VBCW in Northumbria

Our mate Bill Miller was up from London so Colin Jack put on a VBCW game for him to take part in as he had never fought the period before although is always full of great ideas.  All the toys and terrain are from Colin's vast collection so there was no need for me to get my militia out of their box plus they would have been fighting on the other side.

This game was set on the coast of Northumbria and involved both sides aiming to capture one of the local villages which was notorious for smuggling, the plan was to capture the goods and get the smugglers to join your forces.  The government force was a mixture of BUF forces supported by a womens Royal Naval detachment, a police unit, a unit of Belgian Fascist volunteers, a mixture of armour and the chance of some air support.  The bad guys commanded by Bill was an Anglican League force made up from a motley collection of regulars in the form of American volunteers, regular army tank corps, communist milia and even the local school boys and Hexam Morris dancers and also a chance of getting an aircraft.

This is the BUF command group

The Anglican command had a cunning plan

The navy hoped to get involved but only the female sailors made it into action

It wouldn't be a Colin Jack game if it didn't have at least one unit of females in it.

I believe these beauties are by Hinterland Miniatures.

But Colin decided the BUF needed two females units,

I'm not sure if he's trying to say they are just a big bunch of girlies?

Fortunately I had some decent troops as well as the Belgian Volunteers land onshore

The Black Prince promised much but didn't live up to expectations and hardly hit anything all day

although it did some damage on the Anglican Lanchester armoured car and forced the Communist Militia to pull back out of range.

Both sides advanced troops as quickly as they could as the objective was to take and hold as many buildings as possible, each of which is worth an unknown number of points.

The Anglican's moved their tanks up on their right flank and Communists on their left through the mine workings.

Both sides managed to get aircraft on quite quickly and a dog fight soon ensued...

...with victory going to the BUF, unfortunately that was about the highlight of their performance.

The Anglicans soon brought on another plane which then spent most of its time trying to avoid my ace pilot and had only suffered four points of damage by the time the game ended.

By the final move of the game my forces, or what was left of them had only managed to occupy 5 buildings whereas the Anglicans had managed to occupy 6 or 7 but when the points were totalled up we had both scored 24 which should have been a draw but I had so few men/women left that it was definitely a win for the bad guys.

The Triumph and Tragedy rules that we use work well, it's just a pity that my dice didn't perform the same.  I managed to get plenty of hits but often failed to kill or damage anything.

War is hell!!



More VBCW

I managed to get another few games this month the first being a VBCW game featuring Colin Jack's idea of refighting old Scottish battles but in a VBCW setting. This battle was a refight of the 1745 battle of Falkirk which involved Scottish government forces attempting to stop Jacobite forces advancing down from the Highlands and moving through Stirling.

This pic shows the government cavalry having reached the hedgeline half way across the battlefield with Fife Communist Militia supporting them, at least they were until they all ran away.

This is the government cavalry brigade which led the left flank column.

Government cavalry lining the hedge

Advancing Jacobite forces

Royal Scots lead the government right flank column.

Heavy and accurate shooting from the government regulars proved too

effective for the Jacobite Militia who tried to have a firefight but ended up

being pinned before being run down by cavalry.

Virtually every Jacobite Militia unit were either cut down or fled and

even their armour and regular infantry units didn't fare much better.

All figures were from Colin Jack's collection except the Jacobite Militia

which were painted by me and in my collection.

A few more VBCW pics

Here are a few more pics that I couldn't get into the game report.

Some BUF soldiers and air support.

More airport defences

More planes and ground crew.

Main gate and more defences.

Fascist Highlanders defending main gate.

Buzzing the boys but no bullets.

Mobile artillery and Armadillo's support the Gamekeepers and Militia,

the Highlanders and Militia Hmg in the background.

Another shot of the regular highlanders.

Militia backed by Armadillos and highlanders.

Militia marching on.

Some heavy support from the senior service.

I think this crew must have had senior eyesight as they couldn't hit a barn door.

This is who they were supposed to be supporting

but I think most of them were in more danger from their own support.

Unfortunately for the school boys they walked right into the fire of a BUF machine gun.

This was as far into the airfield that they got.

Very British Civil War

If you have never heard of this before you are probably thinking, What War?  Don't worry you haven't missed anything in your history studies this is purely a 'what if' period but does cover a historical period and what might have happened if King Edward VIII had married Wallace Simpson which would have been against the church and government policy and might have sparked another civil war as factions for all side fought for control of the crown and government.  One of the main parties that might have supported the king is Oswald Mosley's Fascist Blackshirts and the Police have taken an oath to protect the throne so they might have been drawn into this faction.

This game fought at my friend Colin Jack's house represent an Unholy Alliance of the Church and the Communists who are both against the King and the Fascists but for different reasons and are attacking the Fascist Acklington airfield.

 
The airfield defenders commanded by Colin comprised a mixture of hard core Fascists including Highlanders, Police and Militia and although there were a large number of planes and artillery pieces scattered about most of it either wasn't working or didn't have enough fuel to fly but they did have a strong dug in and fortified position in their favour.
The 'good guys' commanded by me were a real hotchpotch of troops ranging from some regular army and naval troops backed by Communists, Gamekeepers, Militia and even the local school brought along a unit of 6th form students from their Cadet force.  They had no real armour but a mixture improvised armoured vehicles which looked more like something out of a Mad Max film.

These photos show some of the wonderful building and terrain from Colin's collection.

Some of the Fascist defences and main gate into the airfield.

and some of the defenders.

Some of the attacking forces, navy, Reds and school boys.

Wonderful Red troops converted and painted by Adrian Howe.

Some of my militia, Cannon Fodder Minis painted by me.

Regular Highlanders who never really got into action.

Thankfully I had some heavy support although they failed to hit very much.

I launched my main attack right down the road with the Reds supported by naval and militia gunfire and these managed to smash through the gates into the airfield grounds and caused some havoc until they met this and....

...ended up like this.

I advanced my other troops against the defences but poor shooting on my part meant I wasn't getting anywhere and even bring up more militia didn't help the situation.

A mixture of troops from various manufacturers.

By the end of the evening the Fascist flag was still flying over the control tower

and most of my militia was heading home for tea.