From the journal of Captain John Carter: I had long ago mastered the way to travel back and forth between Mars and Earth; therefore, I was surprised that my distant cousin Randolph Carter had also mastered this feat - but in a different way. He traveled in a mystical, almost ethereal manner using what he called the "Silver Key" . . .
Randolph Carter in an abandoned Martian City.
Randolph had come to warn me that not only was my native planet Earth in danger, but a deadly threat to the existent of Barsoom also existed. There were what Randolph described as horrible and evil inter-dimensional alien beings that were older than the most ancient of Martian civilizations. And they planned to remake the Solar System as their own. Randolph had discovered one of their gates in the ancient city of Kaldor, and the enemy was sending reinforcements to Earth . . . the Troglodytes of Mars!
John Carter, ex-Confederate Cavalry Captain, Prince of Helium and the Warlord of Mars.
We were finally ready to do our play test of the John Carter Adventuring Company for In Her Majesty's Name. I re-read the first three volumes of Captain Carter's adventures on Barsoom and I wanted to reflect his prowess and abilities accurately for In Her Majesty's Name. On Mars John Carter is a force of nature, and I was concerned at 158 points he might be too powerful for skirmish game like this. But in reading the journals, there were numerous skirmishes that he was involved with, and not all of them did he win. So with the play test we decided on 250 point companies (which ended up being about 265 for each company). Since I didn't really have any other Martians we thought, "Why not put it in the context of the 'War of the Witches' and fight around the source of the Witch King's Troglodytes. So here is our play test!
The ruins of Kaldor where a deadly portal from Mars to Earth exists.
John Carter's allies: Mighty Thark warriors.
The evil Troglodytes of Mars. No, that is not the Witch King of Sokar - just a Trog leader. And yes that is a yeti because we have not figured out White Apes yet.
For the play test we decided on a simple scenario: Protect the portal (in other words it was really the Last Man standing scenario).
The entire battlefield.
Next Time in our Play Test we learn:
1. Wow. John Carter can jump.
2. Darn repeating crossbows.
3. Let's stick with the long swords instead of the radium pistols.
4. Why do I have to fight the Warlord of Mars by myself?
Wonderful. Love the Tharks.
ReplyDeleteNow those were fun to paint. I have 3 others including my version of Tars Tarkas.
DeleteVery nice. I always wanted to play John Carter of Mars and also thought about In her Majesty's to play it, but one of the things that put me off is the specific terrain for Mars needed.
ReplyDeleteSome of the Battlefield in a Box "Badlands" range is what I am using for terrain. Most of the ruined city is also Battlefield in a Box.
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