"I love the smell of pizzas in the evening!"

Wednesday 27th March
Location-South Vietnam.Or Garvald as it's usually called.

Colonel Kilgore posing before the off.

Set Up.

I don't know how Donald is going to manoeuvre that onboard.

Sleepy Ville.

                                                 This evening's Garvald Film Studio presentation found us in the boonies of South Vietnam with an encounter between American and Australian forces against Vietcong and NVA regulars involving tanks,helicopters and even a couple of riverine boats who were ready to lay waste to everything that got in their way,or at least that was the plan.

And on the other bank.

Doesn't look a haven for bad guys.

There for artistic reasons we were told.

                                                   The gallant allies came under the capable hands of Bill Gilchrist ,Donald Adamson and myself with the Vietcong coming under the control of Colin Jack an Dave O'Brien supplemented later on by the arrival of Andrew Easson and his cave dwelling NVA.

Puff the Tragic Wagon.

"Watch those f'g rotors!"

Donald heading to god knows where.

                                                         Our plan was simple.The two riverines would each eradicate the two villages on the river banks whereas Bill would stay back and garrison the base in case of any bad guy incursions which no doubt would occur.I thought it was a safe plan until straight away when Donald showed his lack of nautical knowledge by moving his riverine into reverse thinking that he was going forward.We should have just surrendered there and then.

Hiding amongst the moos.

Donald deviating from plan.

And suffering the consequences!

                                                                   The thing about most Vietnam games is that you don't see the VC until you are literally walking over them or sailing past them in our case.as soon as I moved my riverine it came into the sights of Dave's hidden RPG but luckily for me it missed.Not so much luck on the other riverbank as Donald deviated from plan and decided to land short and deploy his personnel carrier festooned with infantry which attracted the attentions of another RPG this time hitting his target and destroying the carrier with the loss of a handful of infantry.It was going to be a long night.

The bodycount.

Andrew's lads moving that fast that they are just a blur.

                                         

More like Dave-setting up an ambush.

 We played two turns before heading for some rations coming this week in the form of pizzas and foaming ale from the nearby pub.Andrew by this time had joined us and so we all trooped back to the game room to see if we could improve any and bestow the American way on these revolting VC.
                                     

RPG!

Honest it's flying.

Honest it's flying-take two!

 The game continued with Donald deciding to reverse his boat,hitting the pier he had started from.My boat had taken an RPG hit from Colin's side of the river reducing my speed.It was time for my fire power to let loose but to no real effect.Dave revealed a heavy machine gun which proceeded to pepper my boat with bullets and cause casualties.Bill meanwhile was digging in,awaiting the attack coming from some sneaky hidey hole no doubt and it wasn't long coming in the form of NVA regulars emerging from caves situated at the side of our homebase.

One of the rock formations were shaken and this guy fell out.

                                                             On the sight of these regulars Bill launched one of his helicopters but not as one would assume to attack the newly arrived bad guys instead headed towards Donald's isolated depleted squad who themselves were coming under attack from a newly arrived VC squad courtesy of Colin.

What a twanker!

Attacking from the rear.

Bill deciding to park his lorry on all the dead bodies.

                                               Meanwhile my riverine had taken another rocket hit and was in danger of coming to a halt becoming a sitting duck so I immediately opened fire on everything and anything hoping to deter any attackers.Dave's heavy weapons were done away with but I was finding no success in rooting out Dave's infantry.

"You want us to attack that!"(in Vietnamese)

Cave emerging.

Donald gets some support.

                                                       Andrew's regulars by now had all emerged from their cave's and proceeded to head for our home base.one of his RPG teams fired at the other helicopter which was still waiting to take off but the missile just went right through the open doors.Bill's tank started to manoeuvre around trying to get a better shot at the approaching bad guys doing away with one of Andrew's rocket teams in the process.Andrew decided to rush the tank with his small hq squad but could do nothing except come into range of Bill's dug in Australian infantry which done away with these usurpers.

Aussies abound.

Bypassing the MASH tent.

Ready to attack the tank from the rear.

                                     Donald decided after some cajoling from myself and Bill to head back towards his beleaguered infantry and give them some moral support.I was quite happy for my boat to plaster their target village in order to make my landing pretty straight forward but time was running out.

But here comes the cavalry-glass and all.

Aussies getting stuck in .

                                               With full time rapidly approaching Andrew decided to go for broke with two squads charging towards the dug in Aussies and his other squad hoping to charge the tank from the rear and do away with it.By this time both of Bill's helicopters were in action with one of them supporting Donald's infantry in their struggle against Colin's VC and the other just hovering around our base looking for targets off opportunity coming in the form of Andrew's squad who had just bypassed the MASH tent in order to do away with the tank.When they finally arrived at the rear of the tank they found that were was sweet FA that they could do.His other squad meanwhile were having a wee bit better luck as on their first attack they done away with about four Aussies but brought themselves in to the sights of the remaining Aussies who took revenge eventually doing away with Andrew's squad

Colonel Kilgore comes to the rescue much to Donald's chagrin.

The Final Whistle.

                                                     The full time whistle arrived with the game at stalemate.A great time was had by one and all.The figs and scenery were provided by both Colin and Dave with Dave himself providing the rules which he had used a wee while ago and wanted to use them again.Good rules but need some amendments to cover such things as riverines.
                                                        Hopefully we'll see you next week when the Garvald Film Studios will be putting on a nice sixties crime caper where hopefully I'll get a chance to use one of my Jason King type characters.I have four and hope to paint up a few more courtesy of Crooked Dice,

5+1 go AK 47'ening!

Sunday 24th Feb

The Jewel of Setumsa.

The locals have pinched the track.

Setumsa in the sun.

                                  First multi game at the Gothenburg pub for a wee while so I thought it was fitting to host an AK 47 extravaganza with an abundance of players.It didn't quite work out that way numbers wise but a great game was held by all and proves that quality does beat quantity.

The industrial heartland.

Setumsa airport.

Two DC-3s(both with the same serial numbers.

                                          In total 15 people were invited but due to excuses like model railway shows,baby naming,club Napoleonic games and some not even replying only six turned up.The present encumbent to the grand dictatorship of Setumsa, Papa Deek Hodge was a last minute call off due to him coming into contact with his staircase and coming off third best and yes I did see him this morning so unless he has a good make up artist,it was the real deal.

Stephen's starters.

Ma Boys!

Donald's ditherers.

                                                             Five of us turned up for a great day's gaming and were joined by my son Stephen who like a lot of people hadn't played the game for over ten years.He didn't let this get into the way of enjoying the nonsense and actually walked away as the newly elected (democratically off course) leader of Setumsa stabbing his daddy in the back along the way with .50 calibre bullets.

Colin's collection.

Dave's dawdlers.

Bill's only starting unit.

                              The table was set up and the armies were divvied out and we ended up with two colonial powers,two superpower clients,one nationalist communist(Bill Gilchrist off course)and one dictatorship(who else but Dave O'Brien).

VW25-Had to show It.I love VW's.

Dave contemplating his would be conquests.

Bill pensive about his only unit.

                                            As always as soon as the whistle blew for the start of the game we all headed for the nearest victory point location of which six were placed around the board.One victory condition was the possession of a Vulcan bomber which had been placed on the board.One of the rules of this game is to dice at the start of the game  to see which of your units will enter at the start of the game.Bill being his usual lucky self ended up with only one unit of armoured cars,his other units in their true Soviet style,dragged their heals when it came to moving.

Donald seeing red.

Shooting daddy in the back.

Taking over the town.

"Hurrah!Bill's reinforcements arrive.

                                                          The first encounter was between Stephen's machine gun armed jeeps against my armoured cars -no contest!.No it wasn't as with Stephen's first shot he took out one of my armoured cars and it wasn't long before he took out another one.The only thing that saved my third one was that it couldn't be seen.Bill headed for the town that Dave had encamped in and managed to take out on of Mr O'Brien's Shermans.This p'd him off as he didn't intend to attack Bill so quick but now the gloves were off.

Colin's Centurions moving to contact.

More of Donald's ditherers.

Taking more shots at daddy.

Winner in the making.

My glorious armour.

O'Brienville.

                                                               Colin Jack and Donald Adamson who were both in charge of colonial settler armies found themselves confronting each other.Colin with his Israeli type army against Donald's Rhodesian type army.Colin was in charge of a brace of Centurion tanks which usually he is very good in turning  into scrap metal but today he managed to field them with not getting as much as a scratch on them.Donald's two T34s headed straight up midfield hoping to do away with any challengers but alas came out second best.Maybe he should have kept to skulking instead of ending up sulking.

Centurions-two off!

"Maybe I'll bring this plane on?"

"Or maybe this one?"

"Or maybe this one?""Make your mind up Dave!"

                                                 The randomly drawn rounds soon sped up and whilst my three technicals went mano a mano with Stephen's jeeps my other lads headed through the nearby village hoping to procure the isolated Vulcan.Trouble was they couldn't move very fast and took their time.

Yes,Colin had more than Centurions.

Airport before the fisticuffs.

Donald's APCs

                                               Stephen meanwhile headed with the rest of his available force towards the crocodile infested river and the hope of greater glory.Bill was valiantly fighting of Dave's advances until he could get some reinforcements.

Donald going for drop off!

The Meteor strikes.

                                                      Lunch time arrived and we headed for the bar and enjoyed a very nice repast.I also had the added bonus apart from a couple of foaming ales,of watching my favourite football team Rangers,put five goals past the opposition.

Getting nasty.

And nastier.

                                                         Lunch time over we headed back to the slog of the African Veldt and the hope of becoming successor to Papa Deek.

Maybe it will take off.

Bill fighting a two way battle.

                                                   Bill had new infantry to back up his well put on armoured cars which came in the nick of time as Stephen started to hit him in the rear with his Ratel armoured cars.Dave meanwhile was hitting him from the other flank and doing some damage.Colin was slowly moving his Israeli backed forces slowly towards Donald's lads and even although Colin was attacking his flank Donald decided to head for the airport and I don't mean to drop somebody off,he intended to dig in.Dave clocked this and even although there were guys entombed in the departure lounge he decided to attack the airport with the help of some air support which eventually came in the form of a Gloster Meteor.

Heading for the Vulcan.

Aeriel view of the scrap.

                                A big melee was developing in the middle of the table with the fight for the airport between Dave and Donald with Bill sniping at Dave's rear end with Stephen attacking Bill's strung out infantry and coming out second as all his Ratels went down in a blaze of glory or in reality up in a puff of smoke.Meanwhile a unit of Stephen's infantry headed towards the Vulcan in order to evict my militia and achieve another objective which actually was the difference between victory and defeat.My militia obliged by disappearing into the wilderness

Colin hunting for Donald.

Peak hour in O'Brienville.

                                                                          The game came to an end with burning vehicles all around the airport building and bodies strewn all over the table providing fodder for the roaming crocodiles.The victory conditions and objectives achieved were added up and lo and behold Stephen is he newly elected tyrant of Setumsa,This game report was brought to you by the Petramco company purveyors of oil,petrol and ju-ju juice to the world.

Using pink dice for cover I think.

                                          A great game had by one and all and played in the best spirit but still hurts when shot in the back by my beloved son armed with a .50 calibre.
                                              All figures and scenery provided by Dave O'Brien,myself and off course Papa Deek Hodge even although he was hors de' combat.Hopefully the next get-together of the Gothenburg Gamers will not be as long in forthcoming.I believe Muskets and Tomahawks was mentioned.Keep your scalp on and watch this space!