Sunday 6 June 2010

War comes to Weardale!!!!!


















Played my first (solo) VBCW game last weekend to try out the rules and get my figures on the table. Basic premis was that the uneasy peace found to that date in the Dale was was about to be broken. A small Government force was holding a roadblock controlling a bridge dominating a key level crossing on the Weardale railway. Socialist forces from Wolsingham (steel workers and quarrymen) had been tasked with taking control of the area to permit their newly-converted armoured train to pass unmolested out of the dale and back to its owners the Shildon Railwaymen's Peoples' Militia.
The Government had a platoon each of LDV and BUF. The BUF had just arrived and were camped quite some distance from the bridge but had brought with them an anti tank gun and an armoured car. The force was supported by a 3" mortar manned by TA members of the DLI. Local police were also present. Somewhere in the area were the Wear Vally Rangers, a motorised militia unit raised by a local landowner and former MP. Attacking this small force were four platoons of Socialist militiamen, supported by an improvised portee and a 'liberated' Vickers 6-ton tank.

The Socialists drove their main attack across the bridge with a flanking force including their tank to their left. The police on the bridge checkpoint were overwhelmed, the survivors running as fast as they could. Meanwhile the BUF platoon mustered and advanced towards the bridge under heavy fire from the enemy. The socialist portee managed to knock out the BUF armoured car with its first shot but then missed with every subsequent one! Caught in heavy fire from militiamen lining the walls to their front the BUF broke and ran.

Meanwhile, the LDV platoon and mortar were unobserved in the churchyard and not in any hurry to expose themselves, although the mortar did manage to bracket the portee on the hill over the river, putting their aim off at the very least! Over on the left, the militia and their tank had crossed the river unopposed. The much vaunted (in their eyes) Wear Valley Rangers appeared in their nice posh touring cars and came under fire straight away from the tank and supporting infantry. They suffered no casualties but discression being the greater part of valour they turned tail and fled, having failed their pluck test. The BUF anti tank gun was knocked out, and most of the Government forces were in full retreat or lurking under the cover of the churchyard walls. It was all up and the remaining LDV to beat a hasty retreat just as the armoured train from Wolsingham appeared.
Well, I got almost all of my troops on the table and the game was ok but I didn't like the VBCW variant of WGW so next time I will try Triumph and Tragedy.

3 comments:

  1. Superb stuff!

    Some excellent figures and terrain, together with a great write up.

    Lovely!

    I'm not keen on WGW either, although it worked OK fr the last game I played, primarily due to the IGOUGO turn sequence. We're going to try out Through the Mud and Blood next so, fingers crossed, it might work better.

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  2. Great pics and painting

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  3. Thanks for your kind words. I am also planning to use mud and blood if triumph and tragedy dont give me the game I'm looking for.

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