Wednesday 13 November 2013

All For One - and Saucy Boots for me!

Who doesn't love Pirates? I for one am a huge fan of one of the least regarded but probably best Pirate programs on TV, DVD or Blu-Ray, one that almost everyone has missed to their loss. I am talking, of course, of the mighty piece of audio-visual piratical excellence that is 'Yoho-Ahoy'.

Yoho-Ahoy. Obviously, all pirates had to be taught shanties and work songs at some point in their career. Here some recruits are being trained by a music teacher, obvious when you think about it. Notice how few pink pianos you see in other supposed pirate films, makes you cry it really does.

These programs consider the rarely considered aspects of pirate life aboard ship and offer some fascinating insights. My personal favourite was the one where all the washing went missing from the line and it turned out a seagul had used it to make a nest in the high rigging. I had not considered this sort of thing before but it has certainly altered my understanding and cannot but help with game play scenarios; who knew???

Anyway. Last nights club meeting was supposed to have a game where Mark and I tried out the Cutlass rules from Black Scorpion. I spent a few paniced weeks trying to finish of my Royal Navy crew ready to fight Marks Pirates but the time was well spent and I think they came out rather well. Mind you, the figures are very nice and made things easier!

Captain Silas Pugwash (centre) and his two officers. Note the official 'faux leopard print topped PVC thigh length ships boots', standard issue to relieve calf strain apparantly.

Three Marines, the Captains best men.

The seamen, some more able than others!

A close up of Able Seawoman Chelsey...and some other guys.....all of whom are called Bob.




The paint jobs here are my now standard block colours with occasional highlights for larger darker areas, and then a judicious coat of Army Painter Dip; in this case I used the Dark Tone rather than the strong tone. I didn't bother varnishing the saucy boots, just left the dip as it was. The figures come ready for the slit type plastic bases, which I hate. So once the varnish had dried I simply cut off the slot bar from the figures, drilled holes up into the figures feet, added a length if thick wire. I made the decking bases from marine ply topped with lengths of coffee stirer coated with the acrylic version of the Army Painter Strong Tone wash. These were then drilled to accept the pins added to the figures and Bob is your Aunties Live in Lover, sorted.

But then it all went runny. Mark's coach from London didn't get back till late and so by the time he got to the hall nobody fancied trying to pick through a new set of rules. So we used two figures each and played '...And One For All', the Three Musketeers game again, but with pirates! We struggled to remember bits but we got by and had a jolly old time and no mistake...apologies to the rest of the club...

"Two Saucy looking birds walk into a pub....", as the saying goes, and found a couple of geeky looking blokes to push around...who then fought back.

Chelsey and Courtney go for a quiet drink....

...and meet Frodo No-shirt (front) and Fat Alan (back)


You can see where this is going I am sure. An exact game report is impossible given how the games work but, there was the usual stupidity, throwing barrels, twatting each other with benches and a bizaar episode involving a table and trapped toes beneath it. Poor Frodo tried to tip Courtney off the table but each time rolled a disaster (more than two 1s) allowing me to decide upon his fate. Each time I decided that he had dropped the table onto his bare toes and was trapped! This at least meant that I could get Courtney to stroll nonchalantly up the table and kick the stuck Frodo into submission...never quite worked out that way though! There was an alarming number of disaster rolls made...mainly by me, five in as many turns! Each time Cheslsey or Courtney got a boot heel stuck in a floor board or spun like a top into a wall. The fight went on and on with not a single injury, just lots of slapstick and nasty looks. As usual the game caused a lot of laughter but we did decide that it was about time we actually read the rules for ourselves and played it properly.

Chelsey survives being tipped off the table by Fat Alan and prepares a scathing looking before using her nice boots to remind Fat Alan how to treat a Lady....


The meeting also had two other games, a very nice AeroNef game run by Andy and played by Bob C. and a possible new member, Andrew....we seem to be accumulationg a few Andrews in our ranks...Two battles were fought out and considering niether player had used the rules before this was a very good result, testimony to the rules and Andy's umpiring! The last game was a Warhammer bash between Steve and Drew...which Steve won! He was very pleased and not smug in the slightest. Chaos troops seem a tad more effective than the Tomb Kings it seems....although it might just mean Drew was bloody unlucky!

10 comments:

  1. It was a great game and I'll definitely be back. I've just taken a look at the Cutlass! rules and models over at Black Scorpion and I'm very tempted to do an undead gang.

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    1. Hi Andrew,
      We will be pleased to see you ! The Cutlass rules do look good and we are determined to give them a try! The Black Scorpion figures are nice too and a good size I feel. An Undead gang would be a lot of fun and I am sure my lads and lasses will cope brilliantly :P Looking forward to seeing you next time mate :)

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  2. Very cool looking Pirates and Sailors!

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    1. Hi Simon,
      Many thanks, I was pleased with how they came out :)

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  3. Steve won? Im sure that wouldve been the eventual outcome but im sure a draw was the more gentlemanly result. One more salvo from my super killy volleygun and i'd have had him were it hurts. ;-)

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  4. Hi Drew,
    I do love a super killy volley gun....well, anything super killy really. As for gentlemanly, Steve has lost the last couple of warhammer games quite badly and will grab any possibility of a win he can...even if it was a draw to everyone else! Bless him ;-) We all know what happened really.....

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  5. Hi Bongo, I do like the bases on the figures, very effective. You have painted them all very well, it does make me wonder about giving "dip" a go myself. If you do get into "cutlass" I would not mind too much getting a small bunch of scallywags together as well.

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    1. Hi Clinty,
      Thank you. The dip really is worth a go despite the now £20 price tag per tin. That said is does go a long way you just need to work out which one you would use more often. I would ignore the soft tone to be honest and it comes down to preference as to Strong Tone (brown) or Dark Tone (black), both can be vey efective. You just need to play around with it although you must let painted figures rest for 24 hours before applying the dip.
      And defo go for some scallywags!

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  6. This is alarmingly similar to how I first met my wife in the Minstrel in Maidstone in 1984!

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    1. Hi Simon,
      Ah, that romantic moment when you first saw her eyes.... reflecting the soft light off the broken bottle she was stabbing you with...happy times :)

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