A Freikorps Run Ashore

Wednesday 30th January'

                                           Tonight's game took us back into a bit of reality after a few few weeks of fantasy through the canals of Venice.Freikorps action from the little known backwater Baltic port of Straisund which is nearby to the state of Graustark.Graustark was a state concocted by Colin Jack and is predominately populated by women.What more can I say.

Downtown Straisund.

Situated somewhere near Bremen I think.

The red view.

                                                          The gist of tonight's game was that red sailors fresh from their tribulations in Graustark had arrived into Straisund telling tales -somewhat exaggerated-of their exploits in Graustark's defence and of  the spread of socialism and communism and how they had come to spread the word and like sheep the local sailors beckoned to their call.Those opposed to these devilish ideas immediately sent for the help of the local Freikorps and like the cavalry came to the help of these put on innocent citizens.Or something along these lines.

Manning the barricades.

On all sides.

With a wee bit of heavy support.

                                                           I took the part of the heroic Freikorps and Dave O'Brien took on the mantle of evil communist for the evening'usually he's just evil.Colin assisted myself until pizza time was called after two moves whereupon we were joined by our new local inhabitant Andrew.Actually we all met in the pub to partake of freshly made pizza washed down by some foaming ale.

Hiding up an alley.

Colourful transport.

Targeting the reds.

My unit of the evening.

                                 The game started with Dave's defence force all dug in awaiting our onslaught.Our forces slowly made our way into town looking for the inevitable ambushes that would come from Herr O'Brien and they were not long in coming with rifle fire opening up on my gallant jaegers causing them to go to ground.Reprisals were soon forthcoming as my Granatewerfer(medium mortar)went into action and scored an immediate hit on Dave's sailors who were cowering behind some wooden logs.It wasn't to long before my mortar hit them again decimating the traitors but not before he had done some damage to my lead infantry squad        
                                                         On the other side of town Andrew's forces had taken the first casualties when Dave's militia who were waiting in ambush in a building opened fire on them killing the squad leader and doing away with the machine gun.Colin had changed sides due to the arrival of Andrew and was lying in wait for Andrew's forces but since Andrew has played a few games in his life decided to err on the side of caution and make his way up the street very slowly.I,meanwhile,was making my way up the right flank hoping to do away with this nest of revolting vipers and hoping to build on the damage caused by my mortar.My field gun immediately struck the building defended by Dave's minions and caused casualties and after a further hit from this gun Dave made the inhabitants retreat towards the harbour speedily running past the Seekadettes that come all the way from Graustark to help them.

Real time of Andrew's lads taking cover.

They look as though they don't need a boat.

The gun disembarks.

                                              The Seekadette company had debarked from their steam gunboat bringing with them a wheeled heavy machine gun and yes they were all women.

Colin's girls-Well a small portion of them.

Taking Aim.

This was to be the first of the hordes of reinforcements that Colin and Dave would receive but the latter ones all came from a dirty great big boat namely the SMS Pinguin which docked along the side of the harbour and proceeded to spout various squads and support mainly Polish POW's.Time for meine Junge to find cover.The first cover was obtained by evicting one of Dave's squads from the railway station but after a short period of rejoicing the victorious Freikorps were subject to abuse from all directions as firstly a lorry mounted gun opened up on them and then a red squad who had arrived into a neighbouring warehouse added their tuppence ha'penny worth.This spelled the demise of my poor unfortunate squad but due to Dave's inability to garrison the building the opportunity was still there.

My Bavarian reinforcements taking their time coming on the table.

Andrew was slowly making his way up his side but due to two buildings being strategically filled with hordes of commies his advance was going to be fraught with danger as due to layout of street support was proving difficult to maneuver into position to threaten these upstarts and said upstarts were quite happy making these Freikorp keep their heads down.

Take that Herr O'Brien.

Booyah!

Now you see them,

Now you don't!

Meanwhile the red reinforcements were piling off their ship but were finding the quayside a tad crowded.Some of them were being funnelled across the bridge in order to meet my advance.Dave wheeled his machine gun complete with female crew behind a barricade in order to engage my depleted squad who had earlier came into contact with Dave's machine gun which had been ensconced very ungentlemanly in the adjacent warehouse and my lads came out worse for wear.

On sight of this wheeled machine gun,my mortar engaged it and lo and behold and a six on the dice,the female crew evaporated.My machine gun which had been placed on a railway wagon was now engaging Dave's other machine gun and managed to do away with two of its crew but couldn't stop it from being a thorn in our side.

The Red reinforcements arrive.

Red machine gun.

First of the boat wins a coconut.

More Poles.

Dave moving the lorry for a better shot and he still missed at point blank range.

             As time was ticking on Andrew went for the final push and finally got some of his Freikorps into an inhabited building and immediately evicted the squatters.No such luck for him in the adjacent building as just as they were ready to act similarly they rolled a double six which meant they had to retire very swiftly..this.This was time for Andrew to reveal his secret weapon mainly an ungainly looking armoured car which although big wasn't going to be able to maneuver passed the red barricades so just became  a mobile machine gun post.

Some house clearing.

Once again-Now you see it-

Now you don't!

The armoured car cautiously moving forward.

On my side my lads were gathering together out of sight of Dave's gun and ready for the final push .My field gun opened up on Dave's Polish reinforcements who were heading across the bridge but alas missed.

One last shot.

An awful lot of hanger on's on the harbour.

Full time arrived too soon with my lads just about to educate the red rabble in some proper force management.Once again the game fizzled out into a score draw but with an advantage towards the Freikorps.

All figures,scenery and scenario provided by Colin.

Hopefully I'll be indulging in a game of sorts next week.

See You All When I See You!

Il Terzo Carnevale

Wednesday 26th January

Somebody wants a Cornetto?

                                          The final part of our trio of Carnevale games once again found us in the frosty climes of Garvald.This time with another foursome and the chance to try out further additions to the rules mainly magic and what a damp squib that turned out to be.We also tried out the agenda cards which give you extra ways of gaining victory points.

My gang

Colin's Noble and his retinue.

Bill's Vamps.

And Dave's band of miscreants.

                                                       After a very nice repast we headed for the game's room and proceeded to divvy out the forces.It was Bill's first venture into Carnevale so he was given the vampire gang.Our host Colin took charge of the Patrician gang whilst Dave O'Brien once again took charge of the Guild who actually didn't come with any magic.Finally I took charge of the Rashaar which consisted of a lot of aquatic creatures and they don't come better than a shark with legs.

Shark without the music.

                                                          Colin had moved the scenery around just a little bit but basically the lay out was the same as our previous game.The object this time was once again the possession of sentry boxes which had been placed around the board.

Colin's forces gather.

"Don't mind me boys I'm just fighting off some behemoth!"

My Hybrid heads hot foot towards Dave's gang.

Dave's mob looking for a scrap.

                                                               The game kicked off in the usual fashion of rushing pell-mell towards the nearest sentry box in order to achieve at least one victory point which was okay for my competitors but when you have aquatic creatures they tend to drag their heels or is it fins a wee bit slower when they are on land.

My two monsters from the deep with two slaves in tow who are basically used as fodder to replace life points on the monsters.

                                      My two aquatic heavies which consisted of my legged shark and a creature who looked like an extra from Stingray stayed in the water and headed for the nearest landing stages to Dave and Bill's sentry boxes whilst the plan was for my Magi-Rashaar (my head honcho) backed up by Aglope (who was basically a naked woman with webbed feet-only in Colin's world)took off towards the sentry box which was allegedly the nearest one to my gang.It just so happened that it was within sprinting distance of Colin's Patricians and it was obvious by the speed with which Colin's gang narrowed the gap that they had been training all week.
                                               On the other side of the canal the first skirmishes were taking place between Dave and Bill came i the form of a scuffle between Dave's Pulcinella and Bill's Bride of Dracula and against all odds eventually went Dave's way even with Bill attempting some magic which went like water of a duck's back.So much for magic.My attempt later on didn't exactly set the heather in fire.

The first skirmish.

                                                                 Meanwhile on the other side of the canal Colin's gang after taking possession of their nearest sentry box headed towards my box in force flanked by an acrobatic female on either side of his noble and his trusty household.His Moon character was happily flying between buildings down one side whilst on the other side of the street his Selina Kyle type cat burglar was jumping from building to building looking for a spot where she could drop down on my unsuspecting Magi.

Surveying the enemy.

Ready for a leap of Faith.

Made it!

                                          On the other side of the canal a big brawl was developing between Bill and Dave's gang as more and more figures were being dragged into the skirmish with the site of Dave's Black Lamp character standing on top of a well fighting of all comers.

Magi with not very much magic.

And then there was none.

Venitian builders.

                                                                             I had decided to split my forces and my Magi with his faithful webbed female headed for the nearest sentry box and came into contact with Colin's rabble.Colin's cat burglar jumped onto my Magi from a high height and although she succeeded she didn't do much damage but this with the combined attack coming from the Noble and his staff made his follower dive into the canal which meant the Magi was left to his own devices and ended up being destroyed.No sooner had he left the field when Colin's Moon character swooped down on my webbed female from a nearby unfinished building.This didn't go as planned for Colin as he rolled a one on his Destiny dice,stopping the attack and giving my character a free swipe at Moon.

Not very ladylike.

                                                       My two aquatic creatures had finally managed to clamber out of the canal and headed for their quarry.My legged shark spied the encounter between Bill's werewolf and Dave's gondolier which wasn't going to well for the werewolf with it being on the end of the gondolier's paddle frequently.He saw the werewolf now as easy pickings so headed into the rear of the werewolf.This must have been the most unusual encounter of the evening,a matchup between a werewolf and a shark.Victory went to the shark which was my only success of the evening as my other two scraps were turning into stalemates.

Clambering out of the water.

Taking a chunk out of the werewolf.

Harlot protecting her virtue.

Fighting all around.

                                                                     My Hybrid came into contact with  Dave's Mask Maker on one of the canal bridges.The Mask Maker has the ability to change his bonuses every round which made for an interesting struggle.Meanwhile Dave's Harlot figure was going hand to hand with my aquaphibian-another interesting scrap-for possession of a sentry box with the battle going in favour of the Harlot.

Hybrid against Mask Maker.

Colin's retinue head across the bridge with in the background the sight of one of his female gang members mistiming her jump on to a ship.The perils of throwing a one.

                                                             The evening drew to a close with the threeway battle about to be joined by Colin's lot.A score draw was proclaimed by both Dave and Colin with Bill and I bringing up the rear.

Bill looking pensive.

He's taken a long time to chat her up even if she is a robot.

                                        A good game which is growing on me so it looks like I had better get some figures painted as well as the other figs and buildings that need painted.
                                             All figures,scenery and scenario were provided from Colin's vast collection.A bit of break from Carnevale next week with a game of Freikorps in the offing I believe.
                                                                               

Still after a Cornetto.