Never Trust A Martian!

 Wednesday 11 September.

This evening's Garvald Film Studios presentation was a sci-fi extravaganza namely a sci-fi epic involving a return to the planet Mars.Namely a return as it hasn't been played by some of the Gamers for over 20 years and the rest of the participants not at all,but what a game it was both visually and entertaining.The actual game was set in Victorian times but was still the same old Victorian colonial style.

The Martian prince's bolt hole.

These pillars are for docking ships.

               Five of us turned up at first with the sixth,Oor Andrew making a very belated appearance at the pub due to his train being cancelled-NEVER!Dave O'Brien took charge of the HMCS Pandora and he went under the nom de plume of Captain H.C.Syk with an obvious dislike of his southern earthly neighbours as I was to find out later.Bill off course under the name of Captain Uilyam Gilkristi taking the reins of his very unusual circular Russian ship.Colin true to form had a Belgian airship crewed mainly by women-Quelle Surprise!Our late arrival Andrew was given charge of a German Land Leviathan christened the SMLS Valkrie with myself ably guiding the USCS Astoria,an aerial monitor complete with rocket troops.Last but not least our latest follower ,Campbell was given two bits of junk-sorry two Martian junks and a massive dislike for the European(& American)interlopers even although we started the game as "all pals at the palais!"This was soon to change as his plan was to waylay the convoy that was heading to the Martian Imperial Palace to give some beautiful gifts to his highness.Also one of our participants was to prove a traitor to the Allied cause.

Les Plucky Belgians.

Die Grosse Lande Panzerschiff.

My American Beauty.

The Royal Navy arrives-naturally!

One of the turncoat Martians-Boo Hiss!

And finally the Russians with a ship that was actually built.

              The game started with everybody sailing wily nily with not a care in the world festooned with gifts for the local prince but no sooner had we moved when the dastardly Campbell started to fire on anybody he could mainly Colin.After we played our turn we had random appearances from the very ungrateful natives who wanted to usurp the prince and make off with all the goodies.Two cohorts of revolting natives appeared beside my peace loving ship and since I was the American and didn't understand their lingo I took a pot shot at them with my Lewis gun causing a casualty and generally p'ssing  them off.

"Oh look Injuns on the starboard bow,Shoot to kill!"

                           With Campbell now showing his true colours all the ships began to manoeuvre all over the place trying to get a good shot at him not knowing which one of us was going to be the quisling,but we had a fair idea!Pizza break was called so we all trotted off to the local for the usual fresh pizzas and cold ale to give us sustenance for the coming struggle.Andrew eventually turned up and so we all set off back to the games room and continued our struggle to bring leadership and the European values to these Martian heathens or something like that.  

Just for scenery number 1

Another non playing model.This was actually used in a Martian invasion of Berlin a few years ago.

A natty German bicycle complete with gun-also not used.

             
                                                         Andrew was designated Graf Von Easson for the evening and was given charge of some German behemoth albeit the only machine that couldn't fly.The game got underway again with Campbell getting stuck into all insundry even although he still didn't know who his ally was but that was revealed shortly as during one of Bill's turns he didn't fire at Campbell even although he was at point blank range.Typical Russkie!My plan was to board Campbell's leading ship with my rocket troopers not only to stem his advance but also to try the rules out.

My rocket troopers ready for the off complete with stars and stripes.

Jetting over.

And getting stuck in.

                            My jet troopers headed for their duel with Campbell's crew but before they had arrived Campbell had taken a pot shot and done away with two of my troopers,one being the leader-bummer.The rest just got stuck in and ended up scrapping for the rest of the evening whilst their mothership flew off towards the Martian city to present the offering.Little did I realise when I was hovering over the city that I didn't have anybody to hand it over as my troopers were otherwise engaged.

Bill reveals his true colours.

So the Royal Navy moves to deal with this traitor.

                                  By this time Bill had revealed his true colours and started firing on the allies mainly Dave's Royal navy ship which drew a rapid response from the Senior Service with Dave closing to get a better shot as the Russkie ship had thick armour. Dave also to my disgust also had a pot at Campbell's leading junk which had my lads were scrapping on.luckily no damage was done or the Special relationship would never have got of the ground-literally.

Out come the Zeppelin troopers-Raus!

                                     Andrew was slowly making his way up the planet stopping off to deal with some rebelling natives who were chucking spears at his giant craft.Andrew replied by sending out his zeppelin troopers to deal with the riff raff.Colin was fighting off the advances from Campbell's other junk whilst still flying towards the city hoping to deposit the gift before the end of the game.No such luck as time was ticking on.

Getting a bit crowded.

Colin's Bonne Filles.

                                         The rebels started making a last minute assault on the city but were held back on the main wall but although they breached the side wall they couldn't make any headway before the final whistle was sounded.

They don't have a clue how it works.

Repelling boarders.

Elfing about.

"There's tausends of them!"

                                                 As my ship was moored to the giant pylons I was classed as the nearest to the objective but who cares it was a great game played in the best of spirit apart from Bill the turncoat who we will forgive this once.

Looking for targets of opportunity.

The End Game

                                                          Many thanks to Colin for putting on the game with all these wonderous toys.It's a game as I said they put on for a show away back in the nineties and he has wanted to play for a long time .Hopefully it won't be that long before we play it again.
                                                     See You All When I See You.