German Efficiency In Darkest Africa

 Place-The African Jungle(Garvald Film Studios Backlot)

Dateline-Sometime in the 1890’s(About 7.30).

          Tonight’s entertainment found us back in yonder times with a ripping yarn involving a lot of spear armed warriors against German Mausers.The spears came of second best which since Herr O’Brien was my opponent it gave me a great chance for revenge as this time he wasn’t armed with tanks and big guns just assegai spears,shields and some rubbish dice rolling. The game should have also involved Italians and Belgians but Oor Andrew was otherwise engaged workwise so El Presidente took charge of the rule checking as we hadn’t used Chris Peer’s Death In The Dark Continent rules for a long time.

My big gun sounding the off.

Looking confident.

Keeping the goodies to the rear.

Watching each other’s backs.

           My objective was to get my bearers across the table to safety whilst Herr O’Brien’s objective was kill,kill,kill.This proved obvious for as soon as the whistle went he was charging into my proud warriors who just happened to be female archers who blunted the attack by firing a salvo of arrows into the approaching rabble doing away with a lot of them in the process.This didn’t stop the charge as Herr O’Brien’s Masai warriors continued their charge and massacred my girls to a girl.My Ngoni warriors immediately saw this and after taking stock charged in and sought revenge.They ended up bouncing off each other and withdrew slightly from each other to take stock.

Deadly ostriches-they once killed a Belgian officer in a previous game.

Rampaging Elephant.

My Igoni.

Backed up by the ladies.

    This was to be the norm for the rest of the evening as my plan was to lure Herr O’Brien’s natives into the range of my rifles and use rifle and Maxim gun fire to stop him in his tracks as he didn’t have any missile weapons of any sort to reply with.Oh revenge was sweet.He didn’t help himself as he continuously rolled terrible dice rolls whereas my dice rolling for once couldn’t be faulted.

The girls inflicting damage on the Masai.

Well that’s dinner taken care off.

Reminds me of an old rugby song.

The lions definitely weren’t sleeping tonight.

   My natives kept up their momentum and were proving to be the pawns I needed to stifle Herr O’Brien’s charges. I did have to reorganise my defences occasionally so that they faced the Masai charges and this my Junge did well as they were able to cause casualties with just about every salvo.

A giraffe ignoring the gunfire whilst chomping a tree.

A non participating rhino.

My girl’s dwindling the Masai.

Standing Tall.

          Desperation was kicking in for Herr O’Brien as he threw everything at me for a last hurrah but German determination saw my colonists through to the end without a scratch and also the benefit of one remaining native unit. I am sure there will be plenty of volunteers to fill the ranks am Morgen.

Protecting dinner.

More excellent German shielding.

Looks ominous-only for the Masai.

Readying to finish the Masai off.

        A great game especially if you were the German player but it would have been good to see the Italians and Portugeuse on the field but alas.

The unused Belgians.

Likewise the unused Italians.

        All figures,scenery and scenario provided by El Presidente. 

        This has been Garvald Film Studio Production all the way from East Africa.

Tanks For Nothing.

 Place-Carlisle Airport

Dateline-Sometime in 1938.

          

      Tonight’s game found us back into the times of the Very British Civil War and a confrontation between the combined forces of the Scottish Republican army and the Anglican League facing up to the local B.U.F forces reinforced by local militia which included a squad straight out of Peaky Blinders. The battlefield was the defences of Carlisle airport and it looked like a walk in the park for the fascist defenders until they were faced with a very large tank which came in the form of a French Char 2cwhich although big didn’t have a lot going for it.The problem there though is that if you don’t have anything capable of dealing with it ,it’ll just run over you which it did.

Holding The Line.

An Unused Fiat.

Roadblock.

The Beast In Question.

     The forces were gathered and Herr O’Brien took charge of the Anglican League leaving Oor Andrew in charge of the Scots who came complete with the big tank.El Presidente took charge of the B.U.F. contingent leaving myself in charge of the local militia which consisted of local militia supplemented by some local estate militia shotguns et al.

Obviously The Same Builders As Graustark Flughaven.

My Only Invincible Thing On The Pitch.

They Shall Not Pass.

Peaky Blinders And Co.

          The game kicked off and almost at once the tank made it’s way forward up the flank and it was all we could do to bring all our anti tank rifles to bear on it but chocolate fire guards were words that came to mind-as useless as.We hit it first time but it stood,gave itself a shake and proceeded on its merry little way ploughing its way through field and hedge and because we were concentrating on this adversary the rest of the attackers were being given a free rein manoeuvring wise. The only target of interest were the ladies of the Pankhurst company who had decided to inhabit the building nearest to our trenches.This drew fire from our machine gun team backed up by some rifle fire ensuring they kept their heads down taking a few casualties in doing so.Pizza and beer break arrived so we all trudged across to the local hostelry for some sustenance for the second half.

More Big Guns.

The Non-Christian Anglican Rabble.

“Look At The Size Of That!”

Cannon Fodder.

      Play was resumed and Oor Andrew had arrived to take charge of the Scots and immediately charged forward at 9 miles per hour with his tank surviving not just anti tank rifle fire but also a vain attempt by the female Blackshirt company or should that be the Blackblouse company to storm it.Anyway this group withstood two morale checks and attacked the tank  only being let down at the last minute. by bad dice rolling.An armoured car had been dispatched by B.U.F command to deal with this usurper but kept on missing and eventually was made to retreat itself heading for the safety of the airport.Nothing we were doing was going to stop this juggernaut.Actually this tank achieved more than the tank did in real life.

Here It Comes.

Checking In.

Ready To Follow Up After The Tank.

The Scots Move Forward.

    Herr O’Brien now brought his artillery piece into action,another thing that we did not have an answer for as first it did away with my militia machine gun and then proceeded to whittle away its partner on the hill without any comeback.

Some Familiar Faces.

The Gallant Girls Get Stuck In.

The Lone Piper.

Trying To Stem The Gap.

      My young militia lads tried to bring some equality into the game by rushing the female festooned building in front of them only to have their numbers dwindled but they steadfastly achieved their aim only to be destroyed by the evil Anglican league gun whose crew were laughing at every casualty they were incurring on the innocent militia.The estate militia tried to follow them up moving behind rocks to block line of sight but were informed that line of sight wasn’t blocked so they were cruelly machine gunned by the so called Christians. The third militia squad who closely resembled the gents(and ladies)from Peaky Blinders advanced and wrought havoc amongst the Anglican machine gun cowering behind a hedge.

Another Unused Aircraft.

They Couldn’t Use The Bikes Because Of The Potholes.

Showing How It’s Done.

The Bailiffs Ready To Evict.

     Our biggest and only real problem was the tank on the other side of the playing field which was creating havoc amongst our poor infantry as wave after wave were sent against the tank backed up by some fruitless anti tank rifle shots but alas no success. I don’t want to cast aspersions but the Scottish/Anglican side did seem to have a big advantage in big guns whereas my gallant lads were issued with mere anti tank rifles-just saying.

Nipped Across To Britain For The Day.

The Welcoming Party.

     The game entered the final few minutes as I realised that we were on a hiding to nothing so no side was signalled before the invaders arrived at the meeting place between King Edward and some Austrian corporal.

Teddy And Wallis Oot For The Day-Gin Included.

  “Sorry I Don’t Drink (In German)”

     Not a bad game played in the usual name calling and derogatory comments way but hopefully next time we will have the weapons to seize the day.

       All figures,scenery and scenario provided by El Presidente.

          See You All When I See You.

         This has been a Garvald Film Studios Production.