I had my first game of Very British Civil War last Friday, with some guys from the Stourbridge Wargamers- great blokes- especially Ash who organised the while event. I took my platoon of Reds along, where they represented a flying column of the Stourbridge Socialists.

In the alternative history of VBCW, Stourbridge is in the hands of the anti-royalists, while near-by rival Wolverhampton is well and truly Royalist, and in the hands of the British Union of Fascists (BUF). As the steel mills of Stourbridge have been helping anti-royalist manufacture armoured vehicles, the BUF felt compelled to move in and take control of Strourbridge. Our game represented an battle on the outskirts of the town between these two forces.

The Reds, and their allies in the Salvation Army Volunteer Defence Force man the defences of Stourbridge.

The BUF attack starts badly when Red aircraft and lucky shooting make a mess of their nice black trucks.

The BUF Driver tries to ram the armoured car. The Reds manning the roadblock are overcome with emotion and charge over their barricade to drag the unfortunate driver from his vehicles, where he was clubbed to death. Moments later most of the Socialist squad was atomised by accurate artillery fire from the Royalist regulars.

Sending the vehicles in was a sneaky ruse, and the BUF use the distraction to advance through cover up the flank.

The games was a lot of fun, but we ran out of time before we could declare ether side as victors. Time for a rematch, I think.