Rescue the Two Old Duffers - Part 2

 This is a follow on to my previous post and probably gets even more confusing as it progresses, take heart and be of good cheer, charge into the breach and damn the torpedo's.

Just a quick re-cap, Vaggers and Sally are in the Newsagents not far from the centre of action, close to the crossroad Cross in Greater Snoring, Spankers disguised as a nun and Nicole a French lady from France disguised as a Girl Guide have been accosted on the street by Silvano Bertone and his patrol of Italian soldiers. He has decided they are – how shall we say – persons of interest and he’s going to take them to Head Quarters for further questioning. Before he does that, and in my opinion a very sensible decision, he decides he should have them searched, one never knows what is to be found in the undergarments of a Nun. Before anyone asks – no - I’ve no idea, although it is an intriguing question, however in this particular Nuns undergarments is a pistol that is going to be difficult to draw quickly and if found will be difficult to explain, especially without resorting to schoolboy humour.

 

I’m using the townsfolk to provide encounters that will hopefully impart information to the Rescuers to enable them to carry out a rescue but why wouldn’t they act independently of my game plan? A few dice later and Colonel Mustard, Professor Plumjobveski  and Mrs Peacock are creating a fuss and demanding that Silvano will leave these two innocent women alone.

 

As has been pointed out Spankers is a Catholic Nun and Silvano must be a good Catholic so unless he desires a metal rules across the knuckles he will back down. The dice on this occasion agreed with the general gist of this nonsense and he ordered his men to return to their posts.

Also here’s the town plan, allowing anyone mad enough to read this to follow the rambling action. Just to add a little confusion Auntie Betty became Aunty Edna and some times Auntie Edna after I’d drawn the map. Auntie Edna’s is the base the Rescuers are using.

With the ice broken the townsfolk are more amenable to Spankers questions and gradually they impart various bits of information. Prof Plumjobveski tells them about a German fuel dump by the barn on West Way but the most important titbit comes from Gladys Peacock who mentions that the Gestapo are holding two men prisoner in the Antiques Shop just next door to Fords the Grocers and they are stood outside Fords the Grocers. She has no idea how many guards there are but it’s not a big shop so maybe 4 or 6 men, maybe more, maybe less. The Reverend Green doesn’t say much, but then again he’s a Protestant Minister and doesn’t approve of Catholic Nuns, although he does approve of the Girl Guide Movement but we won’t go into that. However he’s not going to inform on Spankers just because of a centuries old argument between the two Churches.

Drawn by the noise of the confrontation between the townsfolk and the Italian Guards another patrol of Italians move up West Way to see what the fuss is all about. They are guarding the fuel dump on the left of the picture and we already know that there are German Army Regulars in the White Swan on the right of the picture.

 

The patrol is led by Primo Agosti, he is in overall command of the Italian contingent and no fool.

He marches straight up to the group and demands an explanation from Nun Spankers. He’s also a good Catholic boy and ignores the Reverend Green and the rest of the party although his senior NCO Luca Cotichini takes an appraising look at Nicole in disguise as a Girl Guide.

 

Ms Spankhurst playing the role of a demure Nun to perfection explains the situation, apologises for the gathering and agrees that they will disperse immediately. He’s not entirely satisfied but accepts that his commands are being complied with and lets them go with a caution.

Vaggers and Sally emerge from the stygian gloom of Cartwrights newsagents where Vaggers has completed the purchase of his favourite tobacco Rough Shag and they’ve had a very interesting conversation with Cartwright who informed them that there is a section of Afrika Korps troopers billeted in the Apple Tree Florist.

Realising Spankers doesn’t need their help to deal with the Italian’s the duo walk briskly down West Way noting the fuel barrels as they go. Sally is aware that Primo is following them so they refrain from questioning Cartrights daughter and carry on hoping that they won’t be stopped.

Primo having done his duty by dispersing the crowd takes up his position guarding the fuel and the townsfolk go about their business.

This leaves Sally and Vaggers to continue with their circuit of the town trying to put together a clear picture of the location of the enemy troops and anything else that will help in the rescue attempt.

Seeing a young woman, Miss Scarlet, standing outside the Swan, Spankers decides Nicole will get more information girl to girl so they split up at this point. A good decision because Miss Scarlet tells Nicole all about a beautiful, Arian woman, Rachael Weiss who has taken up residency in the house next to Auntie Edna.

 

Rachael Weiss was one of the Gestapo who captured Snappers and Dougers in the first place and set this whole sorry storyline in progress and so has a lot to answer for.

 

There’s a bit more going on here than meets the eye because Scarlet works for Section Q, one of the sections associated with Room 40, but the dice decide that she won’t reveal this piece of information, nor the fact that Scarlet has a room in a townhouse so she can keep a check on all of the German troop movements in and out of Greater Snoring. She also knows the whereabouts of Snappers and Dougers but doesn’t reveal this either, she’s playing a very deep game here.

Spankers is surreptitiously examining the Antiques shop and sees that there is no door at the front, just a big glass window, but there are steps leading from an alleyway between the shop and the next building, the Apple Tree Florist so there must be a door there.

Turning away from the target building she approaches a scruffy ex seaman but before she can ask him anything 2 German soldiers emerge from the side entrance of the Swan. These are our old friends from last night Eckard Unger and Michaela Stoltz. Ekard is marginally suspicious of a Nun and Seaman in conversation by the gate but as we’ve already established, he’s not the sharpest knife in the drawer and doesn’t challenge them but Spankers cuts short her conversation without learning anything new.

Sally and Vaggers have almost completed their circuit of the town and turning the corner into South Street they run into Liam O’Rorke. Liam is the Reporter for the Snoring and District Gazette, and not recognising them as locals he’s immediately suspicious and doesn’t believe Vaggers cover story of a pigeon fancier trying to find a lost pigeon.

 

Liam is pretty bright for a resident of Greater Snoring and not a very nice man. Fortunately he didn’t inform the Germans of his suspicions but decided he needed to keep an eye on the pair of reprobates and make whatever capital he could from the encounter.

Leaving Liam behind Sally gives Vaggers a piece of her mind, she’s plenty to spare as she is the brains of the partnership and he’d better let her concoct the next lie or they’d be in serious trouble. As they reach the original guard post they greet Paolo and Guiseppe like old friends. Vaggers offers Guiseppe a pipeful of Old Shag and they leave him coughing and spluttering trying to get the moist tobacco to burn as they continue along the road to Auntie Edna’s.

Nicole and Spankers have joined forces again and decide they must take a closer look at the building that they hope holds Snappers and Dougers prisoner. They establish that there is a side door to get into the shop and as they pass by Spankers tries the handle but it’s locked.

 

No one hears or sees her do this which was a bit of a relief.

They have a good look at the back of the shop and the adjoining ones before making their way back to Auntie Edna’s with the information they’ve gathered.

 

OK so that completes Part 2 of the game, the Rescuers have sussed out the town and gathered all available information. There is some information they’ve not gathered and as this is a solo game I know what it is but not where it is. Now I need a rescue plan and my original idea was that I would play the game out to this point and then post it and ask for views on the best way of rescuing Snappers and Dougers and then enact that.

 

Time got the better of me and I had to devise my own plan and carry on without you but I would be more than interested to see if there was a better way to try and rescue the old duffers than the one I came up with.

To help with that here’s an overview of Greater Snoring.

And the map orientated in the same direction.

 

I know that Snappers and Dougers are in building 4,  the Antiques Shop, there are some Gestapo guarding them but I’ve no idea how many. Next door in building 5 is a section of Afrika Korps troopers, in building 7 is another section of AK troopers. The White Swan building 15/16 has the German Army and I know there are at least 3 of them.

Rachael Weiss is in building 20, the Photographers which is next door to Auntie Edna/Betty.

 

There are 3 piquet guards of Italians, 2 on South Street, 3 on North Gate and 3 by the Fuel Dump on West Way.

 

Each of my enemy units are between 4 and 5 strong and I’m going to roll a dice to see how many are actually there once they come into play, I will use an average die so there will be a minimum of 2 and maximum of whatever the maximum is.

 

There are a few elements I didn’t find, The head of the Gestapo, Herman Wenke, an Army Officer with a briefcase with the invasion plans in it, and finally an Arms Cache so basically a remarkably good haul.

 

I have 8 Rescuers:-

Johnny ‘Vaggers’ Vagabond, disguised as William Morgan - Sawn-off double barrelled shotgun.

Bunty Hampster-Crust disguised as Hazel Arnesen – Automatic Pistol

Ms Spankhurst ‘Spankers’ – Luger and Fighting Knife in her right boot.

Nicole Boursier - .38 Revolver

Isabelle Deforet – Smg

Mad Bad Patsie Jones – Big Ass Automatic Pistol

Barbera Vasseur – Pump Action Shotgun (Not sure when they were manufactured)

Sally Brown – Automatic Pistol

In addition I have 2 grenades.

 

I decided on a night time attack with all the Rescuers starting from Auntie Edna’s house. I estimated distances and the time it would take for my various attacking elements to get to their jump off points and started everything from the 1^st element moving out on turn 1 then the next element going on turn 1+X etc.

 

The enemy has about 30 men maximum but it will be less than that, on the day it was about 24 so I’ll be outnumbered 3 to 1 and they are better armed.

The Italians should have night guards in place at their 3 locations. However there was a chance they would be asleep or even not at their post, I only checked this when one of my figures came into line of sight of where they should be seen.

There were a couple of roving encounters that might trigger noise and also at critical points I checked to see if the Rescuers made a noise eg climbing a wall that sort of thing and if so did the enemy hear it and react.

Once shooting started then every individual enemy had to react, get dressed, armed and get onto the street, this would take a variable time for each man and was an accumulation of points so that I didn’t know in advance when they would emerge.

 

It would be really interesting to get your ideas for a rescue plan as it was for your ideas on how Spankers might get out of the predicament of being searched, although from what the Mad Lord has told me about Ms Spankhurst there would have been blood on the carpet and it would have been Italian blood.

 

In the end I drew up 5 plans and rolled a dice to see which one to adopt, but please let me know how you would have planned the attack.

Sorry about the last bit being a bit more garbled than usual but wine and nibbles time is fast approaching.

Cheers