Massacre in the Market - a short Chaos in Cairo report

Well, I have been somewhat remiss in posting to this blog of late. I have several battles to write up and some newly painted figures to post. Unfortunately I have also been snowed under with course work and with helping my wife out in her business. Anyway, here follows a short account of a battle that took place in the sukh in downtown Cairo. We fought this one a few weeks ago so my memory of the details is a little hazy.

The market was busy that day so it was pure bad luck that Sabine Blankensee encountered the Sword of Ra. In those crowds it would have been easy to walk right past him. She stared balefully at him as he yelled threats and the crowds cleared around them. Sabine manoeuvred to keep some of the bystanders between her and the burly warrior that faced her. Then, whipping out her pistol she blazed away. The fight was on.

(As usual click the pictures for a larger image)


Fortunately for Sabine her allies were close by and moving in to help her. The Sons of Set charged up the street while the others tried to flank the Swords of Ra, who seemed to be springing up all over the place. Unfortunately the Swords seemed to be well armed with rifles and swords. Sabine's .38 Special seemed rather lightweight by comparison.



While the others distracted the Swords with gunfire, the Sons of Set charged in and made short work of a dervish, who seemed better at posing with his swords than using them. While they were doing this, Benny Khotan was laid low by a rifle shot and an innocent bystander was also hit. The Sons charged on and engaged the first Sword that Sabine had seen in a wild swirling melee that dragged on as neither side could gain a significant advantage.



Another Sword joined this melee, using a passer-by as a shield. Just what you would expect from such dastardly foes! The fight raged on and the Sons of Set were whittled down as another Sword engaged them. Sabine leapt into the fray with her pocket knife and soon settled the hash of the Sword before her. The fight seemed to go out of them after that and the other one was also soon laid low.



Suddenly quiet fell over the sukh. The Swords were all down. Unfortunately, Sabine's allies Benny, Ahmed and Singh were also down. The Sons of Set had been whittled down to two remaining. Sabine was badly hurt and her dress torn. The only one of the group that remained unharmed was Otto, their leader, who had personally accounted for two of the Swords in his own quiet way. They gathered up their wounded and tended to their wounds. It was only after seeing to Benny and Ahmed when Otto realised that the Swords had slipped away despite their wounds. Worse yet, they had captured Singh, Otto's bodyguard! Benny and Ahmed were particuarly irked by this. They both swore blood vengeance against the Swords of Ra. Woe betide the Sword that got in their way in the future!

This battle went badly for me at the start. My attack rolls were poor and my defence rolls not much to write home about. Steve seemed to rolling an absolutely blinding game, yet, when it came to the end, I suddenly found myself holding the field. I have no idea how that came about, unless it was the careful use of innocent bystanders as cover and generally nasty tricksy behaviour on my part. However, despite winning the game I still found myself with one of my characters captured. How does that work out? The rescue mission should be an interesting one. As Steve put it, I won the battle but lost the war. We shall see.