Rumble in the Jungle

Somewhere in south east Asia.

In a small jungle clearing, a tribe of locals wait in fear.

Standing calmly amongst them is an unusual figure, ramrod straight and clutching a large book, he alone shows no agitation.

Even the goats and swine move restlessly in their pens.

The natives appear to have left an offering, or maybe a sacrifice, she is guarded by two stalwart warriors but from what we might ask ourselves, and for how long, would be the next question.

Does the Khmer Temple have any significance; is she a sacrifice to Shiva the Destroyer?

Basking on a sand bank in a slow moving river the crocodile couldn’t care less about the mystery of the captive woman, she is too far from the river. He is watching a small column of humans (food to his simple mind) make their way along the river bank.

The expedition is heading towards the native village but the villagers don't know this yet. Is the expedition there to free the captive or for some other mysterious reason.

The answer may lay in the fact that Nigel Barrington the 9th Earl of Stratton whose family home is on the outskirts of the small village of Comely Wallop, Shropshire is a keen Naturalist and Anthropological Ethologist.

Gita Asthana the noted Photographer accompanies him and Sir Austin Wolseley appears to have been seconded to the expedition, probably by Nigel’s wife Sarah Barrington who keeps a proprietorial eye on the family fortunes.

Further down river men of the 4th section 1st Company of the 42nd (Royal Highland) Regiment of Foot informally known as the Black Watch were disembarking from their small flotilla of river boats, prior to starting their slog through the jungle.

They were led by Ensign James Cameron, nephew of the regimental commanding officer. Standing ramrod straight he called out to the men, “Fall in behind and to the sides of the porters and follow me”.

He didn’t disclose his orders with anyone and the men had no idea what they were going to encounter.

Rittmeister Friedrich Wilhelm von Seydlitz, the great great great etc grandson of the famous man himself cleared the tree tops with some degree of relief. It was an honour to serve in the newly formed Prussian Rapid Air Service but it was also a dry mouthed experience.

The new clockwork copters allowed the Prussian Rapid Air Service to streak in at tree top height. Fast and silent, apart from the clockwork motor slowly unwinding, the Troopers enjoyed the speed but worried that there was no alarm to advise when the motor would cease to provide motive power.

Things always got a little exciting at that point.

Rittmeister Friedrich Wilhelm looked over his shoulder as the Halbstaffel or half squadron followed closely behind him.

Unlike Ensign James Cameron, Friedrich Wilhelm had briefed his men thoroughly, none of them were happy about it but they were proud to be part of the fledgling Prussian Rapid Air Service and proud to do their duty.

Is this what everyone is looking for?

Maybe, maybe not, tune in next week for the first instalment of “THE PRIMATE”.

Actually it won’t be next week because I’ll be in Shropshire but hopefully the week after although that doesn’t have the same resonance.

For over a year I’d been hoping to do some form of collaboration with Stephen Gilbert. Back in 2012 he’d played and written about a series of games, but as with most of us, once the initial enthusiasm stops, old ideas or projects get dropped in favour of new ones, we’re always moving forward, glancing backward to see what we’ve left behind and wondering if we could pick it up again, but rarely do. We’d corresponded and I’d asked if he would mind if we could work together to take the story forward I had a basic outline and would play the games and he would act as an advisor and sounding board.

Having read his stories I was mightily impressed, this wasn’t wargaming as I knew it, more free form story writing driven by the game and I guess I’ve tried to follow his example for years but without his skill with words. Well Steve died earlier this year and my opportunity to work with a truly creative person evaporated. This should be a lesson to us all, grab the golden opportunities while you can because they don’t always hang around waiting for us.

Anyway he’d talked to his partner and she very kindly had agreed to his request to pass on some of his figures so that I could carry out my ideas to move his story forward. This involves a character called Carlotta Wynne, a hard boiled detective from the City of Angels and I want to take her to South East Asia.

More about her in the future but last week I received a parcel that contained the dozen or so figures from his Carlotta story that I was expecting but lots more from his Pax Limpopo collection as well. I’d never heard of Pax Limpopo but it’s a quite amazing selection of figures that has me wondering how to incorporate them into my normal style of games. However in the parcel was a figure wrapped in tissue paper and a note that read, “Your mission should you choose to accept it is to insert this figure somewhere in your next battle report” The figure in question is obviously King Kong and I’ve given away the surprise by mentioning him at this stage, although I imagine anyone reading this would have been there before the démontre or the reveal, however I wanted to show him in this opening sequence because "I choose to accept the mission".

Most of the figures I’m using in this game are ones that I’ve inherited from Steve and I hope I can do them the justice they deserve. The game outline is still pretty vague but I’ve got the scenery out, the figures out and the rest should be easy.

Cheers