Carnevale Time in Garvald

                                      Thursday 3rd January.

                                             Tonight's thrilling instalment from the Garvald Film Studios came in the first outing of the Carnevale game from TT combat and was the culmination of great patience from our chief executive Colin Jack who has been a long time  awaiting the much delayed arrival of the game,the reading of the rules and the painting of the figures.All these three factors finally came together this evening so Dave O'Brien and myself trekked out to Garvald to have our first outing of this game.We were joined later on by Garvald's latest inhabitant Andrew Easson.

Venice 1790's or 2019

Dave putting together his plan Kill,Kill,Kill!

Gondola adrift.

A N.P.C but still looks good.

                        Carnevale is a Gothic skirmish game taking place in an alternate Venice which has been the site of a temporal rift causing various demonic creatures to appear in the  late 18th century.This gives the opportunity to pit the various sects in Venice at the time to come to grips with these demons and of course each other.

My gang of night time lovers.

Putting on a show for Dave.

One about to end up in the canal.

                               The sides were divvied up with myself taking the part of some self-respecting vampires.Dave O'Brien took the side of the Guild and Andrew was left in charge of the local elite.

Granny armed with a rolling pin -only in Venice.

One of Andrew's copains.

Practise time.

This time with a sword.

                                     Four bridge sentry boxes were this evening's objectives and possession of them would result in victory points.

Dave's onslaught.

Hoping for an easy victory.

Just about to be well done with a stake through the heart.

                                        The game kicked off with Dave charging across one of the bridges with the intent of getting to grips with my undead and it was not too long before the first fisticuffs took place between one of Dave's Guild ruffians and my Reaper which was basically a berzerking nutter.First blood went to my reaper but Dave's lad was still standing.My only non vampire Thrall took a potshot at Dave's menacing watchman who was crossing a nearby bridge with her crossbow but she was basically just swatting at flies.

My noble vampire out for an evening stroll.

And getting rid of a potential mugger.

Only for his big sister to appear.

Baby!Menage A Trois!

                                       I decided to split my forces and my head vampire headed for the sentry box on the other side of the board and with the further intention of roughing up some of Andre's Venitian elite.After crossing the bridge he ran straight into one of Andrew's characters who seemed to be getting into a right flap.The fisticuffs took place and even though I made Andrew's character retreat my own vampire noble had taken a bit of a beating himself and this gave Andrew the chance to rush in with one of his female characters intent on doing away with this vampire.My noble temporarily defended himself but Andrew went for the jugular(well it was a vampire)by following up with another female this time rather scantily dressed and going by the name of Harlot.This was enough for my noble vampire to disappear into nothing.

And he's in!

                                                      To add to my woes Dave was having an easy time across the canal with first my other female vampire coming to a sticky end and then my crossbow woman being surrounded.Dave had earlier hoped to get some support for his attack by bringing up his gondola but due to the vagaries of the dice rolling his gondolier ended up in the canal.This gave my aquatic vampire the chance to exact revenge on Dave but as soon as my water borne vampire speeded up Dave's gondolier shot out of the water at a fair rate of knots.

Not looking good for my girl.

                                                        With my noble being dispatched I decided to bring my Nosferatu character up to engage with Andrew's two women but speed was not exactly his thing so dragged himself towards the bridge with something akin to Quasimodo.This helped Dave by distracting some of Andrew's figures who were attempting to cross the canal and finding it to be a tad difficult as Dave was moving some of his gang towards the same bridge.Overlooking this fracas was Andrew's spy who came in the form of a well clad female armed with a rifle who was looking for targets of opportunity but finding them hard to come by as the rest of the gang were all entwined with some of Dave's gang which eventually joined by the sunken gondolier who had just escaped the clutches of my aquatic vampire.

Die Spionen

"Follow me granny!"

On his own for the moment.

Right between the cleavage.

Getting a wee bit busier.

                                    My aquatic vampire had by this time climbed out of the canal and was now in possession of the last remaining sentry box awaiting the onrush of the other gangs and as we headed into the last turn Andrew and Dave were looking to extricate themselves from the fracas on the bridge in order to get to the last sentry box currently occupied by myself.First Dave's lad came into contact with my vampire but ended up rolling a 1 on his destiny dice making him take hits instead of wounding my character.The game came to an end with Andrew the narrow winner as two of the sentry boxes were contested.

"Just One Cornetto!"

I hope the bridge can take the weight.

And they keep coming.

                                                A good game especially as it was its first outing.In my opinion and this is after laying out a couple of bob for my own game is that it is just another gang skirmish game albeit with a novel destiny dice twist.The rule book makes good eye candy but the rules need a couple of reads and a couple of games to be really comprehended.The figures are resin and very delicate with arms and body bits needing glued onto torsos and care has to be taken when they are in play.Now doubt the game will be tried again this week work providing so my next blog will be an update.

The Lady Vanishes.

"My Precious!

"It's Mine!""No it's Mine!"

And he hung on till the end-My Precious!"

                                    All figs,scenery and scenario provided by Colin Jack who also provided us with a sumptuous repast of paella.
                                                        Hopefully speak to you next week after the game's second outing.