Nazi Cows Invade Britain!

In April this year there was this news story:

“A breed of cattle that was recreated by Nazi geneticists after becoming extinct can be seen in Britain for the first time for 2,000 years. Aurochs were last seen in Britain in Roman times but they became extinct in mainland Europe in 1627.”

“However, before the Second World War, Nazi leaders recruited zoologist brothers Heinz and Lutz Heck to bring the hardy breed “back into existence.”

“The breed features in Teutonic folklore and Heck cattle were seen as a symbol of German oppression and efforts to build a master Aryan race.”

“The Heck brothers traced the species’ descendants to domestic breeds and created the cattle at zoos in Berlin and Munich.”

“The cattle were largely destroyed following the defeat of Nazism in 1945. However, some survived in nature conservation parks in mainland Europe, and 13 Heck bulls and cows have now been imported from Belgium to a farm at Broadwoodwidger, West Devon.”

“Derek Gow, a farmer and conservationist, who has imported the half-ton animals, said the Nazis wanted to recreate the auroch to evoke the power of the “runes, folklores and legends of the Germanic peoples”, and Heck cattle were used as a propaganda motif.”

You can read more reports at Google News .  My two  favourites are the Sun, which features the  Dad’s Army graphic above and the classic headline “The Herd Reich“ , and the Independent:  “Hitler has only got one bull (and it’s alive and well in the West Country)”

And for a fascinating look at the German zoologist Lutz Heck

So truth is stranger than fiction – its only one step back (ok, a long one!)from Aurochs to dinosaurs!

Jurassic Reich poster 2

 

Another great poster from Alan!

Jurassic Reich poster 1

 

Alan Harrison photoshopped this wonderful poster for Jurassic Reich.

Cast of Thousands

Download.  Cast of Thousands is a curious thing – it’s a dice mechanic you can use to play, well, any miniatures game really. I came up with the idea for the mechanic after watching a documentary about Bruce Lee!  He disavowed fixed schools of teaching, and his martial arts philosophy was, more or less, “the way of no way” –  you did what ever was the simplest and most effective with your physical resources. This gave me the idea to create  the simplest dice mechanic possible, and I came up with the following: 

1. For any action, roll as many d6’s as you want
2. Each 4, 5, 6,  is a success
3. If you roll two or more  ‘1’s, the action fails regardless of the number of successes.

I developed it a bit further into a playable set of generic miniatures rules. They are quirky and have their limitations but I think you’ll have fun with them. They can be applied to a variety of tasks, and are also the basis for the ruleset for Eureka’s Pax Limpopo range, as yet unpublished.

Teddies of the Caribbean

                                                    Download. Teddies of the Caribbean: Hunt for the Golden Honeypot was the game I ran at Little Wars Melbourne 2009 for Eureka Miniatures.  It was more of a small scale game compared to  games in past year, but I was kinda pleased with it.  It was originally going to be proper pirate ships, but during playtesting it ended up as teddies playing toy pirates on rafts made of paddle-pop sticks.  This was largely a time/cost saving thing!  but it fitted nicely into the toy theme of the game. It attracted lots of kids, not surprising, but ended up a nice alternative for families with kids who were visiting. The games day version was simplified down from earlier playtest versions – but I’ve included the more tactical and interesting version in the download. You can see some photos of the game here.

And One For All Supplement 1

Download.  These are additional rules for the “innocent bystander” figures. I also put in pretty well every variant on the basic rules I could think of at the time – as a consequence I never felt a need for a  supplement 2.  But who knows?  Maybe one day….

The Capture of Constance – (And One For All)

Download.  This is a mini-campaign of three linked scenarios, based on the 1973 movie with Michael York,  Oliver Reed, Raquel Welch, Richard Chamberlain.

And One For All

Download.  These rules were written for Eureka’s 40mm Three Musketeers range, lovely figures designed by Mike Broadbent. I tried to design something that was quick and intuitive, and that emulated the swashbuckling feel of the 1970’s movies. There is an example of the action sequence (and the figures) here

Jurassic Reich : Where Pterodactyls Dare

Jurassic Reich started as a single session game about 12 years ago with my then regular Friday night group.  I’d knocked out some fast play rules for plastic army men, and this was a scenario for them, where the Allies were attempting to destroy a secret Nazi laboratory that was breeding dinosaurs.  I’ve always had a thing about dinosaurs, I feel that any game is better with them!  And how can you go wrong with a game about Nazis on dinosaurs?

So fast forward to a few weeks ago, just after Little Wars 2009 Melbourne.  I ran a game for Eureka Miniatures, Teddies of the Caribbean, a neat little game featuring Eureka’s Teddy Bear Pirates.  Afterwards I put together a list of suggestions for next years game, including my old Jurassic Reich scenario.  Coincidentally, Kosta Heristanidis had just made a lovely line of pulp WW2 GIs for Eureka, which would be perfect for the Allies.  Nic Robson then asked Alan Harrision, who had made the beautiful London terrain board for last years Little Wars game, if  he would make the terrain for Jurassic Reich.  As it happens, Alan is into Weird War 2 stuff at the moment, so he was most enthusiastic.

So that is that!  as they say-  Alan has already started on the castle for the table, and you can view his progress here.  Nic has found the prefect dinosaurs at Shadowforge, and Kosta is working on appropriate conversions.  As for me, I simply have to design the scenario and rules!  But I’m waiting to see how the table and terrain evolve – its quite exciting working with Alan, because we are developing the scenario and the terrain hand in hand.  And it’s a novelty having twelve months to work on a single game!  So I’ll be posting updates from time to time.