Ayah’s Chase

The title really should be Chasing Ayah, but I worried that I might get some weird hit’s with that title, so went with the less click baiting one. The story starts after the 6th picture so you can skip all the background rubbish and go straight there if you wish, I’ve even put a heading so you can find it easily :).

The Background

In my previous game, I tried out some stealth rules and was generally happy with the outcome and in this game I wanted to try out some chase rules. Essentially after pinching the meat offering that the Simians had left, Ayah has to try and escape across my brand spanking new, refurbished, old terrain tiles, going from the lower left corner to the upper right corner.

I had decided that the Simians would not wade through the small rivers but on the banks of the left hand river there were 2 dead trees that over hung the river and they could climb and swing across with no loss of speed. Ayah would move directly towards the far corner but if she was in close proximity to a Simian then she would move directly away from it.

That meant that she might cross the river on the right side and if so would be safe. I knew that but didn’t impart that information to her.

The rules I use have an activation system to determine if a figure or group of figures will move each turn and in what sequence. Being designed for solo play they also have a series of Reaction Tests to determine if the figure or group will do as you desire, the standard morale checks most rules have, but in addition there are tests specific to certain situations. One of these tests is to see how far a figure moves if it wants to make a fast move.

For a human my normal move is 6”, they can try and move faster and roll up to 2D6, passing 1 die means they can move 9” and passing 2 die they move 12” to pass a dice means to roll 1-3 pass, 4-6 fail. Obviously this can be very unpredictable at times and is what makes a solo game interesting, for me at least and means that a chase game can work well just using the normal rules.

I’ve been reading a bit about why humans are mainly hairless and the suggestion I like best is that it enables us to sweat easily and so dissipate heat faster. That means we don’t overheat in a long chase, hairy animals do overheat. Of course if it was such a competitive advantage the question is “why are we the only hairless land animal apart from large things like Elephants, Rhino’s etc”.

Other factors come into play, fast four legged running animals like cheetah’s can only breathe in when they are out stretched. When their back legs come forward, their stomach pushes against their lungs and they expel air. One breath = 1 stride, they go fast but not for very long because they can’t get enough oxygen. We on the other hand being upright creatures can breathe as many times per stride as necessary so can maintain our oxygen levels over a long period.

Age is not a big impediment to us, the qualifying time for the Boston marathon for men is, age 18 to 34 = 3h 0min, age 45 to 49 = 3h 20min so roughly 10% difference, women have a qualifying time 30min longer than a man but a very similar difference due to age. Basically we can run all our lives at a similar speed and therefore the theory of the Savannah hunter, chasing down its prey over quite a long distance appeals to me. I know that there are a lot of anomalies in the theory but that’s what I incorporated into my chase game.

Ayha can try for more fast moves than the Simians, once both are out of fast move options they will have to resort to normal moves until they can recover their breaths. I assumed simians were just a little slower for normal and fast moves but that they could make 2 extra fast moves in a burst of high speed energy, a gallop on all four limbs. I tested fast moves for each individual rather than the group in the anticipation that this would string them out a bit.

Ayah was a slightly better fighter than the Simians but not as strong so she was more likely to hit them but they were more resilient to the damage.

The table is more open than before and I decided that it would not impede movement intentionally, you know the sort of thing “moves in difficult terrain are at half speed”

Using the Reaction Test would give me the variable, allowing Ayah and the Simians to jump a fallen log or run through a thicket of denser brush, something that might slow one or other of them but give me something to incorporate into the story.

I’ve built a line of low cliffs across part of the board, when and if Ayah reaches them she will have to decide to go left or right, a straight dice roll, left is a dead end though.

This is the diagonal route she will be headed, unless events dictate otherwise. Finally I decided the Simians would be 1 to 3 moves behind her and threw a 1 so not a big start at all. Whoops, this could be quite a short game as there were 5 Simians in the chase group, 1D6 again and I rolled a 5.

The Story

Ayah knew she was being followed, she hadn’t seen or heard anything but her instincts told her that it was so. She crested a small rise in the land and looked back, seeing nothing but like every good hunter she knew you see nothing when you are on the skyline but a minute or two later she looked back and saw the Simians cresting the same skyline. They had emerged from the thick brush and were close behind her, she immediately broke into a run.

There were four of them, the old male leading the troop also broke into a run when he saw her but it was more of a lumbering jog and he and the three who were with him gained no ground.

Then she realized that there were 5 of them, one, a young male had dropped to all fours and was running like the wind, he sped ahead of the rest and was gaining fast, if he could keep up this pace he would catch her very quickly.

He continued to gain ground and Ayah was forced to turn and fight or be attacked from behind. The young Simian was fast, bold, daring and ultimately stupid, seeing his enemy stop and turn, he ran on, not realizing he wasn’t the only killer here. Raising his club he started to strike but this hairless ape was fast, too fast for him and he felt a stabbing pain in his side as she pushed the razor sharp flint knife deep into his body.

He fell to the ground as the old male watched from the hill, satisfaction growing within him as he saw his rival fall. With a huge roar he encouraged the rest of the troop to follow him after the lone hairless female ape. They would eat well today and his arrogant male rival would fall into line behind his pack leader, if he lived that is.

Ayah turns and jogs away after the fight with the male Simian, she sees the rest of the chasing troop are slow to follow and she needs to conserve her energy for the long chase ahead.

The ape men started to chase again as Ayah waded into the fast flowing river.

This is when I realized the activation system was going to give too big a variable in the chase scenario, the Simians had not moved last turn and so I continued the game just using the fast move test to differentiate speed and that worked fine.

She was half way across and it was slowing her down, she turned to see where the ape men were.

And saw that the river was not going to slow them down at all, as they ran full tilt straight up a tree that was overhanging the river. Their agility in climbing was of great benefit to them and they were now visibly gaining on her.

Whilst this had already been built into the scenario it effectively made up for their loss of a move and put the game back on the tracks.

Ayah has waded through the river and made it to the far back just as the Apes swing across. She is starting to tire but hopes that the Simians are feeling the pace at least as much as she is.

She is fairly sure that given enough time she can out distance the ape men but they are still gaining ground at the moment. Ahead she sees a line of low cliffs and as the Simians can climb faster that she can, her decision is either left or right and then run as fast as possible, a die roll determines it should be right.

Which if you read the background and remembered it, this is the right decision.

The apes continue to chase down their prey, the old male is in the lead. That’s mainly because the rest of the troop know that it doesn’t do to be swifter than him.

The chase continues but the old male is beginning to tire and Ayah’s lead increases.

At this point I was thinking great, she’s going to make it, the apes had a couple more turns when they could run at full speed but after that they were blown and Ayha would get away.

The apes had rested a little this move and knew the rule writer had only given them 6 run moves before they have to walk, also if Ayah makes it to the far river bank then they can’t follow because they don’t like water. (The rule writer again) Ayah doesn’t know this because the rule writer didn’t tell her and she is being directed away from the Simians and so is moving along the bank rather than crossing to safety.

Ayah is close to escape but she has her second bad roll of the dice and stumbles, she slows to a walk, the apes are gaining rapidly and are right behind her. Has the wily old male timed his race to perfection, he has one last remaining fast move in him and then it’s over. Ayah can still keep up this pace for a couple more moves and so she can still escape.

Turn 10 and she makes her 3rd bad roll and the apes activate first and catch up with her, she turns at bay, damming the rule writer for a fool.

Initially she faces 2 of the apes, the leader has a large wooden stick, or club as they came to be called, the other one has a huge bone. “I hope he found it”, she thinks, “I’m in trouble if he killed the beast that was using it before” The smaller apes roar and shriek as they attack, Ayah remains silent, she might be as dumb as a bean but she is a pretty useful fighter and puts her energy into holding them off. By a dint of good dice rolling she manages to succeed but causes no damage to her opponents.

This gives the other two the time to move around behind her and now she is facing 4 demented Simians, all screaming for her blood.

Plus the softer bits like her heart and liver but you probably don’t want to consider that outcome too closely.

The fight rages on, I am currently conducting fights against more than 1 opponent differently to the rules I use. They specify that Ayah who has 5 attacking dice split them against all opponents and each opponent counts their full number of attacking dice, in this case they each have 4 dice. So 5D6 v 16D6.

For my combats I tend to favour the martial arts movies where Bruce Lee is outnumbered 30 to 1 but his opponents attack 1 at a time, so he looks to be out numbered but actually fights 1 opponent, then the next. I think this is more sporting of them.

In my case the fight is between 2 opponents but the others support by adding half their attack dice to the main fighter. So in this case Ayah has 5 dice and the old male has his 4 plus 3 supporters at 2 each so 5 to 10.

Yep she’s monkey meat either way.

However sometimes things don’t go the way you expect and she stabs the old male and he is out of the fight. This wouldn’t have been the end of it except that the other 3 took a reaction test for losing their leader and rolled more rubbish dice and pulled back from the fight.

If you remember Ayah has to move away from the nearest Simian and so she wades into the river.

The disconcerted Simians howl in impotent rage as their food disappears beyond their reach and each one of them is thinking, do I feel lucky, can I become the leader of the pack? 

There’s an upside to every down side.

Ayah now on the far side on the river reflects on the dice gods and the fact that the rule writer gave her a bit more of a chance against the monkey men with his amendments, maybe he’s not such a fool after all. Who knows.

As the sun starts to set she waves a clenched fist at her defeated enemies before turning away to look for a safe place to sleep for the night. During the chase she dropped the remains of the carcase she had stolen from the Simians, it was going to be a long hungry night tonight, but tomorrow's another day.

Ayah's Hunt

Ayah was hungry and she was getting worried, very worried. She had gotten herself separated from the Clan, they were making their way north away from the sun, heading to the cooler lands, they had been doing this ever since she could remember, following the herds north and then after a few moons following them back south again. That’s the rhythm and cycle of a nomadic hunter gatherer’s lifestyle.

The Clan had found a strange forested area that they’d not explored before, they were hunting and gathering, as always, when suddenly Ayah realized there was no sound from the rest of her family, she called and yelled but there was no response, she was alone.

The forest was thick, as dense as any she had known in her short life and she knew it would deaden the sound of her calls, hopefully nothing dangerous had been attracted by her shouts.

She was lost and adrift from everything she had ever known. She knew by instinct and training which way she should be headed, the sun the moon and the stars would always point the way. However it was only in a general direction, she could not know exactly which way the Clan would go.

Moving quietly now, knowing that there were creatures in this thickly wooded area that could track and chase her down, she needed to think hard, without the Clan she would not last long in this hostile environment. She needed to find them quickly but her more immediate concern was hunger and she must eat, sooner rather than later, leading such a nomadic lifestyle meant she was travelling light and only carried a flint knife, she was going to have to be very smart to survive this predicament.

That’s when she heard the screams and yells, they were not the clan but sounded similar, the same noise that the Clan made when hunting and preparing for the kill. They had some animal trapped and were building up the courage to dash in and kill it, risking injury and maybe death themselves but food was every animals prime concern.

She had to know what was happening and the safest way seemed to be to climb one of the many trees and check if she could see what it was.

Climbing five or six man heights up the tree she froze, seeing some Simians, small humanoid creatures, about half her height but certainly just as strong as she was. From her position she could see at least 3 of them, but it sounded like there were more.

One was looking directly at her, and her blood turned to ice. On the Savannah she was sure she could out run him but in this thick jungle she was not so sure, he was in his element she was not. She waited, no, it didn’t appear to have seen her, but closer inspection revealed at least 4 of them, maybe more.

To the side of the small ape was a bloodstained rock, a big flat rock, she wondered what it was for, she knew the shaman of her Clan offered sacrifices to the spirits who looked over her people but they were offerings of food, berries, nut and the occasional small animal, but this one looked well used, there was lots of blood covering the stone.

Quietly she climbed down from her eyrie and moved back through the trees to consider what she should do next. The forest looked the same whichever way she faced, the only thing that didn’t stay the same was her hunger which grew as the sun fled across the sky.

She made the only decision that she could, and it was not a bright or heartening prospect, she was going to have to take the Simian’s kill away from them.

She could rush in and frighten them off, that was one option, not the best though, definitely a high risk strategy. She preferred the alternative approach, wait for dark, creep in quietly and steal it, then get away quickly, well before they knew she was there.

Every hunter knows that one false move and the prey will escape, but in this case one false move would be the death of her, so she waited patiently for night to fall.

For the game I’ve scattered tokens around the carcase to represent potential Simians, all my characters have various attributes such as stealth, awareness etc that I can use to make decisions in a solo game.

So in this case Ayah moves and then has to pass a stealth check to see if she has made a noise, if so, the nearest token has to pass an Awareness check to see if it is aware of the noise.

I then carry out an opposed check roll, if the token wins it identifies the noise as Ayah, is she wins, she successfully avoids detection. If the Simian passed its awareness roll but didn’t identify Ayah, it is still awake and aware, so more likely to identify her if she makes a second noise, after a certain time, 1D6 it falls asleep again and starts from scratch.

A bit convoluted but for my solo game it’s more interesting than just a straight 1 die roll.

Having done all that, I then check to see if the token is actually a Simian or not, that’s because she has to see it to identify it.

So the other thing that is happening is that Ayah is trying so see sleeping Simians as she moves forwards and avoid them, when she has the possibility to sight a token she checks to see if she sees it, then I determine if it is a Simian or just a false token, it’s quite possible for her to blunder into one and wake it without seeing it.

I’ve used sighting and stealth rules before but in an ad hoc sort of a way based on game requirements, here I’m trying to formalise it into a written rule to be used in the future, so any suggestions you might have are more than welcome.

Eventually as it always did, the sun disappeared and tonight the moon provided enough light but not too much. Ayah started towardswhat she now regarded as "Her Food", the Simians had left a large part of the carcase of whatever animal they had killed on its flat, blood soaked top of what was probably a sacrificial stone.

She moves stealthily and is now within sighting range of a token and test’s to see if it’s visible to her.

If you’ve been eating lots of carrots and your eyesight is as good as a prehistoric woman’s, then you would have seen this. She doesn’t wake it and decides to circle left, before moving towards her destination.

You’ve probably realized by now that I’m quite pleased with how the jungle photos turned out because there’s lot’s of them.

Anyway Ayah having moved around the Simian is getting closer to her target.

Closer and closer, but not as stealthily as I would have liked, fortunately the Simians appear to be sound sleepers.

She has spotted this chap off to the right and didn’t wake him, having reached the bloodstained stone she just needs to grab the food without being discovered. I know I’m not making it sound tense but believe me it was. At this point she had seen and avoided 3 Simians, discovered 2 false tokens, there were still 3 undiscovered tokens and she was in the middle of them all. 

Surrounded.

She makes the required rolls I breath a sigh of relief and she creeps quietly away, carrying a large chunk of meat. Unfortunately the meat is dripping blood, and as we will find out (probably) leads the Simians onto her trail quite easily.

Just a couple of gratuitous photos taken in full lamp light, not as atmospheric of course but certainly much clearer.

Here she didn’t see the token to the right but did see the one to the left which proved to be a small ape so she carried on circling and didn’t stumble into the token and I still don’t know if it was a Simian or not.

Just to give an overview of the table, much smaller than it might have appeared in the game pictures. A new 2’ square board I made using a bit of ply and some capillary matting I bought a few years ago, I purloined our Lazy Susan so that I could turn it easily because access to the figures in the dense foliage was very difficult.

The dead trees were made for the Vietnam game but never actually appeared on the table, so I wanted to get some use out of them, I originally intended playing this as a follow on to the search for the Grimoire of Life but saw some pictures on Pinterest of prehistoric people and got enthused (distracted) by that instead.

This was a 12 turn game, she failed to move stealthily 6 times. 3 of those times the Simians then failed Awareness test and so didn’t know she was there. Then 3 times it went down to an opposed roll and she won 2 and one turned out to be a decoy token or it could have been a very less successful outing for Ayha.

My thinking with this is that,

1) Do I make a noise

2) Are my opponents aware of this noise

3) If they are aware of the noise do they recognise it for what it is or can I recover the situation by remaining quiet.

This requires throwing lots of dice but I prefer the averaging result of lots of dice rather than the dramatic result of say a D20 that can give a huge variable with just 1 roll. Just my personal preference.

My sighting test is similar, it’s a straight opposed roll, Am I looking for some one, are they hiding or not and again a bucket load of dice to give a very average result.

For the last 3 days I’ve been working on refurbishing my 1’ sq terrain tiles, I mention this because I want to do a chase scenario, the Simians discover the missing food and chase after Ayha, I intend to use the tiles as a conveyer belt to run the chase scenario so effectively my table will be as long as it needs to be. I’ve used the concept before, back in the Hunt for Mary Scroggins although it took at least 1 failed attempt before the searchers got off the original table.

Years ago I read the Desmond Morris book The Naked Ape but I was never really convinced by his explanation as to why we are not hairy, I’ve recently been reading some other thoughts which I quite like and so we will find out if the current theory of why we are naked apes works in my game.

I’m still not happy with the tiles covering the table, I’m sure it will look better with a bit of set dressing but even though the lines between the tiles are more disguised than previously it’s still not as seamless as I would like and I prefer a mat. The reason I’ve done this is because I’ve been using them when I need a river or coast as in the previous game and they looked quite poor, I wonder if static grass would be better at hiding the seams, although maybe not as durable. Anyway they are an improvement and lasted 40 years in their previous state so are unlikely to get another refresh in this lifetime.

If you got here, thanks for reading and …..

Take care out there – it’s a dangerous world.

Pirates and Smugglers - The Beach Landing.

Arghh Jim Lad and Pieces of Eight, errr - sorry that’s about the best Pirate accent I can do, so moving swiftly on to a shortish AAR.

Imagine the South Coast of England in the early 1700’s, full moon and a high tide.

A single cart approaches a small hamlet somewhere in the Romney Marches. Then imagine something a little bigger.

A sandy beach and a few small boats pulled up on that beach, the village in the distance has been involved in the smuggling trade with Iberia for quite a few years. They import Port from Porto in Portugal and Sherry from Jerez in south west Spain, wines from the Rioja region of northern Spain and dried hams from all over Iberia.

The Squire of the village is married to Juanita del Escobar and her blood kin Jose Ramirez is up to his neck in the smuggling trade, so are most of the villagers of Snuggling next to Sea, and who wouldn’t be involved in bringing in these luxury goods in exchange for sheep, lamb and mutton, the only thing they can produce in the desolate salt marches of Romney.

As always on my table there are equal opportunities for both men and women to star in the big parts. Of course they also have to share the heavy lifting as well. The barrels look pretty heavy, especially as they are filled with some of the finest wines available in Europe and they are going to take some moving but the smugglers are well equipped with carts, pack animals and even a wheelbarrow.

Of course in every paradise there are serpents that will attempt to sour your pleasure and so beyond this field are the Revenue Men, BOO HISS! They are led by a couple of sea Captains too old for the sea and they have to hand a mixed bag of youthful eagerness and ancient knowledge, the men and women of the Revenue, BOO HISS.

Someone has snitched and they are here to take the contraband goods and imprison as many of the Smugglers as they can arrest. Well good luck with that because these boys won’t come quietly.

Captain “Old” Ben Avery is in charge and has decided to split his command, leading half of the men against the pack horses and carts transferring the barrels from the beach to Snuggling next to Sea. He has taken his two best men with him, Eduardo d’Orsay and Comfort Weeks, the last man in line is a new recruit Tempest Abercrombie. She was conceived in the big storm of 26, the one that both her parents remember well, now if only she knew who her parents were she might not have had to join the Revenue BOO HISS.

Avery didn’t consult me before deciding on his plan of action and I might have pointed out that he is outnumbered by the smugglers and if the villagers decide to join in, he is going to be in big trouble. Maybe he’s from Yorkshire. They say you can always tell a Yorkshireman, but you can’t tell him much. Being from Yorkshire there’s more than a grain of truth in the joke.

The other half are led by Captain John Leadstone, known behind his back as Captain Crackers, they are charged with intercepting the boats on the beach and stopping them putting to sea and returning to the Santa Maria anchored off, in the bay. You can possibly see why Avery sent Crackers against the beach party, he’s not expecting them to have too much resistance and two of the party are old sailors, both missing legs, but those heavy crutches could prove valuable in close combat, unless the

inevitable happens and they lose their balance. However Scudder and Fish Bait have had quite a few years ashore and the only time they usually have wobbly legs is after a night in the Wicked Lamb in Romney town centre, they have been friends for many years and brag that they have a fine pair of legs - between them.

The last man is Modesty Higginbottom, she comes from up north in Lancashire but we won’t hold that against her. Maybe.

Crackers with his usual meticulous planning and forethought shouts come on men lets get them and lumbers off at a slow lumber, his men are a gutsy bunch and set off after him, Modesty keeps up very well but Scudder and Fish Bait with only one pair of legs between them are not so fleet of foot and fall behind a little.

They’ve caught the men unloading the boats on the hop, on the right Mercy Petite Mort to give her, her full name decides that maybe she should hang back a little and see how things go before she commits herself. Captain Black Jack Teach pulls both of his cutlasses from their scabbards and yells his battle cry, Blue Peter or something similarly warlike and there’s a clash of steel as he engages Crackers who is supported stoutly by Modesty Higginbottom. The fight is drawn out, Modesty is a better swordsman than Crackers but Crackers is - well - Crackers and refuses to let a woman – a mere stripling of a girl take his place in the fight.

Brigstock Jenkins climbs over the barrels in the belly of the boat and jumps ashore but this takes too long for him to join in the fight and besides he has 3 pistols and a knife, no sword, why would someone sculpt a pirate without a sword? He’s going to be very wary about getting into a close quarters fight.

James Worrier pulls his cutlery out but decides that’s as far as he needs to go, and Thropett on the boat, draws both her pistols, then cocks and aims one at Fish Bait.

Boom - She fires, it’s a slow burn, and misses, but it doesn’t stop his mad, head long, hop towards the boats on the beach. (Bit like after lockdown in Bournemouth)

Over by the convoy the men were no more lively, Old Bill Avery shouted charge and his men matched his pace which was a slow stumble, a little faster than a walk. This gives Vanity Dobbs time to pull her pistol as well as her sword and fire at Eduardo d’Orsay, fortunately for Eduardo the heavy ball misses him. In the ensuing sword fight he is outmatched and the bold Revenue man is pushed back.

On the left, Avery is up against Mary Brazier, Mary is a wild and deadly woman from Essex way, she was the Fence for the Gregory Gang and the infamous Dick Turpin was a member of that gang so Avery has probably bitten off more than he can chew. She doesn’t have time to pull her pistol and goes for her razor sharp sword, but it’s barely out of the scabbard before Avery is on her. The fight flows back and forth, then back and forth again, Avery may be old but he is well versed in the art of foul play and uses his hook like a second weapon putting Mary on the back foot.

Comfort Weeks runs in to attack Ann Duck, in the red bandana, Ann pulls her pistol, fires but misses, however Ann is a veteran street and bar room fighter, she was arrested 19 times before her final reckoning and is more than a match for Weeks, even if she only has a long knife against Week’s long sword, their deadly dance continues for a while though.

Back to the fight by the boats and Thropett fires her 2nd and last pistol at Fish Bait and this time hitting the poor man and he falls, as a pool of blood flows from his veins and soaks into the dry sand. Scudder fires at the stationary figure of Worrier and misses but Brigstock in the red pants fires one of his many pistols at Scudder and does not miss. Another Revenue Man is on the ground in a pool of his own blood, this is getting a bit repetitive.

Mary to the left is quite good at stabbing people in the back but doesn’t like to see their faces, she has still not moved forward to help Black Jack, although it’s a little late now. Modesty aids Crackers in the fight with Black Jack and as they push him back she jumps forward, elbowing Crackers out of the way and has sunk her cutlass between Jack’s 4th and 5th rib and he’s also gone down in a pool of blood.

What more can I say, apart from, I’m pleased I made quite a few pools of blood for this fight.

It’s not looking good for the Revenue men by the boats, they are now facing odds of 2 to 1, this situation might call for a tactical withdrawal, that is, if your name isn’t Captain Crackers.

Modesty looks down on her fallen foe and thinks “that felt good but we should run now”

Crackers strikes a manly pose and thinks “Crackers thoughts, that don’t include running”

Back to the convoy and things have gone badly for Eduardo, in spite of forcing Vanity back and back again, he became distracted (don’t know why) and with a reverse cut, parry and lunge she sinks the point of her Sheffield steel sword into d’Orsay’s softer parts and he lies bleeding on the ground.

This is only turn 4 and Avery is using every trick in his book in the fight with Mary Brazier, it must be a fairly thick book because he’s holding off the ferocious attacks from Mary, but only just.

Ann Duck in the red Bandana has got Comfort Weeks on the run and going backwards and with all her experience of fighting dirty it’s only a question of time before she sticks her short fighting knife into Weeks.

Tempest Abercrombie is appalled by the noise and ferocity in this her first fight, so much so that when Jose Ramirez runs to attack her, she fails to react and doesn’t fire the Blunderbuss she holds in her left hand. Fortunately the Spanish Smuggler has a long way to run and doesn’t make contact, so she has a little more time before the inevitable happens.

On turn 5, things take a turn for the better if you are supporting the forces of Law and Order in the form of the Revenue Men - BOO HISS. All the smugglers fail to activate.

McLeish has been inactive for most of the action and this turn is no different and she fails to charge into the fight.

Activated or not the fight finally goes against Avery and Weeks and they are both floating in a small lake of blood. This has been a re-occurring theme for the Revenue BOO HISS in this game so far.

Abercrombie does finally fire the huge blunderbuss as Ramirez run to contact but – nerves – nerves - nerves, she misses him, however she does survives his mad flurry of sword strokes and remains on her feet, the last of Avery’s men to be still standing.

However Tempest Abercrombie is now alone and surrounded by five of the band of cutthroats she surrenders and hopes she will see the sun rise in the morning.

Back by the sea, with their Captain down, the 4 remaining Smugglers pass their guts tests.

Crackers considerers the first course of action that comes to mind and pulls his pistol and calls out for the Smugglers to stand and surrender. When he sees that’s not going to work he turns to his second course of action, which is to run like hell.

With the agility of youth Modesty easily out distances him and here she can be seen a few yards ahead, this lead will continue to increase until they are safely away from the Smugglers, then she can consider her future with the Revenue Men, BOO HISS.

So ends the tale of the Revenue Men of Romney BOO HISS.

My corner of the Bloggersphere seems very quiet at the moment. Is that because Blogger has gone from bad to worse? I tried the new version on my previous 2 posts, the second one froze and I couldn't upload any pictures, so went back to the classic version and that didn't hold a bunch of pictures on the palette as it used to and so I had to trawl through all my pics on Blogger before getting to the one I wanted, with a slow internet that's hopeless. With this post I loaded the pics individually from my computer, not as slow as yesterday but blinking useless for something that's supposed to be state of the art.

I do think it's becoming more trouble than it's worth. Any ideas on what I might be doing wrong?