewbacca is an Ally. Mak has 1xp and Bruce 2. They are well equipped though: with Mak holding Disengage and Supply Network; Mike has Combat Coat, Rampage and a balanced hilt; whilst Bruce has Take Cover and a Medi-Kit.
The Empire has 0xp and 0 influence but is holding: Combat Medic and some other good cards.
The open side missions are Viper’s Den or Loose Cannon (Mak Eshka Ray).
Will post the outcome later.
Outcome: The Wookie Ghaarkhan raced through the bar to the door behind which Han Solo was being held prisoner. He opened the door and took heavy fire. Solo ran straight for the exit and the Imperials could not pursue him fast enough. Though the players did not win outright by opening the door they had gained a partial victory.
This is space for a catch up.
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