Saturday, July 1, 2023

(Gnome Wars) Cutting the Mustard Close

After a year hiatus, we're back to the annual Father's Day game!  Of course, thanks to real life, all festivities were in a new location, and the weekend didn't progress as normal.  Throw in practices, sleepovers, and new commutes, we did manage to have breakfast, we had our normal tea party, and we had some cutthroat games of Ticket to Ride and Uno, but the "official" game did not transpire. 

While we all had much-deserved naptime after a crazy weekend of other activities, everyone took theirs at separate.  As Maja slept, and I pondered a half-hour power nap, I moved some furniture in the living room, set up both tables, and gave Millie every gnome-related piece of terrain we have ever used.  

This is what I woke up to:

Glitterburg
Millie was quite proud of her city planning, and even went on Facebook Live to describe the socio-economic conditions of the four districts.  Unforuntately, it was almost time for them to go home, so we couldn't get the game in on Father's Day.  

Fast forward to the Thursday after Father's Day, and I grabbed them from an actual boring day at home (they happen), and we completed the Great Mustard Convoy.  

Concept:  The Swiss living in the true gnome neighborhood (lower right in the picture) love two things:  Mustard and other throwing their German and Sikh overlords.  For reasons beyond the mere brains of humans, they had an essential convoy of extra mustard that needed to make it from the far table-edge to the neighborhood.  Obviously the Germans and Sikhs would want to stop this. 

Only one unit on each side (1 Swiss/1German) would start on the board, with rolls for the two additional units apiece (2 Sikh/2 Swiss) once they hit a target number. 


Turn One:  A few scouts for the Red Hat Swiss move towards  the bridge in the center of town, and proceed to hotwire a motorized ice cream cart, that was blocking the bridge for no particular reason.

The Germans congregated in the religious district, concocting a plan to stop the convoy, and pondering where the Swiss reinforcements were coming from.  
Turn Two:  The Tan-Hat Swiss finally arrive, and show they were allies to all gnome and animal-kind.  They hid a magical turtle living in the gnome trailer park inside a bread truck.  It was discovered the magic turtle had healing powers, which were used to hold off the encroaching Sikhs.
The Sikhs slinked through the poor section of town before engaging the Tan Swiss.
Turn Four: The convoy filling arrived in town!  Despite explaining the truck rules, Millie only put one driver in each drunk, so they couldn't fire back or even recover a truck if the driver was killed.
Turn Five:  The Swiss Engineers lurked beside the Church for their deployment, and shocked the Germans.
The Red-Hat Swiss didn't seem too excited to engage with the enemy, save the folks who commandeered the motorized ice cream cart.  After removing it from the bridge, the driver turned it around, floor it, and went over the bridge.  The Germans who hadn't been surprised by the Engineers were shocked to see the ice cream cart barreling over the bridge.
One jumped out of the way, one jumped over the wall and into the creek, and the third target was hit and flew over the side, dead before he hit the water.  
Turn Six:  The Tan Sikhs finally arrived.  They peppered Engineers, but suffered some serious losses in the counter attack. 

The Ice Cream Cart Chaos continued, clearing the road for the Mustard Convoy.  Unfortunately, there were still more Germans around, just enough to pepper the trucks with gunfire.  

The driver on the lead truck was killed.  The truck sped up, veered to the right, and careened into the river. The driver of the second truck also died, but that truck slowed down atop the bridge.  The final truck barely got over the bridge, but the Red-Hats finally went into action and took their vital supplies and hid them in the neighborhood.


Success for the Swiss!
Most importantly we managed to complete a family tradition with plenty of time for some ice cream! 
Tea Party, 2023

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