A Tale Etched in Blood and Hard Black Pencil

After a typical English BBQ on Sunday, vast amounts of Strongbow Cider and Red Wine, many unopened bags of salad and a fridge full of unused meat I decided to fight a large scale VBCW battle. Never fought one before and got out all my figures and armoured cars. I stretched out by table size to 8' by 4' (its the spare bed with boards on it and piles of books to act as extra legs. I was using my own I go You go rules with unit activation each turn and a roll to see who starts the turn
The battle was for control of the village of Dinnington, a key crossroads between the Fascists / Royalists and the Socialst mines. The Dinnington villagers had blocked the roads and the Fascists plan was to capture the village. Reinforcements would arrive at random (ish) with Socialists from the left and Fascists from the right and top.
The sides

Fascist / Royalist Forces. Northumberland Rangers, Police, Lord Ridley's Estate

BUF, Valkyrie crew, Northumberland Yeomanry and 2 armoured cars with crew

Socialist Forces Havhannah Miners Collective, Kingston Park Cricket Team, 

Dinnington Militia, Border Reivers, Seaton Burn Fire Brigade (with flame throwers) 

and the Post Office Rocket Crew.

Table Layout

Fascists enter and kill the 2 guards manning the roadblock

Miners enter and advance into the village . 

Miners Vickers HMG takes position on the road to cover the crossroads.

There is stalemate in the centre as all units take cover out of range of eachother

The police had arrived and taken a hill on the flank. Miners advance to kick them off. 

Cross on hill indicates where slopes are and who can fire

The Post Office Rocket crew arrived to support the Socialists.

Love this unit, a mix of Citadel Japanese rocket and 1870's Hungarian Infantry

36" range, longest on field with D10 variation in impact point.

As the miners advance on police on hill the slightly deranged Northumberland

Yeomanry appear and charge over the hill catching the advancing miners

in the open. 

The melee was brief and brutal with 4 dead miners. The miners routed

off the table. 

The 2nd squad of miners in the woods turned and fired on

the Yeomanry and routed them off the field

On the other flank the Border Reivers, desperadoes with dubious morals,

charged the BUF at the hedge. The BUF were under inaccurate fire form the Rocket

but were having terrible activation rolls, despite getting re-rolls from the standard. The 

Reivers grenadier, who only had one grenade threw it during the charge and overshot 

luckily taking out their squad leader.

The battle was brutal and after 2 rounds the BUF retreated and exposed the Reivers 

to fire from their HMG.

The rocket only killed 2 men in the whole battle, the BUF HMG crew this turn, saving the Reivers.

 The 2 Fascist armoured cars arrive, the road block is removed and they

take out the miners HMG at the other end of the road.

The crew of the Valkyrie fire on the miners in the church grounds and cause them to 

rout of the table. The centre is now clear except for the pistol and shotgun armed

Dinnington Militia.

On the left the Socialist, despite winning all the fights are out gunned

On the right the presence of the Northumberland Rangers HMG on the hill gives the 

Fascists the flank.

The socialists are out numbered and outgunned and retire the field. 

This was a a really good battle and took me 16 turns and  a couple of days to fight, to time limit when you solo game. The rules work well, need a run option, and the socialists are out gunned. Need more HMGs and rifles.

Off to eat some left over meat, heard this on the radio yesterday for the 1st time in years Take the Skinheads Bowling.

And finally I've just finished reading the The Strangler Vine by M J Carter, a cracking adventure book set in 1830's India, very much in the style of Bernard Cornwell.