Does A Bear S**t in the Garvald Woods

Wednesday 20th June.

The bear necessities!

                           "Tonight gentlemen we are going to play a game of Donnybrook"

                            "Yes Dave,excellent"

                             "There will be bears in it"

                            "Whit?"

                                

                                      And so this evening we had a game of Donnybrook involving Russians versus Cossacks with the inclusion of Doris and Boris which was the equivalent of Simon Smith and his amazing dancing bear for all you sixties aficionados    

A quaint rural Russian village

with added fields 

and its own meals on wheels or in this case hoofs.

Preferred mode of transport but not many around in the 18th century.

          

                                        I turned up at Garvald for an evening's entertainment expecting a quiet evenings gaming with a hunch that Donnybrook would the game of choice from Dave O'Brien ,to be greeted by the sight of the two Bills in residence making for a pleasant surprise.

Getting a kick up the rear from the local minister.

Awaiting a target.

                                          The game table that met us was laid out in the guise of a Russian village from the 18th century complete with an Orthodox Russian church ready for game play.

"Ha Ha-Got you!"

I'm late,I'm late,For a very important date.

Russia's finest.

                                    Bill Miller and myself took charge of the Cossack hordes who were minding their own business as Cossacks do whilst the Russian forces came under the wing of Colin Jack and comrade Bill Gilchristki who intended to decimate the village and make off with the Cossack booty in their own Russian way.The Cossacks had their own secret weapon which came in the form of a rather big bear.To seal it all the game was played on Colin's own home from home bear mat.

Best place to appear .Right on the enemy's flank.

Taking a bearing on the enemy.Boom Boom!

"And she's off"

Bearing down on the bear.

"We'll just keep a safe distance lads"

                                                  The game started with most of our cossacks ensconced in the village awaiting the Russian hordes with a couple of characters hidden on the table.The Russians came on in their own dainty way spread out across the table and looked indomitable as Russians do and only came to a halt when Doris the bear came hurtling out of Two Pine wood and put to flight the section of pikemen who just happened to be the nearest to the wood.Not resting on its laurels(if bears do such a thing)it continued on towards the next squad of musketeers who this time stood their ground and fired at the poor bear dispatching it in the process leaving the distraught handler fighting of the attentions of the enraged musketeers.It did take a couple of attempts to get rid of this pest but eventually he went down under a torrent of boots.

And another amazing appearance on the Cossack cavalry flank.

Spreading the gospel.

Our artillery about to be run down.

                                                                     On the other side of the table Bill's forces were slowly making its way towards the village with the only real hindrance being the pot shots coming from the wood overlooking the village.These came from Not-So Dead -Eye Dick,a sniper who's only success was to shoot of one of the epaulettes from the shoulder of the standard bearer.

Hunting the sniper.

Seeing off the Russian cavalry.

See You Later.

                                                                 We thought our luck was changing when a troop of our mounted cossacks appeared in the rear of the Russians but this was cancelled out by the appearance of a troop of elite Russian cavalry appearing on their flank which proceeded to charge the cossacks making them evade but only off the table again albeit only temporary.The trouble is that in Dave O'Brien speak this means a long time.

The bear goes for his second dinner of the evening.

Colin's cannon barring the way.

Whilst their cavalry make a fleeting appearance.

                                                            Dave had stated that the wagon full of loot in the middle of the town had to be moved off the board to fulfil win conditions so we mushed the horses and headed for the nearest exit which looked like it was going to provide for quick game until Dave realised this and started to restrict its movement.D***it Sir!

Bear skewering time.

Bill's infantry diminishing in the wood very rapidly.

                                                             Our second lot of Cossack cavalry arrived on the board where lo and behold Colin's second cavalry unit appeared who proceeded to charge into the Cossack flank,inflicting casualties and making them disappear back of the board.Our artillery saw this as a sign to pack up and head for the safety of the village but fate was not with them and Colin's cavalry followed up their successful initial attack with a despatching of our gun.Double d***it Sir!
                                                             At least this gave us time to move one of our infantry units,heroes et al, out of their hiding place to face the cavalry  and with amazing luck put the cavalry to flight giving.
                                  On Bill's side of the battle he moved cautiously up towards the village wary of Not-So Dead Eyed Dick but eventually hitting him with a full volley literally destroying him and the woods around him.On seeing this firepower we decided to have the band of local peasants to retire in order to run interference(nothing like a bit American Football terminology in a game of Donnybrook) for our wagon heading for safety which it did giving us a game winning score.Bravo Sir!

"Where the f**k did he come from?"

No contest!

                                    As the game didn't take long we changed sides and started a second game.This time we knew about Dave O'Brien's amazing dancing bear so we moved forward basically in a straight line in order to limit the damage when Doris the bear came bounding out of a wood                                                           This time Colin and Bill had set up their cannon with a field of fire right down the road making our lads maneuver its arc of fire.This they did with only minimal casualties leaving the rest of the unit still capable of destroying Bill's cossack infantry embedded in a wood.
                                     Our other lads moved forward expecting the appearance of Doris at any minute which lo and behold it did causing one of our musket units to evaporate.At least this sacrifice gave time for our pikemen to move in and skewer this troublesome animal and enjoy bearsteaks for tea and a nice carpet for our glorious leader who was about to go mano a mano with the Cossack leader.The general was just making his way across the field minding his own business when he was set upon by the Cossack general charging into him on horseback but with a shout of "Is that all you've got?"the Russian general done away with the rebellious Cossack leader.

The peasants are revolting.

And our cavalry keep on coming whilst Colin smiles in adversity.

                                                                                     After this scuffle our general joined up with our first lot of cavalry and proceeded to charge into the second Cossack infantry who had just emerged from the village incurring some heavy damage with their cold steel.

Heading for the BBQ with their skewered bear steaks.

The woods are finally flushed out.

                                                         The Cossacks due to the horrible random card drawing couldn't get their loot cart moving and on the appearance of our second cavalry unit decided to throw in the towel
                                            Victory to the glorious Russian forces.Vladimar would be proud.
                                                A great game played out in the usual style with favouritism shouts abound and queries about the rules in abundance but at least there was no skulking this evening and no differences of opinion about the sizes of windows.I don't think they had them back then.
                                               All figures and scenario provided by Dave O'Brien with the scenery and the bearmat provided by Colin Jack.
                                                      It was nice also to see Bill back on his feet after his shingles debacle,just in time for his cruise -Bon Voyage.
                                                    Thanks also to Colin for feeding us yet again but no lamb this time I'm afraid.
                             
                                                 

A German Strasse Romp.

Wednesday 30th May

A Little Town in Germany

With much building potential

And open spaces.

                                   
                                          Tonight's game seen us romping through the streets of some late war German city involving hordes of late war Soviet gangsters eradicating local resistance in their own ruthless way.Well that was the main idea as the game didn't quite work out that way.

Good Local Government

With an excellent transport system

And excellent drainage facilities.

                                               Colin Jack had put together the game and when the rest of us arrived found ourselves confronted by a small board already set up with buildings abound.

Donald checking for his not oft seen wallet.

Far from the sea.

Big bully,

"Spread out in a bunch"

                                                  The forces were divvied up and I found myself teamed up with Bill Miller under the guise of the defending German forces who were opposed by these two Soviet commanders Comrades O'Brienski and chief skulker himself Comrade Adamski(sounds like a 90's pop act.).I didn't give us much hope as we were a hotch potch band of Volksturm and stragglers from the navy and airforce.Our only plus factor was that one of the Volksturm squads were sewer workers so we would be able to pop up on certain parts of the board to hopefully be able to shoot the invaders in the back.Well that was the plan sure to last till the first bullet goes off.

Don't move back.

Another one of Colin's unusual toys.

Another bully appears.

                                                       Our plan was to hold the line and fall back towards the government building taking as many of the bad guys out as possible but not having strong forces I wasn't holding out much hope.

"Aha! Surprise!(in German)"

Oh S**t

S                           Most of our lads were put into ambush awaiting the Soviet onslaught which wasn't long in coming well at least from Comrade O'Brienski whereas Adamski was as usual testing the waters toes first.

Going for the jugular.

Factory workers going about their normal day.

The much diminished Soviet squad.

Directing operations from the Rathaus roof.

Behind the Soviet lines.

                                   The Soviet infantry were  the first to appear hoping to draw fire and be able to pinpoint the defenders positions.as soon as they came within range we opened fire which made the Soviets duck but nothing really else as we found out when they returned fire and caused casualties all over the place with first our Luftwaffe squad and then a Volksturm squad disappearing into thin air.

Packing a punch!

In plenty of cover.

                                          To add insult to injury Dave brought on  an assault gun with a very big gun which proceeded to pound the building where my sailors were ensconced whittling them down in the process.The only good thing was that squad were still hanging on at the end of the game.

Reversing up an alley

                                  On the other Soviet flank Donaldski's infantry decided to attack my defended positions which he succeeded but lost three quarter of his men in the process.A pyrrhic victory.

But still able to lend a hand.

                                           After consulting with Feldmarschall Miller we decided to bring on some armour to try and level the game and it came in the form of a captured T34.This turned out not to be the answer to our problems as it couldn't shoot for toffee  

             
                                                After the Soviets brought on their second tank we decided to our ace and had our sewer squad materialise behind the afore mentioned tanks hoping to dispatch them and disappear back into the sewers.Fat chance as their only attempt resulted in taking some paint from the rear of the newly arrived T34.Before we got a chance to disappear back into the sewers Dave placed some of his reinforcements right on the table right into the rear of our sewer rats result an awful lot of machine gun fire and the decimation of our sewer rats.It looked like it was going to be a long evening.

Our unused SS squad.

                                   Our T34 soon attracted the attention of the Soviet tanks resulting in it reversing into cover to lick its wounds and in the next two turns found itself reversing even further.Meanwhile Donaldski had managed to overrun my defenders in the local factory after first softening them up with mortar fire.The only saving grace for us was that our tank had reversed enough to start engaging Donaldski's invaders.

Close of play.

                                 Our machine gun squad was the next to vaporise with a culmination of machine gun and sniper fire.

But still hanging on.

                                          We finally had some luck as our Nebelwerfer 'Heulende Kuh' for once decided to hit something and it was well waiting for as it destroyed an entire infantry squad embedded in a building.This seemed to take the sting of the Soviet assault and although they were in possession of a few buildings including factories they came nowhere near or hauptquartier in the government building so the game fizzled out to a draw much to the dismay of the Soviets.
                                                    A great game played out in the usual friendly style with only slight bickering between Donald and myself.
                                         All figures,scenery and scenario provided by our host Colin Jack who provided us with an excellent lamb dinner with the actual provision of the lamb being another story in itself.
                                  See you all when I see you.