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.