North Africa in the pouring rain!

Thursday 24th June

                 

                    Drove through the pouring rain to the Garvald film studios to find that we were playing a game about Second World War in North Africa.We could have done with some of that Mediterranean weather to make for a better atmosphere.Hey Ho we have to take what we get in Nicola land.

The Invasion Force

The Object of American Desires 

Waiting for non arrivals.

             I had actually expected another game of Stargrave but was pleasantly surprised to find the table set up for a venture into North Africa Bolt Action style.This was a chance for Colin to use some of the many hundreds of figures he has painted during lockdown which in gaming terms was going to be a massacre for somebody.Both sides consisted of new figures as El Presidente painted up some figures that he had been planning I.e. early war Americans and Afrika Korps. The synopsis of the game was an Operation Torch type landing somewhere in North Africa with inexperiencd Americans backed up by some paras against veteran Germans so the stage was set for a dramatic encounter especially as we were a bit rusty on the rules and that was shown from straight the start.

American paras posing.

Officer wi a map-Enough said!

Moroccan Tirrailleurs debarking.

                 I in my usual guise was playing the Germans and Colin backed up by oor Andrew took the part of the green Americans.My plan was to wait in ambush and decimate the invading Yankees but as usual plans only last till the first bullet goes off.Although Colin had decided to take it house by house,Andrew had decided to bypass the town and come round the side leaving my ambushers twiddling their thumbs covering the town streets.

Nobody 

“Nobody in this building,Sir!”

                        Colin’s first squad came into contact with my first set of defenders which consisted of local militia and although they inflicted a couple of casualties the Americans cleared the first house.One up to the Yanks.This gave Colin the chance to move up his Grant tank supported by Moroccan Tirailleurs hoping to head quickly for their objective which was the airport control tower.Not without a fight as this brought them into line of fire of a squad of entrenched German defenders supported by my only armour.

My Moroccan Militia heading to their doom.

“Come and get me!”

                 My defenders opened fire on the Moroccans hoping to decimate them but although they took some casualties they held firm giving Colin’s other squads time to house hop their way towards my now isolated squad.My tank opened up on Colin’s tank and although hitting it,just scratched it and gave him a chance to reciprocate and stun my poor boys.Andrew’s squads were edging their way round the outskirts of town and the only thing I had to shoot at him was my sniper which he duly did and missed the barn door to which Andrew replied with one of his squads firing back but they too missed the barn door giving my sniper time to scurry away to another location.

Brand new tank crawls through town.

Fighting off Uncle Sam.

                 Meanwhile my tank had brushed itself down and started to return fire on the American tank and finally after the second shot drew blood and evened up the score albeit only for a wee while as Colin’s squad combination done away with my first German squad.It wasn’t looking good on that flank.My other squad was still waiting for someone to come into their line of fire but had to wait until Andrew’s Yanks came into view.I had a line in the sand which was basically a very thin Field Gray line in the sand defending the airport so the plan was to engage Andrew’s forces as they seemed to be the greatest danger so I repositioned my surviving squad supported by my machine gun to help stem the Olive Green tide.

One of Andrew’s squads at sixes and sevens.

“Booyah!”

              The final phase opened with me firing all possible weapons bar the tank at Andrew whilst the tank would hopefully hold off Colin’s infantry who would have to cross open ground.I fired everything including mortars at Andrew and although the mortar had a direct hit it didn’t stem the inevitable tide of Olive Green who at the last gasp sprinted towards the airport control tower and eventually cleared the little defenders that were ensconced in the building.Game,set and match to the invading Yanks.A great game played in the best of spirit even when I complained about the use of bazookas in North Africa.My thanks to Colin for putting on a pregame repast complimented by a nice foaming ale.All figures,scenery and scenario was provided by Colin and made for a great evening albeit with it piddling down outside.I’m sure the North Africans would have loved some of this rain.

“So you got lucky!”

Mortar fodder.

            See you again soon hopefully in a couple of weeks when I plan to put a 7TV game on involving some 1980’s Swedes.Watch this space.

        This was Garvald Film Studio presentation.

Ein schone Flugzeug.

Back to semi-reality!

Wednesday 7th June.

                     The Garvald film studios reopened tonight again after the second Nicola lockdown and hopefully this will be the first of many game nights to come.Our first game was a venture into the unknown literally as it was the first attempt at Stargrave which on first reflections looks to be a good skirmish game. We both purchased the rulebook courtesy of the kickstarter to which I also purchased the figures to accompany it. I didn’t have any of them painted so I had to improvise and utilise some Necromunda figures I had acquired a few years ago tfrom oor Shug’s legacy.Colin had utilised some Kryomek figures that he had come across and yes they were all

My fav figure!

Under hive scum being reinvented.

                                 When I arrived I found that a table had been  set up with scenery and plenty of scatter material for our two gangs to squabble over.The figures were placed on the table and the game commenced with as per usual both gangs running to make best use of the cover provided.As this was our first proper game the rule book was perused on many an occasion as the game mechanics were worked through.

Colin’s choice of gang-Female Kryomeks.

Hiding behind the ramen bar.

                 The game consists of two crews scouring the board for booty coming in the form of solid crates or data transfers which had been placed round the board and the more your side procured the merrier.So after initiative was diced for ,which I won,the usual heading for the nearest treasure troves was the order of the day for the Watson gang. Colin’s crew were out to stop me but didn’t start too well as one of his girls went down in a blaze of glory.One down nine to go.The first couple of turns produced the usual early sparring rounds as we both sniped at each other with not a lot of damage done.

The battlefield.

“Here we go,here we go!”

                               Colin’s crew were the first to reach the crates and under fire from my lads they started opening the crates and downloading the data.It looked like it was going to be a short game until my shots started to count and the hits were piling up on the other crew and that was before my flamethrower opened up.Colin’s girls replied with very accurate grenade fire causing my first mate and a minion to utter a few grunts.

Reaching the first crate.

Frying Tonight!

                   The object of the game is to acquire the crates and head for home so Colin’s femme fatales had already reached their first crates and were opening them up in order to transport them to safety.My lads kept up their unwavering fire and eventually done away with Colin’s first mate leaving it’s partner on her own to haul the booty to their side of the board.One of Colin’s girls made contact with a data base and was heading off with it when I used my first ever power which was to make said girl drop the package and move it away from her.This came at some cost to my captain as he soon attracted some deadly fire from various enemy gang members including their leader who had moved into a better firing position but she also put herself into range of one of my lads who was throwing grenades at her like sweeties eventually doing away with her.

“Peek-a-boo!

Downloading the goods!

                                 One of my lads came into contact with another data base and lo and behold he opened it first time but that was the easy bit.No sooner had he picked it up when he was shot in the back making him fall and drop his ill gotten gains.This was soon avenged by my shooting everything in sight and eventually making Colin’s gang diminish by the minute and giving me a very slight victory.

Just about to be shot in the back.

Shooting and looting.

                       As I said earlier this was a first run for myself with this game and now I shall sit down and read the rules again and plan for future adventures and also how to best run a gang.We are hoping that if Partizan goes ahead this year to take the game with us as it’ll be easily transportable by train but I’m not holding my breath about the show going ahead as I think people in general will still be a bit wary of public events but you never know.