One Hour Fun. 

When my Wednesday group is not meeting, I have been going to the WARG group, which meets at the Oldmachar British Legion, Balgownie Road, Aberdeen. Meetings are now held on Mondays from 1830.   

In February we tested whether we could get two games from the ‘One Hour’ stable played in a session.

Rick put on One Hour Wargames scenario 16 which saw me take a Theban force against Rick’s Athenians. 

My plan came unstuck, faced by Rick’s attack and I ended up stuck behind the river in the centre and my left flank attack was countered.                                       

                                           The right flank was isolated and destroyed. 

                Rick manged to complete the victory conditions in the nail biting final turn, destroying my                      unit on the bridge.  

                     Rick manged to complete the victory condition in the nail biting final turn.  

I put on a test game of One Hour Skirmish Wargames using my Royal West Kents and BUF forces from my Very British Civil War collection. 

The BUF hold a hamlet unaware that the residents have  hidden a religious relic.  

The Anglian League forces have to find the relic within six turns. 

They failed, but it was close.

We managed to play both games in 2 ½ hours, including set up. 

 

                                        Junction Jeopardy by Henry Hyde

Been a follower of Henry since his days editing Battlegames Magazine. He has written several useful books on the hobby. Junction Jeopardy: A Coffee Break Campaign is the latest addition.

Junction Jeopardy presents players with 9 maps centred around a critical village at an important transport junction. The book is designed to be used as a small campaign of connected scenarios throughout a range of periods. It can be adapted for use with your favourite ruleset.

The book has suggested several ideas for periods I am interested in. The maps can be used for individual scenarios as well as a campaign. This fits into my idea for a multi system campaign for VBCW using Nuts!, Went The Day Well or One Hour Skirmish rules for smaller games and Chain of Command or Bolt Action for larger games. Possibilities exist for using Sharp Practice rules for horse & musket games.

Really useful product. I got my hard copy from Amazon, but you can get a PDF from Battlegames – Wargaming content from Henry Hyde, Creator of Battlegames on Patreon          

NEWLY PAINTED (NOT BY ME!)

During his recent visit back north of the wall, my good friend Mike Schraner, from South of the Wall Miniatures, dropped off a couple of completed commissions.

Post Apocalyptic gang.

 This is my second post apoc gang and will see service in more than one rules system.

Early 20th century 'Bobbies' for pulp and VBCW games.

The armed police are intended for use in pulp games or later IHMN games. They will also come in useful for VBCW games.

BLITZKRIEG BLITZ.

A busy week has limited my opportunities to update my blog. I am off for the next two weeks. Apart from a couple of trips, I intend to have a bit of a clear out, whilst progressing a few of the projects on the to do list.

Number three on my priorities list is my early WW2 project. I already have a selection of figures and vehicles in 20mm covering the early 30s onward and capable of covering historical conflicts as well as fictional VBCW type conflicts. I have added these to my collection.

I have already put the three Miniarons Panzer Is together. They are very simple 10 part kits (one of which is the alternate 20mm cannon turret) very similar to the Zvezda 15mm kits. I will build the other kits over the next two weeks, along with a couple of others.

Weekend Game.

As well as having regular Thursday night games, we have weekend games when the opportunity arises, two or three times a year. These weekend games have ranged from three games over two days in three different houses, through two or three games in a day, to one large game.

A couple of weeks ago, we had the chance of a Saturday of gaming. Unfortunately, Aidan thought a family wedding was more important! That left just me and Rick. We decided to do a 28mm VBCW game on Rick's 6 x 4 four set up, using the same figures as the recent VBCW game at mine. We would top off the day by doing two Combat Commander scenarios.

Aerial view of the games table. The Scottish Republic forces enter from the top left. This was taken during the game. All photos are courtesy of Rick (I left my camera at home).

The scenario involved a Republic patrol stopping and questioning a tramp. He reported strange goings on at a nearby 'foreign gentleman's' house. At this point Rick gave me some options around whether to wait for back up or go now and whether I was going to approach cross country or along the road.

I decided to approach cross country and meet my back-up after asessing the information. The patrol appeared on the table and almost immediately came across some defended buildings with some kind of activity with trucks. Moving on to the high ground to get a better view, they encounter and defeat a BUF machine gun which would have been in ambush position had I approached along the road.

This set off a hornet's nest, with BUF troops at the nearby roadblock returning fire, as did the men with the trucks. This drove the patrol back off the hill. They turned their attention to the courtyard and the trucks, Following a firefight and an assault, the courtyard was taken, but the two trucks had been loaded and moved off.

By this time,the back up, in the form of a small light tank and a section of territorials in trucks appeared. They overwhelmed the troops at the roadblock, although one brave soul attempted to close assault the tanks. The trucks take a cross country route to avoid the tank.

His attack on the tank unsuccessful, the last BUF survivor is captured and led away. The tank has worked around the road block. It opens fire on the one remaining truck, the other having been stopped by infantry fire. There must have been something combustible in the back as the truck exploded!

This was a really enjoyable game. Rick ran the scenario with more than a hint of roleplay. For another view of the game see http://www.forgeofwar.uk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=335
This game took four hours and was very relaxing. We used Fubar rules.

The two Combat Commander scenarios played were Sea Devils, the German attack on the Grain Elevator at Stalingrad, with the arrival of Russian naval infantry. In a wonderfully tense and back and forth game, so typical of this wonderful game, The Germans overan my hard pressed Russians to take an instant victory by holding the three objective hexes in the Grain Elevator. Here is an AAR from BoardgameGeek that someone else did for this scenario, to give you an idea of what was involved http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/375549/combat-commander-stalingrad-scenario-36-sea-devi .

We also played Bessarabian Nights II. This was an anti partisan scenario from the original game, but updated for the Resistance battlepack and rules. The Partisans won this one too!

All in all we both had a good day. A very welcome change to my routine. Roll on the next one!

Thursday Game: VBCW with a Scottish Twist.

The Thursday game this week saw me get a chance to use the Very British Civil War figures that I bought at Carronade a few weeks back.

Taking inspiration from the Armies And Enemies Of  The Scottish Republic by Solway Crafts and Miniatures, I developed a scenario. It was a test of the FUBAR rules, as VBCW is only a background, with no set rules.

The scenario was set somewhere in the Southwest of Scotland, where the BUF and their Unionist allies are active, but rub against Republican control. The local Unionists had been plagued by some Republican deserters. They had used their influence to have a section of BUF troops assigned to support two groups of farmers and farmhands and the local laird and his staff in removing the threat.

At the same time, a Republican patrol was investigating a tip off about a Workers Militia arms dump in the area.

The arms dump is at the top left, while the deserters are holed up in River Bend Farm, middle right.  Forces: BUF 2 fire teams of 5 with Lt Kyle, a veteran of Spain, in charge; The Laird and 5 staff; 7 farmers and farmhands and a Carden Lloyd carrier with MMG.
Republicans: 1 section split into two fire teams of 4 rifles and an LMG team.

Both sides were aware that there were civilians in the area and to avoid shooting the innocent ones!

Both forces arrive on the table. The BUF rush to get to the deserters, whilst the Republicans quietly patrol their way onto the table.

The irregular forces blaze away at the first thing they see, causing a potential casualty in the Republican patrol, which are now supported by a light tankette.

 

The three pictures above show the firefight between the Unionists and the Republicans. The tankettes fired at each other. The BUF tankette suffered a movement hit then had it's main gun damaged. The Republican tankette had it's LMG damaged.

In the centre, the BUF forces advanced, and after a sharp firefight, pushed the Republicans back.

A sympathiser from the League of St Andrew is discovered and, despite wounding one servant, is shot by the Laird!

To complicate things, the Workers Militia turn up to collect their arms shipment. One of the servants tries to stop them, with predictable results!

But, their cache had been discovered! Pushed back under fire, the farmers assault and overwhelm the two reds guarding the stash. The pictures below show the end state. The Republicans fought to a standstill, but reinforced by their, probably temporary, allies: the deserters. The BUF were fought to a standstill. We didn't have time to finish the game.

Rick was Republican, Aidan BUF and I controlled the random element with the odd event happening! I overcomplicated the scenario: with too much happening; the terrain was too dense (only 7 deaths on both side all night!) and too much role playing?

An enjoyable evenings gaming!