Callejon sin Salida(Slippery Slope)

Fecha-Miercoles Agosto 6th

Lugar-Spanish Slopes of Garvald.

Welcome to my post which was three months waiting for to be able to add photos due to Google’s petulance telling me my photos couldn’t be uploaded but after three months “Hey Presto!”the only good thing that came of my phone updating.

     El Presidente had done a deal with Count Konstam of Orkney for the purchase of an awful lot of Spanish Civil War figures which was much to my dismay for if I had known they were on the market I would have gazumped him as the Spanish Civil War has been always been one of my fancied eras for which I have always considered a slippery slope meaning it would probably commence a huge spending spree.

Nacky Wee Armoured Car.

The only “Spanish”scenery that El Presidente possessed.

         Not to let the figures go to waste El Presidente had set up a game but due to people not being let out or designing new ways to thwart the traffic in our local theme park we found ourselves going mano a mano in a basic skirmish with the object to be the last man standing.

My Guardia Civile enthusiastically heading towards their first battle.

The Fascisti.

A certain journalist who would rather be in Key West.

I took charge of the Republicans whereas El Presidente took charge of the Nationalists hoping to end the insurrection quickly.My plan was my normal plan to charge in and take possession before the Republican norm of indecision set in .Un pequeno pueblo was set up and the main object was possession of the majority of buildings so of we charged rapidamente.

Heading for cover.

A precariously positioned machine gun.

Digging In.

    The first two turns consisted of both of us running towards the nearest buildings interspersed by our own visit to the local taverna for some Portuguese culinary delights-near enough.

More Evil Fascisti.

Dropping Bombs.

Rallying around the flag.

        Basically the rest of the game consisted of shooting to gain some advantage before charging in and doing away with the enemy.My problem is that El Presidente was having better luck with his yellow dice and the sixes were just rolling off especially when it came to shooting down my poor socialists just as they were preparing to rush a building. I was hoping to deplete the opposition before charging in but high numbers didn’t exist in my dice rolls therefore my first hand to hand consisted of six against ten and force of numbers won the day.First blood to the fascisti.

They Seek Him Here They Seek Him There.

The Armour Makes An appearance.

I Thought It Said Groucho Marx.

           The game then fizzled out to a shooting match with El Presidente gaining the upper hand and then to add insult to injury he brought on a tank albeit a Panzer 1 which I suppose is an asset if the opposition don’t possess any way of dealing with it apart from suicidal charges but all it did was strut up the village main street.My reinforcements consisted of some brightly coloured infantry to which I was informed were militia-not much hope then especially as they were classed as green.They headed for a building that had recently been vacated by one of my depleted Assault guard squads and had enough time to shoot once and be shot at before the final whistle was blown.

Rallying My Troops.

Rounding The Corner.

Last Stand Of The Righteous.

         An enjoyable game with scope for some future games to complement our VBCW games.All recently procured figures as well as scenery provided by El Presidente.

            See You All Soon.

       This has been a Garvald Film Studio production.

Flaming H**L

Time- Wednesday 2nd July

Place-Iwo Jima(so I’m led to believe)

My Lads Sunbathing.

Turned up at Schloss Garvald hoping for a nice leisurely silly game only to be confronted by a table set up for the Marines to invade not the proper Royal Marines but the bunch from across the pond.Hoping for an easy evening I was informed that there would be no support from either aircraft or naval gunfire.It was going to be a long evening or not as it turned out to be.

The Tori gate objective.

The Jungle and The Deadly Cliffs.

Here We Go.

          Herr O’Brien had played the game the previous week so knew the skinny about the game as he proved to lethal effect.After the beach merged into the local jungle we also had to contend with bunkers situated on top of very precarious cliffs.

Olympic Style Sprinting.

“I Am The One And Only “

Our Only Successful Squad.

         Oor Andrew and myself took charge of the Marines with myself leading the marines gung ho style up the beach whilst Andrew was the man in charge of the armour.I moved all the infantry up the left side of the beach hoping to get into cover quickly with Andrew moving the armour up the other side which in reflection was not the best idea as it split our forces up.I had worked on the principle that that Herr O’Brien would be a sneaky chappie and have numerous calamities waiting for us in the jungle and lo and behold he did.As soon as one of our tanks moved into the jungle it was attacked by a squad of Japanese infantry which were probably akin to berserkers and proceeded to clamber all over it hoping to do away with it swiftly.

Lurking In The Jungle.

Looking For A Lucky Shot.

Looking For Cover.

     Meanwhile on the other side the only piece of armour in the Japanese inventory appeared in the form of a Ho-Ni tank which was basically self propelled artillery armed with a gun and nothing else not even a machine gun which did help to provide it’s demise as although it was initially successful in doing away with one of our Shermans it’s own defensive frailties resulted in it being fried by our flamethrower team .Revenge!

Revenge Time.

First To Fall.

Banging on The Side.

        Meanwhile on the other side the continuing attacks from the Japanese infantry proved fruitful in doing away with another Sherman.In the middle of the beach one of our infantry squads was being pinned down and whittled away by every Japanese support weapon that could be brought to bear including a direct hit from a mortar which sounded the squads death knell.Hopefully our other squads would prove more successful-nope!Watch this space!

Finally Opened Up.

Fried Ho-Ni.

         The first of our remaining squads finally reached the edge of the jungle only to be confronted by another hidden Japanese infantry squad so after a few skirmishing shots which gave the Japanese squads a couple of casualties I charged in hoping numerical superiority would count-nope!My squad was wiped out. 

Another Kamikaze Squad.

       Our third squad also met the same fate so once again it was down to my flamethrower team to exact revenge,which they did but it still left us with one tank and a few support squads left so full time was called rather quickly.

Cleaning Up.

“No I’m Not Smiling-Much!”

         Another great game which shows that charging in rugby style doesn’t always work.All figs,scenery and scenario provided by El Presidente as well as an excellent repast due to the local hostelry having the cheek to take summer holidays.

      Samurai I believe next week with Comrade Gilchristi and Cheif Skulker wanting to check rules and playtest.Sounds like an occasion for bickering.

     See You When I See You.

     This has been a Garvald Film Studio Production.

Ever A September Winter

 Wednesday 18th September 194ish

The Vast Snow Fields of Garvald.

Temperature-A Balmy 21.

         

                 El Presidente had decreed that he had convalesced enough and demanded we headed out to Garvald for a game or something along these lines.Most of us acceded to these demands and traipsed out to El Presidente’s Manor House with wives in tow.The wives plan was to down Shiraz by the bucket full and to call into question the habits of their erstwhile spouses.

            Game wise found us back into the snowy expanses of Finland with another game of Finns evictingsomebody from the premises this time it was the Germans’ turn.To save the Finns a mauling they were informed by the Soviets that the Germans would have to be sent packing so we found ourselves re-enacting this event.Chief Skulker and myself took charge of the defenders whilst the Finns came under the guidance of El Presidente,Comrade Gilchristi and Herr O’Brien.

                    The game was to take seven turns so the German’s plan was to hunker down and hang on to the end.Our main defensive asset was a Panzer iv so our plan was to have it take out the enemy’s T34 and solve all our problems.The problem with that was getting our tank into a position to take out the enemy tank wasn’t as simple as that as it kept on taking minor hits from its nemesis giving it little chance to do anything.

                The Finns came forward in what was basically a long skirmish line across the snow so the defenders just shot at anything that moved hoping to pin them down.I spotted Herr O’Brien moving a machine gun into a nearby wood so I peppered it with gunfire and sent it on its merry way towards the casualty pile.First blood to the Germans but this just raised the hackles of the Finns and they continued to move forward in the deep snow-the majority of them clad in skis.My partner in crime had for once had some forward thinking and moved a squad of mountain troops into a wood for some forward defence which was unusual as his plans are usually just to dig in and hope for the best.

         My mortar came into play and began its consistent evening of missing the barn door whilst the rest of our squads just fired on anything that moved including the sniper team of Herr O’Brien which was edging its way into firing range .Little did I know that both the Finnish sniper teams went to the same finishing school as my mortar.The T34 now came out to bat and edged its way towards its prey mainly my tank and although it tried hard it couldn’t even scratch the paintwork.I saw this as an opportunity to close in with our Panzerschrek team but lo and behold it missed leaving them stuck out in the  middle of no mans land inviting repercussions from all around.These repercussions came in the form of accurate gun fire from the Finns and saw the team heading for the dead pile.

         Our stoic defenders were handling themselves well and pining down the advancing Finns but I thought that the gunfight between the tanks was going to be the most important event of the evening as this meant the victorious tank would be able to run amok amongst the remaining infantry as with one lucky shot Chief Skulker had done away with the Finnish panzerschrek team.

          Fortune began to sway the other way as El Presidente’s mortar began to hit paydirt,firstly with the demise of our machine gun team and then with a fortunate hit on one of my squads who were hunkering behind a wall peppering them with squad decimating shrapnel.Not so good.We kept up our gun fire and done away with a couple of infantry squads so it still looked like a victorious evening for the Germans.I did hear the enemy commanders whispering about some “reinforcements “so I knew something was about to happen and lo and behold it came in the form of a squad of elite troops hitting my flank from the rear immediately doing away with one of my squads who were looking the other way.This meant I had to reorganise my defences.Good thing these reinforcements arrived on the second last turn as their arrival saw the remainder of the Finns advancing on my now beleaguered positions.The only good thing that was happening was the Panzer had finally got its act in gear and had done away with the T34 but was too far away to help in the proceedings going on on the other flank.

         The last turn arrived with the Germans hanging on for dear life and I was expecting an assault on one of my buildings but for some reason it didn’t happen as the elite troops decided that doing away with my headquarters was more important than assaulting the building.Who am I to argue.

         Another great game brought to you courtesy of the Garvald Film Studios and it’s proprietor El Presidente who provided all the figures,scenery and scenario as well as a kick up the a**e to get us gaming again.

       See You All Soon.

       This has been a Garvald Film Studios Production.