Of Cannibals and Queens

Jack and John both lend a hand to build a new river steamer to carry troops upriver. Surrounded by endless forests, ts hard not to feel they are being watched but they can never quite see any hostiles.

Some minor renovations and rearranging have overflowed into my games room once again. Since there is little room or time for a game I decided to resume working on props and figures that had put off doing until I figured out what the heck I wanted to do.

The last game was a small example of the sort of Middle Game which I intend to be the main stay of the Atlantica campaigns. For the foreseeable future Big Games will be restricted to the 1/72nd ACW and planning has begun for a  game based on one of the early Western or more precisely, Trans-Mississippi theater. Wilson's Creek, Elkhorn Tavern and Prairie Grove are all being looked at.

That leaves the Little Game, the Colonial, skirmishy, sort of game. There are various options but the one I have had my eye on is a return to the rain forest of the North East. We first glimpsed the cannibal tribesmen in 2009 and first saw them in action during the 2011 Nest of Pirates game. I'm  still not sure if these games will play ok with the rules as is or if I'll have to make some small changes to make games interesting with small numbers of units but the only way to tell for sure is to try. Now that the grid and size of grid, time periods, etc have been determined work can resume. Even if I allow for some allies, either Atlantican tribesmen or Brethren of the Coast, or both, I need more tribesmen. I also need more boats than can fit the grid. The refitted HMS Recycle overhangs one square but I can work with her.  The HMS Reuse  takes up 3 squares and is just a bit too big.

During an expedition against a nest of Pirates, the Victoria Rifles find the allied forest tribesmen to be formidable foes. 

A prototype troop carrier small enough to fit in a grid and carry 1 unit is currently under construction as can be seen above. (OK admittedly I am actually doing most of the work myself, when I left the little guys with the tools and materials and went for coffee,nothing seemed to get done in my absence.)   Three things quickly became clear:

• I don't really know what I'm about despite my 1971 Industrial Arts class
• I need a proper coping saw and a work bench if I'm going to make a habit of building things
• I can do this! (more or less, in a ham fisted, improvised, Floor Games sort of way).

In 2010 came this speculative illustration of a coming game. Its still coming but its getting closer! 

Stay Tuned!