Dinosaurs of the Lost World

A dreadful thing has happened to us. Who could have foreseen it? I cannot foresee any end to our troubles. It may be that we are condemned to spend our whole lives in this strange, inaccessible place. I am still so confused that I can hardly think clearly of the facts of the present or of the chances of the future. To my astounded senses the one seems most terrible and the other as black as night. 

 No men have ever found themselves in a worse position; nor is there any use in disclosing to you our exact geographical situation and asking our friends for a relief party. Even if they could send one, our fate will in all human probability be decided long before it could arrive in South America . . . 

Let me give you, with as much detail as I can, the sequence of events which have led us to this ca And there we were, the four of us, upon the dreamland, the lost world, of Maple White. To all of us it seemed the moment of our supreme triumph. Who could have guessed that it was the prelude to our supreme disaster? 

 

We had turned away from the edge, and had penetrated about fifty yards of close brushwood, when there came a frightful rending crash from behind us. With one impulse we rushed back the way that we had come. The bridge was gone!  From The Lost World, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Dinosaurs of the Lost World is a board game inspired by The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Trapped on the plateau of the Lost World, each player leads an expedition of exploration while trying to find a way to escape the dangers and return to civilization.  The game features many of the events from the book: the lost expedition of Maple White, ape men, and of course dinosaurs!  The object of the game is to earn 25 victory points through discovery, adventure and collecting specimens. Once your expedition has done this, and you have items to help you escape - then be the first to escape the plateau!

Honorable Son #5 and myself had a pleasant afternoon introducing a friend to the fantastic Lost World of exploration, danger, treachery . . .  and of course dinosaurs.

Honorable Son #5 on the left and friend on the right.

The game is set up with an outside track running around the edge of the board and a map of the plateau is in the center. On the plateau map are 30 unexplored area hexagonal cards which are randomly set up to make each game different. While exploring they are turned up and reveal various locations such as a Geyser, a Phorusrhacos (the mighty prehistoric chicken) nest, Ape Town, a Lava pit or the lair of the Tyrannosaurus Rex - or nothing at all!

At the beginning of the game, you get to choose eight tools in which your expedition is equipped.  Different tools provided bonuses, in the form of experience cards, for different encounters and adventurer while some tools (rifles and gas bombs) are used for battle. Losing a battle can be traumatic - if you lose you are chased by a creature on the chase track.  If they catch you tools are lost. Not only that, if you lose you have to return back to the base camp and lose a turn.

 My expedition is chased by a T Rex after I ran out of ammunition and lost a battle.

 

There is a tool sheet and a reference list that indicates which adventures different tools are useful – so there can be some strategy in choosing your tool set, or you can just ignore that and pick what you think sounds cool.  Based on experience, I always start with 2 rifles (the maximum allowed) and some gas bombs to put those creatures to sleep. While exploring you may find more tools or even steal them from other expeditions.

My list of tools . . . a few turn before I ran out of ammunition!

Each turn you can either roll two dice and move on the outer-board or decide for your expedition to have an encounter on their current hex on the inner-board (e.g., movement on the inner-board is governed by the spaces on the outer-board).

What is unique about the game is the use of "comic book" adventures that add another dimension to each location site.  Expeditions can explore each location on the comic book cards which can result in encounters with dinosaurs, the rescue of an Indian ally, discoveries of new creatures and the map from the lost Maple White expedition.

The game comes with cardboard counters and plastic pawns to represent the expeditions and other participants of the Lost World; but we used figures from Wargames Foundry for the first time to represent the expeditions on the plateau map.  Tarzan even represented the Indian Tribe and a goblin from the Lord of the Rings game ended up being an ape man tribe.  Next up will be to get little plastic dinosaurs to battle on the board.  There are also solitaire rules for the game as your expedition races against the clock before the volcano erupts and destroys the plateau with you on it.  A great game that is easy to learn and will challenge and entertain.  So fill those canteens (ran out of water last game) and cut your way through with a machete to escape before that T - Rex gets you!

 The figure that represented me along with my Indian allies. 

 

 The ape men attack!

 

 President Roosevelt (Honorable Son #5) eyes a potential trophy for the Smithsonian Museum.
 

 One way to escape is to make a balloon and fill it with gas.

TR decides to investigate an area near the ape men . . .  

 TR is attacked by the ape men too!  In fact they attacked everyone in the game this time.

Note the mighty prehistoric chicken in the upper right hand corner . . . yeah he beat me and battle and I lost 4 tools running away.

 Crossing the lake in a canoe . . . what is that behind?

 

I had 25 Victory points and the means to escape the plateau . . . so of course the ape men attacked me again!

Almost there where I can repair the bridge and escape the plateau . . . yikes. Where did that T Rex come from?

 

 How will we survive?

 

 One gas bomb left . . . 

 

 KABOOM!!!

  . . . and the king of the dinosaurs gets to sleep one off.

 

 Now that I am at the bridge I can fix it with the rope and win!

 

War Poodle Sighting!

Beautiful War Poodle spotted during a 4th of July celebration.  Boye would be very proud!

The Bavarian Army for the War of Spanish Succession Part 1

My War of Spanish Succession army collection are the oldest painted figures in my collection.  The figures were painted from 1992 - 1995.  Originally they were mounted for Warfare in the Age of Reason but then I discovered Volley and Bayonet (VnB) in 1999 and remounted the figures for VnB.  The armies that I did are British, Dutch, French, Bavarian and Imperial. The figures are 99% Dixon Miniatures in 15mm with a few Hallmark and Editions Brokaw.  First up is Bavaria.

 Four Infantry regiments march past Elector Max II Emanuel.

When I mounted them I decided to mount them on a reduced frontage of 2 1/2 inches instead of 3 inches because that was the width of the wood I had!  I liked "Kreigspiel" look of the taller bases at the time though eventually I will probably remount them on thinner bases.

For the War of Spanish Succession (WSS) the bases represent regiments consisting of multiple battalions.  There are no formations to worry about - that's what your subordinate commanders should be worrying about.  The base is the "foot print" of the unit; as the army and division commanders you just point them in the right direction and say charge!

VnB is a fast play game that allows you to recreate large battles.  To me it gives the feel of linear warfare.  The original rules are designed for 1700 - 1900 but I have yet to play another period with them.  I now have the latest addition, Volley and Bayonet: Age of Glory which has greatly improved an already great set of rules.

The commander pauses when confronted by a giant piece of dog hair.

 

Next up will be a detailed breakdown by unit of my Bavarian Army with a little bit of history thrown in for fun.

The Declaration of Independence

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

 Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

ECW Brigade Commander Figure - Marquis of Montrose

Just a quick post on my painting of Warlord Games' Marquis of Montrose figure.  Though I am not going to use this as the great man himself, he will find himself commanding brigades when I play Victory Without Quarter. Figure is well detailed and easy to paint; one item I like is that he has no sash which allows him to command on all sides!