Night of the Evil Snowmen

Wednesday 13th December.

                                           "Twas the twelth night before Christmas and not a sound was heard.Just the wailing sound of  evil snowmen dragging their cold hearted souls across the frozen North Pole"

Three pics before the action started.

                                                 Well it's that time of year again when we all look forward to summer after our christmas shopping trip.I decided to put together a pre christmas indulgence involving evil snowmen,a cute looking Mrs Santa,snotlings,exploding penguins,Dr Who'sTardis and lots of guns-typical festive fare!

And they work.

Courtesy of my granddaughters.

"Where's ma Hobgoblin?"

                                        This was a Garvald Studios location shoot in the tiny festive hamlet of Prestonpans involving Colin Jack and Dave O'Brien assaulting Santa's grotto at the top of the world using the 7TV rules adapted for three players.Both attackers were kitted out with a squad of gun toting soldiers backed up by a co-star and star and their mission was to scour the lair of this evil santa hunting for goodies as I made the victory conditions very edible coming in the form of chocolates.

Family get-together.

Anything goes at Xmas

Snotlings abound

                                            The game kicked off with both attackers making their way through the snowy landscape in front of Santa's lair avoiding elf's houses,reindeer and evil snowmen along the way.The object was to keep at least six inches away from the snowmen as this would be their alert zone.Dave being his usual evil self moved one of the snowmen nearer Colin's lads but Colin proceeded to dispatch this one with ease.I'd made the guns armed with incendiary bullets as I thought that this would be an easy way to stop the snowmen.

Dave about to send a snowman Colin's way

Colin's lads enjoying some ice before moving on.

Dave giving Colin a free snowman.

Dave's guys being sneeky.

                                                    Colin thought this was easy until I told him that the snowmen would regenerate from Dr Who's Tardis that he had so thoughtfully provided.

Where's Dr Who when you need him(or her).

Looks like Dave's lads have found the rising sun.

"Does my bum look big!"

                                                       Colin and Dave slowly headed for the grotto entrance shooting at snowmen along the way and if there were no snowmen-each other.I attempted to regenerate snowmen at the end of each turn but the dice rolls weren't going my way.It looked like it was going to be up to the exploding penguins to do some damage as the last line of defence before Santa were the snotlings and they would be next to useless.

Happy Feet!

Snowman about to be dispatched.

                                                         Both squads finally made it of the tundra and headed for the interior of santa's grotto with Colin heading for the main door making sure that the penguins were dispatched before they could do any damage.Dave entered by a side door and cleared the snotlings from the first room earning himself a miniature Bounty bar in the process which he proceeded to scoff rather than keep it till the end of the game.

"After you""No,after you"

"Hunt for the chocolate"

Hoping to get his letter posted to Santa before Xmas eve.

                                                           

"Oy Vey"Which is Jewish for Holy S**T!

  Colin's squad entered the building only to be met by an exploding penguin which had just regenerated inside the room from another type Tardis.He couldn't destroy it immediatley and so it ploughed into his bunched up lads taking out his star and an extra in the process.His appropriation of a miniature chocolate didn't make up for the loss of his main man.

Colin's lads about to be turned into a snow globe.

Dave's co star looking for a bit girl on girl with Mrs Claus.

                                                 The game was drawing to an end due to the number of random event cards for the game coming to an end.Colin finally cleared the room whereas Dave was rushing down the corridor hoping for some Mano a Mano with Santa Claus but alas he found himself not near enough.He didn't even get a chance to be seduced by Mrs Claus-bummer!
                                              A great game played out with some nice xmas spirit apart from Dave who's apt line at the moment would be Bah Humbug!
                                                      Hope you all have a great Xmas with plenty of unpainted lead in your Xmas stocking and I'll see you all in the new year.

A Finnish Winter's Tale

            Wednesday 6th December.

"There's a moose ,loose ,aboot this hoose!"

                                     Being near christmas and snow,we are led to believe, is just round the corner Colin Jack's latest escapade was a winter encounter between Soviet and Finnish forces at the start of World War Two.Bill Gilchrist and myself headed out for the rather windy climes of Garvald and on arriving found a rather nice table set up for our evening's entertainment snowy effect and all.

Artic setting

Not a gritter to be seen.

A couple of Shug,s creations.

                                       I found myself in charge of the gallant Finnish defenders attempting to stem the tide of the barbarous Soviet hordes intending to ravage the placid countryside.Bill with Colin's assistance took charge of the Soviets complete with  some natty tanks.

Frostbite about to kick in.

Russian churchgoers looking for an armchair view of the battle.

Brrr!It looks cold

Sneaky hiding place for one of my tanks.

Posing for the camera.

                                    My army although small was made up of some good lads with some attributes that would go a long way to stemming the evil tide.My armour composition consisted of two small tanks which in reality made up about 17% of Finland's tanks at the time.

One of my tanks with the Finnish Hakaristi suitably rubbed out for our German readers.

                                      My plan was for my regulars with tank support to hold off the bad guys whilst my super duper lads all equipped with skis would make their way into the rear of the enemy.Great plan on paper but in reality sucked as I had nothing really to deal with the Soviet tanks that were hurtling down the road towards me with evil intentions on their mind.

Some of my gallant lads.

And their ystavat(Finnish for friends)

                                               Bill's initial plans came to a halt as a special rule of frostbite was in place and a few of his units succumbed to this rule with units losing figures and tanks coming to a grinding halt.Alas not for long.

The Soviet hordes

bringing their evil dominance 

to the Finnish people.

                                                 I had put a few of my units in ambush but senility kicked in and I forgot to move them giving the bad guys time to get up close and personal.Skirmishes around a wood initially resulted in me getting a slight upperhand but weight of numbers began to tell and one of my squads disappeared into into the falling snow.Revenge would eventually come but to late to save these lads.

Bill's forces emerge from their dastardly hiding area.

                                             On the other flank some of my other lads opened up but couldn't do any real damage to the Soviets and I was keeping my hidden units for a rainy day or in this case snowy day.I brought one of my dinky Vickers E tanks to help stem the onslaught but its shooting was deplorable and eventually after being ganged up on by overwhelming numbers it finally blew up.

"That's a big one(In Russian)"

"forward!"

                                               

Bummer!

 Revenge was finally acheived when one of my elite squads skis and all entered the table right into the middle of a Soviet unit dispatching them to the Arctic winds.No sooner was this achieved when two of Bill's squads began to exert their revenge on my arriving unit but they dug in and held firm from both infantry and tank fire.

Revenge!

Revenge from another angle.

                                                     Bill and Colin's advance in true committee style were slowly making their way to their objectives which were just a few buildings containing the last of my two tanks waiting for its chance to reduce the Soviet tank numbers.

Peppering my lads.

The Soviet steamroller moves on.

                                                        Bill decided to bring down some artillery to maybe help with his advance.His artillery was delayed probably due to some frozen barrels but he did succeed with his second salvo although not causing too many casualties.

My lads appear ready to dish out some revenge.

Which they do in style.

                                                          My other squad finally made its way on to the table just in time to be ambushed by Colin's skulking infantry.I can't blame Donald for that for a change.After crossing gunfire with them my lads rushed them and sent them packing back to Moscow.Now I had a chance for some glory but this was curtailed by a unit of Colin's infantry materialising behind my lines dispatching my machine gun on the way.

My sniper team looking for a target of opportunity.

The magically appearing Soviets.

                                    The final whistle was about to blow as I took a last shot with my remaining tank knocking the turret right of Bill's forward tank.A little bit compensation for my beleaguered
forces of right.

And Santa appeared to see who would be on the naughty list.

                                        A great game played in good festive spirit.
                    Colin Jack supplied all the Finns with Colin and Bill Gilchrist supplying the Russian infantry and armour.I'd painted up some winter Germans only to find there were no Germans involved in the scenario which was also supplied by Colin as was the scenery complete with Russian Orthodox church.
                                              Hoping to have one last game before Xmas so I'm hoping to put on some Xmas type game probably involving some armed elves.
                                                        See you when I see you.