Pulp Alley & The Leopard

I recently finished my Tomb of the Serpent campaign. My next project is the Spectacular Adventures of the Leopard, a swashbuckling skirmish game set during the English Civil War. I have already played a test game, The Wayward Messenger, using the 7TV system. However, before setting out on this project, I decided to review what rules were available and which best suited my needs. Finally, I decided to use Pulp Alley. So why am I using a set of rules designed for the first half of the twentieth century for a historical skirmish game? As the Pulp Alley authors made clear, the Pulp genre included a wide range of environments, including gangsters, superheroes, fantasy, horror, and pirates, to name a few. So, in this first missive on my Leopard project, I will examine the rules I have looked at and why I went for Pulp Alley. As you will see, this is a very personal choice that fits my circumstances.

The Leopard, Aurelia St Simon and Aaron Bell (The Preacher)

Seventeenth Century Skirmish Rules. 

There are several good rule sets dedicated to the swashbuckling period, such as Flashing Steel, Glorie, and En Garde, to name just a few. All these games provide an excellent narrative for my campaign, but none are designed for the solo wargamer. Also, why I love collecting and reading rules; for my day-to-day gaming, I try to keep to a handful of core rules. Therefore, I decided to have a set of skirmish rules that  I could use for Indiana Jones-type adventures, gangsters in the 1930s and classic sci-fi settings. This led me back to the Pulp genre.

Pulp Rules - Cost 

In recent years, the pulp genre has become rather crowded with rules. Compared to other periods, all these rules can be obtained cheaply. Most have a free version or can be downloaded cheaply from Wargames Vault. 

Also, the figure count is usually less than a dozen, and most figure rules are agnostic in what figures can be used. Pulp Alley and 7TV have figure ranges, but they are unnecessary for playing the games.

Various supplements, scenarios, and cards add additional costs. Pulp Alley and 7TV have the most support for their games, so more supplements and cards to add to the core game. If you decide to go 'all in' with cards and supplements, this makes them the more expensive end of the spectrum.

The most significant cost is the need for nice-looking terrain. However, card buildings are available, and with careful planning, MDF and resin buildings can be used for other games.

Pulp - The Rules

Here is a brief summary of the rules I have examined. Click on the rules picture for link to the rules.

7TV (Crooked Dice)

7TV was designed to pay tribute to 1960s and 1970s television, focusing on campy adventures from fantasy to science fiction. Initially, each genre had its own supplement, but in 2023, Crooked Dice produced a core rulebook and now concentrates on producing serials (scenarios) that reflect the TV shows of the era.

The gameplay emphasises thematic missions and cinematic effects. Players build “casts” of characters using customisable archetypes. These are played on a set where the game recreates a TV episode. This can lead to odd play; for example, the set can move due to continuity errors.

Fistful of Lead (Wiley Games)

These rules are simple and quick to learn, perfect for fast-paced pulp action. They focus on minor skirmishes with individual character actions. The action deck (standard playing cards) mechanic introduces randomness and variety. The game offers flexible genre support, including Westerns, noir, and pulp sci-fi. Experimental solo rules, which are free to download, have been produced. Although their strength lies in multi-player games where they can handle numerous players (c. 10) without the game getting bogged down.

However, Fistful of Lead does not produce a deep storytelling experience, and the characters are underdeveloped for my tastes. I also found them challenging to customise for my Leopard adventures, although several genre/period supplements are available.

Perilous Tales 

This cooperative skirmish wargame centres around horror and exploration, perfect for Lovecraftian or supernatural pulp settings. The procedural scenario generation and simple yet thematic rules create cinematic challenges and a story-rich encounter, and they are specifically designed to support solo and cooperative gameplay.

Character design is limited because it is driven by predefined templates, which limits the customisation of games outside the horror genre. While all the games in this list are designed to create cinematic cliffhangers, in this instance, the mechanism that produces the excitement seems random, making tactics less critical than other pulp games. However, as a free game that introduces someone to pulp or for solo play, these rules are a winner.

Pulp (Osprey)

Pulp is one of the latest entries in the pulp stable and part of the Osprey Blue Book of wargames. Like all Osprey publications, the rules are cheap and well-produced. The rules offer a fast, streamlined game that is easy to learn, making it a good entry-level game. However, in terms of simplicity, the rules have lost depth in customising the characters, who are limited to archetypes.

Therefore, they miss the full storytelling potential of the genre with limited narrative depth and minimal customisation of characters.

Pulp Alley

Pulp Alley provides deep narrative gameplay, using dice and card mechanisms to represent plot points and random events. Together, these components produce an easy-to-learn game that is difficult to master. As I mentioned, the rules are designed to be highly customisable and fit with the variety of pulp genres. Character creation is good, although I would like more depth added to the character's background.
The game has solo rules and a unique card deck that produces engaging and exciting games, and it has one of the best dedicated communities of any game. The authors produce weakly, at least, videos to support their creation. While the cost is moderate if you want to purchase the cards (downloads are available), it provides an immersive experience into the world of pulp.

  

Comparing Pulp Rules

The rules choice is personal and designed to meet your or the club's needs. Therefore, the list below is designed to meet my gaming needs. I have considered the following factors: Narrative, Complexity ( I like simple to moderate rules), Flexibility, Solo play, Costs, and game/community support.

Narrative

My games must produce a good narrative that could make a good short story. In this category, Pulp Alley, 7TV and Perilous Tales edge this for me. The card mechanics in the first two add much narrative depth to the game.

Complexity

None of these games is particularly hard to learn; most are moderate to low in complexity. Boardgame Geek rates them in the mid-2s out of a total of 5. Fist Full is Lead, and Perilous Tales may have simpler systems.

Flexibility

Pulp Alley and 7TV can support any pulp genre. Pulp Alley nudges this category because 7TV's scenarios are more scripted.

Solo Mechanism

Only Pulp Alley and Perilous Tales have dedicated solo mechanisms. The other games' systems focus primarily on competitive skirmishes, so solo players must develop their own systems.

Cost of Entry

As I mentioned at the opening of this blog, the cost of entry is relatively low for this genre. 7TV is the most expensive, although they have merged most of the genre into one core book, reducing costs. Pulp Alley offers a lot of free stuff, but it will increase if you want to buy the cards and other add-on costs. For those on a tight budget, Perilous Tales and Fist Full of Lead, with downloadable rules and a few add-ons, have the edge on costs.

Support

One of the oddities of solo Wargaming is that you still want to feel part of a wider community. Therefore, online support is an essential aspect of the game for me. Support includes activity communities, forums, and online engagement. In this respect, Pulp Alley is the winner with its Facebook community, weekly videos, and games.

Conclusion

Pulp Alley was the final choice for playing my Leopard campaign because of its flexibility. I only had to write minimal changes to reflect seventeenth-century technology, its solo play capabilities, and the production of a strong narrative. In my Tomb of the Serpent campaign, the characters became more 3-dimensional as the story progressed. However, here, I had to design my own adventurers, so I wanted a clearer picture of the background of my main characters. How the Leopard, his friends and foes came to life will be the subject of the second blog in this project. 

Workbench 2024

This blog is always self-indulgent because it aims to set out my projects and ambitions for the forthcoming year. A similar bit of self-indulgence occurred last year, although personal circumstances made many of my ambitions attainable. However, it would be wrong to blame the vagaries of life on my failure to deliver all my projects last year. The most crucial factor was that I was too ambitious, a common trait with wargamers. Therefore, this year, I have been more constrained in my aims; although the project list is still as long, some will not see the light of day during 2024.

Campaigns

Last year, I had two campaigns that I planned to play during the year. The first was a fantasy campaign, the Second Shadow Wars, using the rules of the Fantastic Battles. This campaign saw little action since the early months of 2023. First, the campaign took an unusual turn when Umbarji Khan ( my Orcs ) suddenly died, leading to a succession crisis. I had not drawn up the maps for all the Umbarji realms, nor did I have detailed biographies of the various brothers and sons that would contest the Blood Throne. Finally, I needed rules to cover these surprise developments. 

I have learnt from this campaign to stop trying to develop everything myself and take some of the work the other enthusiasts have placed on the web. Therefore, I plan to play the Umbarji Civil War by adapting some one-page campaign rules and personality-driven mechanics in Henry Hyde's 'Wargaming Campaigns'.

In the meantime, the original campaign centred on the Wilderness Steppes will concentrate on the struggle for the Lakeside towns. Due to his father's death, Ozbeg has been drawn into the struggles with his family and has left the Wilderness campaign to one of the leading generals, Doba Skullcrusher, to conduct the war on his southern border. Again, this will involve looking at off-the-shelf campaign roles, using a hex system, or even returning to such old favourites as Mighty Empires. 

The Tomb of the Serpent

The second campaign used the Pulp Alley and their Tomb of the Serpent campaign.  This is now halfway through, and I plan to complete this during the year. Slade Horton and his companions from the Mace Institute are now crossing the desert in search of the Serpent’s tomb, where they will come face-to-face with the Egyptian God of chaos, Apophis. I have fallen in love with this band of adventures and plan to translate them to other game systems, so expect to see the Mace Institute appear in alternative World War II adventures. 

Recreating Battles.

I have two recreations near completion in painting and research, and they will hit the table in the first quarter of 2024. The first is the Battle of Crediton in 1643, where I'll reenact the battle using the Twilight of Divine Right rules, and maybe another replay, using For King and Parliament. 

Marius and the German Invasion

The next set of battles re-fight the battles between Marius and the Germans, Aquae Sextiae (102BC) and  Vercellae (101BC). These will be played using Strength and Honour rules. However, these battles are essentially holding games whilst I start to work on the big projects of 2024, Hellenistic World and Rome's Expansion. Why start this new development? 

Partly anticipating Mark Backhouse's supplement to cover this early period; it is my favourite era of Ancient History.  The main difference is this era will be played using 6mm figures rather than 2mm because I have a box of painted minis that have been unloved for several years. Rebasing and some in-filling of figures will be required, but hopefully, this will not be too burdensome. Unsure of the first battle, try to get to the table, but the following are on the list: Paraitatiene (317 BC), Ilipa (206 BC) and Pynda (168 BC).

Wellington in the Peninsula 

This project was on the list last year and is slowly progressing in 2 mm. 2mm is ideal for this era because it gives the authentic flavour of the mass movement of large bodies of men across the battle field. Once the painting is completed for the Battle of Vimero (1808), moving on to the other conflicts of the Peninsula campaign will be easy. 

Lion Rampart, Saga and Midgard 

The one campaign I completed last year was my Feud campaign set in the period before the Magna Carta. I plan to turn my interests to the Early Medieval period, where I will experiment with several rules, including Lion Rampart, Saga and yet-to-be-released Midgard. All three games have the potential to play a Fantasy version, so I may dig out some old 28mm Citadel miniatures to set up some small-scale fantasy battles. I plan to have some extra stuff painted by the excellent Matt Slade to give some of my old armies a new flavour. Ultimately, I may extend these one-off battles into some form of campaign. I'm interested in doing an alternative breakdown of Roman authority in Britain. Where the invaders may have been dwarves and their allies. 

Skirmish Games and Roleplay

Besides using Pulp Alley for the Tomb of the Serpent campaign. I have employed 7TV to bring the swashbuckling character of the Leopard to life as he fights his way through politics in war and the time of the English Civil War. I plan to join these adventures together and publish them as a set of scenarios. 7TV system is also being used for my Sword and Sandles project where a Greek demi-god will take on numerous quests, a mixture of Xena, Sinbad and Jason and the Argonauts. However, this idea is still in its early days.  

Superhero Genre

The last area skirmish is superheroes. In 2023, I played the first part of my mini-campaign when the evil Dr Nicholas Amargus (DNA) attempted to brainwash San Diego with his mind-bending gases. I adapted Pulp Alley for this first game, but for the second instalment, I will use Super Mission Force, which is designed for the genre using the gaol system. While these adventures are going on, I am building two teams of superheroes from the Golden Age who will fight Hitler's minions. 

Dungeon and Dragons

Connected to the skirmish games is my renewed interest in role-play, where the character develops even more. A magazine I found in the supermarkets made me to re-look at Dungeons & Dragons. I have found that since I last role-played – in the 1980s- enthusiasts have done much work on playing solo adventures. I plan to use these ideas and employ AI as a tool to help the game master.  I hope to post a blog on my thinking behind this and how it can generally impact wargaming. 

Naval 

I am planning a small Kiss Me Hardy game based on the scenario in one of the Lardies' magazines that is set off the island of Corsica. I am still struggling to find a set of ancient naval roles that reflect the era's sea battles. At the moment, I'm tempted to take up one of the ideas that came out of a discussion between Henry Hyde and Simon Miller of using To the Strongest mechanism for naval engagements. This could be a large project if I decide to undertake this challenge. Whatever, nothing is likely to appear next year. 

 

Some Final Thoughts

No doubt, as a wargaming magpie, some other distraction will draw me off in an unforeseen direction. Games Workshop has re-hacked the old Epic 40,000 as Legion Imperialis. A reminder of time playing Warhammer, so I am likely to give the game a try. No doubt there will be others.

I also hope to attend a couple of shows and a 'Lardie Day'. Whilst, I remain mainly a solo warmer, the hobby has a fantastic community that always gives me a boost. However, these events often provide the seeds for another project. Chain of Command has lingered in the back of my mind since my outing to Nottingham last year.

The Leopard - Pilot Episode.

1967 RetroVision Weekend TV sought something to fill the early Sunday evening slot. Success in recent years at the cinema of several swashbuckling films has suggested this would be a suitable format. Enter Pat Harris, the company's leading documentary maker and a fan of the English Civil War. He and his writers came up with the idea of the Leopard, a mysterious swashbuckling character with royal connections.

Harris’ ideas soon exceeded the budget, and the channel’s producers wanted to cut the project. In the end, Pat persuaded them to proceed with a pilot episode. However, the budget was reduced, and the pilot had to be made on the set of the recent Dracula movie. Therefore, overnight, Whitby Abbey became a remote, ruined monastery in the heart of Oxfordshire.

Pilot - The Wayward Messenger. November 1642. Aired 3rd September 1974

King Charles I’s courier and his satchel of important letters have gone missing. The letters contained embarrassing revelations about the Queen's medical condition and sensitive diplomatic correspondence between the King and Louis XIV’s all-powerful minister, Mazarin. Edward Hyde, the King’s advisor, dispatched the young Edward Clements, a.k.a. The Leopard, to find a courier and retrieve the letters before the King’s enemies saw them. However, the Parliamentary Council was aware of the missing letters through a spy at the Royal Court. A troop of the London Trained Band is dispatched under the command of the Parliament’s fixer, Ezekiel Sutton, to capture the messenger and retrieve the satchel and its contents.

Unbeknown to both parties, the messenger had been ambushed by bandits near a ruined monastery. The messenger remained alive but was unconscious, and the contents of his satchel, considered useless by the thieves, had been discarded.

Episode Summary

As the mist envelops the ancient abbey ruins, Edward Clements, aka the Leopard, and his men tread cautiously, expecting danger at every turn. The ominous fog conceals allies and enemies, setting the stage for a covert mission.

Blades in the Dark

Amidst the ruins, Edward's men split into groups, navigating the treacherous terrain. A sudden flash disrupts Maarten's, Edward's boyhood friend, advance, signalling the start of a deadly confrontation. Captain Sutton, the renowned Parliamentary leader, watched his men edge forward and, for a swift operation, as he grappled with uncertainty and unforeseen challenges that this mission brought. 

The Hermit's Revelation

As the mist thickens, one of the Leopard's less reputable men, the ex-poacher Isaac Fletcher, encounters an unexpected obstacle in the form of a hermit with a body odour problem. Distracted by the smell and the man's curses from the Bible, Isaac allows the dishevelled preacher (Aaron Bell) to run into the fog. This eccentric encounter was too much for Issac, who decided to sit down and take a swig of ale. An unexpected turn that added a touch of the bizarre to the unfolding drama. 

Clash of Blades

The mist clears to reveal a face-off between Edward and a formidable Parliamentary officer. The battle intensifies, with Edgar holding his ground against overwhelming odds. Enter Captain Ezekial Sutton, the Beast of the Fens, unleashing chaos with his unbridled ferocity in swordplay as the two sides fight over the prone body of the King's messenger. However, the Leopard triumphs in the end, and the injured messenger is hauled to his feet.

Unveiling Secrets

With the messenger recovered, a new threat emerges as brigands, who had originally ambushed the poor messenger, attack. Whilst the bandits had the advantage of surprise, they were soon beaten off, and Edwards drops fanned out to recover the scattered contents of the royal satchel. 

Kiss of Deception

The Leopard's band searches for their lost letters as the mist clears.  Amidst the chaos, a beautiful lady of a dubious background called Katie Reed is found tied up, claiming that she had been kidnapped to be sold to Barbary pirates. A kiss exchanged, secrets exposed, and a plea for protection set the stage for an unforeseen alliance. 

Into the Mist

With the mission accomplished, the Leopard and his men retreat into the mist, leaving a trail of uncertainty. As the credits roll, the haunting melody accompanies their disappearance, setting the tone for an enthralling series filled with intrigue and danger.

Scenario and Some Post-Production Thoughts.

The game worked out well, although I need to develop the NPC character 'AI' because they create extra uncertainty for a solo gamer. The character cards need a few tweaks, and I need to add a few more period weapons. Also, Katie and Aaron will return as members of the main cast. The next adventure of the Leopard will be a barroom brawl involving a spy and assassin. However, next on the production run is RetroVision's entrance into their world of Greek mythology with Atalanta the Huntress. Mainly because I have some old Kickstarter figures sitting in a plastic box. 

The first draft of this scenario on the 7TV Facebook page.

God's Own Scale

The arrival of the Strength and Honour ancient rules has led me toward 2mm wargaming, 'God's Own Scale'. You may ask, why bother? Why not play a board game instead? The scale loses much of the grandeur of the larger scales, and you cannot distinguish between the 5th foot and the 38th or identify the various shield designs of an ancient army. Indeed, the scale is probably not for you if you enjoy fielding immaculately painted armies. However, the impact of these blocks can be stunning as you can field armies of 30,000 plus men on a 6-foot by 4’ table.

Armies in a Shoe Box

One of the advantages of the scale is its limited storage requirements. Two armies in a shoe box. This is a godsend for a wargamer like myself who always needs more storage space.

The Other Benefits of 2mm.

That leads nicely into the benefits of 2mm gaming.

The scale allows you to recreate massive, army-sized clashes on a 6 x 4' table. In 28mm, a 6 x 4' table equates to roughly 110 x 75 yards - a snapshot of any battle except a skirmish. In 2mm, a 2 x 4' board works out at about 2 x 4 miles. You can recreate much larger conflicts with much less space. Minor battles, for example, the Napoleonic battle of Vimero (1808), will easily fit on a four-foot square table. Despite 17 divisions potentially being involved.

The regiments marching across these small spaces look like regiments, divisions and corps on the move. One of the changes in painting and modelling at this scale is that you are conscious of the tactical formations employed. Taking an ECW example, you can show a cavalry unit in Swedish and Dutch formation and vary their appearance differently. These alternative designs will probably not impact play, but they make your battlefield look realistic.

Battles are easy to set up and play. The armies are tiny, and a base can represent anything from a Roman legion to a whole Germanic tribe. For later periods, a division or event corp. Therefore most battles can be played with under 24 bases per side. This makes set-up quick, and labels attached to the base help identify the unit and speeds up gameplay.

God's Land

Of course, then there's the terrain. Little terrain is produced for this scale, although some manufacturers now make some buildings. With a few bases of buildings placed side by side, you soon get the impression of a large town or city. See below for some links.

This means that roads, rivers and forests are usually handmade. Forests are just clumps of bath mats, sprayed and placed on a textured base, and they look the part; rivers and roads are just painted strips of card or other cheap basing material. I use self-adhesive floor tiles obtained from pound shops. If you are like me and want to get a game to the table asap, this terrain-making process takes only a little bit of time. Also, because the terrain is cheap and quick to make, you can spend time mimicking the landscape for the battle you are refighting.

Economy Wargaming

Finally, the venture is low-cost. Breaking into a new period in 28mm gaming can be expensive. Irregular Miniatures sell army packs with a staggering quantity of troops (tens of thousands) for £12.50. I recently decided to start an English Civil War campaign (more on that soon), and I fielded two sizable armies for an initial investment of about £30 each.

Current Projects Using God's Scale

I am currently using 2mm on several projects where I want to recreate full scale conflicts or where I want to try a period out without a massive investment in time (painting) and money.

The current projects of the workbench are;

Ancients 

I currently have an imperial Roman army and Gallic/Germanic tribes.  I am now working on phalanx-based armies in anticipation of refighting Rome's expansion into the Greek East.

English Civil War

The objective here is twofold. First, a desire to refight the Sheraton, 1644. Second, test out the Twilight rules for the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Period I have in the past ignored. Therefore, this little project could expand into the Thirty Years War or Wars of the Spanish Succession. 

Napoleonic and the Peninsula Campaign.

This is a classic wargaming period, which I have not played for years or decades. I have always been turned off by needing to understand the tactics of the era and the complex painting demands. However, recently reading about these conflicts led to a desire to refight the battles of Wellington's Peninsula Campaign. The 2mm scale has enabled me to build two armies fairly cheaply and quickly. 

Just a Little Bit More

Recently, 3mm has started appearing, and I have seen some fantastic 3mm American Civil War miniatures. At the moment, I am holding off launching yet another project, but they do look good. 

Some Links

Irregular Miniatures - a wide selection of 2mm miniatures, including terrain.

Warbases - 2mm Ancients cast in white metal.

Korhyl Minatures - 2mm Ancients in resin blocks.

Forward March Miniatures - STL files for all periods for 3d Printing.

Magister Militium - for 3mm.

Lastly, a Facebook Group is dedicated to 2mm Wargaming and other small scales.