Rescue the Two Old Duffers - The Game

I’ve left this final part of the story a little longer than I’d hoped, partly my fault and partly Bloggers formatting so I should probably do a precis to bring any reader up to speed but this is already a two beer length story and I don’t want to drag it out any more. The previous parts are the last two posts on here, if you need to see them. ;)

Thank you for the Rescue Options Dave and Frank, mine all involved a noisy demonstration, either a grenade into the fuel dump and one into another building or a grenade into each of the buildings that I knew had troops billeted in them, followed by an immediate assault on the Antiques Shop and hopefully rescue the two old Duffers, I mean Hero’s.

The most subtle option I could think of was to take Rachael Weiss hostage and use her to persuade the guards in the Antiques Shop to open the door and let us in.

In the end I rolled the dice to decide on the specific option and they went with lobbing a grenade at the fuel dump and then another one into the White Swan once the first had done its job on the fuel drums. Then assault the Antiques shop with everyone else.

Just to remind you of the layout of the town, the Rescuers are starting from Aunty Betty’s which is really Aunty Edna’s! There are enemy troops known to be in 4, the Antiques Shop, 5, The Fruit or Florist’s shop, 7, a House and 15, the White Swan. Guards or Sentries are located in North Gate, West Way and South Street. The 2 Hero’s to be rescued are in 4 the Antiques Shop.

The shop layout was unknown to me, but from the outside it looked like there might be a large showroom at the front with a door and window at the back indicating maybe 1 or 2 rooms, probably a kitchen and office? There were 4 windows on the first floor so 2 or 3 bedrooms and a bathroom, old buildings in a village probably had a cellar and maybe and attic or loft space.

Once I laid my cunning assault plan I rolled dice to see which of these rooms existed so even with a solo game there was a reasonable element of surprise for me in assaulting the shop.

I then rolled some more dice to decide where the rest of the enemy elements were located, the ones that hadn’t been discovered in the initial reconnaissance and finally we’re all set for the game to begin.

Sorry – not quite - In the game each element or individual only acts if they pass an activation roll, I’d decided that it takes 3 active turns to get dressed, clean their teeth, pick up their weapons etc, 1 turn to go downstairs and 1 turn to open the door and leave the house. So that’s going to translate into a minimum of 5 turns plus any inactive turns before each figure is out on the street, of course if the Rescuers enter a house they might encounter enemy cleaning their teeth or running downstairs etc etc.

Ok are you up to speed – Then I’ll begin.

THE PLAN.

Vaggers asserting his male authority said they needed a distraction, an assault crew, a cordon team and a back up team, he’s read Sun Tzu, Bunty suggested they needed a surprise as well as a distraction she’d read the Wiley Woman and they all thought hers was a good idea, especially when she suggested the surprise.

At the mention of grenades and explosions, Mad Patsy’s eyes lit up and she volunteered to go and throw them, Sally decided she must ensure Patsy threw them at the right time and at the right target so had to accompany her.

Once the fuel dump exploded Barbara using the shotgun as a door knocker would blow the back door of the Antiques Shop open and Spankers would rush in, followed by Barbara. At the same time Vaggers and Bunty would attack the shop from the front with Isabelle and Nicole providing covering fire from the flanks to try and stop the Afrika Korps and Italian sentries from interfering in the attack.

They knew the front door of the shop was locked but Bunty’s surprise should overcome that problem.

The game is a foot and with some appalling dice throwing for the Italian Sentries, it turned out that they were all wrapped up in their beds and there were no sentries set for this night, I imagine heads might roll when this fact is discovered by the High Command.

Turn 1 Patsy and Sally left for the fuel dump, you have to imagine it’s dark and visibility is only 12”, unless of course you are illuminated by a big fire, but more of that later.

Because they were expecting Italian Sentries on South Street, they had taken the bold decision to go the shortest route through the town to avoid them. Given more time they should have gone out into the country and headed through the fields and back lanes approaching the Fuel dump from the West but Patsy was wearing her new red shoes and refused to get them muddy so they took the short route. They went down the alley between the Antiques shop with the Gestapo billeted in it and the Florist’s Shop with the Afrika Korps billeted in it.

They were moving stealthily, half a normal move and checking to see if they created noise at certain points. There was one heart stopping moment when a tomcat howled but they made it through to High Street without incident.

That’s when they met Coco the Doberman, not a breed known for its cuddly and playful nature.

They now had two problems, time was slipping away with all this stealthy palaver and of course Coco might not want to play and be cuddled.

On a dice roll of 6 Coco attacks savagely, 4,5 she barks and attracts attention, 1,2,3 she wants to play quietly. I rolled 1 and they pat the dog and move on. Does she let them go on alone, 4,5,6 she goes with them – oh no who thought of that!! I rolled 2 – whew, Coco roamed away into the night.

By taking their straight route through the town they’d avoided the Italian sentries on South Street but they were still expecting to meet the ones on West Way or North Street and would have to creep around them, however they were completely unaware of a pair of binoculars trained on them as the progressed along High Street.

They moved further along High Street looking carefully for the Italians they expected to be guarding the fuel dump but as we know, they are tucked up in bed.

That’s when the rest of the Rescuers started to move out in three waves.

First Bunty and Vaggers exited Aunty Edna’s and head away from the Antiques Shop!?! You remember Bunty is in disguise as Hazel and Vaggers is in disguise as William, of course you do, I’m sorry to mention it. They had to go furthest and set off first.

The second wave are Nicole and Isabelle who are acting as the cordon in Vaggers grand plan, that is if two Girl Guides can act as a cordon, anyway they are intending to take up their positions as the backup men or maybe women for the shock troops.

Isabelle in the red beret has taken up a position to enfilade the Afrika Korps as they emerge from House 7, I think that’s a French word meaning blow the sh*t out of them if they get in her line of fire but French is not my strong suit.

That’s when the shock troops emerge, Spankers has changed her bad habit of a nun for more informal leather jacket and blue pants and that could be a stolen Luftwaffe hat? Barbara didn’t bring along a spare change of clothes and is still wearing her blue beret and carrying the door knocker (shotgun).

You might begin to guess at the surprise that Bunty proposed as she and Vaggers climb in to Aunty Edna’s black Sportster.

There was a short squabble over who would drive, before Bunty slipped into the drivers seat – There was some talk about – well you’ve got the shotgun so I should drive but it was only whispered, after all these guy’s are professionals.

Moving as quietly as they can Patsy and Sally have passed the White Swan without waking anyone and they can’t see the expected Italians, who as you already know are tucked up in bed.

Patsy, trembling with excitement pulls the pin out of the first grenade as Sally wonders how long they have after pulling the pin before it goes BANG, Patsie with nerves of steel waits 1 move before she throws it at the fuel drums.

BOOM, her aim was good and the grenade explodes amongst the fuel drums with a loud WOOSH and she ducks back behind the big red…ish truck.

My intention then, was that Patsy would run across the road and break a window of the White Swan and drop the 2nd grenade in, causing further confusion if not casualties, then they would get out of town as best and fast as they could.

There was a slight flaw in my plan, because there wasn’t a roadside window for her to drop the grenade into and so she would have to use the main door window on High Street, but we’ll come to that in due course.

Spankers falls hard as she climbs over the wall but the Germans are all sleeping soundly and don’t hear her. Then there’s a loud explosion as the Fuel Dump blows up, the timing was off because they’re in not place by the back door but they’re not far away.

Bunty turns the key in the ignition and the model A Ford bursts into life.

Everyone else starts to count down to see how fast they can get out of bed, get dressed etc, etc.

The white rings indicate how many active moves everyone as taken so far.

Bunty puts the pedal to the metal as the saying goes and the small car accelerates into the corner.

Sally and Patsie roll dice to see how fast they recover from the concussive effect of the exploding fuel drums. It wasn't a good roll!

All the sleeping troops are now awake, more or less and the Italians being light sleepers, or maybe having guilty consciences are leading the way.

I expect you’ve guessed by now that Bunty’s surprise was to drive Aunty Edna’s Model A Ford through the front window of the Antiques shop, who needs a key to the door when you can drive straight in without knocking.

At this point I drew up the plan of the building based on the previous criteria.

The resulting crash left them more shook up than I’d hoped and if you can understand my shorthand from the previous picture there was a dice decision as to how many Germans might be sleeping in the Sales Room, I threw a 6 which meant 2 troopers. They were also a little shook up to find a car, no matter how small drive into their bedroom.

Barbara, blew the lock off the back door and Spankers charged into what turned out to be a kitchen area.

Unlike most rules, the ones I use determine that if someone moves into line of sight of an enemy there is a roll off to decide who reacts first. In this instance 2 reacts first and 1’s all react together or simultaneously if you want to be posh. Again because they are solo rules, it’s just to see who reacts first, then you test to see what your reaction is, it can mean you shoot at the enemy, or maybe duck back into cover etc but nothing is a foregone conclusion.

Anyway gun play was inevitable, Erika fired first and would have hit Vaggers in the right leg but luckily he was still sat in the car, stunned from the crash and the Model A Ford’s bodywork saved him. Bunty and Astrid fire simultaneously but Astrid’s smg jammed and Bunty snap firing back at Astrid winging her in the right arm, only a flesh wound but of course it caused her to drop the jammed Smg she was holding.

Bunty’s second shot missed, possibly because she was encouraging Vaggers to get his act together and return fire. It was all a bit of a mess in the Sales Room of the Antiques Shop and not going as planned in Aunty Edna’s Dinning Room.

Meanwhile back in the Fuel Dump area, Primo the Italian commander had woken with a start, hearing the explosion. As I said, he’s a smart cookie and he realised immediately what had happened and as he rolled out of bed he wondered how he would blame everyone else for the catastrophe. First out of his billet he saw Patsie and Sally highlighted in the flames from the burning fuel as they cross the road to the White Swan but not soon enough to open fire. The German’s inside the Swan were all downstairs and on their way to see what was happening outside, just then Sally broke the door window and Patsie dropped the grenade inside.

Surprise…

Eckehard went down in a spray of blood and bones, dying immediately, the resulting panic inside the building saw most of the troops stunned and some even running away. The main problem now for Patsie and Sally is that they can’t retreat into the dark as planned, because there is none now that the fuel dump is blazing so well.

Back with the main rescue attempt in the Antiques Shop, Spankers has stalled in the kitchen area but Barbara pushes past her and into the Showroom area, she sees Astrid reaching for the dropped Smg and opens fire with her shotgun, the blasts sounding incredibly loud in the confined space. Astrid is hit in the guts and left leg; she is out of the fight, too badly wounded to participate further.

Vaggers finally gets his act together, as he and Bunty exchange fire with Erika, she drops to the floor after taking bullets and buckshot to the left leg and right arm, but Bunty’s final shot to Erika’s head kills her outright.

There’s no let up in the action outside the Swan. Wolfgang Arnold pushes through the main door but Sally reacts first and plugs him with a well aimed shot, he goes down out of the fight. They need to get out of there now, before anymore more enemy emerge from the Swan or they are cut off by the Italians.

This is the predicament the girls are in. Out of picture but coming into sight from the far side (West Way) are Primo and his men. Nearest the camera is Meinhard Wenke and a couple of Italians and we know the Swan is still full of Germans.

Patsie and Sally are illuminated by the fire blazing behind the red-ish truck and they have no cover from a three pronged attack. They need to escape to our right but must force the enemy back before they can make a run for it.

Too late though as the Italians on the far side open fire but miss, Sally returns fire and her pistol runs out of ammo, her target doesn’t know this and the first bullet was close enough to make him duck back into cover. Primo also fires and also misses, Patsies return fire drives him back, wounded in the right arm he drops his pistol as he scuttles back to cover. That’s stopped the advance from the far side of town for the moment.

Nicole in the neat blue pork pie hat takes careful aim at the shadowy figures moving up the road towards Sally and Patsie, she fires and misses. Volpe dashes forward into cover but Wenke the Gestapo leader calmly draws his Lugar and fires back, fortunately he’s a poor shot and also misses.

Vito, who was just behind Wenke jumps round the corner to fire at Nicole but his wild shot is way off the mark, her return fire is not, chest and head and he’s dead. Wenke is sprayed with blood, stunned and is inactive. That looks like it’s stopped the advance from this side as well, maybe Sally and Patsie can make a run for it before another attack is mounted or Volpe recovers his nerve and moves out of cover.

Elsewhere in the town more Germans are leaving the warmth of their beds and coming onto the street, Rachael Weiss was the opponent the Rescue Plan overlooked. She moves cautiously along East Lane towards the fire, it’s dark but she spots Isabelle at 12”, this is long range for her automatic but she opens fire anyway.

Alerted to the sound of gunfire behind her, Isabelle swings round and fires wildly. She’s a better shot than Rachael and using a Smg sprays more lead at her enemy, two bullets hit home, Rachael falls to the ground OOF.

With the two troopers in the Showroom dealt with, Vaggers is the first of the Rescuers to move, he sees 2 doors leading from the Showroom and moves to the nearest, it’s locked, not a subtle man he blows the lock to pieces with his shotgun but stops to reload before opening the door. He might not be subtle but he’s not stupid either.

Out on the street Horst Dankers had jumped out from the Swan doorway, he knew roughly where his enemies were and he and Sally fired together, she hit him in the head and stomach, he’s down, OOF but his return fire was deadly and she’s hit in the guts, also OOF. So not really deadly but pretty bad, Out Of Fight means just that, they are too injured to fight on. They can be carried but it takes a pretty strong and determined friend to do that.

Patsie, on her own now, and in a desperate situation, she quickly considers her options and they’re not good.

The first of the Afrika Korps troopers is just behind the truck on the left with more coming from the same direction, one lot of Italians has been beaten back but others are getting close. Sally is down and it will be difficult to carry her out, maybe even impossible.

Primo had recovered his Beretta and made another attempt to move closer to Patsie but his men refused to advance with him and her gunfire drove him back again.

Patsie is standing over Sally’s prone form, she has a dilemma. To see if she can pick Sally up in a fireman’s lift she has to test to see if she is strong enough to make the lift. She has 2 attempts and if she fails on the 2nd attempt then she just isn’t strong enough to perform the action at all. Of course if she stops shooting she can’t hold off her enemies, tricky.

On the far side of the road cross there is Wenke in the black coat in a gunfight with Nicole but by the wall is Volpe who is taking aim at Patsie.

He fires and misses, she spins like a top and snap fires back at him, also missing but his nerves are blown and he ducks back into the cover of the stone wall.

The gunfight between Wenke and Nicole is resolved in her favour and he’s OOF with a wound in the guts.

In the Antiques Shop Vaggers has re-loaded his shotgun, Barbara has gone through the other door from the Showroom and is standing at the foot of the stairs. Bunty is deciding if she should guard the window with the car sticking through it or follow Vaggers through the door that he is irresolutely standing in front of.

On the floor above they can hear footsteps, although it sounds more like Jackboot’s to the listeners below.

With a wild yell Vaggers bursts through the door.

“Down here old chap. Quick as you can, there’s no guards but we’re chained to the wall and can’t get out” That was Snappers voice or Vaggers wasn’t a Yorkshire man.

“Be right down old lad” he called.

“Come on old fruit” shouted Dougers, “it’s awfully stuffy down here and I could use a G & T as well, hope you’ve got some ice”

Bunty and Spankers were at the window now, exchanging shots with the Afrika Korps and Barbara was still guarding the stairwell.

This was the situation outside and troopers were moving in quickly.

There’s an old expression of surprise, which is “Well I’ll go to the foot of our stairs” I don’t know if this is a common expression or something more local to where I grew up….. But

As Von Strohelm turned the landing and started to descend the stairs he recieved a full load of buckshot from Barbara standing at the foot of the stairs and as he rolled all the way down he was heard to mutter “Ahh… now I understand it”. He dropped the briefcase at her feet as the two thugs upstairs retreated away from the landing.

Barbara was stuffing cartridges into the shotgun as fast as she could but no one came to the top of the stairs, then she grabbed the briefcase and retreated back into the Showroom.

With a brief respite from being shot at Patsie has reached down and pulled Sally up onto her shoulder in one fluid motion and is now staggering away from the action as fast as her new red shoes would allow.

You can just see Volpe’s hat in this shot, he’s still ducked down behind the wall and not recovered his nerve yet.

Fortunately for Patsie, he’s a bit on the nervous side and it’ll take a good dice roll to get him back into action.

Out on the High Street there’s a bit of a lull in the action, most of the Afrika Korps chaps decided they should fight from cover and had either pulled back to the far side of the street or further down it. Vaggers was freeing the two old Duffers from their wall chains and Bunty and Spankers were hiding behind the Ford and Barbara was still grabbing the briefcase or reloading or what ever.

I forgot to mention that during the furious gunfight no one heard the green truck’s engine start, it’s being driven at breakneck speed along High Street, scattering Germans right, left and centre. No one knows who’s in it or its purpose, so no one fired at it, which was a bit of a miracle really.

In the distance Patsie has moved further along the road and will soon be hidden in the darkness, obviously she is moving slowly, encumbered as she is carrying Sally and so far Volpe has still not recovered his nerve, but the green truck will catch up with her very soon.

Liam O’Rourke the newspaper reporter emerges from his loggings. Giuseppie comes up behind him and shouts loudly in Italian. Liam is Irish and doesn’t understand Italian but he’s from Belfast and does understand threats and raises his hands and is arrested by Giuseppie.

Liam should have played a bigger role in the game but he was slow getting out of bed.

The Germans are regrouping for another attack. Axel, the last man out of the safely of the Florists decided to leave by the back door, he opened it carefully and saw Isabelle and Isabelle’s Smg, she is fast and very accurate and he was just too slow, she shot him in the head and he was dead.

Primo finally gets his troops to move forwards to glory, just as the green truck goes past, so they spray it with bullets, causing some damage but not enough to stop its mad progress.

Volpe is still ducked down but Silvano his Officer has finally got out of his billet and shouts for him to be a man, stand up and shoot Patsie in the back, something he resolutely refuses to do… stand up that is.

Silvano decides to do the job himself and even though it’s very long range and he’s not a good shot he manages to hit.

I rolled a dice to see who he’d hit and with a bit of good luck it was Sally not Patsie. Sally might not regard that as good luck but she was hit in the arm and is still alive and Patsie can still carry her.

Volpe finally recovered his nerve and stood up, he fired but rushed his shot and missed Patsie and Sally. Just then the green truck pulled up providing cover from further firing, a female voice from the cab shouted “GET IN” and as fast as they could, they did.

Meantime the Germans attacking the front of the Antiques Shop had taken a lot of casualties and were reluctant to storm the building, contenting themselves with putting a steady stream of gunfire into it. The return fire gradually diminished as the Rescuers made a staged fighting retreat. By the time the German troops realized there wasn’t any return fire, the Rescuers had left the building by the back door and were moving into the darkness and safety of the countryside, for the time being at any rate.

The green lorry was driven by Miss Scarlet who evaded all of Sally’s questions, although Sally was in a pretty poor state to question anyone, especially an Agent as resourceful as Scarlet.

Mad Patsie wasn’t interested in answers, she was just grateful they’d gotten out alive and not got mud on her new shoes, and although she had trouble with the right hand drive lorry, or truck as she kept referring to it, she got Sally and herself to the rendezvous point with Vaggers, Bunty and Spankers in one piece.

Miss Scarlet made her way back into Greater Snoring and reported back to her Boss….

If you read the original story, you will know that the Germans have landed in East Anglia and have created a second front in the invasion of Britain, will Snappers, Dougers and Vaggers, not forgetting Spankers and Bunty create a second front behind the German second front.

Would it be too confusing to have 2 second fronts?

Who is Scarlet’s Boss, did we meet him or her in Greater Snoring or did they remain in the shadows, what is Scarlet and her Boss intending to do in Greater Snoring, are they going to create a 3rd front!

Who knows or indeed cares.

In retrospect there were a couple of flaws in my plan and I think the Fuel Dump diversion didn’t achieve its aim. It roused the enemy 2 moves before the attack was ready to go in to the Antiques Shop, my bad timing, but I think that’s inevitable in this sort of attack.

Patsie and Sally should have gotten out of Dodge as soon as the fuel dump blew up, attacking the White Swan almost got them killed.

I would have preferred to attack from just the rear of the Antiques shop keeping my forces together but not knowing the layout I was worried that they wouldn’t get far enough into the building before getting held up. Also I’d no idea where Snappers and Dougers would be or if they would have guards in the room with them, that was all decided by dice as and when I got there, so I think a 2 pronged attack was a good idea. It was a bit melodramatic to drive through the window but what the hell, we all need a bit of melodrama, even though it almost went badly wrong.

Anyway, if you got this far – thanks for reading.

Cheers.

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

Rescue the Two Old Duffers - Part 1

 

To the Rescue – Part 1 

Snappers and Dougers Need Rescuing, check the link to see why.  http://vagabondswargamingblog.blogspot.com/2022/03/hello-hello-this-is-nighthawk-calling.html

Johnny Vagabond first world war scout pilot and more latterly an active member of S.I.S. and the Royal Amateur Society for Collecting Arachnids and Lepidoptera Specimens, was thinking about the world in general and cameras in particular when a strange pigeon landed on the loft roof. The pigeon looked around slowly as if getting its bearings and flew down to where Vagabond was feeding the rest of his flock and started to peck at the grain. 

By eck it’s Binky, I’d recognise them markings anywhere and he reached down and picked up his pigeon, the one he’d not seen for almost a year now and undid the message capsule from its left leg.

Reading the note put all thoughts of cameras and pigeons out of his mind shutting his prize pigeons in their loft, he mounted Black Beauty, and pedalled furiously for home with a determined look on his grim visage.

The world was a poorer place for the untimely arrival of Binky because Vagabond or Vaggers as we will call him for the duration of this current tale was musing on the possibility of mounting a camera onto a pigeon as a form of unmanned, airborne reconnaissance vehicle or Drone as they would eventually be called.

The problem, apart from flight control was the weight of the camera and he’d wondered if a bigger bird would be the answer, but then something like a Swan would be easier for the enemy to shoot down, as well as supplementing their rations so maybe not.

This is of course all academic because of the message and it was left to a Dr Julius Neubronner to patent a miniature pigeon camera activated by a timing mechanism and Neubronner’s Pigeon Picture Cards would make him famous and the toast of Europe, a success that could easily have been Vaggers, such is life.

The long hill on the way home slowed his progress a little but allowed him time to compose himself for the inevitable clash that was to come. I’ve mentioned that he’d flown Scouts in the Great War and as a member of the S.I.S. faced his share of danger in the past but the forthcoming meeting with Bunty Hampster-Crust the love of his life, filled him with dread. If you are familiar with the Snapcase Chronicles then you will be aware of Vaggers ride into the face of the Basmachi Hordes to rescue Bunty, a story of bravery and daring that in the area known as the Back of Beyond is still referred to by the local tribesmen as ‘The Demon Ride’.

The Demon was actually a Royal Enfield Model D 488cc Motorcycle that he still kept in the shed at the bottom of his garden but that is beside the point.

The message he’d received was from Spankhurst, an enigmatic character that Vaggers had met during his work for the Royal Amateur Society for Collecting Arachnids and Lepidoptera Specimens, a bit of a mouthful and usually shortened to R.A.S.C.A.L.S. this was a pseudonym for one of the Field Departments of the Admiralty Unit for Naval Tactical Intelligence, who were sometimes also referred to as AUNTY, wags at the Admiralty often called them Aunty’s Rascals, they don’t get out much at the Admiralty and sense of humour isn’t a pre-requisite to work there.

Spankhurst or Spankers was an associate of the Mad Lord Snapcase or Snappers and Vaggers thought she was still in Germany but the message proved otherwise. The message reads :-

Snappers and Dougers taken prisoner by Gestapo. Meet me at Aunty Edna’s, Greater Snoring, 21:00 Tuesday night. Spankers.

The message left a lot of questions unanswered but he’s have to get his skates on to make it in time, especially as he knew there were elements of the German Army between himself and Greater Snoring. The question uppermost in his mind though was how he would explain to Bunty that this was man’s work and she couldn’t come because it was too dangerous.

An hour later the sidecar was packed and Bunty had bagged the drivers position, Vaggers thought ruefully that he would get some protection from the elements riding pillion but map reading would be a bit of a bugger.

I’m sorry if this is a little confusing if you've not read the post linked above but the short version is that the Germans have invaded East Anglia to create a 2^nd front after Dunkirk then 2 old duffers tried to stop them and were taken prisoner by the Gestapo. The old duffers are Snappers and Dougers but you probably worked that out and they are being held prisoner in Greater Snoring, somewhere in the Fens and we are going to mount a rescue attempt. We, being Spankers, Vaggers, and Bunty, there will be a few Girl Guides from the village of Much Piddling in the Marsh, the local school teacher and Resistance Fighter Molly Martin and I don’t think that Aunty Edna May White will be active in the rescue attempt but you never know.

Greater Snoring early Wednesday morning before any of the inhabitants are out on the street. The small town has been garrisoned by troops from various parts of the German war machine. The regular army have made no secret of the fact that they are billeted in the White Swan, the large white building in the centre of the town but the whereabouts of the rest are a mystery. We know that there are elements of the Gestapo and Afrika Korps but for some unknown reason there is also a detachment of Italians under the command of a pair of pompous officers. A couple of other figures that may appear to be important have also been seen, but their whereabouts is also unknown.

The town is awakened to the sound of deep throated engines as regular troops pass through.

But just as soon, silence returns as they leave by South Street and quiet descends on the town.

The evening before, on Tuesday night, Aunty Edna May White with dust pan and brush in hand inspects her front yard for any debris that dared to spoil the orderly configuration of her grounds. Although in reality she is looking out for the visitors she is expecting.

And the first to arrive are Sister Monica, Isabelle Deforest and Nicole Boursier. Isabelle is obviously not carrying her sub machine gun as openly as the picture would imply but it is in a bag slung over her shoulder. They have walked through the town and luckily didn’t encounter any of the occupying troops. Their guns would have been difficult to explain to the enquiring mind.

Sister Monica is none other that the enigmatic Spankhurst in disguise and although Nicole and Isabelle might appear to be Girl Guides (if you have a vivid imagination) they are actually French Freedom fighters and have some links to Snappers that I’ve yet to work out.

The next would be rescuers to make their way thorough the town towards Aunty Edna’s house in the north east quadrant are Patsie Jones and Barbera Vasseur. Patsie is an American and I’ve no idea what she’s doing in East Anglia, maybe she’s attached to one of the American airbases, if you can come up with a reasonable explanation please let me know. Rumour has it that she’s as mad as the hat she wears and her past actions tend to support this view.

Unfortunately as they reach the White Swan a small patrol of soldiers appear through the door from the Swan.

This leads to an encounter and I’d like to go through the details of the encounter because I’m making this up as I go along and would be interested in any thoughts that might improve the process. Note it’s a solo game and so anything to increase the tension for me is good.

Each character has a card that detail their attributes, these are all created with an average die roll so between 2 and 5 with a preponderance of 3’s and 4’s, high is good. Barbera takes the lead and she is going to try and charm Eckehard using her Charisma. He will try and see through this by using his Awareness. If he is successful he will roll against his Brains to indicate his likely course of action.

Barbera rolls 1D6 a 1 plus Charisma 3 = 4, not good.

Eckhard rolls 6 plus Awareness 3 = 9 He is immediately aware that there is something wrong and he challenges the pair of them. This could turn ugly, especially as both women have their guns concealed.

The next step is to see what he might do, I roll 2d6 and he needs to get equal or less than his Brains score. If he succeeds with both dice he will arrest them now, carry out a weapons search and take them into custody for questioning. If he passes 1 dice he will still take them in for further questioning but won’t carry out a search. If he fails both dice he will let them go, thinking they are just overawed by his good looks and charm. Not being the sharpest knife in the drawer with Brains 2 he rolled double 6 and so totally failed. They carry on to Aunty Edna's as Eckehard reflects on how his animal magnetism attracted these two young ladies, it was no wonder that they appeared a little nervous when he questioned them.

The next pair to make their way through the small town are Vaggers and Bunty. You will I hope, recall Vaggers past history and so will appreciate that he is travelling incognito i.e. under a false identity for those who don’t understand Latin. I may have overlooked the fact that Bunty also worked for the Spooks, usually as Vaggers handler a position he both enjoyed and deplored and she has taken on the persona of Hazel Arnesen, one that suits her statuesque physique, not to mention her Nordic features and blonde hair.

The final participant in the rescue attempt is also the Ring Leader, Molly Morris or as she is also undercover she will be known as Sally Brun.

With all 8 of the would be rescuers ensconced in Aunty Edna’s back room, each with a cup of her fragrant Darjeeling tea by their side they start to plan how they will endeavour to rescue Snappers and Dougers. This is going to be a difficult operation because Aunty Edna knows that the German regulars have based themselves in the White Swan, a fact that Patie and Barbara can confirm she does not know where any other troops might be, how many there are, what units they are from and worst of all she doesn’t know where Snappers and Dougers are either.

Sally Brun takes the lead and decides that first thing in the morning the rescuers will have to reconnoitre the town, talk to the inhabitants and try and get more information on which to base a rescue attempt.

Wednesday Morning

After the armoured vehicles had passed through Greater Snoring, the peace and quiet was broken once again by the sound of large numbers of diesel engines and the rescuers could see that the enemy had requisitioned all the civilian trucks and their owners had abandoned them throughout the town.

The citizens of Greater Snoring are early risers and many of them are already out on the streets, Aunty Edna’s house is at the far end of East Street (The rather desirable timber framed building beyond the green truck)

A better view of High Street and the chaos caused by inconsiderate parking. The Germans are going to have difficulties moving tanks and armoured vehicles through the town now, what were the citizens of Greater Snoring thinking of.

Reverend Green discusses with Gladys Peacock how they can increase the chaos.

As Miss Scarlet peers through the window of the White Swan we are left wondering if she is an Agent Provocateur, an innocent bystander or has some other reason for her interest that we can only guess at.

Maybe she’s interested in the back yard of the Swan rather than the blonde muscular soldiers who currently reside in the Inn, maybe we’ll never know.

Sally Brun (Molly Moris) has decided that the rescuers will go out in 2 teams of 2 and cover as much of the town as possible. It’s decided that Nicole will accompany Spankers (Sister Monica) and Vaggers (William Morris) will go with Molly. I’d rather go with Spankers but I’m not given a choice.

Molly and Vaggers lead off and decide Augustus Dingle looks to be a man of importance and so may be of some help to them.

Each citizen figure may be an encounter, I’m using half a deck of cards, Hearts = no encounter, 2 to 10 Spades are a citizen encounter and Ace, Jack, Queen and King of Spades is an enemy encounter. Cards obviously shuffled and 1 drawn for each figure once within  6” of a Rescuer.

Similar idea as the encounter with the German troops earlier. Sally uses her Charisma to try and put Dingle at ease and he uses his Brains to decide if she is trustworthy or not. If she wins I check his awareness to decide if he’s seen something that might help and is aware of its importance. Then a roll on a couple of tables to see what it is and where it is.

An immediate success, he’s flattered that this young lady is interested in his ferrets and is happy to impart the knowledge that there is a small section of Afrika Korps soldiers billeted in No 7 and that they are standing outside No7 right now.

The encounter on the opposite side of the road is a patrol of Italians, Giuseppe Strambini and Paolo Baldini, Giuseppe decides they should check out these two civilians and they start to move up the street.

At this point I checked to see what Sally and Vaggers would do, Sally is not as brave as she is charming and hesitated but fortunately didn’t move away or run. Vaggers is brave even if not too smart and so he stepped forward to greet the Italians. He’s also very charming and puts Giuseppe’s mind at rest when he tells him in halting Italian that they are going to the Newsagents to stock up on pipe tobacco, his favoured brand being Rough Shag but Giuseppe has never heard of it, he’s more of a Balkan Sabranie man himself. After an exchange of views on pipe cleaners the Italians walk back to their guard post at the end of South Street and Vaggers and Sally retrace their steps to the corner of High Street and go west to the Newsagents.

In the mean time Spankers has buttonholed a couple of likely looking characters outside the florist but they aren’t prepared to impart any knowledge to a Nun (Bad dice rolling) It was so bad that there was a possibility that they would inform the German Authorities but fortunately for the game they didn’t.

Sally and Vaggers have already passed along High Street and so Spankers follows on.

They have  no luck with Colonel Mustard or the Professor and are making their way to the Rev and Gladys Peacock when another encounter resolves itself.

Bugger it’s another Italian patrol and Bugger their suspicions are also aroused and they stop our intrepid heroines.

At this point Vaggers and Sally have entered the Newsagents.

There’s a long and fruitless exchange between Spankers and Silvano Bertone, however he makes it known that they must accompany him to Army Headquarters for further questioning but he makes the astute decision that the Nun and Girl Guide must be searched by his men.

This was astute because I’d explained the opening of the game to Mrs V and asked her if the Rescuers should wander round the town either armed or unarmed and in spite of the fact that she’s strongly against guns she said armed. So Spankers has a pistol strapped to her ankle and Nicole has one in her bag and whilst a search of Spankers might not reveal the ankle holster under all that black cloth the one in the bag would be easily found and unexplainable.

So I’m going to leave it there, this is the situation so far in the game, a puffed up and angry Silvano and his 2 men are facing Spankers and Nicole. They are at Snoring Cross, behind them is the White Swan and across the road on their left is the Newsagents Shop and you can see the Grocers No 3 on the map to help place the location.

If the women are searched they will be in big trouble, if they try and draw their concealed weapons they will be in big trouble, if they run away they will be in big trouble. Anyone have any idea how they can get out of this predicament bearing in mind that the total information amassed so far is the location of 2 guard posts and a section of Afrika Korps with no sight or sound of Snappers and Dougers.

I knew they shouldn’t have been carrying J

Thoughts greatly appreciated both on the current situation and how I'm trying to create a game with a high level of uncertainty but hopefully some amount of information so that a rescue attempt can go ahead. It will be a bit of a bugger if I don't find out where Snappers and Dougers are being kept.