Retour des Paras.

Place- Once again Northern Algeria 

Time-19fiftyodds +1week.

Le Bataille est Terminee.

    Back to the casbah this week with another chance for the French Paras to evict the locals from their meagre abodes this time with two new colonels in charge namely Comrade Gilchristi and Le skulker hoping to improve their tres petit chances.I was expecting them to crawl towards the village but they charged right in but they were just flattering to deceive.

The Peaceful Hilltop.

With The Peaceful Village Underneath.

And the picturesque Oasis.

  I deployed our freedom fighters into their positions so that the evil colonists would have to dig them out and waited until they were up close and personal before we sprang our traps.The evil colonists arrived into the village and emptied their trucks full of paras in order to scourge the village of innocent civilians but they had all been sent into hiding in order for our glorious resistance to halt the imperialists.The paras came into contact with one of our heroic squads in a nearby courtyard and proceeded to waylay them but not without taking casualties themselves.If they were going to take the village it was going to cost them.

Here Come The Evil Colonists.

Crawling On Their Bellies.

Roaring Like A Lion.

     Just as the French were crowing over their “inevitable “victory one of squads rushed the armoured car,put it on fire which was quickly extinguished and then caused to break scurrying back towards their start line by their rolling of a double six causing a FUBAR,bit of French stereotype there.No sooner had the squad waylaid the armoured car when they proceeded to do away with the para squad hunkering down in a nearby courtyard. 

Looking Like The All Conquering Hero.

Sneaking Through The Oasis.

Playing French Tunes At The Captured Radio Station.

The very sneaky imperialists tried to catch us unawares by dropping a squad of paras behind the village hoping to destroy our mortar and take some property not belonging to them.This only drew the ire of our armoured vehicle which was waiting for such a ploy.As soon as the paras landed in the oasis they were engaged by a brace of machine guns making the paras all eat sand and keeping them immobile for the rest of the game as comrade Gilchristi couldn’t move them for love nor money.

Attacking With Guns ,Stones And Dice.

Helping The Besieged.

Cowering Behind Cover.

          The very unentente cordial decided that since they’re slow moving squad at the rear had had enough rest after taking over the radio station they would move forward to evict a few small squads from the outlying buildings of the village hopefully without casualties.That plan didn’t last for long as one of our hidden squads opened up on them as soon as they broke cover doing away with one of the paras in the process.This stopped them in their tracks and forced them to turn round and engage my heroic freedom fighters.The very unlucky freedom fighters were done with without pity but took a few of the imperial lackeys with them in the process.This forced the remaining paras to cower in the building remaining there for the remainder of the game.

Our Valiant Armoured Support.

Avant!

         

Et Apres!

The French support had taken over a nearby field and set up their support weapons in set field where again they remained for the remainder of the game taking cowardly shots at my lads who were minding their own

Run Away!

Ambushing Des Paras.

The Oasis Crawlers Coming To A Halt.

business.We did fire back at them but only when they were fired at by the enemy.The French also thought to try and bring their retreating armoured car back into the fray but alas as soon as it appeared near the village again the freedom fighter bazooka team hit it,forcing it a halt and immobilising it in the process.

Beginning To Laugh At The French.

Slowly Making It’s Way Back Into The Fight.

The French Covering Their Backs.

      The writing was on the wall for the evil overlords as their infantry and armour had no intention of moving to contact leaving their support teams to take occasional cruel pot shots at our lads who were just going about their daily duties.

Still Clueless.

              Another stagnation for the French who were jumping for joy when they heard the result was a score draw.Herr O’Brien would be having a heart attack.

         Great game played with the usual hot air blasting out from both sides.I personally preferred Bolt Action rules as it makes the game go quicker unless you have the Unentente Cordiale on the other side.All figures,scenery and scenario with the exception of a couple of squads pressganged from my Cuban militia squads.Scifi next week probably using Xenos Rampant rules.

Flattering to Deceive.

This has been a Garvald Film Production.

Alez Les Paras!

Place-Northern Algeria(backlot of Garvald Film Studios ) Time- 19fiftyodds.

Mr Ray’s Rabble.

       El Presidente had informed us that this week’s participation game would take us back to French Algeria in the fifties.I was frothing at the mouth with the prospect of the game only to find out that we would be using Xenos Rampant rules which took the edge of my anticipation.These are El Presidente’s go to rules at the moment but not mine I’m afraid and especially with a counter-insurgency game but it was El Presidente’s dojo.

       

The Village of Sad Sidi.

 

Les Paras Arrivent.

The Sneaky Mortar Position 

Participators this evening were the Duke of North Berwick Herr O’Brien and our favourite rock star Mr Ray.From what I’ve read about the French in Algeria there was no quarter given especially in house clearances so being in charge of Les Paras my plan was for a systematic search of all houses and use my armoured car against any resistance.The vagaries of these rules where that you can only do one thing for free and the rest you have to command and if they fail it’s turn over.

Creeping up.

Cannon Fodder

Ou -est le Camion?

             I moved up my trucks covered by the armoured car and immediately they took mortar fire from a distant village which managed to waylay one of my trucks.Luckily there was nobody in it as I was just using them to draw fire .My lads were having to “leg”it and the problem with this was they had to be commanded to walk so they had a few naps whilst waiting for a decent die roll as decent die rolls were the prerogative of Herr O’Brien at the start of the evening.My armoured car drew real first blood by decimating the mortar crew.The first two buildings proved to be empty so we carried on heading towards the enemy.

The Object Of Every Frenchman’s Desire.

Pub break was called and we trooped off for some ale and repast which came in the form of pheasant,can’t ask for anything more.

Mr Ray’s Big Hitters.

Merde!

Still taking their time.

         The second half kicked off with my infantry being a bit lethargic in moving up especially as El Presidente’s squad came under fire from a hidden unit stopping them in their tracks and forcing them to cower behind a wall.Mr Ray’s men joined in the fray with a bazooka shot at my armoured car thankfully just fizzling out short of the target.

L’Avion pour Les Paras.

       

Voila!

 

Algerian Traffic Jam.

Time for our reinforcements which came in the form of a para dropped squad on the guerillas flank hoping to dislodge more bad guys.Herr O’Brien had made a side comment about mines which made me wonder where but no out of course explosions were heard but I decided to err on the side of caution and keep away from wide open spaces so the armoured car and the other two trucks trundled up the main road.

Embuscade!

Une Autre Embuscade.

Algerian Armour?

             The guerilla’s armour appeared in front of my newly landed paras in the form of a Land Rover with machine guns peppering my poor defenceless paras but the paras gave us good as they got eventually pushing the vehicle back and giving them space to clear another building with gunfire.

Finally Into Action.

Ditto.

And Moving Up.

           The guerilla bazooka finally made contact with the armoured car and made it dissolve in a puff of smoke which was just as we were getting the upper hand.Luckily full time was called resulting in a score draw.

At Last.

Engaging Les Paras.

Booya!(In Algerian)

        A good game but I still am not happy with the rules.All figs,scenery and scenario provided by El Presidente.

      This has been a Garvald Film Studio Production.

Four Nations Get Together

 Time- 1944ish.

Place-Somewhere in Italy.

          Tonight’s skirmish found us in sunny Italy with a get together between 4 nations-3 of them being saccir world cup winners and Canada.Italy were the hosts backed up by their German allies and they were confronted by some Canadian armour with Brazilian infantry in support-only in El Presidentie’s world.

Rural Italy complete with arm!

      Tonight’s attendance was graced by my partner in crime Herr O’Brien with whom I divvied up the allies and batting for the other side were Comrade Gilchristi and Oor Andrew who was a late arrival. The axis of evil players had the benefit of putting their forces into hidden positions in order to hide their shortcomings.Their ‘shortcomings‘included a Tiger tank.

Before.

After!

       Our tactics were basically to flush out the incumbent defenders of the town hoping not to incur too many casualties.My first move was to send up my armoured car to draw fire which it did uncovering a couple of emplaced guns which proceeded to open fire and although the first one missed the second shot struck the vehicle setting it on fire but this was quickly put out by the gallant Brazilian crew.The reason we had Brazilians were due to El Presidente’s love of being different and yes they did partake in WW2 albeit under American command. 

Half tracks and tanks laden with dice.

Moving forward(with care).

       This flushed out some of the defences so the next phase was to flush out the Tiger so we sent in our Shermans as cannon fodder hoping to pinpoint its lair.This led to the usual traffic jam that occurs at the start of a Bolt Action game with unit arrival but it did bring the Tiger out of its lair as it was soon spotted lumbering down the strada princepale hunting for its prey.Also making its presence known was an Autoblinda armoured car which proceeded to take potshots at my stranded armoured car hindering my crew from restarting it.

Start of a traffic jam.

Watching and waiting (in Italian).

        Pizza and beer break arrived so we all trudge out towards the local taverna looking for sustenance to see us through the second half.

Aircraft fodder.

Trying to get passed some petulant Italians.

       The second half kicked off the same as the first half ended with a tit for tat shooting match between the Tiger and two Shermans.I was hoping to move up the flank of the Axis defenders but the threat of the Italian guns up ahead slowed my actions. Time for a bit leverage which came in the form of an air strike.After some deliberation I decided on pinpointing the Italian field gun as it was not only adjacent to the armoured car but also an Italian mortar that had been waylaying my poor advancing Brazilian infantry which had already had drew the attention of some hidden Italian infantry ensconced in some fallow field.

“We’re on our way “

Sneaky!

      The air support duly arrived and done away with the gun crew as well as pinning the mortar and the armoured car therefore time to move forward and waylay the enemy successfully doing away with the German anti tank gun in the process.The problem with that was being that it was just about time for the final whistle which duly arrived resulting in another score draw and a humongous traffic jam at the allied rear.

Moving up on mass.

      Another great game played out in the usual cantankerous way.All toys,scenery and scenario provided by El Presidente.

The Brazilians move up.

             See You All When I See You.

       This has been a Garvald Film Studio Production.