Purple Patch for the Afghanis-Bad day for the Empires!

 Wednesday 19th January.

Andrew slavering at my misfortune.

                 Back out to the Garvald Film Studios this evening thinking we would be partaking of another Venetian game only to be told that we would be indulging in a North West frontier game.Yes I thought Mounties and Canadian s**t!No dipstick,North West frontier in India.One day I’m going to listen when people talk to me but not tonight as usual.

A mountain high village.

With many a detached holiday villa.

My lads ready to repel boarders.

                       Tonight’s game was a three way game which initially was to be a Great Game encounter between Russians and Brits on the North West Frontier with a later(after pizza and beer)intervention by “tausends”of Afghani tribesmen which set us up for a rip-roaring game which ended up with the demise of an awful lot of empire builders.This wasn’t helped by Andrew who was in charge of the Afghanis throwing a s******d of good dice.

“Onwards!”

Before the slaughter.

“Change of Tack!”

                    Colin and I started off with the initial pre-pub skirmishes with his Russian forces attacking the beleaguered defenders of the border outpost defended by a squad of Indian infantry backed up by a very misfiring machine gun and a mortar hopefully holding out until reinforcements arrived.Colin’s Russians consisted of a trio of varying infantry backed up by an artillery piece and a machine gun.I had full confidence in the defenders until the machine gun crew couldn’t be bothered getting their act together and continued to prove rather lack lustre.Luckily the mortar crew weren’t as uninspired as their first shot landed slap bang in the middle of Colin’s front squad causing a few casualties. My reinforcements started to come on with a confidence that would be shot down in flames at the beginning of the second half.

Russian artillery piece.

First casualties.

“”Watch where you are putting that cross”in Russian.

                               Colin’s men surged on and deployed in order to attack the outpost on a wide scale hoping to reach the outpost before the natives arrived but this wasn’t to be as the defenders held on heroically apart from the said machine gun which was proving to be as useless as a chocolate fireguard.Pizza break arrived and the both of us headed to the pub to be met by Andrew and his wife Lesley for the consumption of ale and pizzas.Andrew was informed that he would be taking charge of the local tribesmen which he seemed a bit curious about but that’s the thing about being last to arrive you have to take what you are given.        

Machine Gunski.

Proud and naive.

Searching for Russian targets.

                         The second half commenced with Andrew deploying his ever so large units and even although most of them were classed as inexperienced there was still an awful lot of them so an awful lot of lucky dice rolls were going to be needed and they did come but alas usually in Andrew’s hands.My overconfidence crept in as I decided that since Colin wasn’t making too much headway I would diversify and attack the mountain village with a couple of squads and pile up the victory points.Wrong for as soon as my squads climbed the mountains they were met by a large tribe of locals who although weren’t the best of shots there was a lot of rifles firing at me and the law of averages meant that I was going to take a lot of hits and that I did a rolling sixes was becoming common to Andrew and therefore my lads were being whittled down.      

H

A wee bit crowded.

A dinky wee gun.

The Afghani first appearance.

                             Colin’s Russians were receiving the same treatment as more of Andrew’s tribesmen were appearing on the other side of the table and these ones came complete with an ancient artillery piece which helped keep up the pressure on both of our forces with the cannon firing at my defenders whilst a load of the tribesmen were taking potshots at Colin’s Russians.It was nice to see that Andrew wasn’t taking sides and playing the Afghans to a tee.

My lads not doing well.

“Tausends of them!”

And. there’s more!

                After my lads started returning fire with the village inhabitants much to my surprise another horde of them appeared which sounded the death knell for my two attacking squads meaning my quickly changed plan was in tatters so it was back to the “defence of the Alamo plan”and therefore my third reinforcement squad was diverted towards the outpost leaving the British command squad in their wake.            

North West frontier-Alamo style.

Another drone shot.

The Russian assault falters.

Ready for the mad rush.

                 As time was drawing to a close Colin went for one last push and threw all his infantry into assaulting my beleaguered infantry but they came up short with the first two squads and needed to whittle my squad down to one man before the third squad finally triumphed.His other squads were trying to deal with the Afghans taking potshots from the neighbouring hills but to no real effect.Andrew was charging down from the mountains ready to do away with my last bastion and like a machine gun out of Carry on up the Khyber it just wilted.

“And their off!”

Not a lot of Russian left!

Afghani HQ chortling at the empire’ misfortunes.

              With the sight of Andrew’s wild tribesmen charging across the plain and Colin’s solitary squad ensconced in one part of the outpost full time was called much to my relief and tutting from Andrew.My lads lived to fight another day.

          Another great game put on at short notice be El Presidente and enjoyed even by myself and my dwindling figures.

            See You All When I See You.

       This has been a Garvald Film Studios Production.

Vampires and Weeping Angels-Welcome to Garvaldian Venice

 Wednesday 5th January 

Sleepy Venice 

E di Nuovo.

A non playing boat.

                         Rather than waste a beautiful set up,El Presidente for life decided to run another IHMN game based in Venice,this time with three players venturing into town looking for several loot counters.I would say loot counters very loosely as the contents of these counters were either weeping angels,vampires or deed bodies!Welcome to Garvaldian Venice.

Coming under the allure of a vampire.

“What the f**k”in Italian.

Run ashore.

Colin’s Ragazzi.

            Tonight’s three teams consisted of the Regia Marina(Italian sailors)who were under my watchful eye.,The company of St Mark(which consisted of Corte Maltese and a few of his female cohorts)guess who had control of them?and a very young Mussolini and his early Fascisti followers,in the hands of our Andrew.Well at least they were Italian rather than last week’s Chinese and Egyptians.

“Oh hello there!”

The Fascisti frolic.

And find a deed body.

          Tonight’s game was a bit curtailed due to an extra long pizza break and early work commitments the following day.As usual the game started off with everybody heading for the nearest loot counters and on my first turn one of my sailors climbed to the top of the nearest building and surveyed the loot counter situated on the veranda only to find out that it was a weeping angel.Not good.For once the angel was not up to the task as for when the sailor charged into combat a struggle ensued which for once went the sailor’s way as although they grappled for a few turns the angel couldn’t defeat him.

Il Duce discovers a vampire.

Divide and conquer.

Shot in the back.

          My tactics like last week were for to split my force in two and hopefully conquer so therefore my Teniente and a few matelots broke off from the main group whose object was to overcome Corte Maltese and his minions.Corte Maltese decided to head for the loot which was lying in the bandstand,he promptly arrived,turned the counter and lo and behold he came face to face with a vampire.This vampire proceeded to mesmorise and and after coming under its spell proceeded to take a pot shot at one of the sisters of the orphanage and although he didn’t do any damage I bet it p’d her off.

Nothing to see here-yet!

Doing what the vampire tells you.

                           My lads decided not to mess about and quickly started taking potshots at Andrew’s Fascisti but alas no hits.Andrew returned the compliment and although didn’t hit any of my men crossing the bridge he took  a shot at the fracas that was going on between the sailor and the weeping angel and lo and behold he hit the weeping angel killing it in the process.That got my sailor out of a very sticky situation to which he took full advantage and legged it.

Slugging it out.

It’s amazing who you meet on a gondola.

            El Presidente meanwhile didn’t take care of his vampire problem and of course it came back to bite him on the bum figuratively speaking for in the next phase it hit him with another mesmerising spell making him once again take a pot shot at one of his accompanying sisters.He really does know how to pee a woman off.

Waiting for Romeo.

                   Andrew’s next fortune cookie for want of better words was the appearance of a vampire which although was a hindrance didn’t take him long to do away with leaving him the opportunity of splitting his forces so that he could deal with my incursion across the bridge.Andrew sent his minions across the bridge for a set too with my matelots but my rum infused lads held their own and the Fascisti began to fade away.The rest of my squad made for the centre of Venice disturbing yet another Weeping Angel on the way making them stop and take care of this usurper which was going to take most of the remainder of the evening.

Il Duce urges them on.

                   Colin’s other girls were making their way around the canals trying to avoid the other two warring gangs whilst they hunt for other loot tokens,usually deed bodies giving them more victory points.This was going well for Colin until he came across a Weeping Angel biding its time on a gondola looking for €80 to pay the gondolier(that comes from personal speaking by the way).This turned into a bout of fisticuffs when two of Colin’s sisters decided to take the angel on.

About to be three in a boat .

Boots to the fore.

                 The curtailed game was coming to an end with most of the points going Andrew’s way even although my lads were dumping their gang members into the canal.A great game as always with once again another take on this fabulous Venetian scenery.Many thanks to El Presidente for putting the game on and I’d imagine the scenery will be used for other games.

             See You All When I See You.

          This has been a Garvald Film Studios Production!

     

..

2021’s Last Tsunami-Venetian Style.

Wednesday 29th December 

Still singing.

Venice before the Tsunami.

             

           The last game of an eventful 2021 found us back at the Garvald Film Studios for an exciting romp involving Chinese Tongs and the Servants of Ra racing each other to embark on the boat that was going to save them from the ensuing Tsunami which was about to make Venice even more waterlogged.This was an In Her Majesty’s Name scenario that I had plucked out of the new rule book as I thought it looked interesting and boy was I going to find that out at the end as once again I hadn’t read the victory conditions correctly.The conditions stated that once six people were on the boat,it cast off and the game was over but I didn’t click that it meant any six persons meaning although at the end El Presidente had four and I had two it still meant end of game-bummer! 

The Servants of Ra nervously looking over their shoulders.

Single file in twos.

The hoped for refuge.

             . My plan was to rush to the boat with the Dragon Lady and some of her retinue whilst her  second in command and a few lackeys would hold off the opposing cultist minions hoping they would be heading for the safety of the boat before the Tsunami struck.This set the scene for a big stramash on one of Venice’s bridges before both sides remnants headed for the escape boat. I drew first blood with a snapshot from one of my musket armed Boxer sending one of the cultists into Venice’s dirty canals.

Diversifying 

The bad guys converge.

The Bridge Brawl.

             This just drew the ire of the Ra’s cultists as they swarmed over the canal bridge and surrounded my poor Chinese lads who were fighting for their lives even before the Tsunami struck. The Tsunami was a random generated event which was diced for after every movement phase working on a D10-2 which was okay to start as El Presidente rolled a one meaning the wave was working itself up to a frenzy  before swamping Venice and all the participants .

Dragging their heals behind the Dragon Lady.

Said Dragon Lady.

The first arrival.

Servants of Ra are not far behind.

          Our main participants were racing each other down opposite sides of the canal hoping to board the boat/submarine which was going to guarantee their safety-maybe!The two ladies could be seen given each other the finger as they headed for the mooring before their eye makeup ran.Their entourages were close behind them.

Facing off!

We didn’t have a marker to represent the Tsunami so you have to imagine the gondola surfing on the crest of it!

The entranced Dragon Lady spars with the Dragon Warrior.

                  The entourage finally arrived at the docking pier with their girls to the forefront and before we could have a pleasant chick fight Professor Abir had cast a Zone of Shadows spell on my Dragon Lady which lo and behold she couldn’t defend herself against. The result of this spell had her scrapping with her faithful Dragon Warrior who was just a few paces behind her.Luckily nothing bad came off the fight.After she recovered from the spell,she just gave herself a shake and headed back towards the submarine seeking revenge..

“Wait for me!”in Chinese.

“Everyman for himself!”

                Meanwhile back at the bridge Master Wu-jen was dispatching with aplomb all insunder but alas my lackeys were dwindling rapidly probably as they were all keeping one eye on the oncoming tidal wave.After one last skirmish the remaining combatants decided to place safety before valour and disengaged from each other before legging it towards safety.

“Cast off!”

“And their off!”

              Back at the pier it was setting itself up for one last battle as everyone was desperate to get on to the boat and in the ensuing scrap my Dragon Lady came up against Akhenaton,head cook and bottle washer of the Servants of Ra and I’m sorry to say came of second best and was last seen being dumped into the canal.Boo Hiss!

Survival of the slimiest.

       It was at this point El Presidente informed me that there were now six persons on the boat therefore he could cast off even although the six persons were from a different sides.Bummer,one should read the victory conditions with a bit more concentration.Game set and match to El Presidente as all my gang were still spread out all over Venice and although I had a couple of figures on the Submarine my strewn dead bodies meant that the Servants of Ra had won the day but revenge will be swift.

The “Tsunami “reaches the bridge-luckily everybody had legged it.

         A great game to finish off a weird gaming year which had a few ups but a lot of downs mainly due to lack of understanding of the ever changing rules and regulations laid down to us by our so called dithering political masters.

       I wish you all a Guid and hopefully prosperous New Year and hopefully we’ll see you for a gab at one of the game shows the Gothenburg Gamers intend to attend starting with Hammerhead at Newark in March.

              See You All When I See You!

         This has been a Garvald Film Studios Production.