Shug's Inaugural Memorial Game

Wednesday 27th April.
                                   

                This was the game that our good friend Hugh Wilson had planned,arranged and set out just before his tragic death earlier this month so in his honour Lady Suzanne decided that we should play it in his memory.The game was that enjoyable that we have decided to have a big game every April in his memory.The table and scenery in my mind had surpassed any of the tables he has set up on my previous visits to his house and all of these past ones had to be seen to be believed.

Shug's volcano between the hours of 9 and 5!

                   The game he had planned was a multi player pirate game involving at one time,11 participants and an umpire.I know Hugh has a pretty big games room but it was a tad hectic at times.Hugh had even written a set of house rules as he was fed up with rules that tended to be a wee bit full of themselves so it just involved moving,fighting and looting.What more do you need with pirates.So eventually after a spot of tea we ventured into the land of islands and jolly rogers.

             The game kicked off eventually with everybody heading for the nearest buildings looking for plunder as the person with the most money at the end of the game would be the winner.This meant for a mad scramble to loot all the buildings before turning on the other gangs in order to increase their wealth.

Some scurvy knaves!

My plan was to loot the nearby buildings then head for the French government buildings at the top of my islands to pick a fight with the garrison.Everybody else had their various plans for increasing their own wealth or else just causing mischief amongst other gangs.

My gang on their starting blocks with their little friend.

          Angus decided that after burning Bill's boat that trying to burn everybody else's boat sounded like good fun.Jim's plan was to prey on Mr Ray's gang who were just minding their own business.

Bill and Angus's difference of opinion.

          My own plan was bearing fruition as I managed to rustle a couple of cows from my first two raided buildings but only finding some smelly underwear in the third.Ach well one must take the rough with the smooth(and these were very rough).After this my gang came together again and headed up the hill towards the French garrison.

Figure of Anne Bonny-obviously the Hollywood version!

          All over the table skirmishes were going on between various factions although boats were becoming hard to find as Angus was on an arson spree.Bill had to consider making his men swim bearing in mind that not very many sailors could swim in these days.

Any sharks in there?-Nah! The crocodiles have ate them all!

'Get them Frenchies boys'

           Two late arrivals appeared in the form of Campbell Hardie( who took the part of the British garrison on one of the islands) and Dave O'Brien who waded in with his band of cutthroats much to Jim's dismay.

          The game carried on until a break for some hard tack but no grog.After the break my pirates finally came into contact with the French garrison whilst some of the stragglers after twice being distracted by local native woman found they were itching(and not just from the local women)to raid the government buildings.A skirmish of Hollywood proportion took place with Mr Ray rolling for the French and after a few turns the French legged it probably stopping off to visit the local ladies on the way.

            Dave Mitchell was showing us how much of a brilliant sailor he was by steering his boat along stretches of water that were narrower than his boat-amazing,especially as he didn't have any sails.

'Down a bit,right a bit and straight on till morning'

     

Shug's volcano night time view

 After what seemed a quick evening,10 o' clock appeared on the horizon and it was time to count up our ill gotten gains which we did.I was feeling chuffed as I thought I had quietly made my way to the top of the earnings list only to have defeat snatched from the jaws of victory by Ian Carter who was even more quietly collecting his evil gotten gains.

Oi! Where's me boat?

         Ian was the winner of this inaugural game which we hope to repeat at least once a year at various venues across the Spanish Main.

Lucky B!

          I must thank Lady Suzanne for one last use of the table and the marvellous scenery.It was a memorable evening and a fitting tribute to somebody I regard(no past tense) as a very good friend and the one chiefly responsible for getting me back into gaming even although it has cost me a fortune .I imagine he is upstairs planning another table and also doing some ducking and diving with the inhabitants.

     Farewell Shug!

  Just as a post note to the reasons surrounding the game are these photos I took of Hugh's painting room where you can plainly see the half painted models showing his intention of returning to finish them off and also showing the suddenness of his untimely demise.

Syrian soirée

Played my first game in a long while once again due to family and work commitments and also due to the bereavement of a very good friend who will be sadly missed in Scottish war game  circles.

           I had to miss last weeks game due to having to work at the last minute.What made it worse was that it looked a rollicking good romp through Second World War Syria.

           I made my way out to rural Garvald looking forward to a good game and I wasn't disappointed.It involved an attack by Austrailian forces on a Vichy French held village supported by squads of Scottish commandos landing from the sea.This gave Colin the chance to practise with a scenario which could end up being our display game at Carronade on the 7th of May.

        At the start the game was played using night rules which would have been good for my commandos but due to bad dice rolls it was the shortest night of the year so as my first commando squad landed they were met by deadly machine gun fire from some French colonials which ended with most of the squad being decimated before they could reach cover.

      On the other side of the table my Austrailian infantry rushed towards the bridge linking them to the enemy when to their typical Antipodian disgust watched as the bridge disappeared into thousands of wooden splinters.This meant the only way they were going to get across was by getting themselves wet.Luckily they don't have crocodiles in Syria.

      My second commando squad landed further up the beach only to be met by incoming fire from a farm building.After suffering a few casualties decided to rush the building,which they did,routing the inhabitants but their own casualties meant they were left with only three men.

     

Colin's mortar opened up on my other commando using a dice he must have purloined from Bart,meaning a six on the first attempt meant my squad was left with two standing.The only saving grace was that I now had enough men to make a third commando squad.Bringing up the rear of the commandos was an Indian antitank rifle team which meant Colin obviously had intended to bring some sort of armour on.

          After my commando squad in the building had recovered from their exploits they turned their attention to the machine gun which they dispatched ruthlessly allowing the remainder of my commandos to scurry into the cover of the farmhouse.

       Meanwhile Colin's field gun had joined up with his mortar in order to whittle away at my Austrailians slowly making their way across the river.

       My hastily made up third commando squad landed safely and headed quickly for the cover of the farmhouse hopefully to use it as springboard towards attacking the French squads holed up across the main road.

         Colin had brought his armour on which attracted my antitank rifle like moths to a flame.After a few rounds of my men ducking from its machine gun fire I finally hit it to disable it and then on the next turn destroy it.This allowed my three commandos to assault some colonial French,destroying them but being destroyed themselves in the process.

          With time ticking on and remembering I had to pick Lady Watson up I went for broke and assaulted the French hq unit only to find another hidden unit waiting for me.After a standoff Colin decided to assault my commandos but lost meaning the game was all but over.

         An interesting game using unusual figures to us but in Colin's universe normal.

         The evening started of with an excellent meal complemented with un verre du vin rouge.

           We are having a pirate game next week in Hugh's honour as this was the game he had organised before his untimely demise.Hopefully I'll have some good pics.