Partisan Livingstone-1st half

Wednesday 7th June


                             Bill had organised a Rapid Fire WW2 game so the East Lothian contingent headed out to Bill's shack picking up Mr Ray on the way as all his rock and roll touring had dulled his senses and made him get his pick up times slightly mixed up.We met up there with cheif skulker Donald Adamson who regaled us with his archaeological dig stories from his recent trip to Brora.

Four pictures of a nicely set up board.

              Our game for the evening was Operation Gypsy Baron which was a WW2 scenario pitting partisans against various second line units which included some very unusual Slovak infantry which Bill for some unknown reason kept on referring them to them as Romanians.

A dinky period train.

                     The board was already set up and looked very impressive being densely populated by trees and a rather snazzy railway line crossing the table stopping off at a dinky little railway station on the way.
                              I havn't played Rapid Fire for a wee while so it was yet another learning curve as I have a few sets of rules buzzing about my head and trying to remember them can be a bit tricky.As I always say rules should fit the side of an A4 sheet of paper.
                              Forces were divvied up and I  took the part of a German recce squadron equipped with motorbikes and support.Brilliant I thought until I went into action and found that my forces flattered to deceive as although my sidecars were armed with machine guns in reality this was not the case.The figures were just cosmetic.Colin Jack took care of the Slovaks who were guarding the railway station and were also ensconsed in the fantastic looking prewar train.Mr Ray for failing to be where he should have been was appointed the army's oppengruppenfuhrer.
                                      Bill,Donald and Dave O'Brien took charge of the dastardly partisans out for anything they could lay their hands on.As usual with partisans games they were all deemed as hidden and only came to light when you all but stand on them.

We had a few side plots.These were supply trucks meant as cannon fodder for the despicable ruffians.

                                          Partisan games usually take the form of regular forces plodding on to the field and walking into carefully planned ambushes and tonight was to be no exception.
                                           

Donald's all out assault

The game kicked off with the skulking Donald lobbing mortar rounds on to the railway station from the safety of hidden positions in a nearby wood.This was done in unison with an attack by more of his partisans on the railway station as he was hoping for a quick coup de grace and home for 9o'clock.Colin's partisans had other ideas and fought them off giving his reinforcements time to arrive by train.

Who'll get there first?

                                                My forces arrived on the board in a true Teutonic organised fashion looking to sweep the partisan scum before me.After spotting the attack on the station I decided to head towards the action point incurring the wrath of Bill's deluded partisans hiding on the edge of the wood waiting for an opportunity to ply his trade and fire on my lads who were just minding their own business causing some casualties amongst my innocent junge.This was the pointwhere I found out that my forces were cosmetically attired and didn't have much firepower to fight back with.

Mein Junge

                          Our glorious fuhrer's forces came onto the board in Ray's usual charging manner-not!His forces had the benefit of some armour albeit early war French tanks giving hin an air of invincibility but were soon stopped in their tracks by a lone anti tank gun well placed by Dave O'Brien which were actually the only forces he used throughout the whole evening as Ray's forces came to a sudden halt and wallowed in the same area for the rest of the evening.In conjunction with Dave's accurate fire more of Donald's forces began to trade fire with Ray's infantry.

Dave's solitary forces(for the moment)

Mr Ray assaulted on all sides and not by groupies!

Some of Donald's forces on parade

                                        Colin's gallant defenders were holding on awaiting the remainder of his forces arriving by train.Donald changed the direction of his mortar fire towards the approaching train which had just struck some explosives which had been planted on a river bridge but only caused light damage.Donald's assaulting forces were dwindling turn by turn.

Bit of a minor hiccup

                                     

Bill's vandals up to no good.

 My forces weren't doing well trading fire with Bill's misguided partisans the only up side being my armoured car which was kept out of molotov cocktail range.Bill tried to rectify this problem with the use of an anti tank rifle which caused minimal damage.Throughout this time Bill had a couple of vandals place explosives on a telegraph pole which was duly knocked down but no other damage.

Ready to thwart Bill's plans.

Bill's doing a Donald(skulking)

Untouchable!

It's just a flesh wound.

                                            Ray's forces at the other side of the table were stagnating with his armoured forces dwindling due to some of them being forced back off the table as Dave's gunfire was still proving to be very accurate.

Donald finally hits pay dirt or the water tower in this case.C

Colin's forces out the train,tickets checked and raring to go!

In the starting stalls

                                                    Near the end of the game Colin's train finally arrived near enough to unload his force which came in the form of cavalry and complemented by the arrival of more Slovak infantry in trucks.They readied themselves for a quick counterattack on Donald's partisans just as the final whistle went.                
                                              We then decided that since the game had only started to continue the game in three weeks time.Watch this space.
                More photos on Bill's Flicker page.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/bill26048/sets/72157681838909644/
                                             


                          Scenery,figs and scenario were all supplied by Bill himself with Colin supplying the steam train.
                           Thanks also to Helena for once again surpassing herself with an amazing repast washed down by some local beer and I don't mean Tenants.
                                           
                               See you when I see you!
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