What a difference an H makes!

Saturday 10th March.

         
                                  First invited game under our new banner of Gothenburg Gamers took place in the sleepy town of Dumfries situated in the Scottish borders with five of us decked out in our new yellow T-shirts ready to show the world the games we have on offer.

Five Yelly Bellys let out for the day.

                           The game to be played was the Suez Crisis game that we played the other week and is a game that Colin Jack has been putting together for a long time.Since our first playing of the game Colin had adjusted some of the scenery and between himself and Bill Gilchrist had added flags and signage from the period.It's amazing what you can find on Google these days.

Peaceful Saturday in Port Said.

An "H" too many.

Bill M pondering whilst Colin gets rid of a bit of bacon stuck between his teth.

                                           Colin and Bill Gilchrist had arrived bright and early and had everything ready for us arriving after nine.I had brought Mr Ray and Bill Miller.I stopped of at Ray's local Post Office so he could nip in and pick up our shiny new yellow T-shirts ready for our initial outing .

This translates as Colin's Harbour.

Nifty wee signs courtesy of Google.

                                            We drove south and I was hoping to show Ray one of the local landmarks outside the town of Moffat called the Devil's Beef Tub which is a local deep valley where the Border Reivers used to hide their stolen cattle.Every year we have passed this place but every year the weather has been consistent-mist and rain.

Devil's Beef Tub-Definitely not today.

                                                We arrived at Dumfries and set about getting ready to play the game.It was meant to be a public participation game but we had intended to play the first game ourselves so that Mr Ray and Bill M could see the gameplay.Just like when we played the game about two weeks ago the objective was to see which of the two allies would reach the flag first and replace it with one of their own.The only difference was that Oor Donald wasn't their for me to have a difference of opinion with.

Peace and quiet before the coming storm.

Another Googleised sign.

My gallant defenders.

x 2!

Locals going about their innocent ways-Aye Right!

                                  Our game kicked off with Bill M taking the part of Les Francais and Mr Ray commanding the British(He doesn't like playing the French at any game-Ce'st La Vie).Myself and Bill G took the part of the not so plucky defenders.

Beautiful beast-pain in the ass to maintain but still beautiful.

A marauding Vampire.

                                                The game was meant to be a race but the two protagonists didn't exactly come out of their starting blocks like Usain Bolt more like typical Brits and French -as though they were drinking tea or smoking Gauloises.

Looking for targets of oppurtunity mainly French tanks.

Hiding behind the locals.

                                                    On hearing of Dave O'Brien's misuse of Centurion tanks Mr Ray decided that haste was not called for and proceeded cautiously up the canal wall making sure that he was not going to be easy cannon fodder for any marauding Egyptian tank.He made light work of a squad of militia who were too near his starting off point and proceeded to get into a position where he could dispatch the Egyptian tank on his side of the canal making sure he didn't get into the line of sight of my tank on the other side.I was too busy waiting for Bill's AMX to get into the line of sight of mine which it eventually did but I was in hitting a barn door kind of day.I even tried to pepper the tank with my mortar but that just brought instant reprisals from Bill's tank.Boom!No more mortar squad.

Sneaking about.

The gallant Brits.

Bang go the locals.

                        Mr Ray's forces headed slowly but surely towards their objective moving from one building to another and then eventually one of his squads sprinted towards the winning line with Bill M wondering where he went wrong.

Another tank hiding behind some locals.

Not that mine was any better.

                             First half over I decided to take a peruse of the proceedings to see what other games were on offer and also to see what I could buy not that I needed any more toys.I eventually ended up with two books and a roll with sausage.Last of the big spenders-for the moment.

French armour.

"Booyah!"

Still sneaking.

                            I looked at the other games on display and frankly I was disappointed.The Best game in my opinion was the Border Reivers Club's game next to us .This was an American Civil War game with a difference.The difference being that due to The Trent Affair, Britain had declared war on the Union and so we were set for a battle with Confederates supported by British against the Union.Interesting idea that appeals to my what if? scenarios.Apart from that there was nothing interesting.I don't know if it was due to the present weather but the show seemed to be rather dull.It didn't stop me spending a couple of bob.

That's what you get.

Aerial recon.

                                                   

Confederate general confers with British general.

British cavalry supporting Confederate guns.

"There's a moose loose aboot this hoose"

Very British Civil War display but no game.

Enough of the preaching,as it didn't look like there was going to be any takers for our game we decided to swap sides with Colin taking charge of the Brits and I would take charge of the French.Bill M and Mr Ray were given charge of the gallant defenders and we commenced the second part of our game.This time the defenders were hidden and so we had to go building to building hoping that there were no bad guys behind the door.This proved costly to both myself and Colin as Bill M opened fire on my poor French mortar team.Shooting them in the back and annihilating them to a man.Revenge was swift as one of my gallant French para squads charge in on the bad guys and exacted revenge.Colin's squad also fell victim to the cowardly shooting of local militia.I eventually exacted revenge for my gallant British brothers by pouring mortar fire on them backed up by some precise gunfire from my tank.

Les Francais reappear.

Complete with tank.

Centurion moves up.

British paras ambushed.

Yet another Egyptian tank simmers.

The French charge in.

                                                                        Both Arab tanks decided this time to hide behind some innocent civilians and take ineffectual shots at our tanks which dually replied dispatching both of them rather quickly.Colin's paras were making good headway towards their goal so I decided to go for broke and moved my tank right up to the objective only to be met by Bil M's militia charging out of their hidey hole and dispatching my tank albeit on the second attempt.Although mon gallant Francais were ready to nip in and grab the Egyptian flag the British had already secured their objective.Ah-Ces't La Vie.

The gallant French have victory stolen from the jaws of defeat.

You Bummer(in French)

Smoke gets in your eyes.

God Save The Queen.

                                           A great game played under under not so serious conditions.
                                        The added bonus came at the end of the game when we found out our game had been decreed Best In Show and not a Labrador in sight.Our first game resulted in a victory.It's only downhill from now on.

What more can one say?

                                              All figures,scenery and scenario were provided by Colin Jack supported by the gallant crew.
                                        American Civil War is next up this week so I'll see you when I see you.