The Ladies Day Out

My good friend Jon came over today and we decided to play a game of “Empire of the Dead” by Westwind Games. This particular game was the third we had played in an ongoing on and off, very ad-hoc, collection of semi linked games.

Jon had his “Ladies Amateur Archaeologists Club” and I had my “Sons of Anubis” cult. The set up was simple. An artifact of power had been discovered hidden under the altar in the old village church and it was a race to dig it up and use its power to what ever purpose the holder had in mind. It was to be a very near run thing, and something that might lead to another encounter between these bitter rivals.

The Ladies disembarked from a Paddle Steamer just out of shot on the top left of screen while the Sons came in from the bottom right and hurriedly made there way up the table to stop the evil women before they dug up the blessed artifact of Anubis, (that was at least what I told myself)

After a couple of uneventful turns as we maneuvered up the table the assailants found themselves in range of various weapons. I realised about then that it was probably best that the Sons hide, as only one of them carried a missile weapon, whilst the Ladies fairly bristled with firearms, except one burly lass that was armed with a Mattock! Sons found cover behind various hedges.

The Ladies pinned down the Sons with a veritable hail of gunfire. Fortunately no one was hit during the opening salvo. Lone Son with a crossbow fired back and missed. This was to set the tone for the entire engagement. After a brief discussion among the Sons of Anubis a brave volunteer was forced over the hedge and engaged the Ladies in melee.

This developed rather quickly into an unseemly brawl with the Ladies gaining the upper hand and driving the Sons back. Meanwhile in another part of the town the Ladies had dispatched the lone crossbowman in wildly inaccurate but heavy gunfire. After seeing his sole missile capable person collapse in a shower of destroyed hedges the Blessed Leader decided that the only way to get the sacred relic was to hop the hedge and engage the Ladies in fearsome fisticuffs, with swords in fact. Unfortunately he misjudged the distance and fell short. The Ladies counter charged and combat was joined

In the meantime a un-escorted lady had entered the church and started to look for the relic, which she found after much activity in a box, under a bunch of old skeletons that were under the flagstones that had been hidden beneath the altar. Box tucked safely under her arm she dashed back to the waiting getaway paddle steamer. Seeing their chance, the President of the Ladies Amateur Archaeologists dispatched the leader of the Sons of Anubis in a masterly flurry of swordplay and briskly strolled back to the steamer for Tea and Scones. Job well done!

It was a extremely fun game and what I remember best about it was the gales of laughter at the ridiculous exploits of the protagonists. Westwind have written a fantastic set of rules for this sort of thing and Jon is a fantastic opponent with an appropriately ridiculous sense of humor. Hopefully we will see more exploits of the Ladies and Sons over the next few months. I hope to develop the Sons of Anubis a bit more fully and try to take advantage of the spells that could shift the balance, I just need to keep a few more of them alive!