In honour of Sarge’s forthcoming nuptial transition we had a local ‘boys’ games day’ featuring some classics from the Ad Hoc stable.
In addition to ‘Six of the Best’ and a clanking romp in Carpathia (the details of which are thankfully shrouded in mystery …) … it was a joy to see ‘Nick the Tsar’ and ’19:42 to Benghazi’ set out in all their splendour.
They were part of a legendary series of Salute participation games from the noughties, both in 54mm scale and full of wacky detail and quirky humour.
Here are a few shots …
‘Nick the Tsar’
To rescue the family, the players have to get up to the house, overwhelm the guards and break in …
‘Nick the Tsar’ set the players up as Whites and foreign agents desperately attempting to free the Tsar’s family from captivity and spirit them away to safety.
Once in, any blue marbles can become saved members of the Imperial entourage (blue marbles? … I’ll explain some other time – the combat saves were Russian roulette … the shots were resolved in little glasses … you get the picture): anyway, for each marble you get to crack open a faberge egg and find out who you saved …
’19:42 to Benghazi’
… and the fourth game of the session was the LRDG caper blowing up everything in sight raiding an axis airfield in North Africa.
Equally rich in elegant mechanism and deplorable humour it is just a grandiose ‘drive by‘ in out of control vehicles. And the environment is splendidly rich in targets … Dawn is breaking and …
… it took out the canteen, spilling the pasta and up-ending the Gulashkanone …
… while all attempts to avoid the latrines were beyond the controls available to one of the jeeps …
… of course all that noise and destruction does wake up the Germans …
… well wadi ya know … Achtung Panzer! and all that – it’s off at the perimeter for us and into the desert …
Actually, we took out a watch tower, set the train ablaze, destroyed 2 fuel caches, 4 planes, half a dozen trucks and half tracks plus a Panzer II. We shot Mussolini’s double and trashed the limo … and lived to tell the tale (well as far as the debrief endgame anyway) …
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