VBCW - Mobile Rocket Battery

Here is a new idea of mine..... A mobile Congreve Rocket Battery for my Royal Mail Militia.... this will add a "What happens next?" flavour to a game. Rockets will be painted later.

Sidmouth wargame 2011

The Scenario,

It's 1801, Eygpt and the French are in dire straights, Napoleon has gone, the French re-inforcements cannot get past the Royal Navy and and allied army consisting of British (Honourable East India Company), Turks, Albanians and Marmeluke cavalry have joined forces and are marching on Cairo and with the news that 12,000 more British regulars have just landed, the French decide to act. They march out of Cairo and Alexandria and confront the allies head on. They reach the allied posistion and decide to dig in and wait for the allied attack.

The allies plan was simple, they would attack the center and left side of French lines and hope to smash their way through whilst the hordes of marmeluke cavalry would keep the french fort cut off from the battle. The Turks and Albanians attack the town in the center and the British would take the left.

The opening of the battle goes very well for the Allies and already the French start to worry, they send their own cavalry over to the right to try and take on the Marmelukes and commit reserves to defend the town. The allies are in a confident mood and send in the British forces to attack the left.

With the allies now in control of half the town and the British advancing well on the French left, French firepower finally starts to take effect. A well aimed cannon shot smacks the Marmeluke cavalry and starts a rout with most of the Marmelukes leaving the field and the Albanians finding it tough going against the French in the last few buildings of the town, it begins to become obvious to the allied commanders that they may run out of time.

A unit of Turkish spearmen enter the courtyard of the town and manage to capture a French General (much to everyones surprise - including Keith who forgot he left him there) but even so the allies ran out of time and failed to reach their objectives but considering the troop types they had, they still did very well against a dug in French army and caused the French heavy losses but the French still held out and won the game.

The 8 of us that played this game had a great weekend and enjoyed a great game. cannot wait till the next one.

A call to arms

 Looking forward to this weekend, A booze fuelled, banter throwing weekend in Sunny Sidmouth, wargaming at my friends holiday house.

Its 1801 and Napoleons French army in Eygpt are on the retreat and are now facing an attack by a combined British and Turkish/ Albanian army. There will be 4 Shrewsbury Wargamers and 4 from Exmouth Wargames Club including one called Trainset?? not sure why.

I've been selected to be C n C of the British/ Turks and Albanians, a man called Ali Pasha (The Wally of Eygpt) so if it all goes wrong then i'll blame my Generals for not following orders and probably chop their heads off and put them on poles, if it goes right then i'll take all the credit and my Generals heads will remain where they are unless i get bored and have an excess supply of poles.

There should be plenty of piccys taken to post for peeps to view... Cannot wait now - hurry up Friday

VBCW - The Battle of Haughmond Abbey (part 3)

Well here is the final installment of this battle.

The battle of the farmhouse, where my brave posties had decided to fight to the death did not last as long as i had hoped... faced with overwhelming numbers (poetic license) they died quickly, after the socialists formed what looked like a firing squad next to the smoking remains of the postie transport and unleashed a devestating hail of bullets on the farmhouse.

The Anglicans badly beaten at the woods by the BUF, attempt to change tactics and try and link up with the WI in Uffington and but have to fight their way through and small group of Socialists, with some nuns spearheading the attack.

But the BUF now safe from the Anglican League take the woods and also send some troops to try and help whats left of the GPO posties, bringing up their Panzer 1 to face down the Socialist Flame throwing tankette.

The BUF soon shoot down a sudden charge by Socialist infantry as whats left of the posties advance towards Haughmond Hill in a desperate attempt to avoid the Socialists by claiming they were seeing off the Anglicans (again poetic license)

With huge losses on all sides, the ladies of the WI decide to head back to their artillery section for cream tea and buns, feeling protected by the Ships cannon that they brought along with them.

but slowly the fighting died down, with no faction having alot left to strike the final blow, it ends in a stalemate tho with the BUF causing the most casulties will probably try and claim a moral victory.

Probably not the end that those of you who have followed this would have wanted but with all players who took part complete duffers and not sure of rules then this was the likely outcome. But everyone who took part really enjoyed, so much so that they want to restart the battle next week and try and see if they have learned anything and i believe thats more important than getting a winner. (i would have said different if the posties were victorious - again poetic license)

VCBW - The Battle of Haughmond Abbey (part 2)

The battle continues -

With all factions contining to try and gain the advantage The WI ladies and Farmers Daughters Brigade arrive from Shrewsbury behind the Socialist lines and despite many offers of alliance from the socialists they soon pledge alliegance to the Anglican cause and with an 18 pdr artillery piece and a commandeered ships cannon they quickly disable the socialists Pulitov armoured car.

 The Anglican League, surprised to have reinforcements decide to advance through the woods and take the BUF defensive line head on but faced with two HMG's, an 18 pdr and infantry lined up behind a stone wall, they are soon pushed back with heavy losses.

seeing a chance to inflict more losses on the Anglicans, some brave BUF infantry decide to charge the damaged Bren Carrier but all they succeeded to do was force it backwards.

Some Socialist forces take the village of Uffington but are soon faced with an attack from the ladies of the WI, who surprisingly get the advantage and re-capture the The Corbet Arms pub, cutting off the socialists from the beer barrels

With most of the GPO milita threatened by the flamethrower tankette behind them they take refuge in and around the abbey waiting for the Socialist attack

But the expected attack is held up by one section of GPO Posties who finding themselves cut off in a farm house decide to fight to the death but with one group of Socialists pinned down and their WW1 tank bogged down, it falls upon the Russian sailors to try and force the GPO out of the farm. Fierce fighting follows but the GPO still hold on.

And so ends part 2, this is becoming at great battle and everyone involved including some who have never played VCBW before are having such a good time that we must continue this next club night.

To be continued.....

VBCW - The Battle of Haughmond Abbey (Part 1)

Well here goes. The battle of Haughmond Abbey, just outside Shrewsbury, Shropshire.

The battlefield -

With Haughmond hill dominating the left side of the battlefield and the Abbey on the opposite side of the road, the small village of Uffington and various woods and farm buildings, tactics had be spot on.

Scenario -

With the expected arrival of Moseley and the BUF at Shrewsbury, the Anglican League and Socialist Movement sent forces to see if they could capture or kill fascist leader. Hearing this news the Royalist G.P.O. Militia set out to see if they could help Moseley and arrived the day before and set up camp at the abbey.

The Anglicans arrive late in the day, seeing the Royalist camp they turn off the main road and camp at the bottom of Haughmond Hill.

The Battle -

With the arrival of the BUF from the west and the appearance of Socialist forces from the North the first shots are fired at the Anglicans from the G.P.O mortars, as the infantry try to aid their BUF allies and also face the socialists.

 The BUF try to meet the Anglican infantry but are driven from the woods and forced to retreat back to their defensive lines

The Socialists are next to make their move, using large numbers of infantry and heavy armour they advance towards the Royalists, with their flame thrower tankette quickly knocking out the Royalist transport and a mortar section.

With the expected arrival of other forces including the WI the battle will continue next week, with the Socialists having the upper hand but anything can happen.

To be continued next club night.

A Very British Civil War

I cannot wait till this Monday Night at the my Wargames club when a few of us will be playing our biggest VBCW game ever. My Edward supporting Royal Mail Militia will be (hopefully) teaming up with Keith and Jez's BUF (British Union of Fascists) and taking on all comers - like Mike's and Chris's Socialist forces complete with a new top secret weapon(its all hush hush apparently) and Andy's Anglican League... as well as others, also rumoured to appear on the battlefield are some Welsh riff raff (Snowdon hillmen possibly) and even a party of ladies from the WI (armed to the teeth with rifles, umbrella's and cucumber sandwiches) tho i havent got a clue which side they will join.... Might be time to unleash the power of the Royal Mail Airplane.

Should be a fun filled evening. Will take plenty of piccys and post them after Monday.  

Showing off my friends Turkish Army

Hope you like these piccys of my friends Turks.. I just love wargaming with these, so many different types of troops always make for great games. Just imagine the fun when you are under control of Morrocan Spear and Bow or a Triple Barrelled Organ Gun (pictured above)

Well my first VBCW piccys, let me know what you think. By the way its a Royal Mail Militia