Granny and Pops - Daisy May Has Been Kidnapped

Following the run in with the Revenue Men, rumours started circulating that Pops and Granny have money stashed away and their granddaughter Daisy May has been captured by a gang of savages, cut throats and vagabonds and she is being held captive at a remote house.

They have demanded a ransom but Pops and Granny, together with their other 2 other granddaughters, Betsy May and Ellie May, got wind of the location of the house and determine to rescue Daisy May. The story going round is that the kidnappers sent the ransom demand on headed note paper but I’m not sure I believe that.

The rescue attempt is a big risk for them, they don’t know how many savages there are, at least 6 but probably more, however no one messes with Pops and Granny and gets away with it.

The previous game is HERE

The isolated house with the gangs transport parked up in the yard.

Granny’s plan, yes she is the boss, was for her and Ellie May to move down the road on the right and circle round to the house from the far side. Pops and Betsie May meanwhile would go towards the wooden crates so that then they could rush the house from two sides at once and hope surprise would give them enough of an edge.

Betsie May was instructed to keep that damned old fool out of trouble. Pops was going a little deaf, a little short sighted and didn’t have 2 brain cells to rub together, but combined with the fact that he was as brave as a lion – well it always led to tricky situations.

The Rescuers

Main stats are - Rep Brains Guts Shooting Brawl Awareness
Pops 3 2 5 4 5 2
Granny 5 4 3 3 5 5
Ellie May 3 3 3 5 5 4
Betsie May 5 4 4 2 2 2
Daisy May 3 2 5 3 2 4

High is good.

You can see that none of the characters are super good, they all have their strengths and weaknesses, originally I used an average dice to determine the stats. The elder generation must have trained in some form of martial art in their younger days as the oldsters are exceptionally good at fighting. Maybe it was kung hillbilly fu, one of the lesser known martial arts developed by Jed “Bruce” Clampett-Lee.

Another view, all looks quiet. Too quiet!

The green pennies are 13 encounter markers, as they are revealed I drew a card from a shuffled deck of 13 playing cards, which represent :-

Ace = Savages 1D6 -3.
2 = Savages 1D6 -2.
3 = Savages 1D6.
4 = Savages 1D6 +2.
5 = Dogs 1D4.
6, 7 & 8 = nothing there, stop being so jumpy.
9 = Trip wire test on awareness to discover it, if not then it make a noise, test on savages awareness to see if they hear it.
10 = Daisy May + Savages 1D6-3.
Jack = Fuel.
Queen = Information as to where Daisy May is.
King = Daisy May + Savages 1D6 +3.

Pops and Betsie May encounter 7 of the savages but they see them before being discovered themselves. The little white head followed by a cowboy hat seen just over the hedge far right are Granny and Ellie May carrying out their pincer movement.

This is Ellie May bringing up the rear. Nice rear and interesting comparison shot. I love the Granny and Pops figures, but can’t remember who makes them.

Pops decides, or maybe with Brains of 2 Pops didn’t decide anything but anyway it seemed like a better bet to go and join Granny and try and get around the savages blocking their path.

They joined up with each other quite quickly due to a bit of slow movement on the part of Granny, i.e. she did not activate for 2 turns, which was fortunate for them all. I never thought too much to her plan.

Pops walks up to the next encounter which turns out to be 1 savage called Big Dog, - by name and nature. He is half as big again as Pops but the little man is not phased by this, how does it go “the bigger they are the harder they fall” That’s right - Brains 2 Guts 5 the little man is not going to back off.

In the distance Big Dog facing off to Pops. The encounter marker on the road is now in sight and is resolved as another group of savages - random direction dice decides they are heading towards the house, so don’t look back. The 1st group have been milling about but have also decided to head for the house.

Big Dog is so surprised by this little old man that he does not shout out to his mates but smiles evilly and says what do you want you little baldy old man “WHOOP” Pops hits him with a double turning kick and Big Dog drops to the floor, “who you calling old” grunts Pops. Big Dog doesn’t reply, in fact he doesn't move either.

Both the groups of savages head to the house, no one hears Big Dog fall like a large tree. The group on the left enter the house 1st and a turn later so do the other group. This is good and bad news. There is not going to be much opposition outside but the house has 5 encounter points in it because logically that is where Daisy May would be held.

Pops and the girls continue up the track, as Granny passes Big Dog she bends down and cuts his throat, “don’t you call my man old” she whispers in his ear. To do a bad deed Granny had to roll over 3 on her Affinity target, she got a 6 so was able to do a very bad deed indeed.

There is another encounter marker in the field between the Hill Billies and the house, so far it’s looking hopeless, they have counted 13 savages in the house, there are 5 encounter tokens also in the house, 1 round the back of it and 1 in the garage, not good odds on finding Daisy May without committing suicide.

This is the encounter in the field, “bugger” mutters Pops “a dawg” I hate dawggys, this is a stupid dog, it doesn’t bark just charges up to kung fu Pop and gets chopped down, dead.

Dead dog.

I’m not sure why Ellie May always has her back turned to the camera, she must be showing her best side, or maybe it’s the new hot pants she wants to show to best advantage. The guys hop over the wall and rush forward to the garage.

Where they encounter Daisy May with 1D6-3 savages, I threw a 3 so no savages. What a bit of luck.

Pop quickly unties Daisy May and they both get back across the wall.

The scene in the house. (No lift off roof again)

It’s looking pretty good, all the savages are in the house. Pops and Granny have rescued Daisy May and there are no encounter tokens between them and getting the hell out of Dodge. What can stop them now.

Just then Wolf and Mad Maybelle come out of the house for some fresh air, they see the Billies and open fire first, the wall provides good cover and the shots miss.

Reaction for being under fire is good, even for a coward (intelligent person) like granny, she threw 1 and 2 so they all returned fire.

Betsie May fired her smg at Maybelle and missed all 3 shots, granny blew both barrels of her shot gun at wolf and missed him, hmmm not looking so good. Ellie May’s pump shotgun was next and a throw of 6 killed Maybelle – dead. Pops, also with a pump killed Wolf, “that’s for THINKING I was old” he was heard to mutter.

The savages were stunned (failed reaction) and did not dare leave the house, the Billies, all 5 of them are seen here running back to the getaway car. By the time the savages recovered their nerve and activated it was too late - the Billies were in the car and over the skyline.

The Cast

The victorious and slightly out of breath Billies. I’m not so sure Ellie Mays rear is her best side after all.

The in breath, and out of pocket savages.

The mutt and the rest of the dead.

Quite an amazing result, the Hill Billies had some luck on the dice when both groups of savages went into the house with an even larger slice of luck when they discovered Daisy May, without guards, on the last encounter marker available without them having to go into the house.

There is very little chance they would have survived that, and Pops with no brains (2) and lots of guts (5) would almost certainly have led them in there. I know I said Granny was the boss but Pops is the man about the house and wears the overalls.

Typing this up now I realise that the odds were stacked too heavily against Pops and crew which is probably why it was such a memorable game, even though the body count was low and they succeeded easily it could have been disaster.

I played this game quite a while ago and re-photographed it for the post, I thought I might show the original game photos so that anyone who has not spent 5 years refining terrain (yes I know it still needs work) can see that in my opinion it's the game that matters not the terrain. I enjoyed this game as with all the Granny and Pops games and have cleaned them up to post here, but the essence of the game was played with some quite nondescript terrain and is in my opinion the enjoyable part of wargaming.

The re-shot photo

The original game, a cloth mat instead of a caulk mat, the original house I bought for £1:00 and a door mat for crops.

The re-shot photo

The original game shot, it looks very basic in comparison but the game and the text are original, don't ever be mislead into thinking terrain is more important than having an exciting game, it isn't. It's nice to see but only for other people.

If you are still here – Thanks for reading and any comments or thoughts are warmly received.