The Hidden Society - Mr Tonks

After last year, my superhero campaign set in an alternative London in 1880 is nearly complete, so it's time to start to share the characters and background over the next few months. Here is the first to hit the press, Mr Tonks.

 

The character originated in the COM board game The Rise of Molock. However, his background has been changed to suit my Victorian London, and his abilities altered to make him compatible with SuperMission Force rules. He the Brawler in the Hidden Society, a group of heroes who protect the empire from the Rift energies that has changed the world.

Mr Tonks Origin

Tonks was a gorilla from Africa who became a star at the London Zoological Gardens. When a Rift-contaminated plague forced the zoo to close, Dr Goodall saved him using an experimental serum infused with Enlightenment current energy.

The results were extraordinary. Within weeks, Tonks had mastered anatomy, medicine, and several languages. The Enlightenment current had awakened true sapience in a non-human mind.

Elated, Goodall injected himself with a modified formula. The results were catastrophic—contaminated by Abyssal energies, he became a bloodthirsty creature that still plagues London, a mortal enemy of Tonks.

The learned hominid became the pride of society, living proof that Rift energies could elevate rather than corrupt. The elegant Mr Tonks became a popular speaker at the Royal Society and a charming presence in drawing rooms.

Yet Tonks grew weary of frivolities. Haunted by his benefactor's fate and believing his existence must serve a greater purpose, he sought out the Mace Club, where his unique perspective and immunity to mental corruption made him invaluable to the secret organisation within the St. James ' St. club - The Hidden Society.

Workbench 2026

As we turn the page on another year of gaming, it's time for my annual look back at what's been happening on the tabletop here at Anglian Wargaming HQ.

Looking Back at 2025

2025 turned out to be a pretty productive year, even if I didn't manage quite as many games as I'd hoped. I wrapped up two campaigns that had been running for a while: the pulp adventure 'Tomb of the Serpent' using Pulp Alley, and 'DNA', a superhero romp played with SuperMission Force.

The real star of the year, though, was Midgard. This sandbox game arrived late in 2024, but didn't make it to my table until March. Since then, it's dominated my gaming time and sparked my largest 28mm painting project in years. I've run several Dark Ages games with these rules now, and I'm currently deep into my first Midgard campaign: Mystic Britain. This pits Arthur's Britain against the Durlingar dwarves and their allies. The campaign should reach its climax early in 2026, though after the evil dwarves' latest victory, the outcome is far from certain!




The other campaign I started in 2025 was 'The Spectacular Adventures of the Leopard', set during the English Civil War in the West Country. This follows Edward Clement and his band of followers as they battle against the Preacher and his Parliamentary Forces. I'm using the ever-versatile Pulp Alley rules for this one, with the campaign plotted using a simple Snakes and Ladders board game.

What's Coming in 2026

I've got two new campaigns lined up for the year ahead.

First up is a 'steampunk' superhero campaign in which the Keepers of the Hidden Ways take on the Charnel Society in their inaugural adventure. I've been having great fun developing this alternative London, complete with a female Sherlock Holmes and her colleagues with their supernatural abilities. This will be a straightforward linear campaign with three or four scenarios making up a 'series'. The aim is to capture the feel of comic books, with new supervillain teams appearing in each chapter.

The second campaign is historical: Edward I's conquest of Wales, based on a Charles Grant 'programmed' reconnaissance campaign. Set in 1277, the English probe the Tywi Valley and meet resistance from the Welsh lords of Deheubarth. Historically, these events were a sideshow to Edward's main invasion in the north and led to the region's submission. I'm planning to use Baron's War 2nd Edition rules, with a spring start once 'Mystic Britain' campaigns wrap up. One thing I've learned is that I can only handle two concurrent campaigns – any more and I lose track of the narratives.

Projects and Ambitions

One disappointment in 2025 was not getting more historical simulations to the table, particularly following the refight of the Battle of Pynda using the Strength and Honour rules. These games need considerable research to do correctly, plus there's often significant modelling and painting involved. I plan to streamline this by focusing on 6mm or 10mm miniatures where my collection is strongest. Cynoscephalae is nearly ready for the table, and this time I'm going to experiment with different ancient rules to see how they handle these battles.

Looking further ahead, I'm working on a crusader army list and rules using the Midgard rules. With luck, I'll have something to share by year's end. I'm also converting my trial WoFun War of the Roses figures into a 10mm army, though I'll squeeze in another quick game as the army comes together.

Two longer-term projects are still in the research phase. The first is a Kiss Me Hardy campaign based on the Jack Aubrey novels, though this depends on the new edition of those rules. The second is a Glorantha project based on the wonderful RuneQuest world. The idea is to follow a small group of characters through roleplaying, skirmish games, and finally as part of a unit in mass combat. Plenty of reading and testing ahead on both fronts!

The Blog and Beyond

The blog is starting to get some decent traffic, but I want to develop it further. I'm currently looking at sharing more scenarios and campaign logs. I also write a bit of background material for my games and would like to share my thoughts on wargaming mechanisms more generally. I'm not convinced the blog is the best format for all this material, so I'm exploring Substack as a way to complement the shorter content here. More on that later.

Here's to another year of dice rolling and tape measures!​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Action in the Northwest Approaches

Dystopian Wars is a game that I came across by accident. I had seen the various adverts in the hobby press but I had resisted. However, at the end of 2023, I gave up on Legion Imperialis due to Games Workshop's poor logistics in getting the minis out to an enthusiastic fan base. This led to some store credits so I bought a few sets of Dysthopian Wars.

The Game

The game is set in an alternative timeline in the Victorian age, where steampunk navies fight for the interests of their empires. It has a great backstory but in my opinion aimed at the competitive wargamer. People who have read my previous posts will know that I dislike tournament Wargaming. For me, the hobby is about fun and a good narrative story. However, I thought the game had potential, although making it truly solo would be a challenge.

I had also been researching a WWII naval campaign in the Mediterranean, which I thought could be moved to a Dystopian War setting.

The Malta Crisis 1872

The opening of the Suez Chanel and its aerodrome nexus in 1867 led to increased competition in the Mediterranean. More about this  and each power's objectives will be discussed in later post. Here, we will concentrate on the Commonwealth and the old Tsarist claim to be the head of the Hospitaller order. This bit is is true in our timeline. The Commonwealth also needed access to more bases that allowed them to deploy their navel without fear of weather or rival powers, the Imperium (German Empire) and the Sultanate (Ottoman Empire), controlling vital straits that hindered the Tzar’s fleets.

Therefore, the Commonwealth High Command decided to move the Borodino battle group under the commander of Vice Admiral Grand Duke Nikolai Alexandrovich Bolov to the Western Mediterranean. His secret orders were to develop alliances that would allow Malta to be taken over. In early November, the Borodino battle group left its Artic base to take up its new station.

Crown Intelligence

In London, Mycroft Holmes, head of British intelligence, received reports of the Borodino’s departure but had no idea of its intentions. Mycroft decided to instruct the Admiralty to send cruiser squadrons from the Home Fleet to find the Borodino and its escorts.

Hours later, Commodore Cunningham, the commander of the 5th Support Group, read his orders from Admiralty Arch. He was to locate the Borodino and delay her until the arrival of the Crown battleship Prince Regent.

The Storm

Nature intervened on these instructions when a fierce autumnal storm blew from the west. The Borodino lost most of her escort and was now accompanied by a single cruiser. The other elements of Bolov’s command were scattered west of the Faroe Islands. Cunningham had spread his command across the Northwest approaches, and it was two cruisers, HMS Albion and HMS Mercia with a squadron of frigates that stumbled across the Borodino and its solitary escort near some skerries west of the Faroes.

The Engagement

Harry Cunningham, his binoculars pressed to his face, bravely identified the looming silhouette of the Commonwealth battleship, the Borodino. Without hesitation, he commanded his communications officer to relay the discovery to his squadron, a mere 16.5 nautical miles west of the Faroe Islands.

Cunningham gazed at the majestic battleship. He knew his small squadron of two Albion class cruisers supported by three frigates would not be able to stop her. The only strategy was to delay her until the Crown battle group could reach the northern water.

Meanwhile, Vice Admiral Bolov spotted the Crown ships spread between the dangerous rocks that formed the outer reaches of the Faroes. He decided that there was no point taking on the small ships. First, it might cause a diplomatic incident and second, it would delay the regrouping of his fleet. Even a ship of the size of the Borodino could be vulnerable when isolated. He commanded his cruises Kushov to take an eastern approach around the scaries. The Borodino would continue on an unaltered course. His hope was that Kushov eastly approach would confuse the British commander and force him to divide his forces. 

The Commonwealth cruiser shifting to a new bearing forced Cunningham to deploy a line of  frigates to cover all possibilities. However, Commodore Cunningham continued with his original plan to hamper and slow down the Borodino, the main threat to the Crown in these disputed Waters

The Borodino slumbered forward and launched a salvo at the Crown’s frigates, quickly sinking two of the frigate squadron. Cunningham, shocked by the power of the salvo, started to reposition his cruisers. The Albion, came dangerous close to the rock as the two ships hit the Borodino with a broadside.  Borov answered the attack by firing his main guns at the Mercia, crippling the ships steering.

As the weather worsened and the rain lashed across the decks, both sides let off closing shots. The Mercia regained control of her steering and Cunningham closed with both his cruisers. Two further broadside seem to bounce off the Commonwealth ship’s armour. Now Bolov  brought the Borodino next to the Albion and fired its full armament. amazingly Cunningham’s ship survived, although badly crippled. Cunningham decided that he could not damage this monster and let her disappear into the growing storm. He instructed the remaining frigate, HMS Orb to follow the Commonwealth ships so the main battle group could engage at a later date.

What's next

A really enjoyable introduction to the game. The models are fantastic with a lot of character. However, the game was designed for a versus mode and not the solo wargamer.  Dystopian Wars at its heart a tournament/competition game. Despite this I want to play more, so I am now putting forward some solo mechanism. Here are my preliminary thoughts.

1. Group the ships into squadron cards with each card having a a value of 300 to 400 points. On ecard would be the flag group then the player would draw at random. This would allow some uneven forces and reflect that rarely did an admiral get the all ships he wanted.
2. I going to name the ships and introduce a few heroic captains that will give their ships and advantage. This captains can progress in a campaign and generic (non-hero) captions may become heroes as they earn experience. This I hope will improve the narrative aspects that is important to solo wargamers.
3. Look at some pre-battle movement system. The WWII came Nimitz has some interesting mechanism on this aspect.

Next will be another short game when the Crown fleet finds the other Commonwealth ships that became dispersed in the storm.