Rescue of Two Old Hero's - Full Game Posted

[Vagabond]

Lon, Fram, Snappers, thanks. Mrs V has given me a little time off to post the final part of the game. My internet data allowance should just about allow it.
Here goes.
Cheers

[Vagabond]

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 imbedded in 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 my old muker” 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 was filled with buckshot by 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, as you would, 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, Hello Hello - This is Night Hawk Calling, 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 you've got stamina – thanks for reading.
Cheers.

[Elk101]

Excellent stuff! Glad to hear they all made it out, even if not quite in one piece.

[FramFramson]

Hurrah! What a rescue! What a madhouse!

[marianas_gamer]

Fantastic, definitely up to your standards! "He might not be subtle but he’s not stupid either." Crazy as she is Patsy really came through for the heroes.

[lethallee61]

Absolutely bloody marvellous stuff!!

[Mad Lord Snapcase]

Absolutely brilliant, old stick! How the hell do you keep track of it all? I remember when Doug and I were in Little Whiskey, both of us had no idea what was going on but you had your finger on the pulse!

Loved the car going through the window, that's the way to do it! Old style!

Would it be too confusing to have 2 second fronts?

Not really, no. You could have the back front and the front front, in conjunction with the nearer front and the far-away front?

[MaleGriffin]

Brilliant work! This keeps getting better and better!

[Vagabond]

Excellent stuff! Glad to hear they all made it out, even if not quite in one piece.

It was a nail biting game all the way through, I was pretty certain Patsie and Sally were gonners and a bit of good luck finding Snappers and Dougers unguarded. How would I explain to my wargaming buddies that they're dead. 

I haven't said so but this was really down to your comment on my previous game report which I took very kindly and encouraged me to play and write this game.
Thanks and cheers.

Hurrah! What a rescue! What a madhouse!

Thank you - that's exactly what I thought. 

Fantastic, definitely up to your standards! "He might not be subtle but he’s not stupid either." Crazy as she is Patsy really came through for the heroes.

Cheers Lon I know my one lines are a bit cheesy but sometimes they make me smile. glad they make you smile as well.
Mad Patsie played a blinder in this story. She was the star..

Absolutely bloody marvellous stuff!!

By heck, thats very nice of you to say so.

Absolutely brilliant, old stick! How the hell do you keep track of it all? I remember when Doug and I were in Little Whiskey, both of us had no idea what was going on but you had your finger on the pulse!

Loved the car going through the window, that's the way to do it! Old style!
 Not really, no. You could have the back front and the front front, in conjunction with the nearer front and the far-away front?

Thanks my Lordship, I had 25 pages of notes to help keep track of this one. I forgot to include the fact that on your release from the cellar, you and Dougers picked up the fallen German Smg's and helped keep the attackers at bay. A very brave action that went totally unrecorded. Please accept my apologies.

Brilliant work! This keeps getting better and better!

  that's very kind if you too say so.

[Doug ex-em4]

Absolutely brilliant, old stick! How the hell do you keep track of it all? I remember when Doug and I were in Little Whiskey, both of us had no idea what was going on but you had your finger on the pulse!

Whew…..! I’m exhausted after that and the Mad Lord has it right - as with Little Whisky, I had no idea what was happening on this one so in the end, I followed my time-honoured instinct and just looked at the pictures. And they were great. I loved the layout and loved following the mayhem via the photos.

As well as managing an epic game solo (which is some undertaking), the act of just posting such a report here is worthy of mention in itself - magnificent. Well done and now I shall enjoy the fruits of freedom so hard won.

Doug

[Elk101]

I haven't said so but this was really down to your comment on my previous game report which I took very kindly and encouraged me to play and write this game.
Thanks and cheers.

No problem at all. I appreciate the effort that goes in to these games and it genuinely is a pleasure to see them here.

[CapnJim]

Well, alrighty then.  Prisoners rescued, with only one friendly wounded.   And several baddies down.  Mentions in Dispatches all around!

Well done!  I can just see the movie of it all...  

[syrinx0]

What a finale! Thanks for detailed report and pictures. 

[mikedemana]

This is the first AAR I've read since taking 4-5 months off from LAF for my schoolwork. What a welcome back! Absolutely hilarious and fun. Excellent job -- you deserve all the praise currently descending on you...!

Mike Demana

[aircav]

Fantastic stuff & a cracking read