Four Nations Get Together

 Time- 1944ish.

Place-Somewhere in Italy.

          Tonight’s skirmish found us in sunny Italy with a get together between 4 nations-3 of them being saccir world cup winners and Canada.Italy were the hosts backed up by their German allies and they were confronted by some Canadian armour with Brazilian infantry in support-only in El Presidentie’s world.

Rural Italy complete with arm!

      Tonight’s attendance was graced by my partner in crime Herr O’Brien with whom I divvied up the allies and batting for the other side were Comrade Gilchristi and Oor Andrew who was a late arrival. The axis of evil players had the benefit of putting their forces into hidden positions in order to hide their shortcomings.Their ‘shortcomings‘included a Tiger tank.

Before.

After!

       Our tactics were basically to flush out the incumbent defenders of the town hoping not to incur too many casualties.My first move was to send up my armoured car to draw fire which it did uncovering a couple of emplaced guns which proceeded to open fire and although the first one missed the second shot struck the vehicle setting it on fire but this was quickly put out by the gallant Brazilian crew.The reason we had Brazilians were due to El Presidente’s love of being different and yes they did partake in WW2 albeit under American command. 

Half tracks and tanks laden with dice.

Moving forward(with care).

       This flushed out some of the defences so the next phase was to flush out the Tiger so we sent in our Shermans as cannon fodder hoping to pinpoint its lair.This led to the usual traffic jam that occurs at the start of a Bolt Action game with unit arrival but it did bring the Tiger out of its lair as it was soon spotted lumbering down the strada princepale hunting for its prey.Also making its presence known was an Autoblinda armoured car which proceeded to take potshots at my stranded armoured car hindering my crew from restarting it.

Start of a traffic jam.

Watching and waiting (in Italian).

        Pizza and beer break arrived so we all trudge out towards the local taverna looking for sustenance to see us through the second half.

Aircraft fodder.

Trying to get passed some petulant Italians.

       The second half kicked off the same as the first half ended with a tit for tat shooting match between the Tiger and two Shermans.I was hoping to move up the flank of the Axis defenders but the threat of the Italian guns up ahead slowed my actions. Time for a bit leverage which came in the form of an air strike.After some deliberation I decided on pinpointing the Italian field gun as it was not only adjacent to the armoured car but also an Italian mortar that had been waylaying my poor advancing Brazilian infantry which had already had drew the attention of some hidden Italian infantry ensconced in some fallow field.

“We’re on our way “

Sneaky!

      The air support duly arrived and done away with the gun crew as well as pinning the mortar and the armoured car therefore time to move forward and waylay the enemy successfully doing away with the German anti tank gun in the process.The problem with that was being that it was just about time for the final whistle which duly arrived resulting in another score draw and a humongous traffic jam at the allied rear.

Moving up on mass.

      Another great game played out in the usual cantankerous way.All toys,scenery and scenario provided by El Presidente.

The Brazilians move up.

             See You All When I See You.

       This has been a Garvald Film Studio Production.

  

Squashing The Satsumas.

1月8日水曜日

日Place Somewhere In Japan

        New Year and hopefully the start of a busy gaming year.Drove out to a very frosty Garvald for a delve back into the realms of the Boshin Wars with a skirmish involving an awful lot of colourfully painted Japanese soldiers from a not very gamed era the end of the Shogunate.

One Little Maid From School.

“How Much!(in Japanese)

The lull before the storm.

         El Presidente took command of the Imperial forces whilst I took command of the Shogunate forces hoping to stall the advancing enemy after the historical battle of Toba-Fushimi.The rules used were Men Who Would Be Kings and the stage was set for a short but albeit bloody game so after our usual visit to the local sake bar for beer and pizza we got down to the Japanese nitty gritty.

Bang a Gong!

“Pass the Sake.”

       My plan was just to sit and wait for the enemy to come to me which they did complete with El Presidente’s continual throwing of bad dice in fact he even swore at one stage something I’ve never heard him utter. 

Defending their honour.

My gallant men.

     The first attack came from the Satsuma infantry trying to have their way with my Onna Bugeisha which were a female unit(welcome to El Presidente’s world) but the initial sparring went the ladies way forcing the Satsumas to retreat with casualties .After their bloody nose themselves and the second Satsuma unit just peppered the girls with rifle fire in order to reduce the girls’ numbers forcing them to retreat more into their enclave and eventually disappear.

My Samurai cavalry biding their time.

The Cannon fodder approaches.

        El Presidente’s other flank wasn’t doing so well for after inflicting an initial casualty on my Aizu infantry his remaining forces tended to falter in their attempts to move forward.The Imperial cavalry moved forward with all their pomp intending to do away with my forces only to be stopped in their tracks by a a fusillade of cannon shot.Cavalry casualties were incurred and their advance faltered and eventually due to the vagaries of the rules the cavalry disappeared. 

The local police unit.

Setting their sights.

Relief arriving too late.

      My forces started to gather momentum so I decided that attack was the best form of defence my lads moved forward with my Fukushima infantry trying to relieve the pressure on the Bugeisha but alas too late.They took their revenge on the initial Satsuma unit causing them to flee.

El Presidente’s left flank diminishes.

Waiting for the advance party’s report.

   My only real mistake was moving a unit of Aiza infantry in order to attack El Presidente’s Chosu infantry in the rear only to realise their path to glory was through the field of fire of El Presidente’s artillery.The first of my units to disappear followed shortly by their sister unit.My victory was going to come at a cost.El Presidente’s Chosu unit now found that they were being isolated as the Hiroshima unit had retreated and disappeared without even losing a casualty.

Advancing to the cannon’s glory.

           I think El Presidente was realising that the Kanji was on the wall and conceded the field planning future revenge.A great game played in one of my favourite types of game involving Samurai.All figures,scenery and scenario provided by El Presidente and hopefully the beginnings of a fruitful gaming year..

El Presidente’s cavalry wondering where they went wrong.

        This has been a Garvald Studio Film Production.

Mort sur La Garvaldian Nil.

 Wednesday 26th June.

Place-Back in the Garvaldian Desert.

            Back oot to sunny Garvald for a second instalment of Silver Bayonet in the desert with the French looking for an easy second victory against the local rabble. I mean last week’s game was remembered for the lack of monster appearances so what would change this week.One was yet again to be proved wrong.

The scene is set.

Complete with two Jock the Crocs.

          The companys were the same as last week with one exception -a new French spiritual investigator had replaced last week’s character.At least this one had an umbrella just perfect for the desert heat.The game kicked off this week with the locals finding the objective cards more within their reach with three cards being picked up by the locals before my lieutenant could even utter “Zut alors!”One of them even revealed an entrance to an exit which help El Presidente’s rabble escape.

The local partygoers.

Wot the f***!(in French)

My new spiritual investigator posing for the camera.

       My lads slowly made their way towards their objectives keeping well into the shadows.What could possibly go wrong.Oh by the way I forgot to mention that the scenario took place on the banks of the River Nile-a crocodile infested River Nile.My lieutenant and one of his followers were soon confronted by a slithering crocodile which looked like it hadn’t eaten for a while.It headed straight for the legs of the officer .Luckily it had left its teeth in a jar on its bedside table because its lunging attack saw it biting at fresh Egyptian air with my officer managing to break free and put some space between them giving the other company man time for a well placed shot wounding it severely.The officer gladly gave the beast the final coup de grace with a well aimed pistol shot.The officer decided he would be back later to reward himself with the ingredients for a nice pair of crocodile shoes.

“Did you see me in Peter Pan?”

                                                                                   

Dealt with rather quickly though.

The bikini clad possessed demon appears.

        The other two members of this small group headed round the corner to be confronted by the appearance of a marauding skeleton that El Presidente had concocted from one of his turned cards.These gents were going to be a pain in the ass to kill as their defence was good as the bullets went through them-literally.Another skeleton appeared in the middle of the table right in the middle of three of El Presidente’s minions -time for him to be introduced to the skeleton.El Presidente’s men worked together and done away with the skeleton very rapidly.I don’t think it was going to be a good night for the French.

This is what happens when you fire a blunderbuss at a crocodile.

“Cooee!”

“Investigate this!”

      My spiritual investigator was in touching distance of an objective card when he was confronted by a possessed demon which came in the form of a sword waving bikini clad demon(welcome to an El Presidente game)and before he could draw a pistol she was on him  swords swinging everywhere.He parried her attacks pushing her back just enough for the sapper to rush in and cleave her with his pioneer axe.Another demon gone but still a s******d to go.The difference in this evening’s game was that when a objective card was revealed a monster of some sort wasn’t too far behind.

Yet another skeleton appears.

But wasn’t even given time to blink.

And another.

     Another card was turned over near a palm tree outcrop and yet again another monster was revealed this time coming in the form of another skeleton.This skeleton was actually dispatched by the finder of the token who was actually himself on death’s door.It definitely was going El Presidente’s way this evening. My lieutenant turned over an objective card and  lo and behold another monster was revealed coming this time in the form of a mummy.El Presidente revealed that the mummy could only be killed by fire which was great as my officer was armed with silver bullets.Seemingly there are not a lot of werewolves in Egypt.

They just keep on coming.

Encore la Mort.

Whereas another skeleton takes a lucky hit.

       My plan was to make a tactical retreat but I was hindered by the appearances of two more “monsters “both of whom turned out to be swarms of beetles which were going to be even harder to kill as shooting them wasn’t going to dent them one bit. The only saving grace for me was when one of my copains discovered a load of salt which would help in the destruction of one of the beetle hordes.On the other side of the table the beetles had come into contact with one of my infantrymen pushing him back.Seeing this opportunity my sapper dived into the scrap armed with his cleaver but this time wasn’t so lucky as the beetles devoured him axe et al.My investigator not realising what was going on behind him decided to wade into the enemy all guns blazing but to no avail.His monster hunting days were over-well at least till next week.

Beetles this time.

Et encore!

Hundreds of them.

       My officer was also not doing to well on the other side and although El Presidente did state that he would allow the officer to have oil,rags and fire ,he still didn’t have enough time to light a torch before the mummy was on him.Game Over!The remainder of his company headed for the hills.

The sapper charges in.

And comes off second best.

Hand to bandaged hand.

       Another great game with more understanding to the fore especially with the monsters.The deciding game will be played in a fortnight.This time I’ll remember to pack some fire instead of silver bullets.

And he’s down.

Ditto.

        Scenario,scenery and the majority of the figures provided by El Presidente with the newly painted skeletons provided by myself.Seemingly the next game will see the introduction of Werejackals-whatever!

See You All When I See You.

    This has been a Garvald Film Studios Production.