7th Voyage: Another Battle

Here's a few random shots of today's 7 Seas, 7th Voyage game. The idea was for Dashwood and his annoying goody-goody sycophants to steal the magic gemstone from the governor's statue in the town square and then get it to a boat and make their escape. Little did they know, but the powerful gem was also cursed. Why the goodies were stealing from community resources we didn't quite work out, but it was something to do with Mount Doom. Needless to say, the scurvy dogs failed entirely, and Dread Pirate Johnny Ward and his loyal band of privateers won the day.

It was another good, fun battle, but mainly noted for Philomena Nightly getting into it with the only female pirate in the villainous cast, and having a properly sexist, 60s style, girly cat-fight in the middle of the square.

Market Stalls

Did some street furniture which should go with 17th century stuff, and could probably get away with for ancient settings and even modern ones (thinking of doing some stuff for classical Greek style 7th Voyage).

The bits are the excellent Tabletop World Groceries and Supplies, with bits from Thomarillion, Antenociti and probably others.

Painting Table: 15/02/14

I'm a great believer in neatness in all things, which is why my painting table is always immaculate. I think it is clear from this blog that my painting and wargaming generally benefit from such a tidy approach. Let this be a lesson to any young painter out there wishing for inspiration and guidance in always keeping a methodical and controlled table. Also, consider this an instructive reminder to never let a backlog of figures and other projects build up.

Paint Table Saturday is inspired by Sofie's Paint Blog.

7th Voyage: The Battle of Torbay

So we did the Battle of Torbay as featured in Pirates of the Marazion. It was supposed to be the Battle of Tobago, of course, featuring a dozen tall ships, but budget cuts meant that the show ended up with only two small cutters.

The idea of the scenario was that Johnny Ward's pirates had become a bit miffed at some of the governor's rhetoric and so decided to creep into Torbay and paint some rude graffiti on his statue in the town square. If a pirate model spent two consecutive end phases adjacent to the statue then the pirates would win.

Each boat was equipped with two Falconets. Dread pirate Johnny Ward was to captain the Red Lady...

...while Captain Parkes had command of Blue Bess. [Tactical nuance: don't put your Star and his Follower (Sidekick) in different bloody boats!]

Irene went with Captain Parkes and John-Joe the deadly assassin had managed to infiltrate Torbay and was hiding in the shadows ready to sabotage one of the big guns.

The townsfolk, suspecting some sort of street art protest, had set up two sakers on the docks. Roger and Philomena oversaw one of them...

... and Martin and Leonardo, the other. The guns had command of all routes into the harbour.

They put a couple of muskets on the jetty, too.

The townsfolk saw the pirates coming and fired their cannon as soon as they came into range. They both aimed at the Red Lady and the results were devastating. Johnny Ward was only wounded, but all hands were lost.

Blue Bess fared better and aimed a broadside at Leondardo's saker, killing all the crew. The Co-Stars, rather sensibly, hid behind some crates.

The pirates seized the initiative and managed to wound one of the other crew, too. John-Joe took this as his cue to reveal himself, leaping from the shadows and killing another of the gun's crew.

Blue Bess sailed on towards the jetty.

And Johnny Ward steered the Red Lady towards the harbour, picking off one of the defenders with his musket.

Only the dashing Roger Dashwood stood between the pirates and the streets of Torbay. He dodged Captain Parkes' blow and fought back bravely...

...while Philomena gave John-Joe a taste of his own medicine.

The town square was barely defended as Johnny Ward docked. Only a measly bookworm of a boy stood between him and the governor's statue.

And, as if by magic, through the mysteries of geometry and calculus, Leonardo struck the dread pirate down.

One of the townsfolk bravely jumped from the crane onto the Blue Bess and attacked the witch from behind.

Dashwood did for Captain Parkes and one of the pirates...

...and Hauer rushed over to reinforce him, before the pirates could even reach dry land.

Irene summoned a demonic imp to watch her back, but it wasn't enough to save the day.

More townsfolk came to defend against the pirates, who had lost too many of their brothers to want to fight on.

And Leonardo took the Red Lady as spoils.

7th Voyage: Pirates of the Marazion

Here's a couple of casts for 7TV, using the 7th Voyage rules, brought up to the 17th century using the excellent 7 Seas and The Witching Hour.

Pirates of the Marazion, which aired in 1972, was a short-lived 7TV series. It starred Dick Sullivan as good pirate Roger Dashwood, and Phil Madders as his nemesis, evil pirate Johnny Ward. Dashwood's love interest would be the Governor's daughter, Philomena Nightly (Sally Thompson) and his companions were the genius inventor, Leonardo Spoon (Frank Heinz) and hardened navy veteran and grog guzzler Martin Hauer (Kevin Storey).

Johnny Ward's partners in crime would be his trusty right hand man, Captain Parkes (Ray Marden) and the mysterious assassin John-Joe (Jack Warrener). And they would be aided by the unhinged voodoo princess, Irene (Angela Brute). There were high hopes for the show at 7TV and some of the channel's best writers were put on it.

The show was originally entitled Pirates of the Caribbean. The plan for the series was to do a co-production with one of the American networks. This would mean that they could afford to do all the location filming in the Caribbean. And as the show took shape it started to become one of the most ambitious and expensive TV projects 7TV had ever attempted.

Unfortunately, shortly before filming started the American co-production fell through and 7TV were left with a massive budget problem. It was decided that instead of filming in the Caribbean the series would be shot in Cornwall, largely around the town of Marazion, instead. It was too late for extensive re-writes, and so these were usually limited to simply replacing Caribbean names with Cornish ones. The series was re-named Pirates of the Marazion. The 'the' was kept in the title because the credits graphics had already been shot, and it was much easier to simply cover up 'Caribbean' with 'Marazion' written on a piece of tape.

The series never really recovered from the loss of budget. And, apart from the lack of a Caribbean or any decent boats, many of the sets and location dressing suffered too. The location shift caused viewers to ask a lot of questions of the production. Why did it take five weeks to sail from Portsmouth to Falmouth? Why were voodoo princesses living in Truro? Why was all land to the west of Penzance supposed to be an inhospitable wilderness? Why had no white man ever set foot in Helston before?

Needless to say, after the first three episodes, the show was not renewed, and barely mentioned again.

Episode 1, The Cornish Main. Roger Dashwood and Johnny Ward compete to waylay Spanish treasure being taken across the wide open seas of the Fal estuary.

Episode 2, The Swamps of Pendennis. Philomena Nightly is put on trial for witchcraft and must escape through the alligator infested mangrove swamps of the Fal estuary.

Episode 3, The Bude Triangle. Ships mysteriously disappearing and strange, ghostly lights bring a supernatural horror to Dashwood's attention! Or do they?

Name			Role		Billing	Ratings
Roger Dashwood			Dashing Rogue		Star	55
Move	Def	Hits	Str	Agi	Int	Morale
7	4	3	4	4	3	4
Special Effects
Luck (2) Leader (2) Dodge Sixth Sense Swimming A Good Offence
Free Spirit: Unaffected by Blocker or terrain, Un-captured on 5 or 6
Weapon		Range	Hit	Str	Weapon
Brawl		Melee	3+	4	Brawl
Pistol		8”	3+	3	Pistol

Name			Role		Billing	Ratings
Leonardo Spoon			Renaissance Genius		Co-Star	25
Move	Def	Hits	Str	Agi	Int	Mor
6	4	2	2	3	5	3
Special Effects
Magic (2) Gift of the Gods (2) Luck (1) Healer
Weapon		Range	Hit	Str	Notes
Brawl		Melee	6+	2	Stuns
Knife Throwing		Melee 6"	5+ 5+	1 1	Two Shots

Name			Role		Billing	Ratings
Philomena Nightly			Enchanting Beauty		Co-Star	25
Move	Def	Hits	Str	Agi	Int	Mor
6	4	2	3	3	3	4
Special Effects
Luck (2) Gift of the Gods (2) Seduce Dodge
Weapon		Range	Hit	Str	Notes
Brawl		Melee	4+	3	Stuns
Knife Throwing		Melee 8"	5+ 5+	2 2	Two Shots

Name			Role		Billing	Ratings
Martin Hauer			Hardened Soldier		Co-Star	40
Move	Def	Hits	Str	Agi	Int	Mor
6	4	2	5	3	3	4
Special Effects
Leader (1) Armour Martial Training Rage A Good Offence
Weapon		Range	Hit	Str	Notes
Brawl		Melee	4+	5	Stuns
Sword		Melee	3+	5	Parry

Name			Role		Billing	Ratings
Townsfolk*10			Soldier		Extras	(9) 103
Move	Def	Hits	Str	Agi	Int	Mor
6	3	1	3	3	2	2
Special Effects
Safety in Numbers
Governor: Leader (1)
Weapon		Range	Hit	Str	Notes
Brawl		Melee	4+	3	Stuns
Sword		Melee	4+	3
Pistol		8”	4+	3	Move or Fire, Pistol
Musket		16”	4+	4	Move or Fire, Brutal, Two-Handed
Shotgun		8”	4+	3	Blast 3”, +1 to Hit
Saker		32"	4+	5/3	Crewed (3), Brutal, Scatter, Blast 3”

Name			Role		Billing	Ratings
Johnny Ward			Cruel Pirate		Star	65
Move	Def	Hits	Str	Agi	Int	Mor
6	4	3	5	4	3	4
Special Effects
Wanted (+2 VP if Captured) Leader (2) Luck (1) Rage A Good Offence
Intimidating Put Down
Weapon		Range	Hit	Str	Notes
Brawl		Melee	4+	5	Stuns
Pistol		8”	4+	3	Pistol, Move or Fire
Musket		16”	4+	4	Move or Fire, Brutal, Two-Handed

Name			Role		Billing	Ratings
Captain Parkes			Brutish Bodyguard		Co-Star	40
Move	Def	Hits	Str	Agi	Int	Mor
6	4	2	4	3	3	3
Special Effects
Luck (1) Blocker Follower (Johnny Ward) Herculean Strength A Good Offence
Weapon		Range	Hit	Str	Notes
Brawl		Melee	3+	4	Stuns
Sword		Melee	4+	4
Pistol		8”	4+	3	Move or Fire, Pistol
Musket		16”	4+	4	Move or Fire, Brutal, Two-Handed

Name			Role		Billing	Ratings
John-Joe			Deadly Assassin		Co-Star	35
Move	Def	Hits	Str	Agi	Int	Mor
6	4	2	4	3	3	3
Special Effects
Concealment Dodge Unarmed Adept Infiltrator A Good Offence
Weapon		Range	Hit	Str	Notes
Brawl		Melee	4+	4	Stuns
Knife Throwing		Melee 10”	4+ 4+	3 3	Two-Shots

Name			Role		Billing	Ratings
Irene Ledbetter			Their Right Hand		Co-Star	35
Move	Def	Hits	Str	Agi	Int	Mor
6	3	2	3	3	5	3
Special Effects
Magic (2) Leader (1) Luck (1) Gift of the Gods (1)
Weapon		Range	Hit	Str	Notes
Brawl		Melee	4+	3	Stuns
Knife Throwing		Melee 8”	4+ 4+	2 2	Two-Shots

Name			Role		Billing	Ratings
Pirates*10			Sea Dogs		Extras	(7) 75
Move	Def	Hits	Str	Agi	Int	Mor
6	3	1	3	3	3	3
Special Effects
Dodge Swimming
Mate: Leader (1)
Weapon		Range	Hit	Str	Notes
Brawl		Melee	4+	3	Stuns
Sword		Melee	4+	3
Knife Throwing		Melee 8”	4+ 4+	3 3	Two-Shots
Pistol		8”	4+	3	Pistol, Move or Fire
Musket		16”	4+	4	Move or Fire, Brutal, Two-Handed
Shotgun		8”	4+	3	Blast 3, +1 To Hit
Hand Mortar (Grenade)		12” 8”	4+ 4+	3 3	Blast 3, Scatter 6, (Thrown)
Falconet		30	4+	4(2)	Crewed (2), Brutal, Scatter 6, Blast 2