Let me start with Rudyard Kipling. His poem "If" is consistently voted as most popular among the English. Personally "My Son Jack" is far better. His three soldiers stories are glorious, the Queen's Bad Bargains, great fun although of their time. Among the principle inspirations for my Thuggee campaign is not actually Kiplings poetry or stories however, although his poem Gunga Din is about heroism, but the movie of that name.
Gunga Din is a 1939 RKO adventure film directed by
George Stevens and starring Cary Grant, Victor McLaglen, and Douglas Fairbanks
Jr, (very) loosely based on the poem of the same name by Rudyard Kipling
combined with elements of his short story collection Soldiers Three.
The film's narrative follows three British Sergeants and Gunga Din, their
native bhisti (water bearer), who fight the Thuggee, an Indian murder cult, in
colonial 1880s British India.
I take issue with the film's depiction of
Indians and Indian culture, and not least the use of blackface. I'm well
aware that Gunga Din as a character can be seen as a traitor to modern
sensibilities, however this is one of the most rip roaring adventure stories
Hollywood ever told. Fairbanks Jr, a veteran star of hundreds of movies
described it as his only masterpiece.
I give Fairbanks all due respect. During
WW2 the guy was a genuine war hero, a PT boat commander who attacked and sank
an Italian Corvette, and worked with Mountbatten's Marine Commandos, as well as having a major role in the US Navy's Beach Jumper program. He was awarded
gallantry medals by the US French and British, and also given the KBE
knighthood. In addition to all of that he won the US Navy Expert
Pistol Shot Medal! I suspect he lived the role as a real life
Sergeant Ballantine!
McLaglen was also a real life Sergeant MacChesney, a
heavyweight boxer, Police Constable and circus strongman, who served in the
army throughout WW1, going up through the ranks to become a Captain in the 10th
Middlesex,
before going to Hollywood and beginning his acting career.
Cary Grant on the other hand seems to be using his
experience as plain old Archie Leech, the youngster who was desperate to become
an actor and managed to get into all sorts of scrapes, that in Gunga Din his
friends have to get him out of... never in the Military he spent WW2
... acting...
I've identified several scenarios from the film,
translating them into Fistful of Lead scenarios. I've also gone back to
the short story collection and the film script to expand the idea.
Interestingly
Indiana is fleeing from Chinese gangsters in "Temple of Doom," and
these can form another enemy group under my Sinister Red Tong Mastermind Chou
En Ginsberg.
The
Archaeologists form one team of heroes, the three Sergeants and Gunga Din the other. Both have
a series of six scenarios, and the seventh joins the two strands at the
"Battle at the Rope Bridge."
The Three Sergeants
Scenario One: The Patrol and the Massacre at Elephant Rocks
Scenario Two: the Telegraph wires at Tantrapur
2A. "the false Pilgrims exposed." The Fight in the street, Cutter seizes a Thugee pickaxe
2B. "Up to the roofs,"
2C. Flight to the river, the rafts
Scenario Three: Cutter finds the Golden Temple
Scenario Four: Cutter on the rope bridge
Scenario Five: The Snakepit
Scenario Six: The Fight on the temple roof
Scenario Seven: The rope bridge over the crocodile infested Chasm of Doom.
The Archaeologists
Scenario Eight: Shanghai Night Club, the Fight against the Tong
Scenario Nine: The Brawl on the Airship
Scenario Ten: River Pirates and Rafts
Scenario Eleven: Beneath the Maharaja's Palace
Scenario Twelve: The Snakepit and the Shakra stones
Scenario Thirteen: Snakes and Ladders, Escaping through the Mines
Scenario Fourteen/Seven: The rope bridge over the crocodile infested Chasm of Doom.
Scenario 1: The Bivouac at Elephant Rocks
 |
| The attack on the encampment at Elephant Rocks |
from the Script "GungaDin" 1939
-Detail, halt! What was that all about?
-They are pilgrims, sahib, going home to the hills.
They beg to follow us for safety.
-Tell them not to fall too far behind. Detail, walk.
March!
-Havildar Jadoo, the sun is going down. Expect we'd
better bivouac at Elephant Rock, as usual.
-Yes,
Markham sahib...
The Thuggee are posing as "Pilgrims" and
request an escort from Lt. Markham's patrol. The action takes place as
the Thuggee charge into Markham's camp wielding their pickaxes.
The Sepoys put up a fight but are ultimately doomed.
In this game Markham his Havildar, Naik and six sepoys
make a last stand against the Thugs. If Markham can get any of his men to
the southern edge of the table he has a chance to warn the Colonel back at the
Garrison.
The Thuggee will seek to kill Markham and all of his
men. Only a total Victory will please Kali. Any Thuggee that are
killed may be recycled and enter the table as reinforcements on the
southern edge. Any Indian army troops that make it to the southern table
edge will be able to escape through the Elephant Rocks and give a warning.
Lt. Horace Markham (Leader)
British Officer, Sword and Enfield revolver.
|
Havildar Jaymin (Specialist)
Lee Metford rifle, Sword bayonet. Skills: Bayonet Drill
|
Naik Jadoo (Regular)
Lee Metford rifle, Sword bayonet. Skills: Bayonet Drill
| Six Sepoys (Grunts) Lee Metford rifle, Sword bayonet. Skills: Bayonet Drill |
The Thuggee
| |
Pandu Lal Assassin,
the Guru's second in command
Mughal khinjal Sword,
pickaxe.
|
Sher Afzuli
A Pathan allied with the Thugs
Mughal khinjal Sword, and rifle
|
Kabul, a Thuggee master named in the script and obviously an Afghan. Pickaxe
|
Thuggee Cultists
Armed with pickaxes, swords and knives |
SCENARIO
SET UP
2
Players 3’x 3’
An
Indian Army patrol lead by a Lieutenant have encountered a group of Pilgrims,
who ask to accompany the soldiers to avoid bandits active in the area.
These are however Thuggee, a death cult, posing as "Pilgrims."
The
action takes place during the night as the Thuggee charge into the armies
encampment wielding their ritual pickaxes. The Sepoys put up a fight
but are ultimately doomed.
Terrain-
a
3' x 3' sized area of desert terrain. This counts as entirely good going,
except for the tents themselves which count as difficult even if trampled down,
and the Elephant Rocks, also difficult terrain in the south east corner of the
map.
Place
Crews-
The Sepoys are asleep, with two sentries posted inside the camp.
The
Pilgrims have bedded down separately nearby, but at a signal from their leader,
the assassin Pandu Lal, they will rise up and attack the Sepoy's camp.
Turn
Limit- This
game has no set time limit.
Special
Rules-
- The sentries and fighting in the darkness! The Sentries are posted within 8" of the camp fire, this being
the maximum circle of light it produces. At the beginning of each turn
roll a d6. If a 6 is rolled on turn 1 the sentry hears of sees something
suspicious and raises the alarm. On turn 2 a roll of 5 or 6 will be
sufficient to raise the alarm, and so on until in turn 6 the alarm is
automatic.
- The Thuggee may modify the d6 Edna roll (ever decreasing number allocation) by sneak moving. This affords them a -1 on the dice roll and possibly extends the alarm being raise until turn 7.
- Reinforcements!- The bad news for the Lieutenant and his patrol is that each time they manage to place a Thuggee out of action, another one will replace him, coming on table at the Elephant Rocks. There are a never ending supply of Thuggee.
Victory-
The
Army patrol can earn 5 Renown if any of their figures can exit the southern
table edge. They make it back to the Fort and warn the Colonel that the Thuggee
threat has reappeared. The Thuggee will only gain 5 Renown if they can kill all
of the Soldiers.
The
Game
 |
| The bivouac at Elephant Rocks, and all is peaceful. |
 |
| The Thuggee rise from their bedding and take up their pickaxes |
 |
| The Sentries patrol within the area lit by the campfire. The thread circling the camp show the limit of the firelight. |
 |
| In the darkness the Thugs rush to block the route to the Elephant Rocks, but too late it's turn two and the Sentry rolls a 5 and raises the alarm. The thread on table marks the edge of the firelight. |
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| I`m using my Sergeant Ballantine figure as the Lieutenant. In true Fairbanks Jr style he leaps from his tent and puts a bullet into the head of the nearest Thug, putting him out of action. |
 |
| Pandu Lal, the Thuggee leader headbutts one of the Sentries. Given that the Thug has his arms crossed it seems a reasonable form of attack. The sentry goes down in a heap. |
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| The Thuggee have the route to the rocks blocked, but a Sepoy makes a break for it. Is he some sort of quarterback? |
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| Carnage in the camp. The Havildar is down, but the Naik (a corporal) appears, and he seems annoyed. The Lieutenant attacks Pandu Lal and puts him down. Good with an Enfield Revolver that boy. |
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| The Sepoy Quarterback is confronted by two of the Thuggee reinforcements. He uses his bayonet drill and pushes his attacker back, wounded. |
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| The Lieutenant rushes for the exit into the rocks, but Pandu Lal is up again, gets behind him and throttles him in true Thuggee style. Its not going well for the Forces of the Queen. |
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| The Naik is surrounded and a Thuggee behind him does the same strangling trick. Difficult to deal with these Thugs! The Naik was the last Sepoy standing and his end signals a complete victory for the Thuggee. |
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| The Mad Guru, smeared in goat faeces, turns up at the end to congratulate his followers, and probably delivers a long monologue to inspire them. Pandu Lal appears to have gained an eye patch in the fighting. 5 Renown points to the Children of Kali. |
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This will be available for download as a PDF when I have
completed the play-testing of these games...
|
(a work in progress)
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