Just a minaret, that's no hookah! That's my wife!

The Commanders

		Sir Rand McNally (Kevin Lew) The scenario called for three commanders, and my sister-in-law bailed on me as my third commander. Her 5 year old son, however, gamely volunteered to play so long as he could play "the good guys". Kevin ably commanded the combined British and French forces with a solid, single-minded-ness which I find older gamers often don't have. He knew his objective was to "rescue the wife" and stuck to it, especially if he got to shoot stuff along the way. Good work Kevin!
		Rubbish Bin Liner (Chick Lewis) Good friend and King of Gamers, Chick volunteered to be that scoundrel of the desert, Rubbish Bin Liner. He also kindly supplied most of the figures and all of the scenery (including the lovely Lady Ally), so that I didn't have to schlep everything from Canada. He is scowling here, indicating his displeasure at having been shot, run of the table and having failed to gain his lovely prize.
		Sheik Yabouti (Mark Mintz) Yours truly, I was combination game master and Sheik Yabouti. I hid the lady (hmmm, maybe I should have had a tiger too) and kept her hidden until the final throes of the game. But fear not, my beauty! I will Sheik Yabouti again!

The Back-story

The game was a nice excuse to get together with Chick on the occasion of a visit to my sister-in-law in Diamond Bar. It had been a while (try three years!) since I'd seen Chick, and it was a real pleasure to get to see him and roll dice together. He arrived fresh and scrubbed early one morning and after we'd chatted for a bit, the time came to put the game together.

Before his arrival, I'd been assured that my sister-in-law would play, and indeed she seemed interested. But on the morning in question, she bailed on me leaving me a player short. Her son, Kevin (age 5 going on 6), expressed an interest, so he piled on to play.

Chick and I gave him a quick run down on formation, turn sequence and dice rolling, while we were starting to set up. It was then that I realized I couldn't find my rules or the figures I'd brought with me. Sir Rand and the half troop of Marines had come along with me in a small cardboard box, wrapped up in tissue paper, but the box had now vanished. Both it and the rules had been on the table that morning. My wife's mother quickly found the rules, which had been mixed in with some Chinese magazines and stashed in another room, but the figures continued to prove elusive.

Then my mother-in-law had a eureka moment! Off she dashed into the yard, rummaged through the trash bin, and pulled out my box of Marines! With the paper sticking out the top she'd just assumed it was garbage and whisked it away. What makes this all the more amusing is that her daughter (my sister-in-law) had already almost done the same thing a week earlier!

Play now proceeded apace, with Kevin winning almost every turn for both first movement and first firing. He single-mindedly was dedicated to "rescuing the wife" and knew he'd win because "I have the husband". Each turn Chick and I would ask what he wanted to do and he'd ask "what dice do I roll?"

He was even able to pull out a couple of moves that impressed Chick and I immensely. When the Legion entered the town, for example, they were in the sticky situation of being caught between ranks of the Sheik's rifles on one side, and Bin Liner's rifles on the other. In the situation as presented, both Chick and I (we agreed) would have charged the Sheik's rifles and most likely got cut to ribbons in the process. Kevin, on the other hand, simply marched the Legion out of town and out of range again, letting Bin Liner cut up the Sheik and very neatly solving several problems. After that he managed to work out a charge from the rear and threw amazing close combat dice, wiping out the last of Bin Liner's men.

Temptation came around 11:30 or so, when Kevin's mom asked if he wanted to go to lunch.  There was a family gathering I was bailing from that involved a big Chinese lunch.  Kevin was sorely tempted.  Chick and I gamely volunteered to run his forces and let him know the outcome, and you could see him wavering... But then his desire to play (or kill people, either one really) came to the fore and he opted to remain behind.  I think the promise that I'd take him to Burger King afterword helped there too.

It was a close run game, which was nice. There were several points where I wasn't sure who was going to win, and it seemed as if the advantage swung between the three sides quite freely. And I guess that the sides were fairly evenly matched, since there were figures from all three in the game right up to the last turn.

Perhaps one of the best rewards of the game, however, was toward the end of the game. Buildings were being searched and figures going down. Kevin looked up at us and said "this is a lot of fun!" And to me, that's the point of gaming.

Many thanks to Chick. It was great to see you, I hope it's sooner next time!

Return to the dispatches to read about more encounters.
Rearead the exciting adventure once again!
View the scenario writeup and special rules for this scenario.

Just a minaret, that's no hookah! That's my wife!