Autumn's Last Gleaming -Targe 2017

Sunday 12th November

                                        Headed up to Kirriemuir with Colin Jack and Bill Miller in tow for our last gameshow of the year with the intention of putting on my last showgame of the year also being our last game for the South East Scotland Wargames club as a few of us are branching out with our own get together group based in the Gothenburg pub in Prestonpans.No malicious intent just a group of gamers getting together without any club rules and all the paraphernalia that goes with clubs.
                                           Anyhoo that's all the politics out of the way.Colin Jack and Bill Gilchrist were doing their usual job of judging the games leaving myself to come up with yet another original game.I did this in the form of a very accurate historical game,some say hysterical,Nazis On The Moon.What could be more historical than that?

The lull before the storm.

Amazing what you can do with unwanted toys.

"Can we pay for this power with direct debit?"

The Gotterdammerung!

Outside view

                                           I've spent a few weeks gathering everything together and planning how I was going to put it all together but even then I was still running about at the coo's tail.It all came together on the day barring a couple of hiccups and with Bill Miller being dragged into the struggle kicking and screaming into the struggle.
                                            The game synopsis was that British radar had discovered the existence of a structure on the moon and with a little investigation had found out that it was the last remnants of Nazism. I had put together a defending force and also an attacking force consisting of British paras decked out in an early camouflaged space suit.To complement my figures and offering participants an alternative I delve into my collection and Colin Jack's enormous figure collection to come up with some other forces.

Plucky Brits

The good Germans complete with Fliegende Untertasse-flying saucer to you.

Pesky Russkies

American colonial marines with Ripley at the front.

Aliens on the horizon.

Yellow clad aliens.

                                Altogether on display we had Americans(complete with Ripley),Neo Sovs,Good Germans and also some alien forces.

The Fliegende Untertasse lands

"That way.""No that way!"

Ha Ha!Time to earn my Pffennigs.

"Look at me when I'm talking to you"_in German

Sandy,a pressganged gamer.Still enjoyed himself though.

Base commander materialises right beside Sandy's Neo Sovs

And his leader went the other way.

The land of floating red doors.

                                     Kick off time arrived and we started our premier game in order to show all the new arrivals and off course with playing a novel game we were beginning to receive some interest from the public as it was different from other sci-fi games on display as it was more realistic-Hah!We played a couple of turns before having a look at what else was on offer and what unneeded toys I could buy.Actually nothing took my fancy until I came across some Deep sea diver figures right out of 20 Thousand Leagues Under the sea and before I had even thought what I was going to do with them my wallet was open and they were bought.Ah men and shiny metal.

"Shiny metal"

They look good but I don't know what the f**k I'm going to do with them.

                                        I ventured into the bring and buy and didn't see anything to take my fancy until I spotted a bag of 40 vintage Britain's space figures from the early eighties all for £10.Once again they were bought without even thinking about what I was going to do with them.One of them reminded me of Wilma Deering and so a Buck Roger's game started to materialise in my grey matter.If Bill Gilchrist can get away with Playmobil cowboys the world is my lobster.

Wasn't going to pass these up-40 figs in total.

                       Back to the game and on returning I discovered that Bill had pressganged some innocent bystander by the name of Sandy into playing our game.It is only meant to be a two player game but with some jiggery pokery we adapted the game into a three player game very successfully.We ended up with Neo Soviet's ganging up with some good Germans(must have been East Germans) to attack the base.A great game was had with the last remaining Neo Sov heading for the safety of his craft and heading for earth and his fully anticipated Order of Lenin.
                                                  Lunch time arrived and after a very nice and healthy lunch of soup and mince pie(locally made) I had another look around the games on display this time accompanied with my camera passing the Schelturm figure stand on the way thinking of what else I could buy.

I bet you didn't know that Robert the Bruce liked a bacon roll.

Some obscure game.

Guddle number 1

Guddle number 2

Imagine painting that lot with 61 year old eyes.

"Are you taking the pith out of me?"

An unusual obstruction in the North West frontier.

                                As I said before none of the games really took my fancy.Napoleonics,American Civil War and various sword and sandal games do nothing for me.Salvation came in the form of A Back of Beyond game and a War of the World game which I thought would float my boat if I had been a judge.

Good volcano but not as good as Shug's

Soviet cavalry about to get strafed.

"No one would have believed"

"Ooolah!"
After purchasing a Kraken and some various Prussian spacemen! I headed back to the more realistic realms of my Nazi moobase to indulge in our last game before heading for home this time by making the game more realistic by introducing aliens into the melting pot and a bright ingredient they were.Not only were they yellow in colour they developed a few yellow traits namely switching sides and shooting at their own kind which p***ed  of their leaded very much so.

The "honest I'm not the Mekon"floats out with his prize.

"No I insist-After you!"

An alien with a big gun about to decrease the alien population.

Help came in the form of a young lad who wanted a chance to take part and help bring some good old British common sense to the proceedings.This came in the form of shooting some innocent scientistsi in the back.Obviously he doesn't know how much paperwork this will incur being British.He'll learn.

At last the Brits arrive to save the day.
The show came too an end and lo and behold we won a prize but bummer not first that was won by a 1941 participation game.At least it was different as a lot of people turned up with commercially bought games leaving little to the imagination whereas ours came about with the purchase of Osprey's very real Nazimoonbase book,a present of a flying saucer frisbee from Bill Gilchrist and a lot of nonsensical ideas found between my two ears.
My thanks to everyone who helped put the game together and put up with my foolish notions.
Thanks to Colin Jack for use of figures and scenery,our dear departed Shug for showing us how to turn everyday objects into scenery although I have a long way to go to compete,Bill Gilchrist and Dave Patterson for use of scenery (flying saucers and craters) and off course Bill miller who came in at the last moment to help show our game although at times I did want to strangle him.Also a big thanks to my younger daughter Karen and her flatmate Tom Rigg(from the colonies)as last minute playtesters.It was either Tom Or Angus Konstam at the club-no contest!
OH! and I won a raffle prize-15mm Napoleonic Brits.Don't know what I'm going to do with them.Maybe an 1815 alien invasion.Watch this space!