Spyforce UK

Here is Bobs great fluff for his cast "Spyforce UK"

An updated British series based around the concept set out in the Australian TV series of the early 1970’s Spyforce. Spyforce UK follows the exploits of British Military Intelligence operatives around the world were British interests are being threatened.

The series centres on the action and adventures of lead character Major John Erskine MC and his main support character Academic Jill Steward PHD. The two are part of an elite unit of special operatives, the Special Intelligence Unit. Unlike most previous spy and war Spyforce UK deliberately steered away from the notion that the United States are the most important power in the world

Spyforce UK are military espionage action adventure in the format of a weekly, hour-long television mini-film. They are intended to highlight the important role played by British military intelligence forces in achieving victory in many difficult situations were British or Commonwealth issues are threatened so remain exciting and compelling. Despite being based upon a military intelligence setting, character development plays a key role in Spyforce UK  The way the main characters interact and change over time has been carefully scripted.

Unlike many previous spy and war films, particularly American ones, Spyforce Uk does not portray the protagonists as invincible, who always win an easy victory.  Indeed their human failings are made clear, and their plans do not always come to fruition.

The protagonists are members of a secretive special elite unit known as the Special Intelligence Unit, headed by Colonel Cato, who is only responsible directly to the British Prime Minister. Cato's unit which is outside MI5., MI6 and normal military Intelligence is responsible for covert operations, often behind enemy lines, during the 1960’s and 70’s.

As well as having access to all normal military equipment it also has access to material that has been found and developed by the Royal Society of Touchwood. Founded by Queen Victoria the Royal Society of Touchwood is a highly secret group set up to make use of items discovered during alien incursions of the World.

HG Wells had highlight one of these secret incursions in his book “War of the Worlds”. Treated as fiction it was based on fact, although the forces that attacked Britain were not Martians. Although initially limited by the technology and materials available on earth  continue use was made of the items.

During WW2 the technology was used to build world’s first practical electronic digital information processing machine ‘Colossus’ to break the Lorenz cipher machine which was more complex than the Enigma machine. The first Colossus machine arrived at Bletchley in December 1943 and made use of 1,500 thermionic valves (vacuum tubes).

Main characters

Major John Erskine MC is the hero and main protagonist of Spyforce UK. Erskine background is middle class having gone to a junior public school. His parents were both killed during a bombing raid in WW2. His father had owned his own engineering company that had done some work for the Royal Society of Touchwood. Erskine is an excellent soldier, although often prone to disobeying, or bending orders. He had gone to Sandhurst and joined the Middlesex Regiment before going into the SAS. He won his MC in Cyprus during the EOKA troubles. He also has a ruthless streak, but can be cold and calculating at times.

Erskine's main sidekick is Jill Steward. She is an Academic with a PHD in Ancient British and Viking History and undercover operative who is a master of disguise. She was born in Manchester, studied at Oxford and has contacts throughout the academic world. Stewart is a master linguist, fluent in five languages, and is also a firearms expert. She is an active re-enactor of the Viking age and can often be seen wearing clothes appropriate for a young Viking woman.

Steward has a crush on Erskine, and he an attracted admiration for her, but their relationship always remains platonic.

Colonel Cato is the Commanding Officer of the Special Intelligence Unit, and is directly responsible to the British Prime Minister. He is astutely intelligent, a clever strategist, very cunning and calculating, and is willing to do whatever is necessary to achieve his goals. Cato is not beyond bending the rules, and manipulates both Erskine and Steward. He is not seen in the hour-long television mini-film but his influence is always felt.

Mike French is a Technician who accompanies the team on its missions and deals with a wide range of mechanical and electrical equipment. He has some specialist tools provided by the Royal Society of Touchwood including a special screwdriver that uses ultrasonic frequency waves.

The team has a small group of Soldiers who provide covering fire and search capability when required.

SPYFORCE UK is brought to you by Oxmere Production Limited on behalf of 7TV studios and their owner Sidney Barron.

SPYFORCE UK forces are: -

1 x Military Mind Star,

1 x Investigative Academic Co-Star,

1 x Land Rover with 1 SMG-armed Driver,

1 x Rifle-armed Dog-Handler and Dog,

2 x Rifle-armed Soldiers

1 x Unarmed Technician. 

Game one: A SPACE Man's veiw

Okay so having done some fluff for episode one I feel I should also review my take on the action from a gaming perspective.

I think luck played a big part in this game for me, both good and bad. My opponent was Bob with his “Spyforce UK”. I will post Bobs background on Spyforce as soon as this is posted up, But he has a solid force with a strong military leaning, and a vehicle.

In many aspects the game for me lent on me winning the deployment and turn one roll. The aim of the game was obtaining as many of six intelligence markers  as possible. The markers had been distributed by one of our Warhammer Fantasy playing gamers and the side Bob was on had many more directly obtainable counters. Having won the roll I made the sensible option to swap sides and start first. RedStone has the infiltrate ability and a useful disguise kit meant Atlas also shared this. They deployed on Bobs side in cover and stealthy.  

Come turn one I did a very gamesman thing and used a effect and gadget to give Redstone 4*7” movement. Bob nullified one action but with 21” of movement I snatched a token that was right in front of him. Atlas activated off him as a bonus but really just ran for his home edge. My extras swooped in for two more tokens putting the game as a draw at worse.

In Bobs turn he fired at Redstone (actually a slip on both out parts as Redstone was stealthed at the time) but a “astonishing accuracy” card nullified this. His land rover sped forward and his “historical re-enactor” tumbled out to claim a token.

In Turn two I forget who went first but my tech and extras ran for it. Bobs hero and his driver moved in on a objective that sat next  to a tank of unknown goo.  Redstone realising that token was lost ran for the last token that was behind a fence. I viciously played a card to move Bobs Hero and a extra into the goo. This did them no harm but I found out was a lucky move.

Next turn it turned out that the extra was his driver. So while he swam back to the landrover,  Redstone scaled the fence and nabbed token six.

In the end then, it was a win 4-2 to me, but like I said a lot of it was down to luck.  

I admit the above will make more sense with pictures and Bob took some so I will post them as I get them.

In the post event I rolled snake eyes so this resulted in me losing my two solider extras. After replacing them I discovered that I couldn’t arm my tech, but I did give him a “Also Staring” role, which allowed him to wield a rifle. Finally I bout another solider.  This brings the cast for the next game to seven.

In an attempt to be authentic, I have elected to replace the models of the two solders. I am also changing the Tech model to reflect  his upgrade. Therefore I have four new models to paint before the next game that is slated for the 9^th December.

Finally and for fun here is the surviving cast of game one posing in front of a Mercury spacecraft prop.

Episode one

Hi All, Here is my battle report for the first game. Well its the fluff of the battle report. Later this weekend I will try and do the non fluff report.

Episode one Synopsis “Into the breach”

Plot

The nefarious VOSTOK had stolen a C-130 containing parts of a new upper stage booster vital to a Mars Mission. Luckily they were forced down but not before dumping the cargo across the Florida plains. Fortunately SPACE was nearby and raced to the scene.

With Titan unavailable due to “technical issues”, it fell to John and Franz to save the day. Spyforce, a British task force led by Col Cato were attempting to secure the booster, while taking a look for themselves.

A cordon was created and two parts were quickly secured by SPACE. Then John managed to power run from shadow to shadow to rescue a third. Spyforce drove their landrover  into the cordon and a mysterious lady took one of the components. Meanwhile Cato and his driver had crossed a chemical tank to get a second part of the booster but both had slipped in. While they were swing for the edge Franz tried to take aim at the drive but his conscious stopped him from taking the shot. Meanwhile John leapt over a fence in a single bound and secured the final piece. With the parts secure and the US Army drawing in the Spyforce retreated. Victory was SPACE’s and without a shot fired.

Production

The episode was filmed in an abandoned industrial complex. While considered a ratings success the show was marred with several major flaws. A unarmed tech was played by Mark Hamill and was seen in the original cut to grab a component of the booster and run behind a crate. NASA, who thought the episode would run too short, introduced a scene where the tech met a wondering boy and explained the importance of space. The dramatic performance of this piece convinced the show’s writers to expand Hamill’s role as the tech Matt Juno, A blond farm boy who studied hard to get a job in NASA. The increased pay for what was seen by the extras as corny acting resulted in the extras playing the solders to walk off the project. This increased costs for the next episode, Though one additional extra was hired.

Character Update

Matt Juno
DOB: 25/09/1951	Height: 5’7		Weight: 160lb		Gender: Male
Affiliation:  NASA	Rank: Level 3 Tech		From: Concord, California
Bio
Raised on a farm in Concord, Mattew Luke Juno was a normal American kid with a dream, a dream to be a scientist. Despite his humble upbringings he studied hard and never got into trouble, and managed to gain a university scholarship at Yale. As part of his course he was transferred to Whitesands as a contractor to work on T.I.T.A.N, then on to Cape Canaveral to assist Dr Atlas in R.I.S.T. When T.I.T.A.N was transferred into SPACE, it made sense for Juno to be transferred in, given his technical knowledge of both John Redstone and T.I.T.A.N.
Matt Juno		Mark Bacon-mill

Trivia:

The urban myth that the sound of the malfunctioning booster was ripped from Lou Reed’s experimental track “Metal Machine Music Part 2” is a false hood. While the two do sound similar, Lou Reed’s track was randomly generated 3 years after this show aired.

One of the extras who left was a young Laurence Fishburne who later describe the show as “worthless propaganda”

Series Overveiw

Hi all, We had the first game of the campain, but before I give the rundown here is the seris synopsis before the game:

Overveiw The S.P.A.C.E Man (also known as SPACE man and The SPACE man) was a spyfy TV show run between June 1970 and July 1973. The show followed the explotes of John Redstone, an agent of the fictional Special Protection of America aganst Criminality Exectutive. The Show lent heavely on the themes of TV shows like “the man from U.N.C.L.E” but displayed many ideas simalr to the “Six million dollar man” which was created a year or so after the shows ending. The SPACE man had some contriversy for its (at the time) secret funding from NASA. While the show was already in development as a more generic spyfy show, NASA financed the show and used it to harbour public support in the wake of the Apollo 13 acident. After Apollo 17 brought a end to the bulk of the apollo program NASA pulled funding. The show, now in its forth seris. Used heavy levels of product placement, but a public backlash ment the show was quetly canned halfway through its third series. The show follows a genral layout in each episode. John Redstone goes to investigate either stolen tech, personell or some sort of unexplaned phenomina, and it is revealed to be the work of VOSTOK, A blatently Russian crime group led by General Vlademeer Zond. In this format, the show had blatent scenes where the benifits of the American Space Program was explaned, The Vietnam War was patrioticly endorsed and communist and Russian thinking was deomonised. Several genuine Astronughts and high ranking generals guest stared in the show untill the NASA involvement was pulled.
Background Story Febuary 25th  1966, somewhere on on Route 13, Binh Duong provence Private Redstone is involved in a operation led by Captain Bowman to clear mines from the Rute 13. In a effort to save a fellow soilder, Redstone is shot then falls on a mine. He is shipped back to a MASH where he is delared alive but in a coma. He is shipped back statesie to his home at Lakeland, Florida.			The S.P.A.C.E logo, used on all SPACE hardware, vehicles and equipment
1968 NASA Scientist Franz Atlas its tasked to lead a team to create the ultimate force for good, using technology gained from the Murcury, Gemini and Apollo program’s. The test subject chosen I John Redstone, both to his pre injury character and the hopleness of his situation. Over the course of the year John Redstone is revived and augmented with superhuman strength, speed and a boosted IQ. While sucsessful, the program is limeted to just Redstone. 1969 After the moon landings a mysterious agent knowen only by his codename SATURN reports that American tech and moral is at jepordy from a Russian Crime organisation VOSTOK. The Terror groups leader is named as renigade general VLadameer Zond. SATURN reveals that VOSTOK agents are all over America, stealing tech and sowing fear. He is given leave to form S.P.A.C.E, a counter esponage unit linked to the CIA and FBI but under control of NASA. John Redstone is assigned their primary Agent and Atlas is assigned as their technical expert and johns Handler. Just before S.P.A.C.E becomes active, it is joined by T.I.T.A.N, A robot with advanced A.I as a body guard. The Trio, along with NASA tech’s and Army guards, begin operating as a mobile unit. Their mission, to thwart the plans of VOSTOK using any and all means at their disposal.
Characters
John Redstone
DOB: 12/11/1940	Height : 5’10		Weight: 260lb				Gender: Male
Afilliation: SPACE	Rank: Special Agent		From:  Lakeland, Florida
Bio: Born and raised on a Lakeland farm, John Robert Redstone was the youngest of three sons and two daughters. Having a strong aptitude for all things mechanical and taken by his fathers war stories he enlisted in the US Army and operated  a rome plow during the Vietnam conflict. It was during Operation Rolling Stone that, after narrioly escaping the destruction of his plow, he took a bullet to save the live of a close freind, then stubling, set off a mine. The damage should have killed him, but  he was left comatose and very badly damaged. After being shipped stateside to a vets hospital he showed no improvement, but was fortuanly selected for the Robotic Infanty Soilder Test (R.I.S.T), a  experement to create the ultimate soilder. On revial and recovery John’s physical atributes were increased 150% when compared to his enlistment results. John was left visably disfigured, with most of his body covered in a metallic synthetic covering and both eyes replaced with green glowing video cameras. He also can only operate for about 48 hours before he needs his fuel cells replaced or recharged (though he can survive on standby for a further 72 hours).  Due to his disfigurements, John elects to remain anonimous to his famly, and has dedicated himself to America and the elimination of VOSTOK.
Franz Atlas
DOB: 15/06/1921	Height:  5’8		Weight: 180lb			Gender: Male
Afilliation: SPACE	Rank: Technical Agent		From: Krefeld, Germany
Bio: Born to a wealthly Jewish famly, Franz Johanson Atlas was a child progedy. He excelled in the sciences, finding electronincs especialy to his liking. The Atlas famly emmigrated to Fort Wayne, Indiana in 1935 to escape Nazi persecution.  In 1943 Franz found himelf transfered to Oak Ridge to help out in secret projects their. By the end of world war two he has his PHD. His thesis was titled “ The use of electronincs in biological support systems”. He was involved in operation paperclip and from their was  transpered first to Whitesands, then was later secconded to Avero Arrow to help design the Gemini capsule. In 1968 he was transfered to Lakeland and placed under NASA as part of the R.I.S.T Program. On compleation of R.I.S.T he was breifly assigned to Cape Canaveral before being placed in S.P.A.C.E as their technicla agent. Dispite his age and academic brilliance, he his also a tallented painter, a marathon runner, a sharpshooter and a dab hand with the double bass.
T.I.T.A.N
D.O.C: 07/07/1969	Height: 7’2		Weight: 350 lb			Gender: N/A
Afilliation: USAF	Rank: N/A		From:  White Sands, New Mexico
Bio: T.I.T.A.N was a code word used for the United States Airforce’s verson of R.I.S.T. Rather than augment a human subject, the USAF created a pure robot with a advanced AI. Intended to be used in USAF space missions, its power limitations (simlar to Redstones’s) rendered it impractical for space operations. On hearing of SPACE, the USAF placed T.I.T.A.N at SPACE’s disposal on the ground of intelegence found was to be shared. T.I.T.A.N dose not stand for anything, more it was used so the accounts with the TITAN missles could be fuged to include this project.
Saturn
D.O.B: Classified	Height: Classified		Weight: Classified		Gender: Presumed Male
Afilliation: SPACE	Rank: Classified		From: Classified
Bio: The whisleblower on  VOSTOK and cordinator of SPACE. His heavaly distorted voice is only ever heard. His intellegence is usaly spot on. Little is knowen of him but he is suspected to be a high ranking FBI or CIA oprative.
General Vladamer Zond
D.O.B: 20/05/1919	Height: 5’6		Weight: Classified			Gender: Male
Afilliation: VOSTOK	Rank: General		From: Moscow, Russia
Bio: A prominate proponent of the RIssian Space Program. VOSTOK is his pet project to gain intel on American Space hardware and to demoralise the Americam populas. Thought responsible for the consperasys surounding Roswell and some of the kennedy assasination theroys. Never directly seen but almost all SPACE’s antagonists are agents of his organisation.
CAST
Character		Actor
John Redstone		Rob Brun
Franz Atlas		David Krissiff
T.I.T.A.N		Peter Matthew
Saturn / T.I.T.A.N		Peter Dawkins (Voice Only)