NUTS - Fly Trap - Game 6

“Hiya Sergeant Ryan, Look I’ve got a little job for you, shouldn’t be too difficult, you’re getting a reputation around here for successful missions, this should be quite straight forward”. “Oh No what has the idiot committed me to now”. The idiot is my Captain a veteran of about 3 weeks, only known my name for 1 of those.

“We are having a little trouble with intel he said straight faced”. Yes I know was what I wanted to say but it came out as “oh really”.

“Yes and upstairs thinks we should go and get a German to ask what is going on, so could you go and get us a prisoner, I have map coordinates of one of their bunkers”.

GREAT!!!!

It just gets worse!

“Ok guys this should be easy”, they look at me as if I am a raving lunatic, what – “you want us to jump into a German bunker and bring some guy out, without shooting him first”. “Well yes that’s kinda the plan”. “What about his mates”. “Well you can shoot them if you like” was all I could think to reply.

We spent some time reconnoitring the bunker, looks like there are only 2 men in there, ummm this could be easier than I thought. “OK BAR on the left to provide covering fire McCaulay you have Dokes loading for you again, do as he says OK”. “Cpl Bolton take 2 men off to the right and protect my flank, the rest of you with me, Wilson – stay close”. You know by now I rely on Wilson both to get the job done and keep me alive so I can keep everyone else alive.

As we moved over towards the bunker, 3 separate PEF’s turned out to be nothing, this is going very well. We got to the bunker without being spotted, the rear door was open, these guys are really looking to get it.

We burst in, 2 men inside, both rep 3 easy meat, Wilson rep 6 went for 1 guy, me rep 4 and Cornwall rep 5 went for the other guy. Wilson subdued his man but our man fought like a tiger and put both of us down, OOF.

I still had Samson rep 3 outside, but he failed to activate. My tiger attacked Wilson and the guy he had subdued on an extraordinary dice throw was also able to attack Wilson. They killed him. Samson saw this and ran away.
Wilson my wing man is dead, what am I going to do. Lying on the floor OOF probably get killed or go to a camp was all that I came up with.

Samson ran, but not away, he ran to Cpl Bolton, who calmed him down and shouting to the men “they can’t take the Sarge- lets go”, leading from the front he set off for the bunker, only to run into a LMG team. Bolton’s blood was up and the LMG was down before anyone knew it. Just then one of the men in the bunker opened fire and Bolton was stunned by a splinter from a nearby tree. The latest replacement Townsend ran away but the other new man Green provided a steadying influence on Samson and together they charged over to the bunker, dived in and went for the 2 Germans like hounds from hell, well that’s what I told the Captain later when recommending them for a medal. Green rep 4 and Samson Rep 3 v 2 Germans both rep 3, an even fight. Green subdued his man and Samson put his man OOF. Mission accomplished, I don’t know how they make it look so easy. All we have to do is get me and Cornwall (the wounded) and the prisoner out of here and back to our lines. Which we did, well they did.

Cornwall and I both recovered quickly and will be back for the next mission but Wilson is DEAD.

As a post script Townsend the new man refused to come back to the squad or indeed anywhere near danger and so is residing in prison, we don’t need men we can’t trust to back us up, so I am pleased he is gone, even though I agree with his sentiments. Green goes from Rep 4 to 5 – well deserved.

We now have another 2 new men Harris and Davidson, we will see how they work out. Till next time.

Till next time was written about 2 years ago so I guess there wont be a next time, but you never know. I got 6 scenarios/games in during a period of 3 days, drank a lot of alcohol and generally had a great time, but don't mention this to Mrs V, she might not approve.

Hope you’ve enjoyed the series and I should be back home soon so I can put some pictures into the games.

If you are still here - thanks for reading.
Cheers

NUTS - Hydte and Plink - Game 5

 “Hiya Sergeant Ryan”, - I think I liked it better when he didn’t know my name. I’m sure every time something bad comes up the only name he can remember is mine.

“Look son I need your help here, we have a bit of a problem, there is a young Belgian girl who has been collecting information on the German positions and – well she’s been shot by a sniper, - one of theirs of course, not ours”.

Well I bet she’s pleased it wasn’t the good guys shot her I thought.

“Anyway she’s out in no mans land - bleeding to death I imagine and we need someone to go and fetch her, quick. She has vital information that we need”.

I thought good job she has something we need or I guess we would just leave her there.

“Ok Captain we are on our way” I said. “Just one thing son before you go, we think the sniper is still out there”.

GREAT!!!!

“OK guys lets go, I want you McCaulay” (he is the replacement for McKlusky on BAR) “to go with Dokes, he will load for you but you do what he says OK. Run down to the woods over there to our right, it will give you the best field of fire to cover us”.

“Bolton, I want you and 2 men to get into the wood up front to cover us. Me and the rest of the guys will run across the field to the woods over there to the north and then cover you as you follow up. Got it”. “Yes Sarge” they all chorused. Bloody sycophants. “OK Lets go”.

McCaulay and Dokes took up position in the wood. We set off at a run, if she's bleeding we need to get to her quick and so we risk everything - running fast. Phutt, the bullet hit my helmet, a glancing blow otherwise I wouldn’t be writing this now, I hit the deck stunned.

Phutt – Wilson went down OOF, no one could identify the snipers position., the guys started blazing away at likely spots. “I’ve got him” shouted McCaulay “he’s in those trees”, Phutt, MaCaulay goes down, fortunately just stunned. Haining another new guy opened up on the sniper, who returned fire and Haining was down - dead.

“Go” I shouted to Bolton “get to the woods, I will see to Wilson and cover you”, off they went like rabbits, greyhounds would have been better but the kit weighs so much that rabbits was good.

Phutt - a spurt of mud just to the left of Green another new man, as he belted across the open ground following Bolton. Dokes meanwhile with his BAR man down un-slung his carbine and took a bead on the sniper. BANG BANG he hit him twice, killing him with one of the shots, who cares which.

“Bolton get the girl”, “yes Sarge”, - sycophant!

Two of them lifted her up, she was only a slip of a lass (do Americans say lass?) and trotted back as fast as they could.

This was a really interesting game, though you might not think so, because we didn’t know where the sniper was until we could spot him, and as you can see he was very effective. The other problem we had very limited time to get the girl back before she bled to death, by this time I'm getting very careful with the men - trying to keep them alive, myself included. Well done Dokes.

Haining was the only casualty but dead is dead, but we did get the girl back alive.

Everyone else recovered for the next mission.

If you are still here - thanks for reading and I greatly appreciate any thoughts and comments you make.
Cheers



NUTS - Poke Poke - Game 4

“Hiya Sergeant Ryan” – Bloody hell - he’s finally got my name. Yes the Captain again he’s obviously got some other mad hair brained scheme for me and the lads.

“You did well with that search and destroy mission and I guess your men will be a little in need of a rest”. Wow, we are off to Paris, wonder where my clean uniform is, showers, beer – no I’ll have wine – no I wont, let’s have whiskey, all this went through my head in seconds.

“Well I thought maybe you would like to take over from Abrahams” – hold on a minute Abrahams is in the front line trenches I said (in my head) “yes” the Captain went on “we are pulling his squad out for a bit of R and R and need someone to take his place. There does seem to be some indication of German activity along your front, but don’t worry it will probably come to nothing”.

GREAT!!!!

The boys weren’t best pleased when I broke the news, their language was a little less restrained than mine had been.

Well here we are in the trenches, not very deep trenches because if you go too deep you have dug a well and water seeps in, making it even less comfortable, it’s starting to get dark, the guys are in position. Dokes 5 and Mears 3 are in the forward OP, in the left trench is the BAR McKlusky 5 and Smith 4, in the centre trench is Me, (Sgt Ryan) 4 and Wilson (my wing man) 6, over on the right in the woods is Cpl Bolton 4 and Cornwall 4. Further over on our right is C squad, they know what they are doing and so I am not going to interfere there.

There are 4 PEF’s on the table, 3 of them directly opposite my position and the other one which is insight of C squad, is resolved as just being wind in the trees, lets hope mine are the same.

All 3 PEF’s move forward but one is faster than the others, Dokes and Mears take the in sight test, Dokes fails to notice it (probably asleep but no one wants to ask him when the action is over) but Mears is more awake and sees a Half Track bearing down on them. He did good and ducked down, waking Dokes, the boy is learning. Next move they both decide to stay quiet, that MG pointing out of the Half Track looks nasty, maybe it will go away. No it continues to roll forward and that’s when Dokes woke up to the fact that it was coming straight at him, he looks at the wheel span, and then the width of the trench, bugger it is going to fall right on top of us he hisses to Mears, we gotta go. They both run and amazingly the half track gunner fails to see them in the dark, the driver also fails to see the trench and the front wheels go down in to it.

Dokes joins me in the centre trench and Mears goes into the wood with Cpl Bolton, the truck has a couple of goes to reverse out of the trench but is stuck fast – good – in sight of my trench – bad. The follow up PEF turns out to be a full squad of infantry.

We blaze away at them and they blaze away at us, men go down, Dokes is stunned by a close miss, BAR man McKlusky also stunned, I duck back from the volume of fire and so there is only Wilson left firing back at them, nobody hurt yet but things are not looking good from the centre and left of our position. Over on the right Bolton and his 2 men in the woods are still in action.

Next move we fail to activate on the left and centre, only Bolton does but the Germans advance with determination on the woods leaving their MG team and a few men to keep our heads down. Bullets are flying all over the place, Bolton goes down OOF, Mears takes one in the head OD, only Cornwall left in the wood. Smith over on the left takes one and goes down OOF. McKlusky, Dokes and me are ducked back from the weight of fire, - only Wilson is still fighting back in the centre, Oh Oh we’re in trouble.

Cornwall is firing effectively from the wood but the next turn he and our centre (me) fail to activate. McKlusky incensed that Smith has been hit, finally gets into action, he jumps up, beats the enemy MG team in the insight test and guns them both down, the bad news is the rest of the Germans charge. Everyone on our side is getting a little panicky, but no one runs, and Wilson even fires as they come in but misses, although this makes one of the Germans think hard and he halts while thinking.

Fierce hand to hand fighting ensues, we are very lucky and generally win against the odds, but Cornwall does down OOF. The Germans are now down to 30% and pull back.

With the fighting going on I was so excited I forgot about the remaining PEF. This now became 2 PEF’s and moved forwards and resolved as 1 and a ½ squads of the meanest, ugliest looking Germans you ever saw.

We are now down to 4 men fit to fight (there is some dispute about me being fit for anything) facing 15 Germans.

We all blazed away but they were in the open and we were in trenches, when the smoke cleared after 1 round of firing, McKlusky was down OD, Wilson Dokes and me were still in the game, but 2 of the Germans were OD, 5 OOF and 3 cowering behind the half track. Next turn 2 of them went down and the rest headed for the hills, we let them go.

Over on the right it had been quiet, but now a German LMG team turned up, I think they were lost, they blundered into C squad and got cut down.

We got the wounded back to the field station, and the rest of the night passed quietly, in the morning we counted the cost.

Germans 7 dead 11 wounded and now prisoners and 10 retreated. Plus 1 captured Half Track, the Captain’s driving round in it now.

We lost

Ken McKlusky - RIP - BAR gunner extrodinaire. That's French for the best. He will be missed.

Ernest Mears – RIP – looks like I was right – he didn’t make the grade.

Cpl Ray Boulton – light wound and back for next mission.

Pvt Clint Smith – BAR loader, ok but drops a rep 4 to 3 and back for mission 7.

Pvt Raymond Cornwall – OK back for next mission and Rep now 5 from 4.

Survived unharmed

Sgt John Ryan rep 4

Pvt 1st Class Eric Dokes rep 5

Pvt Richard Wilson rep 6

I would like to point out that I don’t use Star Qualities or any of the other advantages for my leader – me. So I stand as good a chance of taking one for Old Uncle Sam as anyone else.

If you are still here - thanks for reading and I greatly appreciate any thoughts and comments you make.
Cheers

Granny and Pops - Moonshine in the Ozark Mountains

Captain Andy Donovan had received some hard information as to the whereabouts of a Moonshine Still in the Ozark Mountains, he has a crack team of Revenue men and women at his command and they were in position early one summers morning determined to destroy the still and take down the Moonshiners.

The birds had just started to sing, the sun was rising over the mountains, it’s going to be a bad day for some hooch makers he chuckled quietly to himself.

The teams have already been briefed, we are not expecting much opposition, the still is operated by an old couple, known locally as Pops and Granny, helped by their 3 grand daughters. Some times there are a few bikers hanging around, chasing after the girls we think, but they are not expected to be here today.

Text relating to a photo is below it.

A small dirt farm in the Ozark Mountains, a few sheep, goats and a couple of pigs.

It would be subsistence except for the field of cannabis plants and the moonshine whiskey still.

Encounter markers are the green pennies. I posted this on the LAF Dec 2016 so hopefully you have not read it but if you did this may save you having a strange feeling of dejavu.

The Cannabis Plants, in disguise - I know they look very much like last years Christmas decorations.

There is the Still up ahead by the cabin. – to you it might look like a leaky cauldron on an open fire, but in my games you have to use your imagination, - can you see the still now?

Turn 1 - the team led by Elvis, (yes he has left the building) move down the far side of the road towards the square cabin and the still. Turn 2 they continue through the field, checking out the 1st encounter marker on the way which turns out to just be the wind moving the crops around.

The main team of 4 agents led by Captain Andy Donovan (in the trench coat) moves up the road heading for the red pickup truck. Mad Dog Maguire is just passing the marker stone for Bess, Pops old wolfhound.

The 3rd team led by Field Agent Samantha Price (on the left) climbs over the fence and into the cannabis field. Humm smell that weed. – note the encounter marker just ahead.

Not a good shot but it shows the character cards I am using, because I’m soloing these games, any decision I have to make can be guided by the attributes, rolling on a D6 and getting below the characteristic, except affinity, which I will describe later.

Moving through the cannabis, the team come across Tank, a biker tending the crops, or maybe testing the crops – who knows.

Samantha, reacts 1st and rushes Tank before he can get to his gun, the ensuing fight is inconclusive, but then Jennifer Ryan joins in, Tank knocks Sam down but then Jennifer does the same to Tank.

In the mean time Andy Donovan is searching the red pick up and finds nothing there, the other team who are unlucky enough to have Elvis leading them is bogged down in the field off on the right.

You can see the Still much clearer in this picture, humm it is a leaky cauldron.

Andy Donovan rushes round the cabin on the left with Alexandria Lorne following closely. Eric Yonthorn and his sidekick Mad Dog Maguire, can be seen going over to destroy the still. Just then Daisy May (one of the granddaughters) comes out of the cabin behind it.

A better shot. - Eric shouts “hands up – we are the law”, (Been reading too many Judge Dredd comics) Daisy has her gun slung on her back and passes her brains test and fails her guts test, so does as they say, raising her hands high.

Andy Donovan bursts into the log cabin, followed by Alexandria Lorne, there are 3 Bikers in the cabin – Fat Willie and Eight Ball are both asleep, but Big Dave is not. Don’t know who is more surprised, the Revenue men who were expecting maybe a couple of old folk and some girls or the Bikers who were expecting breakfast in bed.

Big Dave, reacts fastest and gets to his gun, boom boom, 2 shots - one at each of the Revenue persons, misses them both but they jump back out of the cabin faster than they went in.

Dave is using a double barrelled shotgun and is now out of ammo and needs to reload. He starts to shake with the adrenalin, it’s going to take him 2 active moves to reload.

Meanwhile Tank has been handcuffed. Straight to jail (do not collect £200) unless he gets rescued.

The shotgun blasts alert all the Moonshiners, this shot shows the rest of the characters activated by the noise, in the background Jack Handsome asleep in the brown truck, Betsie May in the outhouse and Billy the Wolfhound (son of Bess whose grave you saw earlier) is just over the log wall behind Andy and Alexandria.

Samantha and Raymond move up to the back window of the shack and peer in. Eight Ball notices the shadow across the window and swings round and fires with his Thompson and completely misses, Sams nerve holds and she puts a bullet in the middle of his chest and he falls to the ground groaning.

Betsie May looks out of the outhouse her feet are just in camera on the left, she wants to shoot Alexandria in the back, but fails the affinity (bad deed test) so shouts throw your guns down or I will kill you. Alex throws her gun down but Andy Donovan swings round and they both fire together Betsie misses and Andy does not, she drops to the floor and doesn’t move again.

Moonshiners 0 – Revenue men 4.

Billy the dog reacts now and he jumps the wall attacking Andy knocking him down. Alex picks up her gun.

Jack Handsome in the truck does nothing, (failed activation) too much whiskey last night I guess.

The final character to activate due to the shooting is Ellie May (in the distance on the road), she sees Daisy May with her hands up and calmly walks down the road and shoots Eric. Mad Dog Maguire goes “Mad” and fires both pistols at Ellie and misses, she jumps over the fence into cover. No one is watching Daisy so she pulls her gun and shoots Mad Dog - just a flesh wound, but puts him out of action for 1 turn.

Seeing this exchange of fire the guys in the field open up on poor Daisy, she also takes a flesh wound.

Ellie fires her 2nd shotgun barrel at Mad Dog and he drops like a stone, Elvis and crew don’t like the look of these 2 girls and retreat back to the wall. Which is good because I don’t like to see them walking on top of the crops!

Jack Handsom in the truck shouts at Alex drop your gun but she thinks bugger this and fires at him, unfortunately for her he was ready for this and fires first but misses, her return shot goes wide and he then fires back and again misses but her nerve goes and she ducks back behind the cabin.

Billy the dog tears Andys throat out and he dies. Jennifer is still at the window and shoots Fat Willie, hitting him twice and he dies. Big Dave is still cowering in the corner of the cabin and has not finished loading his shotgun. Jennifer Ryan move to the edge of the field with her prisoner to see what is going on.

It’s all starting to get a little confusing.

There is a sudden silence, (almost everyone failed their activation tests) Not Alex though she peers round the edge of the cabin. Billy the dog sees her, she shoots him, there is a deafening “CLICK” out of ammo.

She dies.

Jennifer sees Alex go down retires with her prisoner, (wrong pay grade for this kind of ruckus) but Raymond hearing the screams looks round the cabin. Billy sees him and attacks but is beaten back.

Jack Handsome enters the cabin, sees Samantha in the window, they both fire together, she misses, he misses with one pistol and runs out of ammo with the other, they both lose their nerve and duck back.

Ray knocks Billy the dog to the ground and Samantha runs up and shoots the brave dog. Come on lets pull back she shouts, we need more back up, more guns, and bigger guns as well.

The final action of the day. Big Dave has finally got his gun loaded and moves to the window just as Sam and Ray enter the field he lets them have both barrels (will he never learn) misses both of them and ducks back when Sam returns fire.

Game Over

Moonshiners 4 Revenue Men 3 and 1 dog. Plus 1 prisoner.

The Moonshiners, minus granny and Pops and Billy the dog who was fetching a bone – whose bone no one knows.

The Revenue Men

When the gunfire started I checked each encounter marker for the characters to react. Once the characters are revealed I then replaced the encounter markers that are not activated such as the store of whiskey and the clucking hens and reshuffle those cards back in the deck so that certain objectives still have to be discovered and I don’t know where they are.

I had 13 encounters planned, but there are 16 cards so 3 blind ones. This is so that even though I know what all the encounters are. I don’t know which one is which and I don’t know which ones will finally turn up. It keeps me in suspense.

This can skew the game, in this case 2 of the last 3 cards that were not turned over were Pops and Granny and as they are the 2 best characters on the Moonshine side it looked like it was going to be a bit of a white wash.

Well done Billy the dog.

The next morning the Revenue men were back in force, they brought the local police force, State Troopers and the National Guard, the FBI sent a representative and the Governors Office had one of their men sit in as well.

Granny and Pops were waiting with their lawyer J. Noble Daggett and a quiet looking lady no one knew. There was a sweet sickly smell in the air, those that knew realised it was cannabis but smell ain’t court room facts. The field of cannabis was gone, bits of burnt vegetation could be seen, but the ground was newly ploughed. Pops worked all through the night to get this done by daybreak.

The Still and all the whiskey was missing as well, so too are Daisy May, Betsie May, and Ellie May. No one knows where the Still and whiskey are, or at least they are not telling. Betsie was not killed by that fiend Andy Donovan but badly hurt and along with Daisy is in hospital with their sister Ellie standing guard.

Who’s in charge here shouts Lawyer Daggett, I’ve got some suing to do and we might as well start at the top. It all goes quiet.

No warrant was shown, no ID, no warning apart from some clown imitating Judge Dredd, you are in a lot of trouble here. It goes even quieter. Two young girls shot to ribbons, they don’t have no parents, just being looked after by this old couple, Grandparents who are old enough to be drawing their pensions.

Let me introduce Miss Gemmima Smith – she works for the Washington Post and is very interested in this story.

At this point the FBI, National Guard and State Troopers all started to drift away. It didn’t end well for the Revenue Men – but no one likes them anyway.

If you are still here - thanks for reading and any comments and thoughts are warmly received.

Cheers

Palaeo Diet – The Hunt

We interrupt our normal scheduled Nuts WW2 games to go back to the Neolithic period for a bit of Dino hunting. I have found fast Internet in a Bar - Whoopee.

The Shell Clan a small Neolithic band of Hunter/Gatherers need sustenance. The sea shore was providing slim pickins, shell fish are not very filling, they are too primitive to make nets to fish and so slabs of meat were called for.

I've written about the Clan that are now known as the Rock Ugly Clan earlier on the Blog but these were the first games I played using the Palaeo Diet rules and using the fair haired Shell Clan and I posted them on LAF back in Dec 17, so sorry if you've already read them, but if your memory's like mine you might have forgotten by now.
Just a thought but if anyone is offended by semi naked 28mm figures you need to see a professional Doctor about it, but look away now ;-)

The Clans are based on the film 1,000,000 years BC, the fair haired Sea Shore Clan and the Dark haired Inshore Clan, it saved wearing white and black hats I suppose. I think I may have got confused naming the characters in my Clans who were all supposed to have been in the film but it's not important.

This was my 1st game using the rules. having read some of Nic’s game reports (Nic is the rules writer) it seemed to me that the rules and concept of the game should provide the sort of fun and slightly chaotic games that I like.

The Shell Clan is watching the Food move slowly westwards, they have been driving them for three new suns across a desolate landscape and the Food is slowly getting weaker. On this new day the sun will rise and the Clan will make their kill.

Their only hope of survival in this savage land is to use their one big advantage over the wild and generally very big things roaming the plains and that is their brains, and so they had a plan.

The females of the clan were adept with a sling and had a good supply of rounded river stones. They would push the Food into the arms of the men, who were clumsy and stupid but strong and brave.

Tohana and Kee’Ak the males would move around the beasts and hide, then the smart ones Ayah and Luana would drive the Food on to them and into the trap. I know it’s not a very clever plan but it could work.

Tohana and Kee’Ak are seen here circling around the Food.

Close ups of our bronzed and magnificently muscled Cavemen

The Brains of the operation.

Ayah and Luana are driving the Food into the trap.

Kee’Ak has worked his way round in front of the Food and Ayah pelts the Beast with stones from her sling and it starts to lumber forward towards Kee’Ak. I love it when a plan comes together.

The Food comes within range and Kee’Ak throws his spear – and MISSES. Oh bugger that thing has big horns.

In the background you can see the Beast that Kee’Ak missed didn’t gore him but is lumbering away from him and towards Ayha.

In the foreground Luana has pelted her rump steak with stones and wounded it, causing it to run from her.

The Beast is getting close to Ayah, she slung stones at it and so it turns round and moves back to Kee’Ak. It must be getting dizzy right about now.

1st Rule of Hunting “Make your prey dizzy”

It doesn’t look as if anything has happened here but Kee’Ak has charged forward, but failed an activation, the Beast has attacked him, it’s horns missing vital organs by a fingers thickness. The beast backs away and Kee’Ak attacks again, the beast roars at him and Kee’Ak retreats away from the ferocious sound and they both end up where they started.

2nd Rule of Hunting “Stick your prey with the sharp pointy thing before it sticks you”

Luana drives her beast towards Tohana, well this was the plan.

3rd rule of hunting “Always follow the plan”

It charges forwards and attacks him but causes no damage, he responds with a wicked blow from his trusty stone axe and gives it a wound. The Beast moves back and Tohana has run out of activations and lets it go.

Luana tries to attack the Beast but she fails an activation and it attacks her first, the fighting is fierce, first one strikes, then the other, back and forth. The beast finally sticks her with one of it’s horns and that nasty looking mould line causes a jagged wound.

In the other hunt Ayah has pelted the Beast with sling shot but this only makes it angry and it charges at her, fortunately it fails to move far enough to make contact.

4th Rule of Hunting “Always stay calm”

Rather than run away she pelts it, yet again missing and it attacks her but she dodges nimbly aside.

5th Rule of Hunting “Practice more with your slingshot”

Kee’Ak lopes towards the fight to help Ayah and the beast reacts by moving away.

Tohana rushes to aid Luana but fails an activation and the beast attacks Luana before he can get there. This is getting serious, the Beast is no longer behaving like Food as it gives her another wound and she drops to the floor.

6th Rule of Hunting “Don’t fight creatures bigger than yourself with a knife”

Tohana wounds the beast and in return the beast wounds him before backing away, narrowly missing Ayah in the process.

I keep the wound counters for the figures on their Stat Cards but I haven’t made any for the Dino’s so they are on the table, it takes 4 wounds to kill a Giant Grazer and so one more and he is down and the clan can feast.

Ayah fails an activation and the beast attacks her but doesn’t do any damage. She however sticks it with that little sharp pointy knife and causes the final wound that kills it.

7th Rule of Hunting “If you must use a knife use a sharp one”

In the background Kee’Ak moves in and attacks the other beast behind Ayah and wounds it. The fight continues until the beast moves away.

Tohana fails an activation over on the left side of the board and so the beast attacks Kee’Ak wounding him, then Ayah charges into the fight but the beast backs away, she pelts it and it changes it’s tiny mind again and attacks her causing a wound. Kee’Ak is back in the fight and fails his attack but the beast backs up and they decide to let it go. They both have a wound and another could prove fatal.

8th Rule of Hunting “Don’t play with your food”

The game scenario calls for the clan to gather 4 food units and one of these Giant Grazers is worth 4 units so a win but at a cost, all the clan are wounded and Luana has 2 wounds which could prove fatal.

Final Rule of Hunting “Only kill what you can eat”

Or should that be “You only eat what you can kill”.



So to round up, I did not have a Clan leader and had not given anyone a trait before the game, my usual half ars*d approach, but the campaign rules provide a recovery chart and an advancement system.

Luana had 2 wounds but a good roll on the after game chart means she survived and is able to take part in the next hunt although is lame from the leg wound and can't move fast.

Tohana only has a little scratch and recovers quickly with no ill effects.

Kee’Ak’s wound was more serious and if he had had any traits he would have lost them, but he is OK for the next hunt.

Ayah’s wound was also a little more serious than was first thought and she also is going to be lame and slow in the next hunt.

Tohana was the only one to recover without a penalty and so he gets the man of the match award and gains a trait and becomes Alert. A useful trait for a hunter intent on survival on the edge of the world.


Just some thoughts on the game and rules.

The game lasted about 2 hours, I had spent some time creating a reference sheet and pretty much have everything on 2 sides of A4.

I found the rules worked well, they are not too long and I had 2 reads through before the game and obviously referred to them but apart from a few things they are clear and easy to understand.

I did struggled a bit with the concept of the activations.

A hunter may activate and carry out between 1 and 3 actions depending on die results, this means he could move into contact but not be able to do a fight action, whereas a Beast making an attack action automatically fights.

When a hunter moves close, to attack a beast, the beast reacts and takes its action before the hunter, so I was finding that the beasts usually got the 1st strike.

When I had a beast between 2 hunters it behaved a bit like a yoyo, going back and forth between them, they move directly away from the cause of the action.

I had 3 games in 1 day and didn’t feel at the end that I wanted to change anything yet and I am a great rules tinkerer, so that is in their favour.

Final note - you may have been a bit surprised to see waggon tracks across the board, I believe this is evidence that the wheel was discovered much earlier than previously thought. I am sending my findings to National Geographic.


Well if you are still here - thanks for reading and your thoughts and comments make it all worth while.

NUTS- All Come Free - Game 3

“Hiya Sergeant – Reagan isn’t it”, “Ryan Sir” I replied” “Yes of course”    It's the Captain again he’s getting closer with my name, now 2 weeks and 2 days another week maybe – if I survive his mad missions.

“Well we have a little problem, the Germans have infiltrated our lines and there are hostile patrols in our rear, the 60th have a couple of squads out looking in their back yard and I said we would do the same. I would like you to take your squad to this map ref and search and destroy anything you find”.

“You are up to strength” he kindly enquired. “No Sir we lost Perrin and a couple of the men were hit yesterday, not hospitalised, but maybe could do with a couple of days rest”. “Humm – yes Sergeant we all could do with some rest, see Lt Prior, we have a fresh draft of men, ask him for a replacement and go and find me the enemy”.


Great!!!!

So here we are, Lt Prior gave me a new man Peter Haining fresh out of training and wet behind the ears Rep 3. The map shows the grid reference I was given. We were advancing through the forest when our left flank men Dokes and the new man Haining both shouted over that there was enemy movement off to our left. A full squad and 2 panzerchecks, they both opened fire and hit 1 man, turned out later is was their squad commander which explains why most of them ran to the small woods to their left for cover and those too far away dropped to the ground.

As they ran into the woods they resolved a PEF which opened fire on them, but it quickly transpired that for them it was friendly fire from another full squad of Germans already in the woods, the 1st squad realizing they were friends didn’t return fire which from my point of view was a bit of a shame, nothing like seeing your enemy shoot each other.

I pushed Cpl Bolton forward with some of the men on my right with instructions to swing round and take the Bad Guys in the flank, while I set up a firing line in front of the woods to keep their heads down. Odds of 2 to 1 against us and another PEF on the board unresolved. Maybe I should be thinking of pulling back.

All was confusion in the woods, the Germans were inactive for 3 moves which gave me time to get the BAR into position but as soon as he was set the guys who were prone in the field decided they needed to get into the woods with their buddies.
Their plan was for a guy with a panzercheck to stand and fire it at us and then all run like buggery, simple plans often are the best. Well simple or not this wasn't going to work against McKlusky with the BAR, as soon as the Panzercheck man raised his head, McKlusky shot him, 2 of the remaining guys ran for cover and he shot them, the last guy decided the ground was his friend and hugged it.

Cpl Bolton and his men ran into the other PEF which turned out to be some trigger happy GI’s, who opened up on him, they were fortunately bad shots, Bolton kept his calm and didn’t return fire. He tried to get them to join up with him in his flank attack but their leader Cpl Jobbsworthy refused, it wasn’t in his orders.

Bolton moved to the edge of the tree line preparing to charge into the German position but by this time they had sorted themselves out and a general fire fight ensued all along the line.

We had been knocking them down slowly up to this point but as they were all now lining the edge of the wood I thought it would be a good idea to drop a grenade on them. This put the fear of God into them, - that’s our God, not theirs.

McKlusky took one in the shoulder about now and his loader Smith picked up the BAR and carried on firing, albeit at a slower rate. Dokes was down and then the new man Hainning was hit, so there's just me and Smith on our left flank who were still firing.
Over on the far side of the woods the German casualties had been horrendous, Bolton had only lost 1 man and so he roused the rest of them to charge, but they decided it was a dumb thing to do and failed the test, so carried on shooting. The last couple of Germans decided that they would high tail it out of Dodge which meant that Bolton was firing into the flank of the men facing me. This was too much for them and they surrendered.

We captured 5 men, killed 9 and wounded 10.

We should get mentioned in despatches for this - medals galore and 5 weeks in Paris, but as the Captain still hasn’t got my name right, this probably won’t happen.

Haining had a bad wound and will not re-join us until mission 5, he also drops Rep 3 to 2.
Dokes is OK and back with us.
McKlusky is also back, must be the whiskey - helps reduce swellings and infections as my old Grandma used to say.
Samson was also badly hit and will not return until mission 6 and he drops from Rep 4 to 3.
Ernest Mears the youngster lost his nerve a bit and was drifting back out of the line, but Wilson seems to have taken him under his wing and so instead of dropping in Rep he has advanced from 2 to 3.
Raymond Cornwall is holding his shit together well and increased from Rep 3 to Rep 4.

This is the chart at the before Rep changes.

I’ve just re-read this report and find it a bit confusing knowing who was where – I expect you did too – call it the fog of war. - Sorry

If you are still here - thanks for reading and I greatly appreciate any thoughts and comments you make.
Cheers