Storage & SNTK & Other stuff

Today we will cover:

1) The last stage of the Trebian Toy Soldier Storage System
2) The last game of "Send Not To Know"
3) The Government cuts

So, some pretty serious stuff in there.

First up the final stage of the storage system. This is what the inside of a box looks like once labelled up:

The interior of a Trebian Toy Soldier Storage Box

As you can see it is clear how many bases go in each section, what the unit is, the colour of the back of its base, and the flag it carries, if any. The plain scetions are for artillery and tanks. They don't need to have such a level of organisation as they're easy to find.

And here's a picture of the labels on the top, side and edge of the box. Labelled this way you can usually see what's in it from pretty much any angle.

 The latest Send Not to Know playtest enabled the Nationalists to get out their howitzers for the first time. These are Irregular RUGs, - 122m Schneiders, I think - and were mildly succesful until they got pinned by some counterbattery fire as you can see. You can also see in the photo that the card backs might be a shade on the jaunty side for such a grim subject as the Spanish Civil war, but I'm afraid you use what you can get. Have you tried to get 30mm x 40mm playing cards anywhere?

 The Republic was able to field quite a lartge armoured force. There's an armoured car, 3 T-26s and a BT-5 in the picture, all under heavy bombardment and if you look closely they also have an air attack marker on them (it's a Heinkel 51 if you look closely enough). Armour so far has been the almost super weapon. The armoured thrusts always start with such promise then get disrupted or grind to a halt or some such. In this case the artillery strike looks worse than it is. Each of those markers ends up being an attmept to roll a 6 in order to get a vehicle attack, so they're not likely to get more than one or two pops at them.

The village in the centre of the board was well held ny a battalion of Regular Army.  Again, it took a pounding from some artillery but held out becuase the armour got driven off (see above)

 The other village was hotly contested by both Regular & Popular Army and I think a batallion of IBs. The Republicans won in the end despite two abortive close assaults as the Nationalists took the new "It toll for thee" test, and decided that indeed the bell did toll for them and they fled the table.


As in most week's playtests I got a few changes to make but the basic structure is holding up well.

Finally Government cuts. I now that it is bad enough that roads aren't to be repaired, that teachers' pensions are being cut and youth clubs for the variously discriminated against are being terminated but this is beyond the pale. Unable to buy a copy of a rare book of Fascist volunteer memoirs on the internet I went to the local library to see if I could get it on loan. There's no copy in the county but I could get one through inter-library loan from outside the county. This service is no longer subsidised, and the fee is now £10.12. Yes, TEN WHOLE POUNDS AND TWELVE PENCE. This is an outraegeous assault on my civic rights and also, I would suggest, the start of the collapse of western civilization.

I await your views with interest.