Spiegel Online Tekumel article

Just so nobody misses it, the German news magazine "Spiegel" has published an article about Tekumel in their online version:

Tekumel Article

I'm not sure how long this sort of article stays accessible so be sure to check it out. There is an English translation to be found here:

Dragonsfoot

I found the article enlightening in some respects and the full score of accompanying photos very interesting. I've never met or spoken to the Professor, having only corresponded by email. And the only picture I'd previously seen of him was a very poor quality one from an old Dragon magazine.

Playtesting, Mapmaking and Stuff...

The Band of Joyous Heroes:

Been working on this pretty steady but more working things out than typing things in. I had hoped to have a 60% draft ready on the weekend but that didn't happen. Instead I tried my hand with a bit of mapmaking. BoJH will need a map or two. I will probably end up with four one-page (8.5" x 11") maps, each showing a quarter of Tsolyanu plus a little bit of border. The rules format probably won't allow for anything bigger. I want the maps to be more tolkien-style, if you follow me, with the hills and mountains drawn in; that sort of thing. I'm using photoshop and it's working out not too badly, so far. I picked up some tips from the Cartographer's Guild and am hoping to try them out.

Got a bit of a playtest in last week. Tried out an idea I have for tracking encounters. Hmmm...think it worked Okkkkay - I'll put it in the next draft I send out and people will hopefully let me know how it works. (or doesn't work, as the case may be.) The main fight was more satisfying than previous encounters. I've tweaked the combat a bit so beating the opponent by 1 is OOF, by two is OD - both of these with saves for armour; a result of 3+ is OD with NO save, however.

Once again the Shen character was slain almost immediately due to him rolling extraordinarily badly.

The scenario was a Ksarul priest and escort looking for a lost temple in the Kurt Hills. They ended up being ambushed by some Goddess of the Pale Bone cultists. Most of the acolytes and servants ran away but the priest's escort (an ex-gladiator, two ex-soldiers in heavy armour, and the Shen) put up a stiff fight. The whole party suffered from bad rolling, however, with the priest being knocked OOF without getting a single spell off, and one after the other the rest falling killed or wounded. The ex-gladiator was the Rep 5 Star and every time she used her Star Power her player declared she was performing her "dance of dismemberment". ;-)

To no avail. Eventually she rolled so badly that she ran out of star power. The session ended with the surviving (but OOF) party members being trussed up and hauled off by the cultists.

The next scenario will continue from there, with their escape from the Goddess of the Pale Bone!

Or so they hope.

I also have to figure out how to post pictures. I don't think it should be too hard. Hmmmm....

Note: for those of you not familiar with the Two Hour Wargames rulesets, OOF means "Out of the Fight", while OD = "Obviously Dead".

The session started around 8:00 - well between 7:30 and 8:00, but we had to decide on the characters first. We only roughed them in and then started with only a bare-bones idea for a scenario. We finished about 10:00 after a biggish fight between the party and about 10 or so cultists.

Sakbe Road Gallery

Ssooo... another week gone by! I had hoped to post more but as it was I awoke the morning after my last post to find I had been sat upon by a bad cold. I tried going in to work one-and-one-half days last week but eventually realized I needed the bed-rest more!

So no posts. But I did manage some work on BoJH, so it wasn't a total washout.

Today I was again reminded of the Displaced Miniatures site. In the past I have never got it to work and have always left in frustration. Today I tried uploading all the pics of our Sakbe Road model. More frustration, but I finally got it semi-working. The main problem now is I can't get the bloody gallery sorted into a coherent order. The pics are named in sequence and were uploaded in order so I don't understand the problem. Plus, there are 34 pictures, but the DM site says 39 - go figure.

Anyway, the gallery is at:

Sakbe Road

I may try and re-order it at a later date...

Home Sweet Home

Ahh...back home after a "wargamer's weekend" in the north - North Bay, Ontario, to be exact. Had a pleasant couple of days of gaming but glad to be back - for one thing I had no email and no opportunity to write anything. (And I am trying to make up for last years lack of posts!)

Visited my friend Terry Peacock, proprietor of North Bay Games and Hobbies, and gamed in his store with frequent breaks between turns to browse his well-stocked shelves!

The only Tekumel-related things accomplished: I picked up a second warmachine boxed set so as to have a full contingent as discussed previously, and also a blister of Mordhiem Amazons with a view to possible headswaps. (The poses are a little wooden but I like the hairsyles of some.)

War Machines 3 - The Legion of Mengano the Jakallan

The Legion of Mengano the Jakallan, 12th Imperial Artillery, is based in Jakalla but typically was broken up into elements and distributed where needed. At the start of the war with Yan Kor it was largely posted to Khirgar, and presumably served in the Western Theatre for the balance of the conflict.

The Armies of Tekumel, Vol 1: Tsolyanu book lists it as having light, medium and heavy ballistae (dart throwers), medium and heavy stone-throwers and trebuchets. There is an obvious problem with terminology and the crew levels stated are higher than the models provide, but for my purposes I am going to ignore all that. The WG set provides the bolt throwers and the stone throwers. I can safely ignore the trebuchets for the moment as they would not be likely to see battlefield service.

How large should the contingent be? A second set would give two bolt thrower sections (of two machines each) and a single section of stone throwers, also of two machines. That is probably good - I could later upgrade them to three machines each with a third boxed set. I wouldn't want the war machines to dominate the battlefield however.

As far as painting goes, the brief colour guide gives:

helmet - base: blue, no plume, trim: green;
body armour - base: blue, kilt: white, trim: green;
shield* - base: green, 2nd colour: silver, trim: blue;
standard - base: blue, 2nd colour: green, 3rd colour: white.

*the shields would be those borne by the guard contingent and officers, but also the mantlets the book says the legion also uses. I'm planning on using Assyrian Siege Mantlets from the Wargames Foundry range for this purpose. I think, being from Jakalla, that the legion might have greater access to reeds than wood.

Mantlets: scroll down, way down

War Machines 2 - Corrections.

Checking the box details, I see that the "Centurian" is actually an "Optio" - oopsio. And two of the scorpian crew are also unique to the boxed set, same as him.

Looking at the figures, I'm going to add a plume taken from one of our helmets to the top of that baton or staff that he is wielding. It will make a nice staff of power.

And I think I've found a suitable oval shield (with a raised pattern) from my Foundry Gladiators to take the place of the standard one he comes with. So, still technically a Roman shield, just a little less run-of-the-mill.

War Machines

I picked up a boxed set of Warlord Games new Roman War Machines last month to add some artillery to my armies. I already have some RAFM ballista, and some catapults and dart throwers from Mega Miniatures, but this set had some nice crew and extras that tipped my hand. I think I will use the Warlord machines for one of the Tsolyani legions and the others for Yan Kor, with crew scrounged and converted from our YK figures.

Boxed Set

The set I picked up wasn't cheap - at $59.95 CDN - but none of the WG stuff is. It comes with one large, stone-throwing ballista and two dart-throwing scorpions. These are all in resin, light-weight and nicely detailed. The ballista had a bit of flash and some tabs that will have to be trimmed off. The "extras" are a pile of round stones for the ballista and a tub of darts each for the others. Each scorpian is in two pieces, the ballista in four - plus the "extras".

There are eight crew figures. Two for each dart thrower, three for the ballista and a nice Centurian figure. Warlord games also does metal versions of these weapons but my understanding is that the centurian only comes with the boxed set. Obviously they are dressed as Romans but I don't think that will be too much of a problem. Some are unarmoured, the others in chainmail or lorica segmenta. I think the Roman helmets that some wear will make fine "siege helmets" and overall, when painted in Tsolyani colours I think they will suit the part. The Centurian's helmet has two small plumes at the front and he is directing fire with a wooded mace, resting his other arm on his shield. This is separate and will be swopped out for something more exotic. One of the figures has a headband - any ideas for a symbol or slogan to paint on it? The figures are slightly shorter and a little stockier than our figures but I don't see a problem. I stopped being anal about figure scales a long time ago.

I am now debating whether to paint the machines Tsolyani blue, perhaps with colourful designs somewhat in the fashion of Indian War Elephants. I am mindful of something the Professor wrote once about the shields and armour being elaborately decorated in Hindu fashion. (It's in the "Miniatures for Tekumel" booklet.)

War Machines page