Hungarian Bridge Too Far.

Wednesday 25th September

                                               This month's gaming came to its conclusion with a return to the WW2 struggle between Hungarians and Soviets circa 1944.This is another of Colin's fav periods and on arrival at the Garvald Film Studios we were introduced to a games table with for once didn't have much scenery meaning cover was going to be at a premium and this was going tobe crucial to this evening's game.

Not a lotta cover!

The Gallant Hungarians

The evil Soviets.

                                  As I said Colin had set up a game between Hungarians and the evil Soviet invaders and involved the struggle for another bridge.At first there was only myself and Bill Gilchrist to fight over the bridge as Dave O'Brien was on babysitting duties and Andrew working.The scenario that Colin had devised involved Soviets(Bill of course)holding the bridge and myself having to evict him from the premises.Entrance points for the Soviets were planned before the game by Bill and lo and behold they turned up without any hindrance behind my much maligned Hungarians.

"This is the plan(in Hungarian).

The only obstacle to success.

My Turan tank.

                                   

"Onward to victory(in Hungarian)

 My plan was to race to the bridge before Bill could react and stake my claim for the arrival point of my reinforcements but fate and the good(lucky)dice rolls of the Soviets shot that idea down in flames.Bill's emplaced gun opened fire on my infantry squad making them duck and move very slowly towards their objective.After this Comrade O'Brien arrived and took charge of the menacing Soviet tanks which appeared piecemeal right behind my Tiger tank and my Hungarian Turan tank and lo and behold after a few turns turned both my tanks into scrap metal.It was going to be a long night -again!

"What The?"

Even with dragging these dice behind them they still caused damage abound.

                                            Pizza and beer time arrived with the Hungarians hanging on for dear life and hoping for some respite with Andrew's reinforcements and hopefully good dice rolls-HAH!The pizzas and the ale were quaffed and we trooped back to the Garvald Film Studios and the culmination of our game.Since I hadn't achieved my turn three objective of ownership of the bridge,Bill was given  the choice of  access points for my reinforcements and lo and behold they appeared on the other side of the table.

This weeks half-time entertainment!

And it's f'ng noisy!

                          Andrew was in charge of the reinforcements but as usual his dice rolling wasn't very good,in fact "barn door"rung a bell.The reinforcements came on as far away from the action as you can imagine but not as far away from the range of the Soviet tank guns as one would have liked so as soon as our Hungarian crewed Panzer 1V arrived on the scene it drew fire from all parts of the field and being no real cover it was just a matter of time before it turned into scrapmetal.

Boom,Boom,Boom!

                                 

The pizza infused reinforcements.

 The only positive aspect of the evening for the Hungarians was when Bill decided to rush our HQ unit which was ensconced in about the only decent wood on the board with his Soviet female section and for once Bill's dice were found wanting ending the hopes and dreams of the ladies.Revenge was sweet as every machine gun on the Soviet tanks was turned on the wood and the demise of the HQ squad was inevitable.

Directing the play.

And dealing with the girls.

Hoping not to draw fire.

                                                Our last piece of armour arrived on the board in the shape of a autocannon armed Nimrod tank which was basically an anti aircraft tank therefore it was only going to scratch the paint of the Soviet tanks and therefore was kept in as much cover as we could find.It did do away with the Soviet machine gun but alas that was its only success but at least it survived the evening.

Dave about to take a pot shot at my tank.

Bummer.

                                There was nothing left of my forces on my side of the river and Andrew's beleaguered  forces were drawing the amorous attentions  of the Soviet gunfire so we decided it was time for a tactical withdrawal and therefore the field of battle was left into the care of the Soviets.
 Another great game which would have been better if all the Soviet tanks hadn't arrived at once shooting the Hungarian plans down in flames-literally!

Bill gloats.

To the glorious Soviet motherland-or something like that.

                                                                Many thanks for Colin for putting on the game and supplying all the  figures,scenery(what there was of it)and scenario.
                                       See You All When I See You as I won't be gaming next week due to the worky thing.Well I have to pay for all that unpainted lead somehow.