Regicide in Kirriemuir

Saturday 17th March


                                       I was flattered to get an invitation to the bi-annual game hosted by the League of Gentlemen Wargamers in the sleepy town of Kirriemuir today and even after a few hours sleep as Lady Watson through the guise of a birthday present had bequeathed me a ticket to see the band Yes on the Friday evening, enthusiastically jumped into my car and headed north through the flurries of snow.
                                   I arrived in plenty of time to be introduced to one and all,Twelve others to be precise,and here the premise of today's shenanigans.Colin Jack had devised a Very British Civil War game loosely on what I can only say was similar to Kingmaker,a War of the Roses game involving roving around Britain dispatching monarchs.
                                             Our game was played in the local Guide hall and the actual hall had been set up with a multitude of tables depicting Britain from the Scottish borders through to York with various cities and towns used as bases for the various factions involved.The idea was to attack and capture resource centres that Colin had placed around the board in order to gain points for the purpose of replacing losses and building new units.

Whitby

Hartlepool

York

Preston-I know the pubs a bit lost.

Jedburgh

Outskirts of Berwick with Charles's fire engine

                                                 

Colin touting for business in Alnwick.

Lancaster

  Once again just like another classic boardgame,this time Diplomacy,you were allowed to confer with other players not necessarily from your own faction which threw up over the weekend some very unusual alliances which in the real world I would imagine would be the norm.Various personage from the time cropped up through random events and we would end up with a mass cull of celebrities over the weekend.

Colin gives the initial briefing whilst James hunts for his Morris dancers.

                                                         I had met most of the participants on my gaming trips but I was introduced to a few more in the guise of Charles Grant,a literary rival of Black Angus Konstam who took the part of the Bishop of Durham(nuff said),his son Charlie,Kieron,Kevin,James and Chris.
                                                    All factions were divvied up by Colin Jack usually along everybody's way of thinking but some like myself giving a faction just to wind me up.These factions all had a town or a city as a starting and regeneration point for reinforcements.

Carlisle cinema showing a film that hadn't been filmed at this time.

Downtown Carlisle

My gorgeous Henschel-never used.

                                                Dale Smith,Peter Nicholson and Charles were given charge of the Scottish forces based in Dumfries,Jedburgh and Berwick respectively.Colin,James and myself took commnd of the B.U.F forces in the cities and towns of Alnwick,Newcastle and Carlisle with our partner in crime Steve isolated in the city of Preston.Representing the Anglican league in the north,we had Black Angus ensconced in the city of Durham with his partner in crime Kieron Potts who took over the guise of the Archbishop of York for the weekend..Chris was given charge of the solitary communist force on the board residing in the sunny hotspot of Hartlepool.Charlie and Bill Gilchrist were given command of the Albertine forces in Lancaster and Penrith respectively.Kevin Calder was given charge of the G.P.O and was responsible for passing messages between rival factions.

"How's it going boys?"

The gorgeous and well endowed Lady Jayne Rossett and her erstwhile spouse.

                                        After a brief introduction from Colin outlining the use of random events ,personalities and any other agenda we all conspired and confabbed amongst each other making alliances and agreements that would only last until the first bullet was fired as Dale was about to find out.

Resource centre north of Carlisle.

                             Dale had stated that he was going to head for the resource point situated just north of \Carlisle intimating that he was not going to move any further south and that I should move against the resource point situated north of Bill's town.I agreed with him but had my fingers crossed behind my back not wishing to inform him of my real intent.I had conferred with fellow Fascist James Roach and together we planned to combine some of our forces and attack Bill's Albertines whilst keeping forces in our home ports to deter aggressors meaning in my case putting a spanner in Dale's works.

The attack on Dale commences.

"Forward men of Carlisle!"

                                                   Our initial moves looked promising but I kept on harking back to two basic rules in that plans only last to the first bullet and newly painted figures always get wasted and true to form both rules came back to kick me in the teeth.James and my contingents met north of Penrith and moved against the resource point only to be repulsed painfully by Bill's defenders.To add  more discomfort to my already hurt pride Dale had taken over his stated target and by the time I got anywhere near he had embedded himself in and repulsed my amorous intentions with ease.It was going to be a long weekend for the Fascisti.

The combined attack goes in

Well supported

The opposition

                                                    All participants headed off for their respective targets.Some of them with the holiest of agreements and some with the unholiest i.e the bishop of Durham having an alliance with the Reds of Hartlepool in order to rid Newcastle of its Fascisti inhabitants which saw James hanging on by tooth and nail so much so that he had to enlist the help of the local Morris dancers.His only saving grace was that on finding an airfield he was given air support which he used with relish.

The Red cyclists out for a day's trip through Durham.

Another view

The Morris dancers come to Newcastle's aid.

James's needed support.

Morris dancers and Grenadier Guards-interesting combination.

                                                        Up in Scotland,Dale after his initial disgust over finding that I was not going to go along with his plans found that he himself was being shot in the back by Peter's forces advancing from Jedburgh.Typical Scots if you can't find somebody to fight with just fight amongst yourselves.Resources were a bit more thin on the ground in Scotland so provision had to be made and Peter needed resources.There's nothing much in Jedburgh at the best of times,apart from a good chip shop.Not that there is much more in Dumfries.Colin's Alnwick lads or in true Colin fashion Alnwick lasses were heading out to forage in the nearby countryside hoping to increase his ill gotten gains but was being harassed in  the side courtesy of Charles who's contingent were graced by a fire enginr straight out of a Disney film_ah well needs must.

The Alnwick girl's choir.

                                                       Meanwhile Angus's alliance with the Red's saw Chris's forces heading north to deal with the Fascisti enclave situated in Newcastle and like the rest of this fellow BUF found himself with a weekend of backs to the wall.Typical of British ideals in that who cares who your fellow bedmates are as long as the Fascists are dealt with.

Charles's employs his Berwick fire-engine.

                                                                   Further south the Albertines under Charlie,Kieron's Anglicans and poor picked on Steve and his BUF were striving to get the upper hand with Kevin's GPO trying at all costs to get the mail through.His brief was to make sure that all letters and telegrams passed between factions would get through but alas somebody took offence and destroyed the mailvan which resulted in Kevin gleefuly ripping up all letters and telegrams ensuring that the mail did not get through.

The mail van comes to a sticky end resulting in all mail being destroyed-literally!

                                                   Up in Carlisle my forces decided to advance to the rear to consolidate or in technical terms,lick their wounds.At this point Colin informed us all that we could all partake of an armoured car or a small tank which annoyed Bill as it meant he couldn't bring his big gun festooned tank on to the field.I was happy with that as my armour consisted of a Panzer I complete with two measly machine guns whilst everybody else had gun armed vehicles.I must remember to buy proper gun armed tanks in future.

"Hi Mom"

Dreaded Dumfries tank.

Bill's Red built tank with the evil Bishop of Durham in the background conferring with the evil Reds 

French tank-German markings-nuff said.

"A wandering minstrel I"

Alnwick firepower-Yes it's Colin's.

                                                   I sent my tank south to support our faltering attack on Penrith keeping out of the way of Bill's gun armed T26 only to find that Dale had acquired a gun armed French tank which was heading for the outskirts of Carlisle from the north.An antitank weapon was required and came in the form of an antitank rifle.

My two boys with a Boyes.

Getting a bead.

"Booyah!"

                                              Weighing up my options I decided to send the anti tank rifle to deal with Bill's tank in order to free my Panzer to help attack Bill's now fortified resource centre.Voila!After a couple of shots Bill's T26 was smouldering away so I moved my Panzer only for it to be targeted by Bill's mortar and with an extremely  lucky shot dispatched.Thus endeth my armour participation for the weekend as I was only drawing meagre resources from Carlisle and this was being used to refill the ranks of my fallen comrades.To add insult to injury Bill came onto possession of a Gloster Gladiator which proceede to fly unhindered over the battlefield looking for targets of opportunity.

"Shisser!"

                                                         

King of all he surveys.

  Dale somehow had come into the possession of the man himself King Edward VIII and being the true Scot tried to sell him off to interested parties and found himself with no takers  as most of us had little money to spend so after being rebuffed by everyone decided in true republican style to line him up against a wall and shoot him which drew ghastly comments throughout the remainder of the game and even the evening's social get together.

King Edward VIII-Defiant to the end.

                                               

Bill comes under possession of the Archbishop of Canterbury and his entourage.

  As the day drew on the fighting from the Buf Perspective was a "backs to the wall"scenario as James and myself having been rebuffed by Bill's Albertines in the west were finding our own safe havens being attack respectively by two different alliances.James was being beseiged by the unholy alliance of Black Angus's bishop of Durham and Chris's Reds under the beds whilst Peter had come to an agreement with Dale and was engaging my infantry albeit with a smirk on Peter's face as I think he had an ulterior motive involving his fellow countrymen.

Charles takes some resources.

Whilst Peter goes for a stroll in the Kielder Forest

As his tank is about to doublecross Dale.

                                         

The Red tide supporting the GPO in the process.

The butchers,bakers and milkman take care of the job in hand.

Kieron's Anglicans on the mooch.

Charlie deals out pain.

And invests in new business.

Steve makes a valiant effort to last out the day.

  Down south of Durham the game was taking on a more fluid game so much so that they were playing a move ahead of the slogging match in the north.Steve's BUF were finding it hard going against the attentions of the southern Albertines and Anglicans.Charlies' Albertines were finding it hard to hold onto his home port of Lancaster whereas Steve would find out to his cost later that he would be evicted from Preston.Keiron was lording it over everybody as the Archbishop of York.Chris was moving most of his motley band of cyclists,cavalry and Spanish Civil War experienced infantry north whilst keeping a sharp eye on interlopers from the south.

Chris's Red cycling display team.

The Red bus of death'

                                               My only help came in the form of an artillery piece but as soon as it arrived it drew the attentions from all sides.It didn't help that I had placed it behind my HQ and couldn't target anybody but it finally done some damage before being destroyed.

My HQ blocking my gun.

                                             The day was drawing to a close and the thought of ale and steakpie was filling my mind so I consolidated my forces in Carlisle hoping for Sunday morning inspiration or heavenly intervention in order to further the BUF cause.

Colin's armour protects Barter Books at Alnwick station.

Whilst his girl's frolic at Alnwick castle.

                                              We finished the first day just in time to head for the Airlie Arms hotel for an evening of food,ale,gin and a good social chit chat recounting a good day's play.

Archbishop of York waiting to use phone or ordering a Caffe Latte?

/                                            Join us again for Sunday's day of entertainment which will consist of Royal Trains,Swords in the Stone,aeroplanes abound,Morris Dancers dying to the last bell,the Archbishop of Canterbury being Hurricaned to death,Princess Lizzie pleading with the Archbishop of York to crown her, who is still staring into a phone box waiting on his Starbucks and Wallis Simpson singing her heart outing the Cheviot Hills.
                                      See You All When I See You!
                                          Love from Kirriemuir.