The Mud Brick House.

The Mud Brick House by Renedra is a 1:56 scale model of a simple desert building that is probably one of the most useful and time proof models available. There is a deluxe version for £20, that has an extra sprue of details, such as an awning and domed roof, but mine is the £4 cheaper version.  Pretty much just the house then. Mud brick buildings like these have been built around the world for millenia.  I would be confident using it for games set in the Ancient Near East, in New Mexico and even for India.

I'm not sure what I expected for my £16, the building is solid, simple to construct, and actually a little bigger than expected.  My Wargames Foundry figures match it perfectly for scale. 

 What I didn't expect were the gaps, rift lines that simply won't glue together.  Time to reach for the polyfilla.

Once I had filled and smoothed it still looked terrible!

 Worse, because this is plastic, my normal acrylic paint refused to stick.  Cue some matt undercoat spray.  It was starting to look better.  

A quick coat of desert yellow and I was pretty happy, the house is beginning to look much more the part.  Still work to do on it of course.  All of which set me to thinking about what I was going to do with it. 

I enjoy games that have a strong narrative driving them and I made sure that when I collected my Egyptians I included a few packs of civilians.  

These will appear in any on table dwelling (so far that means my one desert house!), and an encounter will occur when any troops are within 6 inches of the settlement. Each character will have a motivation,  and a small back story will be composed to explain their presence.  I will keep a note of any and all civilians thus generated so that they can reappear in later games. 

At the end of each turn dice to see what happens to the Civilian.

Characters

1. A pair of monkey trainers and a Monkey fighting contest.
2. Slave girl collecting water
3. A rich merchant
4. A rich merchant’s wife
5. A young noble and his old retainer seeking to defect
6. A priest who will try to convert your men to the the Worship of Vectron
7. An escaped slave with vital information
8. A slave overseer looking for an escaped slave
9. A nobles nubile daughter, with a tray of sweetmeats.
10. A drunken Butler with a collection of wine amphora
11. A wise old lad drinking Egyptian beer and wanting to reminisce.
12. Two civilians appear, dice twice more.
13. A boy with a flock of goats.
14. A big and hungry crocodile appears in the exact centre of any river on table
15. Two slaves building a wall.
16. A burning bush that wants to talk to a Prince of Egypt.
17. A small fishing felucca, with an angry fisherman.
18. A farmer worrying about his crops
19. Ermintrude the Sacred cow, wandering about as usual
20. An escaped prisoner from the attacking army, who has knowledge of the enemies plans.

Character Motivation

6  The glory of Amun

5  looking for cash money

4  terrified

3  revenge

2  Appeasement of the foreigners

1  The power of love.

On dicing up a character and then fitting a motivation to them a backstory can be constructed, explaining the presence of this Civilian on the battlefield.  Some characters, such as the big crocodile, have obvious motivation.

Civilian end of turn actions D6

6  Stands

5  Flees

4  Hides

3  surrenders

2  fights

1  prays

Spank the Monkey

I didn't expect to get two of the Egyptian monkey handlers in my civilians packs.  I'm pretty sure one of these is a mistake.  No matter, I have re-invented the ancient Egyptian sport of Monkey Fighting, get your shekels down, it's a totally made up, ancient traditional sport.
Players must bet a (victory point) shekel each on the outcome.
Each monkey handler has their tunics lined blue and red to make it easy, so release your monkeys and dice...
Handlers dice for initiative, to see whose monkey has the most aggression, and the winner attacks first, in a simple IGOUGO game...

A Win: 5 or 6
6.  The monkey savages it's rival and wins outright.
5.  The monkey jumps onto it's rival and attempts monkey sex
The fight continues: 3 or 4
4.  The monkey throws it's poo at the audience
3.  The monkey waves it's monkey penis at the audience
A Loser: 1 or 2
2.  The monkey shows its arse and runs away.
1.  With a shriek the monkey bites it's handler, infecting him with biblical ebola.