Carnevale Time in Garvald

                                      Thursday 3rd January.

                                             Tonight's thrilling instalment from the Garvald Film Studios came in the first outing of the Carnevale game from TT combat and was the culmination of great patience from our chief executive Colin Jack who has been a long time  awaiting the much delayed arrival of the game,the reading of the rules and the painting of the figures.All these three factors finally came together this evening so Dave O'Brien and myself trekked out to Garvald to have our first outing of this game.We were joined later on by Garvald's latest inhabitant Andrew Easson.

Venice 1790's or 2019

Dave putting together his plan Kill,Kill,Kill!

Gondola adrift.

A N.P.C but still looks good.

                        Carnevale is a Gothic skirmish game taking place in an alternate Venice which has been the site of a temporal rift causing various demonic creatures to appear in the  late 18th century.This gives the opportunity to pit the various sects in Venice at the time to come to grips with these demons and of course each other.

My gang of night time lovers.

Putting on a show for Dave.

One about to end up in the canal.

                               The sides were divvied up with myself taking the part of some self-respecting vampires.Dave O'Brien took the side of the Guild and Andrew was left in charge of the local elite.

Granny armed with a rolling pin -only in Venice.

One of Andrew's copains.

Practise time.

This time with a sword.

                                     Four bridge sentry boxes were this evening's objectives and possession of them would result in victory points.

Dave's onslaught.

Hoping for an easy victory.

Just about to be well done with a stake through the heart.

                                        The game kicked off with Dave charging across one of the bridges with the intent of getting to grips with my undead and it was not too long before the first fisticuffs took place between one of Dave's Guild ruffians and my Reaper which was basically a berzerking nutter.First blood went to my reaper but Dave's lad was still standing.My only non vampire Thrall took a potshot at Dave's menacing watchman who was crossing a nearby bridge with her crossbow but she was basically just swatting at flies.

My noble vampire out for an evening stroll.

And getting rid of a potential mugger.

Only for his big sister to appear.

Baby!Menage A Trois!

                                       I decided to split my forces and my head vampire headed for the sentry box on the other side of the board and with the further intention of roughing up some of Andre's Venitian elite.After crossing the bridge he ran straight into one of Andrew's characters who seemed to be getting into a right flap.The fisticuffs took place and even though I made Andrew's character retreat my own vampire noble had taken a bit of a beating himself and this gave Andrew the chance to rush in with one of his female characters intent on doing away with this vampire.My noble temporarily defended himself but Andrew went for the jugular(well it was a vampire)by following up with another female this time rather scantily dressed and going by the name of Harlot.This was enough for my noble vampire to disappear into nothing.

And he's in!

                                                      To add to my woes Dave was having an easy time across the canal with first my other female vampire coming to a sticky end and then my crossbow woman being surrounded.Dave had earlier hoped to get some support for his attack by bringing up his gondola but due to the vagaries of the dice rolling his gondolier ended up in the canal.This gave my aquatic vampire the chance to exact revenge on Dave but as soon as my water borne vampire speeded up Dave's gondolier shot out of the water at a fair rate of knots.

Not looking good for my girl.

                                                        With my noble being dispatched I decided to bring my Nosferatu character up to engage with Andrew's two women but speed was not exactly his thing so dragged himself towards the bridge with something akin to Quasimodo.This helped Dave by distracting some of Andrew's figures who were attempting to cross the canal and finding it to be a tad difficult as Dave was moving some of his gang towards the same bridge.Overlooking this fracas was Andrew's spy who came in the form of a well clad female armed with a rifle who was looking for targets of opportunity but finding them hard to come by as the rest of the gang were all entwined with some of Dave's gang which eventually joined by the sunken gondolier who had just escaped the clutches of my aquatic vampire.

Die Spionen

"Follow me granny!"

On his own for the moment.

Right between the cleavage.

Getting a wee bit busier.

                                    My aquatic vampire had by this time climbed out of the canal and was now in possession of the last remaining sentry box awaiting the onrush of the other gangs and as we headed into the last turn Andrew and Dave were looking to extricate themselves from the fracas on the bridge in order to get to the last sentry box currently occupied by myself.First Dave's lad came into contact with my vampire but ended up rolling a 1 on his destiny dice making him take hits instead of wounding my character.The game came to an end with Andrew the narrow winner as two of the sentry boxes were contested.

"Just One Cornetto!"

I hope the bridge can take the weight.

And they keep coming.

                                                A good game especially as it was its first outing.In my opinion and this is after laying out a couple of bob for my own game is that it is just another gang skirmish game albeit with a novel destiny dice twist.The rule book makes good eye candy but the rules need a couple of reads and a couple of games to be really comprehended.The figures are resin and very delicate with arms and body bits needing glued onto torsos and care has to be taken when they are in play.Now doubt the game will be tried again this week work providing so my next blog will be an update.

The Lady Vanishes.

"My Precious!

"It's Mine!""No it's Mine!"

And he hung on till the end-My Precious!"

                                    All figs,scenery and scenario provided by Colin Jack who also provided us with a sumptuous repast of paella.
                                                        Hopefully speak to you next week after the game's second outing.
                                                                         

Rocky Mountain High.

                                                                 

                Wednesday 5th December.


                                           Tonight's Garvald Film Studio outing once again was an unusual production and that is saying something-must be the season.Colin emailed us all to say that their was a game at his house and it would be a Bolt Action game taking place in 1962 which got us all thinking of military incidents taking place in 1962.My suggestion was Algeria as Colin had plenty of French paras and Arab opposition.Nope,even more bizarre than that -The Man In The High Castle.Probably the first time the rules have been used for this Philip K Dick story.I wonder whwt will be next-Blade Runner?

The Rocky Mountain Line

Mr Ray's Diner

"Thar's Oil in them hills!"

"Fill her up!"

                                                 For all you people who havn't heard of the story cum Amazon Prime series,it involves a world where the axis have won the Second World War and have partitioned up America with the Greater German Reich situated on the American East coast with the Japanese Pacific States situated on the west coast with a neutral buffer zone between them basically to keep the two mistrusting powers apart.The game involved an attack on partisans ensconced in the Rockies with the evil Japanese Empire coming under the command of Dave O'Brien san whilst I took over charge of the law abiding Nazis.Mr Ray took on the guise of his fellow Americans giving him the chance to shout "Bobcats" throughout the evening as Wolverines has already been used-twice!

The Japanese strike out.

My noble mountaineers.

My home grown militia out to show the American way.

                                                   The game kicked off in the usual BA style with units coming onto the board hoping to flush out the local resistance or in Dave's case,rushing on and charging toward the hidden enemy wherever they may be.Dave's Japanese came under fire from ambushing partisans and began to take casualties amongst his inexperienced infantry giving Mr Ray some hope albeit very small.

The first American resistance albeit with a Soviet machine gun.

Never run up a hill!

The usual consequences.

                                       Meine Junge after coming on to the board very cagely decided to go full pelt up the nearest hill looking to get their first objective. This squad of homegrown Americans decked out in German uniforms reached the summit fence and thought that their job was done but were met by a hail of machine gun bullets from Mr Ray's gutless squad who were hiding in the nearby wood and ended up just evaporating into thin air.First blood to the Bobcats.

Nonchalantly looking for targets.

The best way to deal with snipers.

                                                In true Teutonic fashion revenge was exacted in the form of mortar fire which found its target and pinned them down allowing my mountain troops time to take aim and decimate the cowardly partisans.In the aftermath of this temporary victory my mountain troops charged  up the same hill only for victory to be taken from them by the appearance of what could only be described as unwashed mountain men-an awful lot of them.Even although my men were hiding behind a fence they were mercilessly mowed down by the sheer weight of evil numbers.Things weren't looking good for the brave Germans.

How many Japanese can you get in a motorhome?

The Japanese finally get across thr bridge.

Right into the sights of the Bobcats.

                                                       Meanwhile across the other side of the Rockies Dave's Japanese weren't haven't all their own way as first his squad of Japanese/Americans were mown down and eventually a second infantry squad went the same way even with the help of a dinky light howitzer.Dave's Japanese finally made it too the top of the hill albeit with an awful lot of casualties.
                                         

The mountaineers ably led by Clint Eastwood don't learn their lesson and make it to the top of that hill.

Only to be confronted by a s******d of mountain men.

 Our Gothenburg Gamers Garvald splinter group were joined by another gamer midway through the evening,Andrew Easson who has just moved into the sleepy hamlet of Garvald.Andrew is like us an ex member of South East Scotland Wargames Club who finds himself a wee bit far out of town.Andrew came along and was immediately given charge of some of Mr Ray's hard pressed resistance as looking on in these games is not allowed.Andrew's first task was to rally some troops but his first roll was a double six and a FUBAR which resulted in his squad retreating away from the Japanese straight towards my Germans.Not the best of baptisms.

The result of Andrew's first ever Bolt Action dice roll.

Right into my sights -only to be wasted.

                                               

The mountain men consolidate.

The Japanese reach the top of the hill.

  My last remaining squad must have thought that Christmas had come early but no Christmas had long gone as my remaining squad of German infantry quickly went the way of their fellow countrymen and headed for a sharp exit.My remaining forces decided to dig in and consolidate their meagre gains.

My remaining men's turn to consolidate.

                                                   The game was coming to an early bath as Dave's men had cleared the top of his hill objective and the American partisans melted away into the safety of the Rockies.
                                                 

More Americana.

Live rock music every night.

My HQ picking a new car.

"You can have any colour you want as long as it's pink!"

Waiting for a signal.

  Once again a great game put on with the excuse to show off some of Colin's Americana combined with old fashioned WW2 figs.
                                                All figs scenery and scenario provided by our host Colin Jack who also provided us with some delicious Christmas fare-Chilli!
                                                   See You All When I See You,hopefully before Christmas.