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.

Chaos in Cairo versus .45 Adventures - Pulp Deathmatch

Chaos in Cairo (CiC) and .45 Adventures (45A) are both pulp skirmish rules aimed at similar periods.

Chaos in Cairo
CiC is focused on battles in the streets of Cairo between four different types of warbands. It features archaeologists and mummies, both of which are pretty much self-explanatory. Then there are the Servants of Set, evil humans that are often twisted caricatures of humanity as they have meddled with That Which Man Was Not Meant To Know. Finally there are the Swords of Ra, a group of Bedouin-like warriors, who seek to prevent the secret knowledge of ancient Egypt from being taken by anyone (think the black-clad types that fight the Set warriors in The Mummy Returns). Each warband consists of characters (the heroes) and henchmen (groups of lesser humans). You can also recruit special characters, some of which are unique. Typically a warband consist of around 5 - 10 characters and henchmen.

The system uses goal rolls to determine success or failure. Each character has stats and skills that tell you how many dice to roll when testing. Each roll of 4+ is a success (a goal). You are either rolling to beat a task number, or another character's goals. In the former case, you succeed by scoring as many goals as the task number or more. In the latter case, the player with the most goals wins. The system is simple and elegant, using around 3 to 7 d6s for each roll. This system is used for everything from combat to jumping ravines.

Speaking of combat, characters in CiC do not get killed directly in combat. They can be knocked out once they run out of hits, in which case a doctor or character with medical skills can revive them. Once knocked out, you can administer the coup de grace to them, which renders them permanently out of the fight. Character death is dealt with in the post-battle phase. You roll to see what effect being knocked out has on a character. There are penalties on this roll if they have suffered a coup de grace, so it is more likely that they will die permanently in this case. This is only really relevant to the campaign game.

The game is geared towards campaign play and warbands are designed with that in mind. You can easily play one-off games if you want by agreeing how much to spend on each warband and rolling for or deciding on a scenario, but some of the skills that characters have are more suited to campaign play. Six scenarios are provided in the rules and each has three sub-plots that can be used with it. In campaign play you roll for scenario and sub-plot, play the game, roll to see the effect of being knocked out after the battle and pay for the upkeep of your warband. Characters can gain experience and become better or they can die and be lost permanently. You can earn more money and recruit new characters or henchmen during this phase.

Chaos in Cairo provides all the rules you need to get started with a campaign. The scenarios are given a little flavour by the sub-plots but are fairly generic. On the other hand, preparation is kept to a minimum, which gives you more time for playing.

.45 Adventures
45A is a rules set of another colour. Characters in 45A are graded according to their skill level. There are 3 grades of character, with Grade 1 characters being the spear-carriers. Grade 2 characters are the sidekicks, while Grade 3 characters are the heroes. Each character has skills, as with CiC and a set of stats but there the resemblance ends. Characters in 45A have hit locations, unlike CiC, and each hit on a location degrades the stats associated with that location. Thus, head hits reduce your Brains score. This means that characters slowly become less able as they take damage, until they are knocked out, while in CiC, characters are at full ability until they are knocked out. Typically, you will field 3-6 characters in 45A.

Instead of a handful of d6s, 45A uses 1d10 to resolve tasks. You are either trying to beat a standard target number of 10 or your opponent's die roll. You add your stat and skills to the 1d10 roll to see if you succeed.

45A generally uses more detailed scenarios than CiC. Instead of generic scenarios, the rules include a number of more detailed and specific scenarios. This really points up the major difference between the two rules sets. CiC encourages a more generic style of play, while 45A encourages you to write and develop scenarios that are suited to the characters you have created. The basic 45A rules do not include campaign rules, but these do appear in the later supplements, providing a framework for stringing your scenarios together and a system for improving your characters.

Conclusions
In my opinion, both games are great and each plays sufficiently different that I am happy to play either. So, that leaves me wondering which I should recommend. Well, that depends upon what style of play you want. Both systems work well but in different ways and both really have a different ethos behind them.

CiC offers a single package that gives you four warbands, six generic scenarios and a campaign system. It is focused on 1920s Cairo so you need to be interested in that if you want to play the game as written. If you want to play using this system but with different character types or warbands, then you will have to put a bit of work into your games.

45A offers a broader framework with more character types and greater freedom for creating your group. It does offer most of the pulp archetypes so you could play gangsters or archaeologists, but there are no supernatural elements in the core rulebook. 45A also focuses more on tailor-made scenarios and it encourages this style of creative approach. I have always felt that 45A wants you to put time and effort into making your terrain before the game and rewards a more creative approach.

When coming down to choosing between the two, I am hard-pressed to specify a preference. Both rules sets offer fun games with a different flavour. Each is simple to get into because of the low number of figures required. Really it will come down to what sort of game you want to play. CiC is slightly more generic in approach, like a more typical skirmish wargame, while 45A feels more like a light RPG in scope. Personally, I shall continue to play both for the different experience that each provides. If you prefer a single rules set with a generic approach then I think CiC will suit you better. If you want ot put a little more effort into your games and adopt the light RPG approach then 45A should suit you better. Or maybe, like me, you should just get and play both. After all, you can use the same figures with each.

One Night in Cairo - A Chaos in Cairo Battle Report

It was a dark night on the streets of Cairo and few were abroad. Cordelia Case, Action Girl(tm), was grateful for this. Her sources had told her that a Shard of the Nameless One had been recovered by an Arab labourer during a recent dig and hidden in a relative's house. She had also heard that her arch-nemesis, Tutancomein, was hunting for it too. She rousted out her companions and headed for where rumour told her that the Shard was. As she approached this small suburb of Cairo, she realised that the evil mummy was already there too. This time he appeared to have a human guide with him. So that was how he had learned so quickly of this Shard! (Click the pictures for larger images)


Steve took a Mummy Warband while I took an Archaeologist Warband. We rolled for scenario and got 'The Package'. There would be six packages on the table.. One contained the Shard, but we would not know which one until the end of the game, so we needed to collect as many of the objective markers as possible. For a sub-plot we rolled The Traitor. One of us would receive an additional figure, but if we ever rolled no successes for initiative then the traitor would join the other side. We diced and Steve got the extra figure.

Cordelia and her companions advanced quickly towards the buildings where the Shard might be hidden. A shout from her left told her that her brash American companion, Colin Fraser, had found a package that might be the Shard. Fraser was a useful man to have on an expedition, not too bright, but good with a gun and his fists.


Fraser ran from the building with the package as Professor Bartholomew Bennett, Cordelia's research associate, found another package. Randolph Dacre, the expedition's backer had also found a package by now. He ran from the building where he had found it and passed it to the Professor. With both packages, Bennett headed for home. The others could deal with the situation that was developing. There would be fighting soon, because the mummies were closing on the heroic archaeologists of the Riverview Antiquarian Expeditions Society. The professor was not so handy in a fight, so better that he get the packages home and start checking them out.


Dacre and Fraser advanced to join Cordelia and Geoff Grimes, the final member of the team, just in time for Dacre to help Cordelia knock out one of the mummies that had shambled forward faster than its fellows. Grimes had climbed to the roof of a nearby building, from where he had a good field of fire with his rifle. He also found a package on that roof, which was an added bonus. Stuffing it into his pocket he began to lay down covering fire. The fight now developed in earnest. Fraser blased away at the shambling henchmummies with both pistols. Cordelia ran up behind them and blasted them with her shotgun. The mummies were soon a pile of rotting wrappings on the floor. Meanwhile Dacre shot down the human traitor, serving the mummies for his own profit and to the detriment of all humanity. Unfortunately, some of the other mummies had found more packages and were escaping with them. Time to give chase.



Cordelia and Dacre chased after them and were soon engaged in a close combat that saw the pair of them knocked out, but not before wounding the one remaining mummy. Geoff took aim and finished it off with a shot from his rifle. The silence that suddenly broke out was deafening. The remaining mummies had fled with their packages. All that remained in the streets of Cairo were the unmoving bodies of the wounded. Geoff moved forward and helped bring round his companions, more worried about helping them to safety than dealing with the mummies and their human stooge.



With the group home, they checked their packages and found the Shard. Success! They had won, but at a cost. Cordelia would be bed-ridden for a while (casualty check resulted in her missing the next battle), while Dacre was limping badly (-2" movement during next scenario). They hoped that the mummies would also have suffered equally (as it happened, Steve permanently lost a couple of henchmummies, but all of his character mummies will be present unhurt in the next scenario. Boo!). At least Cordelia would have time now to focus on her next action-packed book. The night's adventure had the makings of a great story and she was sure it would sell well.

The scenario played quickly for our first playing of Chaos in Cairo. It was very enjoyable and the only thing that we changed was the Coup de Grace rule. We agreed not to use it because of the increased possibility of permanent character death, which was just as well. Had we used it and had Steve had time to do so, Cordelia would have been dead dead dead, and, if I recall correctly, so would Dacre. In terms of experience, Colin Fraser gained enough to gain Combat Attack as a new skill. The others all gained some experience and should see advances after their next battle, if all goes well. Our next game will feature the Servants of Set (me) versus the Swords of Ra (Steve). Next time I get to be evil, bwa ha ha ha ha! I think that we shall be playing this system quite a bit more.