Anime Capers.

                     Wednesday 1st August

                                                       Tonight's escapade,as I think that is the best name for,it was a basically ordinary game of What A Twanker.What could be more different than that.How about one with Japanese schoolgirls suitably clad in miniskirts driving very accurate WW2 tanks.Yes you have it Girls in Panzers which is a Japanese Anime TV series and film.

A Miss Kitty blanket just to add to the genre.

Bill G pondering his Japanese schoolgirl.

Preparing for the off.

                                                           Bill Miller met me in sunny Prestonpans and we headed out to a rather showery Garvald where I was under the impression that we were doing a dummy run of our Suez game for Claymore this Saturday.Nope and after a sumptuous lamb dinner and a small glass of vin rouge I was shown into the game room where a nice German town had been set up complete with brewery and railway station.This made it even more surreal.

My choice in all its splendour.

Off course Bill G had a Soviet tank.

Bill G's Stug banners et al.

You can have any colour you want as long as its pink.

                                                         Bill Miller amidst his sneering divvied up the tanks amongst us and also some Anime characters from the film.These figures gave us benefits in the gameplay.I took charge of a short barrelled Panzer vi complete with a figure representing Miss Hannah which gave me a benefit on shooting.Bill Gilchrist took possession of a Soviet Bt26,Bill M took charge of a multi-coloured Stug complete with banners and Colin ended up with a Grant/Lee tank which was painted in a ludicrous colour of pink.

Miss Hannah

Bill's girl inspecting his merchandise.

Yes its a funny Stug.

                                               What A Twanker is a pretty easy game to pick up as it basically involves rolling six dice and depending on what numbers you rolled or didn't roll you could perform actions.

         1-Move
         2-Aim
         3-Acquire
         4-Shoot
         5-Reload
         6-Wild Dice.
                                                 What could be more simpler.

Pink to the fore.

Getting a look at my behind.

Pink tank driven by pink dice.

"Peek-a -boo!"(in Russian)

                   The game started with everybody moving on and looking for some targets to fire on.I headed up the right hoping to obliterate Bill M's bannered Stug before he could do the same to me.My game started of okay but just as I was getting near Bill M's Stug my dice rolling bad luck began to creep in and found myself unable to get near enough to shoot never mind hit him.This gave him the chance to drive quickly past me and head towards Colin's pretty pink chariot.

Flaming hot rear end

Hoch Mittag in einen Deutsch Strasse.

Bill G's poorly planned charge.

                                                    Bill G moved forward slowly due to an acute shortage of 1's but did manage to take a potshot at Colin but missed him.Bill moved down the main strasse and came round the back of the brewery right into the rear of my tank as it suffered from Bill G's problem of a shortage of one's being rolled.It fired at me and caused minor damage to my turret but nothing that a touch of WD 40 wouldn't fix providing I rolled some sixes.

And the result.

                                                   Bill G's tank finally got out of first gear and closed in on the Stug and with excellent shooting done away with the Stug throwing its banners to the wind.
                                                      I finally rolled some movement dice but couldn't get any other decent dice to complement them so I headed down the same strasse as Bill M hoping to have a duel with Bill G's Soviet tin-can.

Schone Choo Choo

                                                Colin was slowly moving his pink tank using his pink dice through the alleyways intending to do away with the winner of Bill and I's duel.Success went to Bill's Bt but before he could celebrate Colin's tank came into view.Lacking shooting dice Bill tried to ram Colin's tank but ended up a whole 60mm short of the target.Colin took deliberate aim and in one fell swoop destroyed Bill's tank and ended the game right there.

Bahnhof.

                                                         Actually it was not a bad game -Japanese schoolgirls apart.Knowing Colin and Bill M's liking for this genre combined with WW2 tanks we will be playing it again.

Miss Hannah just hanging around.

                                 Thanks to Colin for providing the scenery which he said he didn't want with which Bill M took possession of it.Thank C****t as I didn't want to have it and start a slippery slope towards model railways(again).It did look good though.
                                                    Hopefully I'll see a lot of you at Claymore on Saturday where the Gothenburg Gamers will as previously stated be putting on our Suez56 game.

Claymore 2018

"When The Foeman Bares His Steel""Tarantara,Tarantara"

                                  Wednesday 25th July

                                                Tonight's Garvald film production brought us the return of the Airship Harmony with its gallant captain Mal Reynolds and his crew of air pirates pitting their wits against the newly formed Honourable Penzance Police Company(Limited) supported by the world's only consulting detective and the good doctor recently recruited after their dog hunting adventures on the Cornish moors.The location of his adventure was in some forgotten North African backwater port and it involved a set too between the two sides.A side plot involved the local constabulary but they didn't really move far from their hookahs to cause any problems.There was also an awful lot of eye candy about to distract my men as a lot of you know this is normal with a Colin Jack game.

Lull before the storm.

Dodgy dealings at the casbah.

The Navy's here-again!

I still think he looks like Angus.

                                                Colin's scenery is a bit like a film set as it can quickly be arranged to serve as another part of the world.In the past few weeks we have used the scenery to cover various games from 1945 Berlin to a North African port via the Russian Steppes,the Bulgarian/Hungarian border,a modern American trailer park and a Victorian London dock.I am sure the future will produce even more varieties of scenarios.

Rock the Casbah!

Definitely my kind of shepherdess.

"Well,well well!"

The outside broadcast Garvald film crew capture all the action.

                                                   Anyway tonight's game was a set too between the two factions to give us more experience of the In Her Majesty's Name rules and gameplay.

Touting for business.

The Honourable Penzance Police Company(Limited)

"Hallo,hallo.hallo!"

!Is that a truncheon or are you just pleased to see me?"

Who needs a boat?

                                      The game kicked off with my lads landing from a procured Royal Navy steam launch ready to do some arresting of piratical criminals.The problem was that as soon as my lads landed they found themselves being distracted by the local delights on offer mainly the multitude of scantily clad women from Colin's collection.

Rooftop candy.

The man himself.

Dragged from distraction.

Jane about to shimmy.

                                                After a few kicks up he rear end my men started to head for their objectives mainly arresting Colin's pirates who had just emerged from his dirigible covered by Kayleigh and her dancing machine gun which made my lads head for cover but not before one of them was wounded and eventually leaving the game as when the good doctor came to administer first aid Kayleigh showed no remorse and machine gunned him as well forcing him to refrain from saving the downed policeman.

Shepherd Book prepares to throw the book at my constable'

"Right behind you sarge!"

And Mal goes down.

Trying to shoot the airship.

The doc goes down.

                                         Mal Reynolds and Inara emerged from the shadow of a dockside building and started taking pot shots at the consulting detective and inspector Stradel respectively.This made my lads a bit p'd off so they ran into the pair and indulged in some fisticuffs but not before the inspector had to take a pluck test due to to Inara's beauty which he passed-poor man!Once he got into hand to hand it proved to be no contest with Inara being consigned to the wounded pile.This was to prove to be my only victory of the evening.

And Mal gets up.

"Watch this boys"

My kind of pirate captain.

A rumble on the dock.

                                             Shepherd Book arrived and immediately went into hand to hand with one of my uniformed constables who held his own and was eventually supported by one of his colleagues but even this didn't turn the tide.This gave Jayne-wooly hat et al-the chance to shimmy down from the airship,avoiding fire from one of the Special Branch lads and get stuck in to the Shepherd's scrap.

with interfering locals.

Still can't put Mal down permanently.

To the rescue.

Still selling her wares.

                            Meanwhile my sergeant supported by a constable headed round the casbah with the attention of doing away with Zoe one way or another but they found themselves coming under accurate fire from Zoe herself forcing them to hide behind some innocent bystanders-if needs must.Zoe managed first to fumble and then break her main weapon but this still left her with a pistol and a knife with which she was very proficient.

The casbah quietens down again.

Shepherd Book arrives to help out.

"Anytime today Zoe!"

Quiet as a tomb.

                                                  The combined effort of the Shepherd and Jayne proved to be too much for my two constables and they eventually went the way of the good doctor and the constable(and I don't mean a painting).Shepherd Book ran to the assistance of Mal who was actually not doing to bad for himself as the vagaries of the rules made or a very boring slugfest.Jayne meanwhile had done away with my remaining Special Branch covstable.The evening drew to a close with the airship pirates just coming out on top.

A better roof top view.

                                            A great game played in the best gentlemanly way.The way it should be.
                 All figures,scenery and scenario apart from my Penzance Police Company(Limited)were provided by Colin Jack.
                                      We indulged in pizzas and beer at half time provided once again by the Garvald Inn.
                                     Hopefully see a lot of you at Claymore next week Saturday 4th August where the Gothenburg Gamers will putting on Colin's Suez 1956 game.
                                       Be there or be an equal sided rectangle.