Why Waste a Good Table!

 Place-Some Germanic Port(Garvald Film Studios)

Time-Circa 1919(Real world Burns Night 2023).

Here come Ma boys!

        Tonight’s escapade found us back again in 1919 this time about a few thousand miles west of last weeks encounter with an altercation on the Baltic coast  between German Spartikists and Freikorps.El Presidente rightly decided to use the same set out table with the idea that if it’s not broken don’t fix it especially as we had three new contenders playing this week.

Freikorps Naval Power

A Quiet Day Down At The Docks.

El Presidente’s artillery reading how good they are.Bob Hope is in the background.

   Tonight’s excursion into Freikorps had Comrade Gilchristi,Fireman Dave and Professor Adamson or as they are usually known Curly,Larry and Mo taking charge of the Spartikists and they were faced against us good guys who were  hoping to make the land safe for bratwurst.

The Contested Islet.

And what a Japanese Saki still is doing in the Baltic we don’t know?

Fireman Dave brings on his Spartakisti Navy.

     Once again we were using Set the East Ablaze rules which I sometimes feel drag their heels a bit but it’s not my dojo.The first few turns as always had the usual sight of everybody moving into shooting range very slowly.This week we were after objective markers instead of real estate so there wasn’t too much in and outing at least till near the end of the game.We also had two armoured cars on the playing field but as always acted a bit like chocolate fireguards.

My Junge heading for glory.

My Glorious Commander.

Waving the Bavarian Flag.

      Donald’s first move was to move his cavalry forward in order to charge El Presidente’s infantry who were making their way up the side of a dockside warehouse which was a bit of forward thinking for Donald.El Presidente had left the table in order to attend to something,probably barking dogs,so I took over the reins of his infantry and I’m afraid I took 3 casualties but passed the morale test.Donald did utter “bother “or words to that effect but it looked like the infantry wouldn’t last long but I was to be proved wrong.El Presidente’s naval forces were moving forward and looked like they were going to get into a naval battle with Fireman Dave’s flotilla.That would be a first for myself witnessing a naval battle using these rules.After some deliberation we classed the ships as floating armoured cars.The focus of both fleets were on a little islet which lo and behold contained an objective marker.Comrade Bill was having his usual display of bad dice rolling hence the tardiness of his advance.

Donald’s cavalry at cross purposes.

Bill’s infantry crawl on to the table.

Complete with some Lithuanians.

      Our gallant Freikorps units were moving steadily towards contact and since I had initial control of Andrew’s force I had them moving forward so that after dinner he would be in a great place to advance and destroy Bill’s very slow moving bunch of revolutionaries.Dinner was called for so we all trapzed around to the pub for some fine dining which being Burn’s night consisted of haggis and for the diehards haggis pizza.A few ales were also quaffed giving us sustenance for the second half.Once again we were joined by Andrew ready to move his forces into victorious battles with Bill’s lot.I’m sure Andrew was happy about the forward dispositions of his forces as they went on a great winning spree against Bill’s unfortunate Spartakisti.

El Presidente’s move forward.

Didn’t think you got sharks in the Baltic but who knows.

Andrew’s forces heading for glory.

Our Armoured Car hunting for Horse Flesh.

Donald’s cavalry seemed to have indulged in a stalemate between himself and El Presidente on the docks and his infantry were far behind him ,in fact they drifted into the sights of my field gun which I thought was as good a reason to pepper them and bring them to a halt.Which they did and faltered until their overall commander arrived in time to read the riot act and get them moving.Dave’s red marines were in the process of infesting the docks and taking over a moored freighter obviously in search of objective markers.He did diversify at one point by putting some Spartakisti Bavarians complete with a machine gun on a roof and began to pepper my field gun albeit with not too much damage.

The shark needs fed.

Bill’s infantry dithers.

Donald’s girls stagger across the field.

The Battle of the Islet!

         Bill’s forsaken lads had ensconced themselves in various buildings obviously to lessen the damage they were taking but Andrew wasn’t taking his foot off the gas peddle as he cleared away the first building and that was without using his flamethrower.I decided to jump on the bandwagon and moved my not so good guys into the safety of a wooden building leaving my Freikorps squad to assault a building that was full of Lithuanian Spartakisti.I thought it was going to be a hard slog but Bill’s consistency continued as all he could troll were one’s and two’s meaning his Lithuanians had to vacate the premises with their tails between their legs.As for the armoured car he had charge off,it chugged to the edge of the river and proceeded to spend the rest of the game there.

Fireman Dave’s men about to board the freighter.

Donald’s charge to initial glory.

With these lads in the water it must be a swimming test.

“

Bing checks the packing cases.

           The game was proving to be very slow moving and although I took over a building complete with objective marker I found the game bogged down a bit and this I’m afraid summed up the game.The game drew to a close with everybody except poor Bill with an objective marker but since Andrew had done away with a few more enemy squads he was designated as the winner and obviously it was all down to the skill I showed in his initial advances-or something along these lines.

The Bayern Reds!

The islet about to get new owners.

“And the animals came in two by two.”

“Hey Otto,do fancy some saki.””Jawohl,Juergen!”

        It was a good game but I think it would have moved faster had we used Bolt Action rules and the random dice production the game has.All figs,scenery and scenario were provided by El Presidente and it was good to get to gab with Curly,Larry and Mo as we don’t get to see them all that often.

The Armoured Car dithers.

Fireman Dave looking for some smoke.

Andrew’s lads doing a bit of house clearing.

   See You All When I See You.

 

    This has been a Garvald Film Studios Production.

El Presidente’s armoured car dithering a bit.

Viva Vladivostok

 Place-Vladivostok Docks(Garvald Film Studios)

Time -Sometime in 1919(or Wednesday 18th January in real time)

El Presidente’s forces arrive to dig in and b****r all else.

Docks Mayhem 

Here comes the grey wave.

Our not so air support.

My support in a oner.

    What game do you play when there’s a couple of inches of snow and a wee bit ice on the ground?-A Back of Beyond game in wintry Vladivostok.Well it’s always cold there!I turned up at the film studio to be presented with a great setup and plenty of figures on show. It looked like we were set for a great evening of sparring.On arrival I found that our favourite North Berwick rascal Dave O’Brien was in attendance and it seemed we were not going to be in for a slow evening.The scenario was simple with the Bolsheviks arriving into Vladivostok and doing away with the foreign imperialist scum but standing in their way were the triple pact of Imperialist lackeys who came in the form of Japanese,British and American mercenaries helping themselves to the spoils which should have belonged to the true people of the Soviet republics or something along these lines.

Japanese choo choo.

Japanese Sopwith Camel.

Rear part of Japanese train.

The Yanks are here and we’re staying put!

        The armies were divvied up and although it was suppose to be a joint Soviet effort I could tell by Commissar O’Brien’s attitude it was going to be every man for himself.El Presidente took charge initially of the Allied forces until Andrew appeared later to take charge of the Japanese.

Looking for targets.

A wee bit extra scenery.

Japanese taking a while to get moving.

My CIC looks like Santa working out of season.

    The game commenced with the usual Soviet mass advance and since we were using Setting The East Ablaze rules it meant that everybody got to move so it was just like a massive grey skirmish line heading towards Vladivostok.I had been given charge of a train-talk about a railwayman’s holiday so my plan was to go full pelt into the port and open fire with cannon and machine gun but alas there was a Japanese armoured train with a bigger gun standing in my way.

The Yanks still going nowhere.

The other Soviets complete with armoured car advances.

The Brits in their Shackleton coats.

Commissar O’Brien’s Cheka.

     Commissar O’Brien had showed his usual unselfish side by taking over all the real estate on his drive towards the docks and the houses were all beginning to be bedecked in red flags albeit all in his name.My plan had been to get up close and personal and do away with all the Japanese but alas due to the dice rolls I was getting nowhere in a hurry.

One man and his dog.

More Japanese.

Doing away with my cannon.

Just for show-again!

“Bang a gong-Get on!”

Heading for glory-not!

       El Presidente had taken charge of the Allied forces and spent the first turn getting all his forces of the boats and heading to contact although his Americans weren’t allowed to attack the Soviets only defend.The fighting on the other flank from the Japanese was left to the British and their big Shackleton coats which looked rather ungainly.The Japanese were slowly making their way through the docks but hadn’t fired a shot when dinner was called for.

The commissar looking for a new dacha.

A man on a horse making a good target.

   After a short break for vittles and beer we trooped back into the games room this time with Andrew in tow and settled down to our usual game of one upsmanship.Andrew took charge of the Japanese and started to move them all forward.El Presidente took charge of the special relationship team although only the British were doing any advancing.Andrew’s first action was to take a pot shot with his armoured train against mine but this proved to be unsuccessful.Commissar O’Brien continued on taking over buildings and looking for allies with which he could scrap with.

The Trainboys arrive.

Japanese on the hoof.

         My train took a pot shot at some Japanese infantry without doing any damage.Andrew’s reaction was to repay the compliment by firing again on my train with his causing my train to retreat.The train contained infantry units and a Maxim machine gun so I thought it was to detrain them and get them into the fight.The gun on the front proved to be useless an eventually the train headed for some scrapyard behind the lines.

“Come and get it if you’re big enough!”

More Japanese.

        Commissar O’Brien had finally moved his forces into sparring range of the British who by this time had ensconced themselves in a building and with some cajoling by his commissar(by the way of shooting someone)the Soviets charged into fisticuffs with the Brits and began a boxing match which was to take a couple of turns before a victor was pronounced and alas for the Brits it was the Soviets albeit with only two men left.

The Brits and the Soviets sparring.

The final outcome.

       My lads were slowly making  their way towards their Japanese foes but very slowly due to the vagaries of the movement dice throws.The first squad of mine who came within range of the Japanese rifles took a couple of hits making them retire and seek the sympathy of their commanding officer.He showed them no pity but still rallied them giving them the opportunity to return to the fight albeit with only five men.My Train infantry squad replaced them in the front line and began to trade shots with the first Japanese squad and gave as well as they got.My other two squads were slowly moving forward and one actually took a building-Hurrah!”Put that in your pipe and smoke it commissar.”

The cavalry cometh.

And winnith!

           Commissar O’Brien’s hopes were dashed slightly with the removal of his armoured car by the British machine gun but that still didn’t stop him property developing Vladivostok.My Maxim gun fired and done away with half a Japanese squad only for Commissar O’Brien to do away with the rest of the squad and take the plaudits as well as the victory points.Do you see what I was up against?At least the Japanese didn’t backstab you,they were content to stab you from the front.

The main event of the evening.

We were coming in to the closing minutes and it looked as though we were heading for a stalemate when Andrew was given the opportunity to charge my train infantry with his finally arrived cavalry.This he did but he didn’t get it all his own way as my standard bearer dispatched the two cavalrymen facing him.Well Andrew did roll Snake Eyes.After a bit to and froing  he done away with the infantry albeit with a few casualties..The game was over and the points were tallied and lo and behold a victory for the Soviets but I was then informed that since The North Berwick commissar had accumulated most of the points he was declared the rightful winner.Some people are a bit more equal than others.

The shark waiting on the outcome.

Looks like it’s going to be sushi!

       One last joust was to take place and that was the duel between the two aircraft with the Japanese being in charge of a Sopwith Camel and the Soviets were flying in an unknown aircraft (Czech maybe-answers on a postcard please?).It was a great victory for the Soviet aircraft and  I’m sure surpassed any Soviet ground victory-Heh Heh!A great game played in the usual contemptuous way with the game showing the usual way allies tend to differ.All figs (and there was a lot of them)scenery and scenario provided by El Presidente.I believe we are playing another Back of Beyond and I do believe the Chief Skulker and Fireman Dave could be making an appearance.Looks like we’ll have to check the Soviet windows!,,,,😏

The Japanese victory March.

     See You All When I See You.

     This has been a Garvald Film Studios Production.