'The West Kingdom' PbB RPG

Used with Bard's permission

My latest adventure is participating in my first ever RPG.  I was invited to participate by Bard who runs a couple of great blogs, The Clash of Spear on Shield and Two Up, One Back.    The name of the game is 'The West Kingdom: A Swords and Wizardry PbB Campaign' using the Swords and Wizardry White Box rules.

Bard has set up a blog devoted to running the game which you can find here 'The West Kingdom'.  On the main page of the blog you can follow along as the game progresses.  For more information on the campaign setting including maps and a new arrivals guide you can go to the 'The West Kingdom' introduction page.

To help Bard and the four players with record keeping for our own characters we have all set up blog pages for our character that we can go in and edit as the game progresses.  If notice I have created a new page on my blog with a link under the heading 'The West Kingdom' PbB RPG which is hosting my character sheet.

So without further ado I would like to introduce to you Duran Halmar.  Born in the small town of Ashwood east of Fairfield, Duran is known in his town for having won the local archery contest every year since the age of 14.

The following is a quote from Bard's site in which he lays out the world that Duran is living.

The West Kingdom, ruled by Berenger II, is a vast land, difficult to control. Its isolated towns are bastions of relative peace and order. The King's soldiers patrol the roads as best they can. But the woods, hills, ruins and caves remain untamed. From these regions, the minions of chaos come forth to menace the folk of Berenger's realm. With resources stretched, the King's men are fortunate to simply hold the settlements and byways. Only small companies of roving adventurers press the attack into the dark places where the enemies of the Kingdom abide. Fairbrook is where the story begins for one such band.

Wargamers Explained

How true is that. :)

Boardgame Night

I got together with a friend to play some boardgames this past weekend.  We started off the game with a game new to me, Agricola.  We played one game of this with our wives where I just managed to pull out a win by one point.  Below is a picture of that game.

Then our wives left us to go watch some chick flick so we broke out some other games.  We first played Arkham Horror.  I didn't get any pictures of that game but its better that way since we got destroyed by the monsters.  I am not sure we even stood a chance.  After that we got out Memoir '44 and played a quick scenario.  I played the Germans who were tasked with counter-attacking the Americans.  On my left flank there is a small hill with infantry station on it overlooking my attack.  As long as the Americans held that hill they could bring air strikes against my forces.  The first side to destroy four of their enemies units would win the scenario.  Optionally I could destroy two enemy forces and take the objective hex in the enemies rear on my left flank.

Above you can see the scenario setup before we began.  After looking over my movement cards and the board before me I decided to drive the attack on my left flank.   I would make use of my elite units and try and knock the Americans off the hill before to much damage was done with their air strikes.

After a couple turns my attack on the left flank was developing nicely.  I managed to wipe out the enemy on the hill before he could launch a second air strike.

I continued to press the attack on my left flank during the next few turns.  However, I ran out of cards for action on my left flank so I pushed forward in the middle.  By this point I had two kills and the Americans had one.

Several turns later my attack using my left flank succeeded despite the enemy reinforcing with tanks and then trying to counterattack my units in the center.  The game ended with my fourth kill to the Americans two and with the momentum firmly in my hand.

Special Order Trees

After seeing this post over at the BigRedBatCave I contacted the author and got in touch with John Smillie and put in an order for ten 28mm deciduous trees.  Even though John is in Scotland and I am in the USA in a day over two weeks they arrived at my front door! (It would have been sooner if there wasn't that big ocean to cross.)  The price was great and the trees  are very excellent quality and should look great on my gaming table.  John does wargaming terrain for hire and gets customers via word of mouth.  So if you are interested let me know and we can get you in contact with him.  He does most any small project so if you have one in mind get in contact and he will see what he can do.  I highly recommend his work as it was fast, well done, and a great price.  Now without further ado here are some pictures.

 

Here are the trees safely package for the trip from Scotland to the US.  Even though the box looked like it had been treated roughly everything stayed in place and there were no broken trees.

Here are the trees on the gaming table.  They look very realistic and will look good included in some of my games.