They Died With Their Plastic Boots On!

Wednesday 29th November.

The fake battlefield

The real battlefield.

                                            Headed out west this evening to the Little Big Horn river which just for this evening was situated in the village of Bellesquarry near Livingstone,home of that great big chief Bill Gilchrist where five of us gathered to re-enact that fateful day in June 1876 where George Armstrong Custer's vanity got the better of him.The only difference this evening was that the participants were all in the form of Playmobil figures all neatly harvested by Bill's wheelings and dealings.

Perusing the battlefield.Notice that quick turn of hand by the chief skulker.

An American looking at a better picture of his homeland.

                                             The forces were all divvied out and lo and behold I ended up with the man himself stuck on top of a hill with nowhere to go.Facing me were the forces of Colin Jack who ended up with the braves of Crazy Horse  putting  a smile on his face.Donald Adamson was in his glory as being in charge of the other Indians meant he could skulk around all evening without a bad word being said about him.Mr Ray ended up with Major Benteen's command who's intentions were to ride to Custer's rescue,change history and be a witness at Custer's court martial.

The man himself-George Armstrong Custer.

And with his wee brother.

Hail to the Redskins.

The forlorn hope.

Donald's renegades.

Mr Ray's contingent.

                                              The table was set up just like the actual battle area albeit a wee bit abstract.Rivers ,indian villages and even roaming buffalo were all set up giving us plenty of scenery for our game.

Not for use.

Buffalo on the hoof.

Caught under a buffalo stampede.

Back home on the reservation.

                                       The game got under way true to history with Colin aka Crazy Horse charging towards my beleaguered command situated on their hill carbines at the ready.For this evening's game we were using Warhammer's Legend of The Old West rules and the first part of each turn involves the use of an initiative dice roll which this turn let me move first.I duly took advantage of this by hitting Colin's injuns with a rifle volley stopping his charge in its tracks,causing one casualty and forcing the majority of his lads back.This basically just p'd Crazy Horse off as after that initiative dice roll he could do no wrong.

Chief Crazy Horse.

Charge(in Red Indian).

Lock and load!

Initial success-not for long.

                                         I wasn't bothered as I knew that Mr Ray was going to come to my rescue-Hah!All his horses seemed to be either trotting or cantering as I don't even think the word charge was in their vocabulary.Donald's indian's commanded by  some lad named Chief Lame White Man-must have been one of Donald's esteemed ancestors-headed straight for Mr Ray's cavalry in order to prevent them linking up with my lot.He also sent some lads on foot towards the flank of my perilous position-skulking to the fore.

"What I say goes"

Donald's skulkers.

                                                     Colin then proceeded to begin throwing his long line of successful initiative dice rolls giving him the opportunity to charge in with the full force of his mounted indians and this was to be the norm for the rest of the evening.Although my lads would have some success pushing the mounted indians back force of numbers meant my force were slowly being picked off.To add insult to injury Donald's skulkers were sniping away at my gallant defenders.

"Here they come"

The corned beef on the hoof wins.

Weight of hoofs.

Backmarkers

                                                    Mr Ray's command eventually came into contact with Donald's mounted indians and proceeded to whitle down the opposition but not quick enough to offer any help to my beleaguered forces who were succumbing to Colin's overwhelming numbers as he was dastardly ganging up on my guys usually two to one sometimes even four to one.

At last Mr Ray comes to grip.

And starts to do some damage.

Mr Ray gives them a helping hand.

Success!

                                                      Eventually I was left with Custer,his brother Tom and a single trooper.The trooper went quickly leaving the Custer boys on their own to fend off the bad guys.

Meanwhile back at the ranch

Last man standing

He died with his plastic boots on.

                                       On the other side of the battlefield Mr Ray was getting the upper hand only to see my lads disappear one by one.With the last of Colin's streak of good dice rolls I finally managed to get the advantage of moving first.The only trouble was there was nothing they could do but delay the inevitable.After seeing his brother fall to the onrushing indians Custer senior decided to charge into Crazy Horse in order to inflict some revenge for his lost command and initially this was succesful pushing Crazy horse back and even inflicting a wound but he too succumbed to the inevitable and history repeated itself.

Mr Ray and Donald have a pow-wow.

                                             A great game but I think the result was inevitable-just like history.
                                        All figures and scenery provided from Bill Gilchrist's ever growing Playmobil collection
                                            And many thanks to his wife Helena for providing an excellent meal to start the proceedings obviously thinking again that we all needed fed up.
                                                  See You All When I See You.

Ragazza della scuola dall'Inferno!(Schoolgirls from Hell!)

   Wednesday 22nd Novembre.

                                                         

                                         

Count Pillie FUBAR'S latest recruit

"Perfezionare" Count Pille thought as he surveyed the emptiness of the piazza.His ruse of sending the three Englishmen to drive around the city in their minicars will divert the polizia from hindering his nefarious plans "Perfezionare".His thoughts were suddenly switched towards the arrival of an English touring coach filled with screaming schoolgirls.What possible danger can they pose?

"What is this(in Italian)?

                                        Meanwhile on the erstwhile schoolbus a mixture of all years from the St Garvald School for Girls were acting  their normal abnoxious selves and thoroughly annoying their chain smoking teachers."Do we have to go and see some rotten church Miss?"

"oh s**t(in Italian)"

Church in sight

                                   The girls streamed from their coach and true to form headed off in all directions.Agatha headed completely in the opposite direction looking to create some mischief.

But not for Agatha

                                                This evening we have returned to the Garvald Film Studios for an adventure involving a heist by Italian thugs led by Count Pille who has just entered the employ of F.U.B.A.R.(Federation United for Baddies And Rascals)and is hoping to earn some kudos with his unforgiving employers who have the most well fed sharks around.

"No guns"

                                             Count Pille forever the bully decided to walk straight into the local church and abscond with the Black Sicilian Kestrel which lay in the church adorning the alter, as it had done for hundreds of years.Nobody had attempted to steal it as it was believed to have some magic power preventing it from leaving the immediate area.

Surprise!

Mad Donna

                                                   Jackie the head girl shouted on her girls and led them very disorganized towards the religious building no doubt having some plans of her own which usually involved some pilfering.She had promised Flash Larry,her fence and bookie back home that she would be on the lookout for anything of value and preferably not nailed down.

"Hockey sticks out girls"

                                                    The girls arrived at the front of the church and found their way barred by what they thought were local hoodlums and therefore duly rolled up their blouse sleeves to deal with them.Count Pille's shout for them to move was met by a hockey ball in the mouth carefully targeted by Jackie rendering him totally speechless and in need of some major dentalwork.The remainder of her fellow sixth formers proceeded to charge full pelt into his two unbelieving and unsuspecting lackeys. hockey sticks to the fore.All they could do was put up their arms for protection as the blows rained down.

"Did you cross yourself?"

A piazza get-together

                                         Colin Jack,who was in charge of the girls(What a surprise) drew a random event card which switched two of our extras around resulting in Agatha ending up in the fight, with one of my men ending up yards away.I think that he got the best of the switch.

Agatha appears out of nowhere

And likewise the thug appears next to the coach.

                                           On hearing this commotion my other group of ne'er do wells led by Mad Donna de Louicia turned around and headed for the sound of wood hitting Italian skulls.The other thug who had just been switched headed for the girl's coach in order to destroy their means of escape.
                                           

Count Pillie comes in contact with a hockey ball.

Goes down again!

Three strikes and out.

   Count Pillie didn't last much longer before taking his final wound and headed for an early exit.Well it sure beats the shark tank.Mad Donna headed straight into the fight with her machine gun blazing before realising that she couldn't shoot for toffee and finding out her hand to hand skills were even worse.She ended up cornered against a building wondering why she didn't indulge in hockey while at her Italian finishing school.Her two companions turned out to be a lot more smarter than their predecessors and started to use their pistols as Count Pillie had forbidden their use thinking brute force would win the day.A fat lot of good it did him.

Mad Donna wishing she had learned hockey.

Gun time

And still they come

                                                    Meanwhile hearing all the commotion two of the fourth years Twinkle and Jen had grabbed the Kestrel and headed for the safety of their coach but as the pair of them crossed the canal bridge Jen wrestled the bird from Twinkles arm,pushed her away and scurried away.

Fourth formers head for safety

Jen does the dirty

                              After Twinkle picked herself up she fired off her loaded catapult at Jen but missed.Jen was heading for the relative safety of the thug who was still trying to put bullets into the defenceless bus and doing an awful lot of missing in the process.

                               Finally Twinkle closed the gap and with a last pull of her catapult brought down Jen like a crashing deer.Hurrah for Twinkle.

Twinkle takes aim

Bingo-Twinkle,Twinkle-little star!

                                        The fight was coming to an end at the other side of the piazza as the thugs who were now leaderless decided to head for the nearest wine bar and drown their sorrows knowing full well that they wouldn't be heading for the shark tank.
                                                   A great game enjoyed by all and food for thought-mainly that hockey sticks are deadly in the right hands.
                                                        Sorry for quality of pics as I forgot my camera and had to use mobile phone.
                             Figs(School Girls) + scenery provided by Colin Jack with the Count Pillie and his thugs provided by yours truly.See you all when I see you.
                                         Next week we are heading for Bill G's hacienda for a refight of Little Big Horn using Playmobil figs! Watch this space!