Shug and the volcano.

Saturday 26th November.

Pieces of eight-chocolate flavoured

                        A great gathering for the 2nd memorial game for our good friend Shug which  was put on at the Gothenburg tavern in Prestonpans today.

Honest they had a great time.

                 The planning for this had been in the planning for a few months and it was great to see it come together and be enjoyed by one and all.The rules and the gameplay were the same as the inaugural game played in May.The only absentee was Black Angus Konstam who seemingly came down with the black spot.Personally I think it was gout but I'm not a doctor even although I have the perfect name and handwriting for a doctor.

"Are you an honest broker Donald?"

                                      Everybody turned up pretty promptly for once and after a small repast of bacon rolls and coffee the gangs and boats were divvied out and the sport commenced.Since we were all experienced gamers we got down to the lovely task of shooting and looting and I'm afraid political correctness was thrown out the window as anything be it innocent or guilty was classed as fair pickings.Every village,boat,island and tree were searched for treasure with some being profitable and some being as useless as smelly underwear.

Dave M getting a sneak preview.

A lost soul.

Mr Ray has just been told he has been given the French and Mike is saying "and you are?"

                                 My mate Mike came along for what he hoped was going to be a nice peaceful day but ended sitting next to Oor Black Bart.Mike thought that since he was Polish and that you don't get many Polish pirates life would be rosey-Wrong!Bart as usual went for the jugular and Mike was lucky to keep the shirt on his back at the end of the day.

Well we are all children at heart.

                               

Colin contemplating the navels of his gang.

 Donald was chief mc and in control of handing out the random turn cards and also the man with his hands on the kitty.I think he likes to bring his work home with him.

My Cornish village-home from home.

                             

Campbell contemplating some backstabbing and Bill wondering if there is any card higher than a six in the pack.

  Amongst the other conspirators were Colin Jack who very unusually brought an all female crew with one member looking an awful lot like a 17thc Lara Croft.Now there is an idea for a game.His plan was to raid and pillage Squire Trelawny's Island,doing away with the locals on the way to which he succeeded before coming to a Cornish standoff with Bill "I've never had a card higher than a 5"Gilchrist's men who after scaling the Cornish cliffs,getting shot up by the local squire and his band of smugglers decided to set up residence in the local inn.

Some of Colin's babes-sorry for the blurring.I was thinking about the lack of flesh on these young ladies.

                     

Watch your back Bob.

"We're not open yet"

Bob arrived a wee bit late due to the vagaries of the local transport but quickly got stuck in to the task of accumulating some booty by searching the local island but alas came up with nothing more than smelly underwear.Not to be put off he next took over a larger ship which was anchored in the bay and was going to use it to head for Skull Island but he didn't allow for Campbel's redcoats who after finding himself being a bit bored cooped up on Mysterious Island( named as such because it had a Wizard's tower on it) headed for pastures new,first skirmishing with Bill and then deciding to go for a boarding action against Bob.

Wizard's tower on the Mysterious Island.

                   

Dave M's gang going a hunting

Dave Mitchell in his usual indomitable style first looted the south end of Skull Island,sparred with Mr Ray's Frenchies and then headed for the sunnier climes of Trelawny's Island hoping to pick up some rich pickings all the time watching over his shoulder at Mr Ray's Frenchman who like Campbel's redcoats had decided to go foraging elsewhere.

Skull Island and its inhabitants.

                         Dave Paterson was being a bit to quiet sitting in the corner slowly making his fortune from the capturing and selling of slaves and livestock and building up his resources for the inevitable battle that was going to come between Bart and himself but that was still more slavetrading and lunch time to come..Speaking of which lunch time had arrived so we all headed down to the bar for some excellent grog and fare which was definitely not hard tack with some nice homecooked food and home brewed beer which went down very well with this band of evil(well semi)_cutthroats.

Can't get enough boats

                            The delicious lunch was finished and the pillaging recommenced and along the way we had picked up that scurvy knave Ian Carter and suitably kitted out with a gang and a boat joined our happy throng hoping to recapture the title he won back in May.

Ian pondering whilst Bart tells Mike "This is how I'm going to kick you in the Nuts"in Polish of course.

                           When the afternoon's sparring commenced we gave everybody one more round of looking for treasure before that action was curtailed leaving the remainder of the afternoon for fighting each other and if more money was wanted it would have to be taken from other gangs.I could see Bart drooling at the mouth and Mike looking for a hole to hide in .He found it in the form of Skull island which true to its namesake contained a gorilla.In fact it contained several gorillas and I'm sure they were more easily to deal with than Bart's ravenous horde who seemed to be being replaced as quick as they were being potted thanks to our rule of buying more pirates which Bart used to the full.Once again he was getting himself ready for his eventual fight with Dave.

Colin's girls are up for a run ashore

And their easy pickings.

Meanwhile at the other side of the table Colin's forces had landed bodices and all onto Squire Trelawny's island and proceeded to pick of the locals one by one before heading inland for his final confrontation with Bill

Campbell wondering if he could slip any reinforcements in without anybody noticing.

Local reggatta

                               Right up his tale were Dave Mitchell's pirates hoping to pick off some of Colin's winnings and behind him were Mr Ray's Frenchies intending in their best Gallic ways to plunder the village leaving this island to be ravaged four times over.
                                  Campbell was involved in a boarding action against Bob's ship having an advantage since Bob's gang were to busy looting the ship.Even although they had been caught redhanded looting they still stood their ground and managed to see off the amorous intentions of Campbell's gang.After that they both headed towards the Cornish island.

No Bill you can't have an eight

                                   Meanwhile Mike had taken charge of a new gang as they had been whittled down thanks to Bart's intensive attacks.He then arrived ontoSkull island and decided that shooting at the gorilla tribe would be the best thing to do ok.Result one p****d off set of gorillas and he thought that Bart was bad.Ian Carter had after finding out that there wasn't much treasure on his island decided that his plan was to board and take H.M.S Bounty which had been moored beside Bart's gang but for some unknown reason Bart just ignored it.I think due to the time it was a ship to far meaning there was going to be a new winner.
                             I was finding out that even although their was not a bad man amongst us give them a gang of pirates and the world is their lobster.Dave Paterson was making a fortune from slave trading,Colin was thinking nothing of shooting civilians,Bill was happy holding the bar up,Mike thought nothing of shooting at defenceless animals,Mr Ray was ravaging sunny Cornwall with his Frenchies(and he's not overly fond of them in the first place),Dave M was being sneaky,Bob was enjoying resisting Campbell's advances,Ian was barely surviving and Bart was just being Bart.

Is that a cow in the main street?whilst Dave counts up his immoral earnings.

                    As the afternoon was drawing to a close the setting was made up for the last sparring matches of the afternoon with Colin.Bill,Campbell, Mr Ray,Dave M and Bob taking pot shots at each other.

"Must be opening time by now?"

                            The main sparring match was between that renowned slaver Dave Paterson and our favourite Pole,Bart.Their two ships came together and the two of them continued to lock horns and knock five spots out of each other until the only thing that came between them was the final curtain of this presentation of the Pirates of Prestonpans.

The final confrontation

                         

View from the flip side.

   After a barnstorming ending to the game we had just time to count up all our winnings and it proved that their is a profit to be had in slavery as the winner of our game was Dave Paterson who had accumulated an awful lot of money or had been in cahoots with Donald.Donald did seem to be handing out an awful lot of money which is unusual for an accountant.

Two old relics and a boat in between.

                    A great time was held by one and all apart from maybe Mike as I'm sure he will need counselling after coming up against Bart for the first time.Ach it'll make him a better man.
Thanks to everybody that turned up for a brilliant day and to all who weren't there-tuff!  Also to Ginty and her crew at the Gothenburg pub for providing us with bacon rolls and coffee on arrival and following up with an excellent lunch.I can thoroughly recommend the staek pie washed down with their own 80/- ale.
                       Most of the scenery was provided from Hugh's collection even though it had moved on to pastures new.Everybody else who were there provided scenery and figures so thanks to all of them.
                            We hope to have another game in a few months where hopefully we can put on a game as successful as the last two with maybe a venture into gangster territory or even Back of Beyond.Both two of Hugh's favourites.Watch this space.
                               See you when I see you.

Pirates of Prestonpans

        Saturday 26th November sees our 2nd pirate extravaganza at that den of pirates and cuthroats,the Gothenburg tavern in sunny Prestonpans.Everybody and anybody is welcome to join us in commemoration of our dear friend Shug Wilson.

                                              Plenty of good food and grog available behind the bar including our own pirate ale brewed on the premises.

                                            Everybody is welcome even just to drop in for a gab and a look at the fantastic pictures on display.

                                        See you there and remember to err is human to aar!is pirate.

Nicht so wunderbar!

Wed 23rd November

You wait ages for one and three come along.

                          Floods and heavy frost couldn't stop Bill and I heading out to Garvald but I'm afraid Donald went down with malaria or some other exotic disease so it was suppose to be an unequal sided game this evening but sometimes one leader instead of democratic committees can carry the day which it did this evening until the random victory points were allocated at the end of the game which meant instead of my men carrying the field through overwhelming destruction of the enemy I lost it on the victory random victory points given at the end.

Graustarke.

                           

Always thought that women on a boat were bad luck?

Can't get enough boats.

The struggle this evening was a German civil war scenario involving the little known state of Graustark which supported Germany in the First World War.In fact it is that little known that it doesn't exist outside the world of Colin Jack.Also the armed forces of this little state are predominately women and for you people who know Colin will say "What a surprise!"

Leisurely ladies.

               

Imperial palace and the all female bodyguard.

Last stand.

I was in command of German Freikorps forces supported by a couple of Ukranian units which were making their debut on the battlefield which is usually kiss of death and once again this theory held true.These units were in the vanguard of my army so they drew the initial fire from the enemy in this case some skulking civilians hidden inside a building causing some casualties amongst the Ukranian brethren.Their broken and battered bodies were st

rewn across the bridge entrance but at least they paved the way for the German units who were following up.

Bill's matelots.

I split up my forces with some heading for the other bridge from where I had hoped to attack Bill's harbour and the rest were allocated the job of clearing the buildings.

Mein junge!

                         This set us up for an evening of taking and retaking buildings aand although I lost a few units in the process the enemy lost a lot more.

Local housing committee.

                     

Back alley babes

 My forces on the other side made slow headway against Bill's sailors supported by a machine gun but eventually dislodged them allowing them to proceed into yet another building nearer the imperial palace.

Bavarians at home in the woods.

                       

Target rich environment.

 This was to be the story of the evening with attack and counterattack before the enemy had ceased to exist as a fighting force.

Just making sure

                          One was elated until Colin underhandedly got out the playing cards which decide the ultimate result which went against me-bummer!

Championais!

                            Apart from that it was a very good game on a very frosty evening.

Didn't get to bring this baby on but thought I'd show you a photo anyway.

                           All the figures,scenery and scenario were provided by Colin.The evening began with a very nice lasagne provided by the lovely Liz who saw it as some form of rehabilitation after her operation of a few weeks ago.
                        Next up is our pirate game taking place in the Gothenburg pub in Prestonpans on Saturday 26th November where everybody is welcome. Be there or be an equal sided rectangle.

Too much of a good thing

Sat 12th November

SESWG day out-Ian Carter will do anything for 15 minutes of fame.

                     Kirriemuir Wargames club is my favourite game show and I always eagerly  look forward to it and I thought this year would be no exception.Alas this year I was a wee bit disappointed.This year I took a leisurely drive up as I wasn't helping with any display game nor did I have any passengers in my car giving me more time to ponder over games I would be taking part in and all the toys I was going to buy.I was disappointed on both counts.

SESWC's Indian Mutiny game so I can't show any bias

                   Another gorgeous highland morn greeted me as I drove first along the endless dual carriageway that makes its way between my home town of Prestonpans and the turn off allowing me to meander towards the town of Kirriemuir passing Glamis castle on the way.

My 2nd favourite historian albeit not a member of Leuchar's club.

On arriving at the show at about 11 o'clock I thought that I had missed it as there wasn't the usual bustle of visitors as there usually is.Making my way into the venue I found that it was also a lot quieter than I expected especially in the main hall where for the first time I could walk round the games and the traders with ease.Don't get me wrong there were very well put on games but I'm not really into massed pre 20th century battles as I play the type of games where if somebody shoots at me I would like to be given the option to duck.

But Iron Brigades ECW did look good.

                       I was eventually waylaid by the East Neuk Irregulars asking if I like to participate in their game which involved getting a squad of SAS to their helicopter in the jungles of 1965 Borneo-piece of P**s.I must stop thinking that.

Gorgeous helicopter.

                        As I made my way confidently towards the Wessex the only thing that seemed to be in my way were marauding orang utans and a spotless leopard.easy peasy until one of my squad got potted by a blue laser -whit!It turned out my lads had bumped into a 60's predator and I don't mean a drone.

This is gonna be easy-hah!

                          That was my cue to shoot everything and anything with everything I had but I still ended up losing all my squad just within reach of safety-bummer.What I thought would be a walk in the park turned out to be a great wheeze and my congratulations to the East Neuk for putting on a game that Colin Jack woild be proud of and I liked the Wessex.
                          Another game that I had intended to play was Dropzone commander only for the fact my son has bought it and it is gathering dust in his house and I would have liked a run through but c'est ls vie.

I luv and want these buildings

                              Leuchers wargames club put on a version of Custer's last stand where all participants seemed to be wearing indian headbands-Hail to the Redskins.

They died with their boots on!

                         Most periods of history were covered from ancients to scifi with the inbetweeners ranging from English civil war through to Omaha beach stopping off for visits to Middle Earth and the Congo.

Congo not conga

                           I made a few purchases including WW2 Greeks,Indonesians,VBCW naval troops and for a whole £1 the old SPI game "The creature who ate Sheboygan".A classic which I would have paid a lot more for.To the victor goes the spoils.
                          I enjoyed the show bot felt it a bit sedate with a "fin de saison" about it but I'll be back next year.Speak to you soon probably after our pirate day on the 26th of this month.

Time to wipe the grin of Ian's face-aar!

                             See you when I see you.