The Great Garvald Showdown.

Wednesday 11th August.

       Good turnout this evening at the Garvald Film Studio for an evening of Stargrave where four of us diehards were pitched against each other and giving no quarter.Three of us turned up to find El Presidente for life had set up another fine table to fight over and also four amazing gangs made up of 32mm figures.Bill Gilchrist's gang were made up of western and Mexican characters including Wild Bill Hickock,Calamity Jane and Pancho Villa amongst others.Andrew's gang was made up of Native Americans (injuns to you and I)whilst Colin had taken charge of the crew of the Nautilus-no doubt the spaceship version.My gang brought up the rear in the form of the crew of the Serenity minus the shepherd-Colin couldn't find a figure to represent him so I was given a standard mercenary to bring my gang up to its quota.

Wild Bill Gilchrist’s Travelin Show

Andrew’s Vittorio crew.

My Serenity gang sans shepherd.

 The usual game of shooting and looting was on the agenda with the added bonus or hindrance of the appearance of some big creature in the middle of the board which no doubt would cause some mayhem later on.

The playing field.

The mysterious creature.

The other half of the table had a game set up for a future game show.

The game started late this evening due to the usual pre game chit chat taking a wee bit longer than usual and with the customary visit to the local hostelry for pizza and ale thrown in the game kicked off pretty late. As I said there were four of us playing so the turns did drag a wee bit but that doesn't mean to say there was a lack of action as we all took turns to do away with each other rather than look for the goodies.

                                     

Andrew’s gang creeping around a building in leaps and bounds by the look of it.

Colin’s crew of the Nautilus-a tad dark I’m afraid as I was more interested in my upcoming  pizza.

Colin’s gang heading for a tete a tete with Bill’s gang.

The game started as usual by everybody charging towards the loot hoards and straight  from the start I was picked on from two sides with Andrew and his force straight off the Starship Vittorio shooting at my poor innocent Serenity crew who weren't even misbehaving at that point.Bill's gang came off his ship the San Antonio and split his force with half of them picking on me and the other half heading for a confrontation with Colin's Nautilus crew complete with Captain Nemo in a wheelchair.

The other part of Bill’s gang coming to shoot my lot in the back.

Colin hunting for loot.

Kayleigh on top of the world.

                                           My plan was to split my force with half of them shooting and the other half looting with Zoe doing the interference and Mal doing the procuring.Zoe complete with her husband Wash and the doc knuckled down behind some cover and proceeded to trade shots with Andrew's leader Walks Landing backed up by Kaga who just happened to be armed with a grenade launcher,this was going to hurt and it did when a grenade was lobbed behind Zoe causing her to take a few hits.Mal's group headed in the other direction but due to my usual lack of foresight I let them get split up and due to the vagries of the rules they were all isolated meaning they had to wait till everybody else had moved which was to prove costly for poor Jayne who ended up being isolated and the object of one of  Bill's squads desires drawing fire from the whole squad and  once again it involved another deadly rocket launcher causing Jayne to take a s**tload of wounds and making him stunned.Kayleigh was meanwhile climbing the side of a building hoping to get some tech data but I think it was a wall to far.

Inara goes down.

Laughing at Inara’s downfall.

The creature awakens.

                                       Colin's Nautilus crew had also split up with one group heading for the centre of the board to grab some loot boxes but he was venturing ever near the caged beast meaning if it was to be released shortly he was going to be its number one target.The remainder of Colin's gang began to trade shots with Bill's leader and his group causing casualties on Bill's side.Things were looking good for Colin but things were about to change.Firstly Colin had to leave for a few minutes and deal with some of his menagerie and on return Andrew had rolled a dice and ended up releasing the caged robot/monster which after growling proceeded to fire at the three nearest targets two of which were Colin's figures but lucky for him they both missed.The third target was one of Andrew's runners who was about to open up a loot case but once again no hits.

Grey Wolf goes for the Psionic power and missed the barn door.

                                                          Andrew's other group were outflanking Zoe and her guys and this gave him the chance to have his Grey Wolf character use his Psionic fire on my imbedded defenders but alas it ended up as a damp squib with the only damage coming to himself as he had to forfeit health points to use this power.He resorted to the grenade launcher which was to prove more deadly.Meanwhile I had my Inara character move around the side of a building to try and help Jayne but in doing so drew fire from Bill's group and this proved to be fatal for after two lucky shots Inara was potted.First blood to Wild BIll Gilchrist's gang.My River character was dragging her heels and in the process of follwing her brother the doc took fire from Andrew's injuns and went down.

Calamity Jane wards of both her suitors.

                                                                                     Colin was patiently trying to flank the creature but only drew more fire from it causing a few wounds.The Nautilus crew sought to get nearer to Bill's gang and indulge in hand to hand .Their plan was to do away with  Calamity Jane who was hiding behind some cover partaking of a bottle of gin.It didn't  prove to be as easy as Colin had hoped as first one of the suitors was done away with before the gin bottle was turned toward the other one,dispatching him with the same severity.Two down for Colin.

Lull before the grenade storm.

                                                                       Malcom Reynolds had opened the loot case and in his usual manner was high tailing it towards the Serenity and safety.His gang meanwhile were holding on for grim life with both the doc and the hired mercenary crawling about in the dust looking for cover.This was to prove to be pointless as Andrew fired another grenade detonating right in the middle of the ensconced group causing the doc and the merc to head for the showers and keep Inara company.

Colin trying to circumvent the beast.

                                                        The game was nearing the end and casualties were occurring on all sides with one of Bill's guys biting the dust from a vengeful Jayne who had just got back on his feet..The only one who hadn't any real casualties was Andrew and although he hadn't any casualties his lads were carrying a few wounds but he was classed as the close winner.

                                                  A good game played in the usual flying accusations way but well worth the venture out to a very showery Garvald.My thanks to El Presidente for life for setting up a good table which actually had a WW2 game set up in the other half which I believe is heading for Carronnade if it takes place.

                                                        See you all soon with a report on the Gothenburg Gamers first outing in nearly two years as we put on a Boxer Rebellion game courtesy of Jim Conquer and Donald "Skulker"Adamson.

                                          This has been a Garvald Film Studio Production.