Ponape: A Pacific Island for Colonial Gaming

Like the Gunboats in my previous post, my island setting of Ponape is a caricature of features ranging from Australia to China through Melanesia to Micronesia.  Some of it is pure fiction, some things out of place, but all things in the spirit of the game.

The island started as a list; a port, a coast, a fortress, a town, some rough terrain, a native village.  Quickly it evolved into a map designed to fit on a large game table.  At a minimum, the table would need to be 10'x5', preferably 12'x6'.  The features of the terrain dictated a modular design, though less flexible than my typical game terrain.  In its initial form, Ponape featured a Spanish fortress at the "west" end of the island, overlooking a bay with a dock and small town.  As you moved "east" from the town, you would encounter the jungle.   The island was cut in half by rocky jungle covered hills and a river.  Beyond the river were the natives, sometimes friendly, sometimes head-hunters, sometimes in need of a sacrifice for a festival.  To the north was the coastline, and to south, room for new adventure.

Here is the early version of Ponape:

The Spanish governor usually tried to impose his will (whether it be the Spanish will or not) from the fortress in the distance.  The native village can be seen in the foreground.

A view of the town and bay, better showing the fortress.  The town featured Madam Ophelia's, a trading company, and a black-birder auction.  Local business was overseen by "The Boss" with help from his henchmen and working girls.  Foreign navies would sometimes visit.  Sometimes they could be burdensome, as above, where he bay is blocked by the French ship, the Dunois.

The natives above are preparing for one of their many celebrations.  A festive people, in this case it appears that the antiquarian explorer may have lost his daughter, as she is being assisted in preparation for the native celebration.  Converting the Foundry Africans into Micronesians was only partially successful, as the natives all looked like they had a steady diet of steroids.

Strange alliances often formed.  Here German troops are assisted in leaving the jungle by the natives with Austrians in hot pursuit.

Above, natives invite an English explorer to dinner.  The natives were very friendly that way.

 After the first couple of games, the island suffered some geological activity, which made transit on the island  a little tougher. 

Phase two of Ponape featured more dramatic rocky cliffs cutting the island in half, and the addition of a swamp (not depicted above)  in the jungle.  The natives got a more secluded, less accessible village, and proper place for the their rituals.

A view looking from the fortress toward the new cliffs separating the island natives from the Spanish side of the island.

A view of the dock.

A couple of views showing the northern coast and the river.

Spanish troops looking for ...trouble.  The dramatic height of the new cliffs is demonstrated

Views of the "native" side of the island

 

Eventually the fortress got a minor face lift.  A lot of additional plans were made for the island including detailing existing structure, adding a docking station for the airship, and a small railroad between the mine (yes, there would be a mine) and the dock area.  Only the face lift and some of the minor detail items got completed before Ponape's last game.

The fortress received some battle damage, weathering, and various other details, most of which are not visible in any of the photos that I have. This is how the game looked at its last convention presentation.

 

Ponape proved to be a success, with players contacting me prior to conventions and arranging to bring their own colonial factions that would be worked into the storyline.  The games flowed more like a "B" movie than the typical wargame with homebrew rules that catered to the light-hearted flow of the games.

Ponape also proved to be a bear to transport, requiring about 90 cubic feet of cargo room with very careful planning and packing.   The cargo room problem was the primary reason for developing the next stage of Ponape, Mission to Pingalap, which used many of the components of  the original island, but reduced cargo volume.

Mission to pingalap is up next.

The Ships of Ponape: 28mm Colonial Gunboats

Some years ago, probably sometime in 1999, I began working on a 28mm colonial adventure game set in the South Pacific.  The idea was born roughly 17 years earlier, while watching the the movie Nate and Hayes.  The game was conceived as a Victorian adventure with miniatures, incorporating roleplaying, set generally in Micronesia.   The game, a sort of Darkest Pacifica,  included military contingents from various navies, shippers, traders, natives (both cannibals and not), antiquarian explorers, black-birders, gun-runners, pirates, jungle critters, mad scientists, dinosaurs, and anything else I could think to through in.

Players would run a faction (could be pirates, military contingents or various civilian groups) with around 12-25 figures, with a unique objective, and cooperate/trade/cheat/kill each other as required in an effort to achieve their objective.   Games would be loosely set in the 1880-1900 time frame, and most took place on a Spanish controlled island in the South Pacific.  I called the game "Ponape" after the island identified in the movie by the character, Ben Pease.

Anyway, while trying to reduce the number of old CDs and DVDs stacked around my computer, I recently came across a bunch of photos of the Ponape games and of the ships that I built for the various factions in the game.  Since I'm not really working on anything blog-worthy at the moment, I've broken the photos up by subject, and will post them in three or four blog entries over the next few days.  Here is the first, my 28mm colonial gunboats, ships,  and floaty things for getting around the Pacific.

The ship models are all caricatures of real ships.  Most are scratch-built from styrene sheet and/or bass wood.  I tried to make most spaces above the main deck, the bridge, and fighting areas of the ships accessible to players and figs.  The first ship was the Spanish gunboat, the General Concha.

The main gun was scratch-built from styrene sheet, strips, and tubing from Evergreen Plastic.

My version of the General Concha had a single 4,7 inch gun forward,  quick firing 3 pounders each broadside, and machinegun aft.  This is a picture of her in the first convention run of Ponape at Drums Along the Maumee 2000 in Toledo, Ohio.  I had forgotten my "water" drop cloth, so the bay featured a lovely wood grain  pattern. 

Possibly my favorite ship was the Euterpe, an Italian  torpedo boat, that I built for one of the guys.

The Euterpe is shown next the the General Concha.  She was so small that she  is actually just about a full size model in 28mm.  Besides the two torpedoes (made by Jack Shaw), she had a twin barrelled 25mm Nordenfelt, which I added after the initial delivery of the model. 

Shortly after building the Spanish boat, I added an American gunboat, and a French torpedo boat destroyer.  Unfortunately, I don't have too many photos of them.

This is the French torpedo boat destroyer, the Dunois, under construction.  My version would feature four 9-pounders.  She was heavily damaged while in my trunk, when my car was rear ended several years ago.  She has silently set on my workbench awaiting repair for at least six years.

Here are a couple more pics of the Dunois and the American gunboat, whose namesake I cannot remember at the moment.

Though they don't show up in the photos, the American ship (black hull with white superstructure in the foreground) has two guns forward in sponsons in the hull.  The entire main deck lifts off to expose the compartments below. 

The sailing ship was a quickie model slapped together from bass wood, and loosely based on a ship from Nate and Hayes.

Last is the German airship.  She never received proper detailing and was the first step into VSF for the Ponape game.

That is my daughter proudly presenting the airship many years ago.  The ship could be armed with two guns, either machineguns or 1 pounders.  The gondola was designed to be detached and could be affixed to a winged flying affair that converted it into the world's first seaplane.  The winged structure sets in a box, somewhere in my basement, never completed.

That's it for the ships.  Next up will be the island of Ponape.