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.

A Passed over Donnybrook game that I have just come across!Oops!

This is another game from September before I had taken possession of an iPad to make life easier and also before Nicola had shut down life again.

 Wednesday 16th September.

              First game since lockdown saw me heading out to North Berwick for a social distanced venture into Donnybrook with a game put together by Dave O’Brien consisting of a raid by some North African bad guys on the Spanish Costas.

                  I had bought some 17th century Spanish from Black Angus last year so this was their first outing and true to form being new started the day with a kicking.

           

Dave had set up a knacky wee table with houses and scenery abound and so the scene was sat for some blood and thunder with no quarter taken or given

                The scenario was for the bad guys to land and pillage a Spanish holiday resort and abscond with some booty consisting of beasts and hardware.As this was a raid my senors came onto the table as reinforcements whereas Dave’s guys had carte blanche for the first two turns as only my first squad of militia were allowed to turn up.

                  Dave’s force consisted of a horde of screaming heathens armed with amongst other things spears and bows which initially done the dastardly deed on my militia.To add insult to injury his super dooper Janissaries opened up with their muskets decimating my militia as well as a few shots at my newly arrived picadors.Obviously his plan was to hold the Spanish at bay giving his other miscreants time to pillage the village for all the livestock and anything else that wasn’t nailed down.

                                           I thought that this was going to be an early bath as my forces were dwindling at a fair rate of knots and it was only when his spearman entered the village  that I started to get some payback  and started to successfully shoot back with some telling hits first on Dave's spearmen with my newly arriving infantry engaging the archers.By this time my cavalry had dwindled down to the officer who duly charged Dave's weapon master hoping to do away with this miscreant.Well that was the plan but even though my cavalry officer charged in horse to the fore ,he came off second best after a few turns of fisticuffs.

                                                       My general arrived on and proceeded to encourage his men to greater things and the Spanish shooting began to take its toll on the marauding raiders slowly but surely.My regulars arrived and proceeded to do away with the annoying archers giving them an opportunity to try and head off the looters before they reached the safety of their boats.Meanwhile my general was having a field day encouraging his men to better thing and also doing away with first the commanding general of the pirates and then the invading Iman.the only problem here was that his own force were once again dwindling.They dwindled that much that although the Spanish leader done well mano a mano he couldn't stop the last of the militia headong for the Spanish hill complete with their general.

                                  Dave had slowly but surely dragged and herded all his ill gotten gains back to the boats.What amazed me was that he even stole some pigs which I would imagine would not go down too well in North Africa.The down side to Dave's marginal victory was that he had hardly anybody left to enjoy the fruits of his escapade but at least the remaining rabble would have a good barbeque.

                                              A great game and one that was greatly welcomed as like the rest of us gamers we have had a very barren 2020 games wise and hopefully it will continue even although a second lockdown could be on the horizon due to the idiotic minority.

                                       Heading out to the Garvald Film Studios on Monday for a foray into a socially distanced  In Her Majesty's Name outing.

                                 Watch This Space!!!!!!

                                 All scenery,scenario and Arab figures were provided by Dave himself with interruptions provided by the lovely Lola the dalmation.

Another unpublished post from a long time ago in a galaxy far away!

Sunday 18th August.

       Down to Newark for our bi-annual visit to Partizan and this time was my turn to provide our entertainment in the form of my Bay of Pigs game so we headed down on the Saturday courtesy of the iron horse giving us time to indulge in a few foaming ales and a visit to in my opinion the best Indian restaurant around.

The choice ale of the day.

Old folks day out.

Ray has promised to smile only when Leith is saved.

           Wetherspoon’s was visited and a few ales were quenched before we headed for the Koinonia restaurant in Newark which specialises in Kerelan cuisine from south west India featuring fish and coconut aplenty.

Gandalf chooses his curry.

This was my favourite game which was based on one of my fav war films-Tobruk!

Another run out for our Bay of Pigs game ironing out all the creases before the remaining game shows of 2019.

Bill Miller’s great handiwork of getting the Sea Furys tarted up.

And finishing off the Invader.

My apologies for the very late publication of our trip to The Other Partizan but I’m sure it’ll  bring back a few memories of a great weekend.

                See You All When I See You.