Salute 2011: Bob Murch China Station

 Vagabond posted some pictures of 'China Station' the (somewhat) famous table of Bob Murch (sculptor and proprietor of Pulp Figures ). He is/was hoping to do something in the same feel....colonial, edge of empire, heart of adventure aesthetic (If I'm groking his post correctly). I casual mentioned in the comments that I had played a game on the table before and he asked me if I knew where any more pictures were......

 

 

 Trumpeter Salute (Vancouver BC April) often sees Bob Murch visit/come out (he lives a couple hours away). I'm not sure how often he hosts games but he certainly has his stall with an awesome display of figs to tempt your spending cash. In 2011 I was lucky enough to sign up in time to play. He game each of the players a hat corresponding to the command. Damn there were a lot of them. Also the secret objectives of every player sometimes overlapped and sometimes completely opposed other players. 

 

What I recall is I was a British commander of a small column of colonial troops (sikhs) and an armored car. We needed to escort some civilians (science types and ladies) safely to the ships. There were some Germans in our way, I forget their exact mission (maybe find some science maguffin in a crate), but VERY USUALLY we joined forces to march on the town. The Chinese Warlord wanted to extract as much money and goods from anyone coming into town (the combined force was able to stare him down well). The science types (suspected of having the maguffin) wanted to sneak a crate containing a poorly sedated giant gorilla to the ships. The zepplin troopers, a radical german outfit, needed to hit the other germans for something but didn't feel confident to do it with the combined brit/german column. The Tong were somehow duplicitous to the Chinese warlord (maybe wanting to steal equipment in town). And there was some sort of two fisted larger than life Hero character also trying to achieve something (possible related to the scientists, the gorilla, or something else in town). 

Hilariously the British-German truce finally broke down in the alleys of town very close to the ships as the British opened fire with their machine gun armoured car on the Germans (it only seemed prudent). It's possible I wasn't a total jerk in that the Germans may have triggered something (The gorilla, now in a frenzy, escaping from his box)....but I can't quite remember. There was hilarity all around. I think the Zepplin trooper was the only person who had quite limited game options (I really was hoping to see the flying zepplin trooper models hit the table). 

 Here is the eye candy pictorial essay to follow.