Gaming!

I knew it had been awhile since my last gaming post.... but not as long as almost 3 months!

A few things have been changing in the regular group making gaming a little harder / lower priority, but with the long weekend (thanks Easter! :-) ), we managed to get a game in.

Today's game would be Lee vs. myself playing Bolt Action.

I ran my normal German force (the list is here), whilst Lee ran a Brit Para force.

If I remember correctly... Lee's force consisted of..

Major
2nd Lt
Light Mortar
Piat
Medium MG
Sniper
2 Rifle Squads
6pdr AT Gun

All Veteran.

The mission would just be maximum attrition.

Annnd we were off....

The British sniper takes up position whilst the German forces advance.

A lucky shot from my StuH decimates one of the British Para rifle platoons, but the stubborn buggers stick around.

The German advance continues against the thin, very thin British line.

The remaining full strength British rifle platoon positions itself in cover waiting for a chance to assault. I'm not getting close enough to allow that to happen though! I hold my left flank in ambush while the units on the right push forward.

By now my StuH has obliterated the sniper team and the British are taking a number of pins.

The full strength British rifle squad is still waiting to pounce, so I advance my Veteran's forward to have a crack at them. Man, Veteran's are hard to kill!

The British stubbornness ignores the pins and they move out of cover to deal to the central German rifle platoon. This allows my MMG to open up (it had been sitting on ambush), but again I struggle to cause any casualties in the British line.

By now my central platoon is destroyed and the second forward rifle platoon is weathering a storm of smg and PIAT fire. I guess they're feeling a little unsupported at this stage with everyone else sitting on the left flank....

Suffice to say that this platoon doesn't last much longer either. At least a few casualties are caused in return.

I finally figure out that I could actually be advancing my Veteran's around the left flank while my remaining rifle platoon advances. Why didn't I think of that earlier!?

The pins of the Brit Para platoon stack up and their numbers dwindle. Pin counters hit 10 causing an auto fail of morale (first time I've seen this happen!).

All that is left is a couple of stragglers... who face the rest of the German army :-)

6 - 3 to me (on VP).It's been a long time and we were all a little rusty on rules. Surprising how much we did actually remember though!

I could (and should) have advanced around the left flank much sooner. As for Lee, an open table and restrictions on model available made it a tough day for him. The fact I fielded armour also wasn't helping, especially as I was able to avoid his 6pdr.

It felt good to game though. It's been far too long. Am looking forward to the next game.

Thanks to Lee for the game and thanks for reading.

Return to the Zoo

The last time I was at the Auckland Zoo, they were running special. If you registered, then you'd get a free pass.

Last week I got the reminder email that my free pass was about to expire!

So it was off to the Zoo!

Mark G, Mark H and Rob joined me. Yvonne joined us later in the day. Here's the gang in action.... :-)

Much equipment, many photos

I just stuck with my 70 - 200mm and snapped away. We seemed to time it quite well as a number of the animals were being feed. We also made it to a few of the animal experiences. This is where the animals are feed with a keeper present who gives a bit of a talk about them.

We were struck with a few showers and a heap of humidity, but it didn't dampen spirits. Even one of the Orangutan's refused to give in to the rain...

Here's my selection from the day...

The Baboon's kicked off whilst we were there as well, but they moved so fast and it happened far too quickly to get any real decent shots!

All good fun and a great place to visit. Am looking forward to popping back when the new Safari part is open.

Thanks for reading.

Classic Cars

On Sunday, our local park hosted another event.

This time, it was one with one or two cars. Cars of a British or European vintage, but also a couple of veeerry nice modern examples....

Something like 400 cars in all. Pretty impressive to see.

Mark G, Lee and I popped along to have a look and try our hand car photography.

The car owners obviously take a lot of pride in their cars, so they were highly polished.... like mirrors in some cases. Not so good for photography! The reflections created a lot of challenges.

The other challenge was trying to figure out the right lines or angles to use. Not sure I've got it right yet.

Still, good fun and a great way to spend a few hours on a Sunday.

The Howick Historical Village also opened their doors for a donation rather than the normal price, so we popped in for a quick look there.

For finishing the photos, I played around with trying for a 60's vintage look on a couple. The black & white and sepia photos were adjusted using Silver Efex Pro.

Enjoy.

Thanks for stopping by :-)