The Trouble with Rubble!

Saturday 15th Feb.

                                     

Donald telling us all to be politically correct.

Patiently waiting on the bacon rolls.

John Wayne in all his glory.

 First big battle of the new year saw us residing in the Garvald village hall for a multi player Korean War scrap involving nine players and a stack of toys.Chris Henry and our gamer in residence Colin Jack had concocted and created a Korean game loosely based on Inchon and had provided all the figures and scenery for our game.the remainder of our motley crew gathered together to indulge before the threat of Storm Dennis sent us all scuttling home.

Bill's squad gets decimated by the booby trap.

Rob's marines hit the beaches.

Andrew C.I.C of the Yanks.

Artillery Island.

                                                    We all gathered for the usual pleasantries and bacon rolls before divvying up the forces.I found myself in charge of the Chinese army with the opportunity to combine with my Korean brethren and drive the Yankee invaders back into the sea.Well that was the plan.The playing field was divided up into three tables worth of scenery for easy access to the figures movement.

More Yankees land.

Dave taking the artillery from the rear-Ooh Painful! 

Welcome to the beachparty!

Didn't last long though.

                            Bill Gilchrist,Rob Anderson,Peter Nicholson and Andrew Easson took charge of the invading capitalistic pigs whereas Dave O'Brien and Donald Adamson took charge of the oft picked on North Koreans.They were ably(I say that loosely)supported by the Chinese hordes looking to rescue their Korean brethren and keep the red flag flying.

Not letting the war get in the way of a good martini.

Unused Sea Furies

                                              The Chinese weren't going to arrive until turn three so Donald and Dave were left to their own devices and had a couple of tricks up their sleeves so after the initial naval bombardment arrived and done away with one of Donald's skulking squads the marines came ashore strung right across the table.My plan was to hang back and wait until the Yanks had landed and were making their way overconfidently  towards the centre of town before appearing right behind them and doing the dastardly deed as only the wily Chinese can achieve.Donald and Dave revealed their hands.Donald revealed that one of his buildings was booby trapped and when Bill's first squad went charging in the squad was decimated.On the other side of the table Dave had sprung his surprise by attacking the American artillery positions situated in their rear doing away with potentially dangerous Priest Self propelled artillery.

Corsair Threesome.

Chris's biplane arrives but done nothing.

A Shooting Star recce.

                                             Once Rob's marines complete with John Wayne in attendance had moved away from his landing craft my lads appeared behind them and started shooting albeit without any real success.Rob's mortar made a quick demise but alas the shooting of the remaining Chinese was abysmal giving Rob the chance to quickly retaliate and incur large amount of casualties on my lads.To add insult to injury Chris let Rob fire the machine guns from his landing craft which made all the difference to the eventual outcome.

Katyusha posing.

My gallant T34

Donald not making his assault guns conspicuous.

                                                    Andrew and Peter had landed their marines complete with armour en masse on the outskirts of the town and were ready to sweep in to their objectives only to find that although the buildings were looking prim and proper the whole built up areas on the board were actually rubble and movement was severely curtailed and each pile of rubble gave extra cover for shooting.Saying this Dave's defenders in the town were taking a bit of a kicking as he had no real protection against armour.Added to this was the readily available air support both in recce and attack as an awful lot of planes were appearing on the battlefield.The first appearance was an American Shooting Star making a recce run straight up the town High Street hunting for Dave's hidden units.
             Dave was exacting some revenge on the Yanks by doing away with the artillery position and then heading for town hoping to continue his good luck.Peter had other ideas.On the other side of the table my Chinese beach holiday was turning into a Chinese takeaway as my poor lads were dwindling faster than a plate of fried rice.I was intending using them as cannon fodder but I had hoped for them to last a bit longer.I was also hoping for Chris to let me bring them back on later but nope they were permanently heading for a chinwag with their ancestors.

Looking good-for the moment.

One burns-one hides.

Flattering to deceive.

                                                               Lunch time arrived so we all traipsed across to the Garvald Inn for some much needed sustenance.The foaming ale and lunch were consumed with gusto and had us raring for an afternoon of more fisticuffs.Poor Rob had to bring is dessert with him as he was the only one to preorder one but he was quick in informing us that the bread and butter pudding was delicious.

Andrew's bazooka heroes.

Burn baby burn.

"Got yeh!"

                               The afternoon took the form of a stout Korean defence and a hopeful counterattack by the Chinese.Dave's defenders had like my Chinese regiment had all but disappeared leaving me to take over the reins of Donald's defenders as he had to make a quick getaway due to an evening birthday party.At least in my hands they would have to fight.The Yanks slowly made their way through the well rubbled town fighting for every building,using air support whenever they could to dislodge defenders who were hanging on for grim death.

Care in the community get together.

Keeping the yanks at bay.

                                     Chris and Colin brought on their very needed reinforcements but they dragged their heels into combat and when they did they found that the American tank power much to their distaste.Andrew had success with his flamethrowing tank and combined with his super bazookas was bringing the Chinese assault to a stuttering halt as Colin's tanks started to dwindle.His partner Chris was suffering the same lack of success as Colin as Peter was advancing straight to the enemy rear doing away with the Katyusha battery in the process.Bummer!

Andrew's moment of madness.

                                                 After hindering Rob and Bill's marines for a little while,my Chinese infantry melted away giving the Yanks the chance to regroup and head into town ,albeit it very slowly,and give support to Andrew's marines who were taking a bit of a battering and that was even with tank support as my last unit,a T34 tank was holding up both Rob and Andrew's armour doing away with a Sherman tank in the process.

Keeping M.A.S.H.supplied with booze.

                                             

Another Yankee recce-this time with the wheels down.

  We headed into the final furlong with the defenders holding on grimly to their objective which was the temple building which I found unusual for a communist objective.The buildings around the temple where being fought over with no quarter given with Andrew even throwing in an American suicide attack on a neighbouring building costing him three squads with the loss of only one Chinese squad.Desperate times.Bill's marines finally made it onto the other table as his bazooka squad arrived to take a shot at my assault gun and proceeded to miss the barn door.A quick riposte came in the form of my hidden Korean squad decimating his team.This actually just drew fire from Rob's arriving marines,first pinning them and then destroying them.In the meantime Bill was trying to hit the same squad with his mortar,once again missing the barn door.Rob had moved the remainder of his marines up to clear the local  railway station of Koreans but not before they had hindered Andrew's marines from moving closer to their objective.

                                                   The game finished in a score draw which is a euphemism for stalemate as Andrew and Peter couldn't quite clear the town of Chinese and Bill and Rob dragged their heals bringing their men into the fray.Maybe my Chinese day at the beach was worth it-ice cream cones all around for the Chinese.

Thus endeth the game!

                                          A great game played in the true spirit of wargaming and enjoyed by all including young Katy,Colin's granddaughter who rolled some dice for us in the morning.It's good that kids can still be bribed with a bacon roll and a chicken burger.
                                              Many thanks to Colin and Chris for putting the game together,obviously a project which has been a long time in planning and also Peter in the Garvald Inn for catering for nine grumpy old men.
                                                     See You All When I See You.