The Planter's Wife - The Kidnapping

Bryan - we are all thinking of you.

It's raining again here so I'm setting this game in sunny Africa to cheer everyone up, and while doing it the sun has come out, hurrah.

I posted this game on LAF in Feb last year so I apologise if you read it then but if you did - go to the bottom of the post because that is the main reason for me posting this game now.

Life was good for Patricia Cholmley-Smythe, she was married to a successful planter, living in a pleasant part of Africa, it was hot but there was plenty of shade from the big trees surrounding the property, she had servants to look after her, a big raw boned hound called Bruno who watched over her and a husband who was successful, wealthy, and devoted, an ideal life in every way.

What could possibly go wrong!!!!

There had been rumours that the Arabs were becoming more active in the slave trade but this was quite a long way to the north, and anyway they were not trading in white slaves, they were not going to run the risk of antagonising the British or Germans or even the Belgians.

The setting is Banrock Station; a plantation in Africa, there is no overall view of the station, due to the ineptitude of the official cameraman, you will not be suprised to hear he was sacked shortly after the incident. The station comprises 3 main buildings, the Cook House is on the eastern side of the clearing, right hand side, the workers quarters are on the West, left and the main bungalow to the south, in the foreground.

These are the occupants in and around the station at the time of the incident. The Planter and his chums have gone out shooting and will be back later.

From left to right Patricia his wife, Tang Xiao Peng the Chinese cook, Ato the boy, Jaques the man servant, Rakia the Indian maid, Henry Wyncham a chum and Khatiti the cooks assistant.

These are the native warriors (would be slavers) led by the chiefs daughter Jemila. As scary a looking bunch as you're likely to find. except Jemila of course.

Turn 1
The natives enter on the left of the table, Jemila splits them in to two groups, the far one is to make a sweep around through the sheep pens to the north, past the red pickup and block any escape down the road which leads to the nearest town, 70 miles away. The main group led by her is going straight for the Bungalow, where they expect to find the white woman who will make them rich, if she is not there then they will search the station until they find her.

The encounter tokens are green pennies. The nearest one is in amongst the pine cones; I mean Boa and Palm trees.

Turn2
Unfortunately for Jemela the 1st encounter turned out to be Henry Wyncham who was the only effective opposition to the raid. As the warriors emerged from the bush they both took an insight test, Henry won and pulled his pistol to snap fire at the enemy, for surely that is who they must be, spears, shields and mischief in their eyes, yes - they are the enemy.

His pistol goes ‘click’, there is an ominous silence and then a low sound ‘bugger, bugger, bugger’ as ‘H’ realises that he did not load his pistol last night because of the revelry, the wine, the port, the whiskey, ahh the whiskey, Bunahaibahn, the most glorious malt in the world, mmm he could still smell it, and taste it, or was that fear! Bugger, bugger, bugger, there was that low moan again. Jemila’s warriors were so startled by the warrior in the blue coat, chanting his war cry, ‘bugger, bugger, bugger’ that they halted, failed reaction test and gave ‘H’ the moment he needed.

Turn 3
The moment went on a little longer as they both failed to activate on the next turn, ‘H’ was getting a little worried by this time, he could see at least 5 evil looking faces staring out at him from the undergrowth and one rather nice one, Jemila, but she also had a very sharp looking spear in her shapely hand.

Turn 4
Henry has an empty gun; Patricia needs protection, time to go. An English Gentleman does not run from his enemies and so this was a strategic retreat to the bungalow where he knew there were a couple of shotguns, a very large Elephant gun as well as a couple of pistols, hopefully loaded this time.

Henry runs, I mean retreats into the bungalow in the immediate foreground, closely followed by the locals.

He ran past the maid, shouting for her to shut and bolt the door and went with all haste into the study, pulling the shot gun off the wall, checked and thanked his god that it was loaded. The natives ran into the yard, Jemila gives quick orders to her men, sending 2 to the workers hut (on the left), 2 to the cook house (on the right) and the rest with her to the bungalow.

They failed their fast move and so this gave ‘H’ the breathing space he needed.

The bungalow’s interior is missing and wrong scale – sorry, so this plan will have to do. It’s only a game after all. :-)

Kiambu was 1st through the door into the bungalow, the poor Indian maid hadn't had time to shut this after Henry the whirlwind had passed through, she screamed as Kiambu hit her with the side of his hand, she fell, striking her head on the door post and was unconscious (OOF) before hitting the floor.

Note the encounter markers, a target rich environment I think it is called.

Turn 5
Henry picks up a box of cartridges and hearing the maids scream steps back into the main living room and mindful of the fact it is a double barrel shot gun fires the right hand barrel at Kiambu, hits him and the Impact of the weapon is 2 – dice roll 2 Kiambu is dead before he can blink. The rest of Jemila’s group halt outside the bungalow, they failed receiving fire, man down tests, one or the other, can’t remember which. It did not seem a terribly good idea to go rushing into a small house with an angry Englishman blasting away with a shotgun. They were proved right.

Bomani and Okang charge into the cook house, Tang Xiao Peng the Chinese cook is alert and waiting with his meat cleaver at the ready, as a Rep 3 character I had not expected him to hang around but he surprised me by killing Bomani dead in the 1st round of combat.

Okang fails his man down test and retires back into the yard.

The 3 guys in the sheep fold find Bruno, or rather he finds them and attacks, he has not read the rules, and shield and spear armed warriors are more dangerous than the local postman, he takes a wound and is OOF. Or should that be WOOF.

Mbiya and Karanja rush into the workers hut and find it empty. 1st none event.

Okang stamps his foot in frustration, who would have thought a cook could be so fearsome, and a Chinese cook at that. He’s obviously not seen any Jackie Chan films recently, anyway he fails to activate as does Jemila’s men, she is hanging around on the veranda and the others are fearful of more body parts coming flying through the door, theirs if they enter.
Mbiya and Karanja rush across the yard and discover bales of food, not the would be white slave woman, but at least we will have full bellies tonight they think. The dog killers come into the yard and discover a load of ivory, all crated up by the Red Pickup. Henry loads his pistol and waits for the onslaught.

Tang, with time on his hands does something stupid, what can that be, oh I know he thinks, I’ll go outside, leave the safety of my cook house and see what is happening in the world.

Turn 7
The dog killers charge towards Tang and he promptly runs away. Wise man.

Jemila finally plucks up courage and charges through the door only to receive the left hand barrel of the shotgun and drops dead on the floor. H passes 2D and reloads this move, “bring it on”. Or should that be “top hole old thing”, whatever, he is ready and confident that the next one through the door will ‘make his day’.

Turn 8
All warriors inactive, Henry waits.

Turn 9
3 of the warriors pull a barrel over to the window of the dining room and as there is no one in the room, (2nd none event) they climb in, the last man by mistake knocks the barrel over, they are trapped and will have to go through the door into the sitting room where that devil ‘H’ is waiting patiently. The dog killers search the cook house and find Ato hiding under some sacks. The 2 men who were with Jemila contemplate what they will tell the Chief when he asks after his daughter, not a pleasant thought, they are inactive.

Turn 10
All inactive, except H who waits.

Turn 11
Mbiya opens the door to the sitting room, Henry passes insight test and fires 1 barrel, knocks Mbiya down but fails to hurt him. Mbiya shouts to the other 2 in the room to kill the white dog, but they think, bugger that for a game of cowboys, i.e., they fail their receive fire test (the big 12 bore strikes again) and hide behind the door, the others fail to activate.

Turn 12
Jemilas men still thinking what to tell the chief, Mbiya stands up, H shoots him with the other barrel but misses, whupps.

Turn 13
Henry passes 2D and loads the shotgun immediately, this is a good job because everyone charges him, Mbiya gets the 1st barrel and dies quickly, he had lived a charmed life up until now, Babu coming in from the veranda gets the 2nd barrel which knocks him back through the door. Mbiyas group duck back but Idi pushes past Babu and stabs at Henry, who turns the shot gun around and uses it like a club, after a long drawn out fight they both take a breather.

Babu stands up and Idi continues fight with Henry, big mistake, H clubs him down and another one bites the dust.

2 of the dog killers group climb into the bed room, no one there, (3rd non event)

Turn 15
All the warriors pass morale for man down but only Babu activates and charges. Henry has miraculously not broken the Purdy shotgun, yet again he passes 2D to load and fire in 1 go and blasts both barrels at Babu. I think he must have either been getting a little jittery and pulled both triggers or he was so confident that he would be able to load quickly again that he did not care. Good job he fired twice because the 1st shot missed, probably a bit rushed, however the 2nd shot did the trick and Babu went down OOF.

Turn 16
Everyone stunned by the noise of both barrels and failed to activate.

Turn 17
Henry recovered 1st and loaded both barrels, he was right to be confident, natives failed to activate.

Turn 18
The guys who had broken in to the bedroom finally managed to build up their courage and charge Henry who only passed 1D and they were on him before he could get off a shot, having killed 4 and OOF a 5th he must have been getting tired by now. Jojo gets a lucky break and stabs Henry in the side, he goes down OOF but what a hero, Jojo respects that he has beaten a great warrior and does not take revenge for his fallen comrades and the Chiefs daughter by killing him while defenceless, this may be a mistake, who know what the Chief will think, a quick salute with his spear to the fallen hero is all he can manage, Okang who was following Jojo nips into the 2nd bedroom, no one there, (4th Non event)

Planter and chums arrive on the table.

Turn 19
Planter and chums fail to activate, Jojo enters last bedroom, gold dust there is Patricia Cholmley Smythe, the prize, she is unarmed, I needed 70% for her to have a pistol and threw 74%, no luck there, the fight is fierce but short and he wins Patricia is knocked down and they have their prize, let’s get out of here shouts Karanja who is outside guarding the boy, he can see the planter in the distance, we are with you replies Jojo and they pick up the wounded Babu, the Indian Maid and Patricia and set off for their village.

The bad guys make their escape with a rather wild eyed Rakia, must still be stunned from the blow to the head. Nothing to do with the painting.

This really is a disaster for the natives 5 dead including Jemela the Chiefs daughter and 1 wounded, they did achieve their objective which was kidnapping P C-S to be sold to the Arabs for a slave but the price agreed is not going to cover the head price on the lost warriors.

This scenario was intended to be an introductory scene to a chase across Africa with the planter trying to get his wife back.

It should have been a walk over, 11 native warriors against Henry Wyncham and Patricia Cholmley-Smythe supported by a cook and servant who both only had a small chance of fighting, and not doing it well even if they did.

Henry or ‘H’ as he became known, turned it into Rorkes Drift, I don’t ever remember rooting for a little lead man so hard before.

Will the Planter call on his chums and give chase; of course he will. No one would leave a good looking woman like Patricia Cholmley-Smythe in the hands of slavers. There is revenge to be extracted, and honour to be saved.

Will Henry recover quickly enough to help with the rescue or will he and Bruno have to stay behind.

Please note, although 3 of the warriors were known as the dog killers, no animals were actually harmed in the making of this film.

A final look at Henry the Hero, with the enemies he defeated.


Animal Alert
I am in the process of buying and painting animals to use in various settings but principally Western and Ice Age games and having spent a small fortune at Christmas I came across these in B and M a discount store.

This is the Safari set, you get 4 of each animal all the same pose for £3.99, scale is a little loose depending on how picky you are but this is my opinion.
The Moose left is just about right as is the bear depending on which bear. The tiger which I've painted as a cave lion is probably a bit big but cave lions and American lions were bigger than today's African lion. The Lion is too big but I painted it as a test for the tigers. The zebra which I painted as an ancient horse, can't spell it's name off the top is a little big but ok. the ape unfortunately does not have a gorilla's head or it would be spot on.
At the back the unpainted ones are a bit more off scale, the cheetah is way too big to use and is going to a charity shop. the elephant is fine for a calf, I'm not sure about the rhino camel, hippo and giraffe but as I am using these for the ice age and things were a little different then - before global warming.

I have 16 animals that I'm very happy with, plus 24 may be ok at a stretch and 4 that are useless, so my cost per good animal is 25p each. I paid £4.00 for 1 bear in lead.

Having the lion and bear nearer toi the camera has distorted their size a bit - sorry.

I'm not sure Tumak fancies his chances!!
Cave lions I think were about 2.1m long exc tail Tumak would be apx 1.7m high.

These are from the farm animal set, again 4 of each and far fewer usable figures, the goat on the left is a stand in for a female moose, but I'm going to have to use my imagination, quite a lot. If anyone knows of another animal it might stand in for I would like to know.
The 2 different sorts of cows are stand in Aurochs or cows depending on setting, and the horse is a horse for western games. The rest of the stuff is hopeless for scale but if you have kids they will like them, mine again are going to the charity shop.
There is no hair texture at all on the cows and horses but there is for most other animals.

So realistically you have 8 cows and 4 horses so £0.33 each, I bought 8 cows for £14.00 at Xmas, £1:75 each which I thought was a bargain!

The 3 animals in the front are the ones out of the box, they are not bigger it's just the photo but I put this on so you can see how they come, please don't tell me they are better than my re-paint jobs.

Frank this is for you, it shows the desk and the black backdrop. Hope it doesn't spoil the illusion too much. Yes I do need 4 lamps or a very steady hand to get the photo's, I live in an old cottage with small windows and not a lot of natural light.


Well that's all.

If there's anybody out there please let me know and if you are still here - Thanks for reading.