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Thursday, 15 November 2018

Venitian Who-dunnit!


                             Wednesday 14th November

                                         As a few of you will remember we have partaken in a few games that have taken place in Venice ranging from WW2 through Victorian capers,stopping off with Blake's 7 and even a St Trinian's type bus tour.Well tonight found as back in the city of Carneval but this time in the company of Doctor Who.


Some snapshots of Venice.
                                                This was a game that Colin Jack had picked up on one our forays to Partizan and after painting up all the figures for it ,decided it was time to play through the rules and Dave O'Brien and myself were to help with the playtesting as nobody else in the Gothenburg Gamers was available for selection.
My travelling companions.

And their attributes.

"Don't kick my dog"
                                                The arrangements for the evening were coming to be a bit of a norm at the moment with a couple of turns played before a little excursion to the local inn for a pizza and a foaming ale.The sides were divvied up and I ended up in charge of the fourth doctor who bore a strong resemblance to Tom Baker.He was ably assisted by two glamorous companions,mainly Leela and another Time Lord Romana.Dave O'Brien found himself in charge of the Ice Warriors complete with their Empress of Mars
A female crewed steamboat-only in Colin's world.

Lying at anchor.

And they are still chirping away.
                                               Colin's gang came in the form of the Papal Mainframe complete with Mother Superior Tasha Lem and her headless monks assisted by some Judoon mercenary police.
The object of the game apart from playtesting the rules was the collection of vortex spheres that were scattered around the board so as soon as the whistle blew we all headed off in search of the spheres.
                                 
Colin's headless monks backed up by the Judoon.

Dave's all conquering Ice Warriors.


Coming off a boat -never a Tardis when you want one.

Sneaking down an alley.

"All present and correct ma'am!"
  As usual Dave had malice in mind and proceeded to cover Venice in ice before destroying one of Venice's beautiful bridges with a blast from his mothership due to the use of an event type card hampering my efforts to collect some more spheres. The subject of his advances were Colin's headless monks whom three of his Ice Warriors came into contact with in a Venitian building.These monks were duly done away with giving Dave the opportunity to smirk.In the meantime the rest of Colin's force were sweeping up the spheres on his side of the board and hoping for the opportunity to enact some revenge on the Ice Warriors.They dutifully headed back to their own side of the canal with Colin's Judoon in hot pursuit.
The source of victory.

Rummaging around the docks.

Ambing towards the monks.

"Shall we dance!"
                                                        My Time lord duo were moving around the nearby buildings sweeping up the spheres and visiting some tourist hotspots along the way.Leela had taken advantage of her ambush card and lay hidden hoping to jump out on some unsuspecting lone victim but this was proving hard as all the bad guys and girls were going around in groups,except one-The mother Superior and this one was to be the target of my attention.
"Ha Ha-No one expects the headless monk inquisition!"

The Doc finds success in the San Marco Bell Tower.

The first fisticuff about to start.

Without any success for the monks.
                                                              Colin had delegated his Judoon to follow and waylay the Ice Warriors whilst she left the building of the headless monk debacle and proceeded to claim all the vortex spheres on her side of the river hoping to hold on to them until the end of the game.I had other ideas and as the Doctor and Romana headed over the canal bridge to follow her,she ran away straight into Leela who was waiting in ambush and after a consultation with the rules Leela started to grapple with her albeit to no success.
The ultimate confrontation-or so we thought.

"Oi!Watch you don't stand on my scarf!"

"Surprise!"

                                                      Meanwhile across the canal Colin's Judoon were on a fools errand as one by one they were done away with by Dave's Ice Warriors with even the Empress performing a coup de grace on one of the downed Judoon.Dave duly dispatched all the Judoon with hardly a scratch to himself leaving the Mother Superior left to fend for herself.She disengage from Leela's embrace but couldn't retreat far enough as Leela took aim with her trusty knife and duly brought down her target ending the game there and then.
The beginning!

The end!

Never get in the way of a flying knife.
                                                                 Victory to the Doctor and his companions with Dave sulking in his ice.A good game but another read of the rules is required before the next game which should be next week Napoleonics or Onward to Venus providing.
                                                        All the game parts and figures provided by Colin Jack.
                                                                   
Congratulations to our titanic trio for coming second in the last show of our year.Beaten by the dastardly Leuchers bounders.Revenge will be swift.

Tuesday, 13 November 2018

Belgians & Cowboys



                   Tuesday 13th November.
Honest we were really chuffed.

                                      Since I have just come back into the possession of my camera after its four week hiatus from its owner due leaving it elsewhere I decided to put together a quick blog about the contents of the disc namely our successful venture up to the Skelp Wargame show in Forfar away back on October 13th.
Wild West Forfar style.

The line up.

Non playing extras.
                                    Our entry this year was Bill's cowboy game using his Playmobil figures combined with The Legend of the West rules.The game went down a treat with the natives so much so that we won first prize in the public participation game category.An unlooked for bonus to end  an excellent game show.This was my first visit to the Angus Wargames show and I must admit it was a fantastic little game show with all the games and traders in the one hall with only the Bring and Buy in another room and what a very cheap Bring and Buy it was.The added attraction of some very nice bacon rolls amongst other goodies provided by the host's field kitchen proved the icing on the cake of a very enjoyable day.
Daddy enjoying the game more than his kids.

All quiet on the Forfar front.

A member of the Hole in the Wall gang.
                                        The culmination of the day came for us in the form of a trophy for first place in the PP category which has helped make the first year of the Gothenburg Gamers existence very rewarding indeed.
"You fill up my senses,
Like a night in a forest"

Bill adjudicating.

He's never moved that fast for a long time.

A happy man.
                                     The second set of photographs were taking at my first figure game in a while as due to family excursions and the playing of board games(Onward To Venus-a great Victorian Sci-Fi game).Dave O'Brien,Bill Gilchrist and myself headed out to the backwoods of Garvald to indulge in a Bolt Action game organised by Colin Jack and lo and behold involved early war Belgians aided by some invisible  Frenchmen trying to hold back the Teutonic hordes in early 1940.
A Belgian coastal ville.

In sunny Garvald.

Belgian mortar slightly blurred.
                                            This gave Colin the chance to bring out some of his dinky Belgian tanks and tankettes to supplement his early war French Somuas.
The less lethal side of a Pz mk1v

Dave rushes up the road.

Frenchman in waiting.
                                                    Dave and myself took on the role of the German invaders whilst the defenders were divvied up between Bill and Colin who I think both realised they were on a hiding to nothing and this proved to be so with the defenders on the back foot for the entire game.
Hunting the French

Meanwhile my men are spread out in a bunch.

A closer look at the blurred Belgians.
                                                           From the outset the Germans charged straight in with Dave's armour heading along the road hoping to beat my infantry into the ville hoping to get to the Stellas before me.I planned to deploy my infantry to try and flush out any hidden defenders and armour.
Waiting for the chance to assault the tank.

The heavy boys move up.

A Teutonic traffic jam.
                                           The first sign of allied resistance came in the form of a Somua tank cowering behind a farmer's shed.It fired at our armour but was as useful as a chocolat fireguard bringing instant retribution in the form of Dave's tank guns who although didn't do it any real damage made it hunker down so my brave infantry could rush in and perform the coup de grace.
Take that you bounder(In German).

Booyah!(In German)

Approaching the town complete with a non playing zeppelin.

At last some Belgian armour.

About to be crept up on.

Only one outcome.
                                                  After the first couple of moves the four of us retired to the local inn for some home cooked pizza watered down by some Orkney ale to give us energy for the second half of our game which tended to go the same way as the first half with Dave and I racing towards the village in order to be the first to reach the coast.
Not a good evening for the Belgian armour.

And the French armour.

"Head for the sea mein Junge"

The armour eventually turns up.

But beaten by the infantry.
                                           Colin and Bill tried mainly in vain to stop the onslaught but apart from a few sporadic successes found themselves trying in vain.
                                              Once again another game played out in the best of spirits.

                                              Hopefully with Christmas over the horizon we will get a few more games under our belt with myself hoping to provide a few festive games with another assault on the North Pole planned as well as a game featuring the Krampus character from central Eirope.
                                            See You All When I See You.