Following on from our last fortnights game of “The Men Who would Be King” we planned to have a Foreign Legion game at my place at the Mernda Wargames Holiday Centre.

As usual I planned to have a few twists, including heroes based on movie characters such as Gary Cooper, Buster Crabbe, Abbot and Costello, Phil Silvers as Sergeant Bilko as well as Claude baby and a few others.

I also had a card system designed to chose the three legion forces at random.

The Foreign Legion had three forces that started in an Oasis, an Arab village and the Fort.

The objective was for the two patrols in the Village and the Oasis to return safely to the Fort without losing 50% or more casualties.

The Legion in the Oasis lead by Buster Crabbe (“Up and at em”).

The old Airfix fort gets another run. The French were lead by Phil Silvers (“the man shows talent”).

The village full of French criminals lead by Humphrey Bogart (“the man has a bottle”).

No units had internal leaders as per the rules, but started with a leadership of 7+. The rationale was to give the heroes more importance in the game. All French Foreign Legion heroes counted as five men and were 5+ leadership. Each had additional set characteristics which befitted their movie character.

The game began with the Arabs appearing on both sides of the sand dune valley.

Airfix Arabs and HaT German East African Askaris painted up as Egyptian Irregulars

Old Airfix Arabs

The Village being Overun

The Cavalry from the Oasis sortie out to help the village.

The French cavalry charged and smashed through two units of Arab infantry.

Lead by Buster the cavalry were required to divert from their mission of saving the village and were forced to charge some infantry in their charge range. The charge was extremely effective smashing two units and almost destroying a third before they were destroyed. As befitting the hero he was Buster continued to fight on and was eventually saved by some infantry moving forward to his aid. Wounded (2 wounds remaining) he survived the battle.

Humphrey Bogart goes down in style, bottle in hand, whilst taking on a whole Arab unit.

In the end it was a near run thing with the French in the village lead by Blake losing a hero (5 VP), 21 infantry (21VP) and a machine gun (4 VP) for a total of 30VP’s out of a starting 33 VP’s.

The  French in the Oasis lead by John lost the Cavalry Unit (8VP) and one infantry for a total of 9 VP out of a starting 24 VP’s.

The total loses for the French were 42 out of a starting 57  – a substantial win to the good guys!!!

The loses in the fort did not count but Steve only lost 1 Infantry man.

The Arabs were slightly outnumbered but the ability to run through terrain without slowing down proved decisive. The Artillery firing from the Oasis caused a lot of damage and clearly showed its value and why you are only allowed one per force.

Another great fun game which was played by all in the cinematic style expected. Pip Pip to all!!!

PS. I bags those red dice again!!!