VBCW Big Game (Herefordshire)

A few pictures from today's Big Game in Herefordshire (not so big as there was only five of us there). 

The Communist and the royalist/fascist were both trying to 'tax' the same area of Herefordshire to replace losses incurred in recent battles. The local farmers had other ideas.

The game started surprisingly peaceful, with both the communist and the government forces not wanting to antagonise the well armed farmers, preferring instead to do battle using proxies in the from of unallied forces (the police, the AA, some well armed rugby players) to influence the farmers.

Things took a sharp detore when two platoons of german paratroopers (umpire controlled) dropped onto the battlefield with orders to eliminate the communist leader, Colonel- Commissar Professor Winters.

Some of the farmers, lead by Farmer Giles, unimpressed with foreign Johnnies dropping into their farms unannounced and uninvited, switched sides and started shooting at the Germans and their fascist allies.

The Communists and Farmer Giles managed to hold off the combined forces of the Government, the Fascists, the Germans and a treacherous, greedy farmer who sided with them. When it became clear that Farmer Giles' farm house was undefendable, the Communist fell back to a solid defensive position behind the farm. 

Reluctantly Colonel-Commissar Professor Winters gave the order for an orderly withdrawal. The Communist had acquired a fair amount of bootie (I mean voluntary contributions to the workers cause), and even rescued forces sweetheart Vera Lynn from the clutches of the Fascist regime. All this and they has only suffered a single casualty, killed by a bouncing exploding rugby ball. 

Not a bad result really. 

Farmer Giles and his family sadly lost their farm house, but Professor Winters gamely arranged to send them all to one of the CPGB's many luxurious re-education facilities. 

A van belonging to the CPGB Voluntary Contributions Unit- charged with redistributing wealth. 

Some unallied rugger buggers

The AA with their new tank. (Another unallied faction)

A firefight breaks out between the Royal Main the AA as both sides start using the unallied factions as proxies in the battle. 

Sergeant Thomson of the Voluntary Contributions Unit of the CPGB stops a passing vehicle and inspects it for contraband. After a small voluntary contribution to the communist cause most of the vehicles were allowed to continue on their way. 

Meanwhile some of the Communist round up wildstock to take. All in the name of the workers of Great Britain, of course. 

The BBC film plucky Communists assaulting the AA tank with nothing more than a crowbar and a Molotov cocktail. 

I wonder if the roadside assistance will be able to fix that!

Boy scouts set up a roadblock and search a cadbury's can. Unfortunately for them it was empty!

One of the farmers had a Flame tank. It looked impressive but it was crudely built. 

Colonel-Commissar Professor Winters and his command section. 

A solid defensive line blocked the fascist advance and allowed the Communist to retreat in good order with their bootie. 

VBCW: Assault on Wigmore Hall

This weekend saw many brave, intrepid VBCW players brave the winter elements to head off to Herefordshire to partake in a VBCW game. The Herefordshire VBCW games are something of a highlight in the gaming calendar for me, so of course I had to wheel out Commissar-Professor Winters once more. 

This is the third game organised and umpired by Clive and Roo and the plots are starting to get a little bit complicated and convoluted. I will attempt to summaries the plot, and a number of sub plots, in a single paragraph.

Last game the 'un-holy' alliance of Socialists and Anglicans broke down when Professor Winters (socialist) attacked the forces of the Bishop of Hereford. Since then the  Communist Party of Great Britain continues its work to radicalize the broad leftist forces into a fanatical fighting force inspired by Communist re-education programs organised by the CPGB commissars. This new elite fighting force is in need of resources (namely fresh food and man-power) and fixed their sights on the area of Herefordshire known as Mortimer Country. This area has managed to remain relatively un-touched by the VBCW, until now. The Socialists want to take Mortimer Country, and to do that must first take the ancestral home of the Mortimer family, Wigmore Hall. The Government forces (British Union of Fascists and Royalists) also covet Mortimer Country, as the collapse of the Bank of England has left them impoverished and unable to feed their armies. The Anglicans also want to take Wigmore Hall, presumably to stop the Communist and Facists from having it. 

The game took place on four tables, one for each of the attacking forces, and one for Wigmore Hall itself. As the attacking forces pushed through towards the hall the tables were brought together to allow the attackers to more onto the central table with the Hall itself. There was also secondary objectives on each table, along with some farm animals that could be 'liberated' by either side. 

Wigmore Hall and its household staff ready for its defense. 

Some of the stranger contraptions the defenders have prepared

Wigmore Hall was well protected by Minefields, roadside bombs, bunkers and barbed wire. 

For the Reds the game kicked off with a relatively simple plan. We would use our mobility from our trucks to push as far up the lane towards Wigmore Hall as we could, while Roo's more pedestrian force would take the secondary objectives (the Cricket Pavilion).  This great plan was fouled up from the beginning when the single lane towards Wigmore Hall became a congested mess of trucks and cars. 

While the truck-borne infantry make its hellishly slow progress the Communists artillery (three field guns!) began pounding the militias defending the cricket pavilion and the lane.

The Defenders brought up these strange devices. We were not sure what they were but, judging by the way his own troops were moving rapidly AWAY from them we assumed they were some kind of mobile bomb. 

 At this point my Armored Hedgerow Breaching Vehicle (AHBV) was boarded by some old toff who began pocking the crew with his pistol and busting about 'my land'. The crew, who were engineers and armed only with spanners and wrenches got quite irate, at which point the lovely Gracie Fields clambered aboard and calmed the whole situation down. It was agreed that the AHBV would exit the woodland, as long as the old duffer got off their tank. The situation thus amicably agreed the battle continued. 

The AHBW managed to plow through the barbed wire, opening a breach for Roos communists to march through. The defenders began to fall back before Roo's advance. The AHBV then went on to plow up most of the cricket green. 

The defenders deployed their mobile bombs destroying a mortar-truck and immobilizing several vehicles. 

After this the driver of one of the immobilized trucks got out and arrested the scientist responsible to the bomb (the other one was killed in the blast- ha!) 

The AHBV continued its unstoppable rolling through the defenses, until in crashed through the front of the cricket pavilion. Unfortunately at this point it was accidentally shelled by Roo's field gun (about the only thing on the table capable of stopping it) and it was destroyed. Luckily the crew debussed and 'claimed' the now ruined objective building. 

Now at this point one of those VBCW moments happened, as somewhere on another table the commanders of the Fascists and  the Lord of the Manor at Wigmore hall came to an agreement. The defenders stopped their fighting and surrendered the hall and its farms to the Fascists. This meant the hall was now defended by four platoons of militia and two platoons of Fascists! 
We pressed on with our plan, hoping that the Anglicans might break through and draw some of the defenders away, but it soon became apparent the the Anglican attack had failed to make much progress towards Wigmore Hall, and to attack the Hall with the men we had left would be futile. 
Emboldened by the influx of reserves from the Hall the defenders began a spirited counter attack, aided by the Police Motorcycle Corp and a Police Light Tank. At this point Commissar Professor Winters gave the order to halt the advance consolidate our positions. The attack on Wigmore Hall had failed, and Mortimer County was now under the ruthless thumb of Oswald Moseley's fascist bully-boys. 

That said, the attack was not a complete failure, as the communists had succeed in capturing the important strategic objectives, as well as a good number of succulent farmyard animals. Our Commissars also arrested a large number of 'unarmed enemy combatants' (read 'civilians'), who will be carted away and put to good use serving the people. We even captured a mad scientist, who will no doubt be a useful asset when he has chance to visit  one of our 'mind-cleansing' holiday resorts.

Chain of Command Battle Report: Attack and Defend

Vlad and I got another game of Chain of  Command in last week.This time we played the attack and defend  mission. I played the US Airborne attacking Vlad's German Heer. The US were supported by three Sherman Tanks, and and engineer section (comprising of a flame thrower team and a demolitions team). The Heer platoon was supported a Panzer IV and a Flakpanzer with a 20mm cannon.

The Americans objective was to get the demolition team in contact with the 88 flak batteries (which were not able to fire- they were just an objective). Obviously the Germans objective was to stop them. This game was played out using Vlad's 15mm figures and terrain.

The Germans began the game holding a farm house with good sight lines covering the objective, and their two armored vehicles threatening the roads heading towards the 88 battery.I deployed my paratroopers in the cover of a near by farmyard, and set up the light mortar were it could fire on the Germans defenses. I was very lucky, winning three or four turns in a row near the beginning of the game.My Sherman managed to fire on the Panzer IV. It still took five shots to knock the Panzer out! never the less, with the Panzer gone, I could bring the rest of my platoon up to attack the trenches and farm house. 

I used my Machine gun teams to suppress the German infantry while my rifle teams maneuvered ever closer.The Flakpanzer was a bit of a pain, as it sat right back and used its High Explosives to slow my advance up the roads. Vlad was uncharacteristically unlucky and only managed to kill a couple of paratroopers with the Flakpanzer before my Sherman was able to knock it out. After that it looked bleak for teh Germans, as  I used my Paratroopers to suppress the Germans while I was able to bring the engineers up to use their flame thrower to clear out the defenders. All the time the Shermans and the light mortar dropped a lot of HE shells on to the German defenses.

Vlad was unlucky that I knocked out his Panzer IV before he got to do much with it, as it meant I was free to maneuver closer to the targets. I was pleased with how well able to use fire and maneuver tactics to advance through cover while suppressing the Germans. As paratroopers are Elite solders the -1 to the Germans shooting due to the effects of suppressing fire meant that it was very hard for Vlad to stop my men advancing. 

Here are a few pictures from the game...

'Punative Raid' in South Carolina: An American War of Independence Battle Report

I went down to Earlswood Wargamers for an AWI game with Big Al and Spike a couple of weeks ago. I took my camera and here are a few of the photos I took.

Figures belong to Big Al and Spike. Terrain is either Big Al's or club (mostly made by Big Al in the first place).

The game was based around a British punitive raid against a Southern Gentleman who has been supporting the rebels. I took the role of the Hessian Battalion commander, while Big Al played the Brits. Spike was the hastily assembled militias trying to defend the Southern Gent's plantation.

A southern Gentleman leading the local militia.

The Plantation



Southern Militia ready to fight to protect their homes (well the southern gentleman's home anyway)



The Hessians arrive on one flank...



lead by their brave commander (Me!)...



With a small force of Jagers.



South Carolina Woodsmen are the plantations first line of defence



Elsewhere on the battle field the Brits advance is hampered by the retain and the harassment of the Southern rebels skirmishers

  


The Hessians advance in lines over the fields, ignoring the skirmishers sent to slow them down. I held my nerve and kept on advancing, resisting the urge to start exchanging fire with skirmishers dug in behind cover.



The Brits advance strait into the waiting 6pdr cannon set up on the road ahead.



The Hessians scatter the skirmishers and advance on the big house. They exchange fire at short range with the militia, and then the grenadiers charge in.



The militia break before the grenadiers charge. The southern Gent tries to rally them

  


But its not going to stop the grenadiers ransacking the big house, then putting it to the torch.

All in all a great game, on lovely terrain with beautiful figures. Thanks to Big Al and Spike for letting me join in.