In Her Majesty’s Name Campaign: Tintin va à la campagne

The last 2 games in our campaign see Tintin and Lord Curr head to the countryside to put an end to the machinations of the mysterious cult. Lord Curr has won both games so far but combat losses have seen his point pool drop to well below that of Tintin and the Navy lads.

Lord Curr is escorting Mary to the rural plantation where the cult is rumored to be active. This is a 400 point game. Both companies have enough points in their pools to field the requisite strength. Lord Curr’s mob deploy at the road edge with Mary and the faster Incorrigibles in front. Singh takes up the rear, slowed down by his machine gun. The Navy lads take up positions at what they hope are key points close to the road. Mary must be escorted to the door of the plantation house but could leave the road and go across the fields.

Most of Lord Curr’s company head off at maximum speed but Singh holds back to give covering fire. They shrug off shots from Sub Lt Philips and his accompanying rating. Feedback from the first part of this campaign suggested that characters with objectives should not run (not the gentlemanly-thing to do) this would prevent Mary’s escort from running and tighten up the game. Unfortunately this episode was already ‘in the can’ when that advice was received.

Lord Curr and the Incorrigibles pause at the road junction taking advantage of the cover from the house.

The main party split up to allow some covering fire from the rear. Tintin’s lads move to the edge of the fields and open fire but fail to cause any losses.

Captain Haddock charges into combat with Lord Curr. Po takes on Mad Jack who is supported by Gerald Fitz-Curr. Lady Felicity shoots into the melee but in the end no one is harmed.

Lord Curr pushes on, pursued by Captain Haddock. Tintin struggles to keep up. Mad Jack is down but not out. In sadder news Sub Lt Philips buys the farm.

Lord Curr finally makes it to the plantation house. Mad Jack is still hanging on.

Lord Curr won again and earned 24 victory points but another Incorrigible and Gerald Fitz-Curr took an early bath a loss of 63 giving a running total of 332. Tintin lost, gained 5 points for kills but Sub Lt Philips cost 46 points leaving 429 in the bank. To even things up a bit Tintin ransoms Sub Lt Philips back for a 23 point transfer fee to Lord Curr.

Now to the final chapter, the cult have run off with Mary but the companies are in hot pursuit. They approach ruined buildings amongst the fields with even older columns just behind. Mary is with the cult leader and his intentions do not appear to be honourable. Both sides come on from opposite corners and it will take them a while to get into any danger. In the book version of this scenario the cult members are placed in base to base contact. This makes hitting the cult leader a random shot unless you have a machine gun like Singh which can hit everyone with a single burst and make for a rather short game.

Both companies move up keeping well apart except for Mr Slow (Singh) and a naval rating who stay at the back to give covering fire.

The Incorrigibles choose a slightly shorter route up the board; a benefit of having won the last game. The cultists are clearly up to no good.

Shots are exchanged with little effect. Everyone hugs the defensive terrain.

Singh is hit by the naval rating’s rifle but he is not out. One of the cultists is definitely out of play.

Things have taken a turn for the worse as Mary has had a makeover. Lady Felicity shoots Purple Mary but to no effect.

Purple Mary charges Lady Felicity. She can shoot as the monster charges in but it does not do any good. In the Navy Po is taken down by a gaggle of cultists.

Lady Felicity is out. The Navy lads start to pile into the cultists.

Purple Mary charges into Gerald Fitz-Curr. Lord Curr takes aim at Purple Mary and takes out Gerald instead. He will need to send flowers to Gerald’s aged mother. The Navy lads mop up the relatively harmless human cultists.

Lord Curr is attacked and knocked down by Purple Mary. Singh and Mad Mick pour machine gun shells and lob grenades into the melee. Lord Curr can take the risks but Purple Mary is hard to take out.

Finally Mad Mick decides to use his arc pistol and downs Mary, Singh finishes her off. Lord Curr manages to survive having now burnt all his luck points. Tintin and the Navy lads raise 3 cheers for the gallant Incorrigibles.

Counting points and subtracting losses Lord Curr ends with 210 and Tintin 333. This is hardly relevant as the campaign is a clear win for Lord Curr.

Looking at the maths the points pool as written will not work. Eliminating an enemy figure will yield 10% of its point value (rounding down). A lost model can be ransomed back for 50% of its points paid to the capturing side. So at least 40% of points originally paid for a model in the force pool are lost to the game. In practice a suitable budget overspend of points allocated to the full company will allow a campaign to keep running. There is, however, unlikely to be a surplus built up by any faction to upgrade models during a campaign. Any points earned are spent trying to keep the original roster afloat. One area for modification would be the points given for victory objectives. These are constant in scenarios but might be better linked to the size of forces involved (perhaps 10% of the game force points size). Some easy to determine bonus awards could also work. Examples would include first side to knock down or kill a model and most uses of luck rolls (which are optional) by a company.

In Her Majesty’s Name Campaign: Tintin and Lord Curr

Following on from a comment on the last IHMN post by our loyal reader we take a run through of the example campaign system from In Her Majesty’s Name 2nd edition. Lord Curr faces off against the Naval Landing Party with Tintin and Snowy on board. Both parties are seeking to root out the origins of a mysterious cult. The companies start with 500 points to run over 4 scenarios. Victory points come from scenario events and for taking out enemy models. These can be used to buy back models that are out of the game or to increase the skills and numbers of existing characters.

The first game sees both companies trying to retrieve 3 ancient texts from the mansion of a suspected cult member. The board squares are 3″ a side so movement is based around half squares. Opening a door will take 3″ of movement as will picking up an artifact. These cannot be be picked up if there is a combat in the immediate vicinity. Coincidentally the companies have simultaneously arrived at opposite doors of the mansion.

There was some pre-game tweaking to give each side better access to one book; leaving the final book dead centre to the board. The furniture had some effect on movement but mainly served to set the scene and show which boundaries were walls and which had doors. To clarify there is a double-tile central room and 2 narrow corridors at each end. The only entrances are through the opposite large doors. This game is played with 300 points out of each side’s pool of 500.

Tintin is shot, down but not out. Other shooting is ineffective.

Lady Felicity rushes in on the downed Tintin. Calculus is attacked by an Incorrigible. To the left and right a sailor and 2 Incorrigibles head for the flanking books.

Tintin gets back up and in a couple of turns of melee takes out Lady Felicity; her stats are predominantly shooting based so the melee may not have been her best decision. Lord Curr has the central book but is pursued by Haddock, the factions have 1 each of the books in the side rooms. The cult has heard the commotion and shown up to run off the intruders.

Tintin and co’ clear the cultist from the door. In the adjoining rooms a sailor and 2 Incorrigibles make off with mysterious dark tomes. Lord Curr is still pursued by Captain Haddock.

The Incorrigible with a book gets away. Lord Curr continues to pull out of combat with Captain Haddock but is pursued towards the door. He keeps hold of his light reading. At the other end of the mansion the bookworm sailor is overpowered by a cultist.

More cultists show up and the remaining company members decide to get out of Dodge.

The final curtain call. Lord Curr is safely away with 2 companions and 2 of the artifacts. A steep price has been paid, Lady Felicity and 2 more Incorrigibles are down. As for Tintin’s company, 1 sailor is down and another captured, the remaining book remains with the cult. After the game Lord Curr spends a slew of victory points to pay Lady Felicity’s medical bills, buying her back to the company. The scores on the doors are now 499 points for Tintin and 452for Lord Curr.

The next game is also of 300 points so both teams will field the same lineup as before. They have enough paid for ‘redshirts’ to fill up on sailors and Incorrigibles. Both companies have been tipped off that Mary the kitchen-maid has important information on the cult’s plans. She can be found shopping at the busy commercial quarter of the city. It is hoped that she will reveal all for the price of a few gins. Oddly everyone has exactly the same tip off but Lord Curr will act first as his company won out in the mansion.

Here we see the runners and riders after the first turn. The vehicles move last but before shooting at 1D10″ each. Lord Curr uses his advantage to move on from the direction with least traffic. Models run to get as close to Mary as possible but Tintin’s men are hindered by the traffic.

Lord Curr gets to Mary on turn 2. Lady Felicity and the Incorrigibles provide covering fire. The Navy are still having traffic issues.

Captain Haddock closes in but Lord Curr is off like a rocket.

Captain Haddock charges Lady Felicity. An Incorrigible runs to the rescue but pays the price. Other models drop to shooting.

Lord Curr gets away just as the Rozzers show up.

Lady Felicity, Tintin and Snowy all help the police with their inquiries. Eventually Lady Felicity runs off and Tintin talks his way out of trouble. Other characters bravely run away.

The Incorrigibles lost 2 redshirts to Tintin’s 1. Lord Curr won but adjusting for losses and buying 1 redshirt back for each team the half time score (2 missions out of 4) is Lord Curr 421 to Tintin 470.

This terrain set was too easy for the first player which with higher leadership is likely to be Lord Curr. The house scenario was first run through and then re-set with a more challenging layout. This market market board gave similar results in 2 games. The lesson learnt is to run through a few turns to try out a scenario before a full playthrough.