Brenda From Bristol! - An AVBCW AAR

With the distinctly Autumnal weather still prevalent here, it was yet another day when going outside to do stuff wasn't very appealing to say the least. Instead I decided to set up a simple BKCII game, as it's been ages since I played anything with these, one of my favourite rulesets. I've been mulling over an AVBCW campaign since last year at least, so took the opportunity to get some of these neglected forces onto the table.

The 'Fluff'

Local gossip has reported a broken down lorry at the hamlet of Bramley End, which is carrying the well known siege gun, 'Brenda'. Not sure on its exact location, the BUF and the Auxiliary Police Force have sent out some scouting forces to try and locate 'Brenda'.

So nothing fancy, but nice and simple background story for a quick game to get back into the swing of BKCII. Likewise, the forces chosen and the table set up was really just what I fancied having a play with and going for a visual look that I enjoyed.

The Table

You can see the set up below, all laid out on my 2' x 2' table, which gave me loads of room to move around whilst playing the game.

An overview of the table, with the BUF coming on from the left, the Police from the right.

'Brenda' on the broken down truck. I do have something more meaty in terms of engine and carriage to move her about the table during games, but not painted yet.

Bramley End and Frank the Farmer about to get a bit of a surprise.

The bridge leading to the hamlet.

The local stream that counts as fordable for infantry only.

The telephone box for those emergencies which might occur...

A view from another road into Bramley End.

The geese about to raise the alarm on the local allotment.

The Forces

Both sides had mirror forces, purely for ease of set up for me.

The Auxiliary Police Force.

The British Union of Fascists.

The Game

Captioned photos should give an idea of how the game played out.

The end of Turn 1. The BUF got the jump on the Police, but moved carefully towards Bramley End, not knowing what they might face. The Police did likewise but as they spotted the BUF, they failed to get any shots off.

The BUF armoured car takes post on the bridge.

The 'Beast of Bodmin' trundles forward towards the churchyard.

The Police's Char St-Chamond tank takes up position covering the junction at Bramley End.

More Police units moved into the outskirts of Bramley End.

The end of Turn 2. Both sides engage each other, with the Char St-Chamond and the BUF Armoured Car as both suppressed, as are some Infantry units, but the BUF lose an Infantry and MG unit to combined fire.

The BUF move up to the stream edge.

The Police come under sustained and effective fire from the BUF.

The BUF armoured car tried to retreat but was suppressed leaving it rather exposed on the bridge.

The BUF Infantry move towards the churchyard to support the 'Beast of Bodmin'.

The end of Turn 3. The BUF get an early advantage, KO'ing a Police Infantry and MG unit, but the tables soon turn, with the BUF losing the 'Beat of Bodmin' and their Armoured Car.

Having made it safely off the bridge, the BUF armoured car is soon brewed up by the Char St-Chamond.

The BUF advance into the churchyard...

... but see the 'Beast of Bodmin' brew up next to them.

The Char St-Chamond is not in too healthy a state though.

The end of Turn 4. The BUF are somewhat on the back foot, as they are unable to KO the Char St-Chamond with their ATR fire, but they do force the Police Armoured Car back, but are taking more losses in their Infantry, which they can ill afford.

All that remains of one BUF Infantry Company.

The BUF ATR armed Platoon are close to being KO'd, but are still a threat to the Police AFV's.

Both sides are in the environs of Bramley End.

The Police try to flank the BUF.

End of the Game

At the start of Turn 5, a Blunder leads to the BUF ATR armed Platoon in the churchyard taking hits that lead to it being KO'd. This takes the BUF over the breakpoint, and they pass the test, but discretion is the better part of valour and decide to sede the field of Mars to the Police.

The Police consolidate the positions as the BUF withdraw.

The Police standard bearers indulge in some Rythmic Gymnastics flag routines;)!

BT 'phone home. The Police report their success to their HQ.

Frank the Farmer heads off to find his traction engine so that he can shift 'Brenda' to a place of safety.

The Butcher's Bill

In the end it looked more one-sided than it was, as several of the Police units were close to being KO'd.

The Police on the right, the BUF on the left.

Post Game Thoughts

Well that was fun and great to get the AVBCW toys out for a game and to be playing BKCII again after so long. Some random musings:

• Yet again the 2' x 2' table produced a great game that still gave plenty of action and decisions to be made. It certainly didn't feel like I was playing on such a 'small' board.
• The KISS approach to force selection made things easy for me, having not played the rules for many a month. Again not over complicating things still made for a nice and challenging game.
• The 12-15 units per side showed that no matter the period, this somehow hits a sweet spot for a game, especially a solo one.
• I reckon the actual game itself took just over an hour to play, but with the note taking and photos, more like just over two hours.
• I do need to make a generic ABVCW roster, so I'm not constantly chopping and changing during a game. Afterall most of the stats are the same for each side, with just the AFV's and Aircraft being different.
• This has moved up the desire to play a narrative AVBCW campaign, but more on that in another post. Some painting needs to be completed first...

What Next?

Well tomorrow I'm off to my good friend Keith Flint's place for another game using his Startline rules, so expect a sort of AAR or photo dump in due course. After that I'm not sure as I've got a busy week and then it's Father's Day weekend in just over a week. As always plenty of ideas but will wait and see how the days pan out, so nothing planned.

As always many thanks for reading and any comments greatly appreciated!

TTFN.

Die Schlachthausbrucke - An Honours of War AAR

Having finished the core forces of my MDF figures, I decided to give them a run out, to 'blood' them as it were. I couldn't settle on a scenario, so in the end I simply went with a standard encounter type that one would often see played at a club, or when time is short at home etc. I had no plans on how the table should look, so simply started getting my terrain out, making it up as I went along.

OOB Guide

As with the above, I went with almost identical forces for either side, which consisted of:

- 3 x Brigades of Infantry (one Guards), each with 3 x Line, 1 x Medium Artillery.

- 2 x Brigades of Cavalry, each with 2 x Dragoons, 1 x Cuirassiers.

- 1 x Heavy Artillery, 1 x Howitzer.

The Prussians were pre-1760, so should have better Commanders, dependent upon the die rolls of course, plus they had 1 x Hussars.

The Austrians were standard, with their normal Artillery counting as Superior for firing only, plus they had 2 x Light Infantry with rifles.

The Table Layout

The result of how the table looked at the deployment of the troops can be seen below:

The Prussians on the left, the Austrian on the right.

The Schlackthausbrucke, with Neider Schlachthaus on the right.

Ober Schlachthaus.

The Austrian left with the Cavalry and Infantry having Dashing Commanders.

The Guards Brigade at Neider Schlachthaus.

The Austrian right wing with Dithering Commanders.

The Prussian right wing with Dashing Commanders.

The Prussian Guards in the centre.

The Prussian left wing.

My 'enemy' for the game!

Just a gratuitous shot of the figures and BUA.

The Game

As is the norm, the captioned photos should give an idea of how the game unfolded.

The end of Turn 1. The Prussians advanced and in places the Austrians moved up in response. However superb Austrian artillery fire saw the Prussians lose a regiment of Guards as they approached the bridge. Not a great start.

The Prussian Cavalry advance but come under fire for the Austrian Jagers in the wood.

The Prussians Guards come under deadly fire, losing a Regiment in the process.

The Prussian Cavalry advance, but are somewhat hampered by the stream and the hill.

The Austrians gain the high ground from where their guns have a dominating view of the bridge.

At the start of Turn 2, the Prussian Cavalry charge forward and the Austrians counter-charge.

The end of Turn 2. The Prussians continue to advance, with both sides coming under sustained fire.

The Prussian Cavalry withdraw back to await the Infantry to make a breakthrough.

The Prussian right wing starts to take hits that affect its ability to move forward, as it is in danger of losing a Regiment already.

The Prussian left wing sees a Regiment already having to fall back to reform by the church.

The Cavalry clash is a draw, with both sides having Squadrons withdraw to reform.

The Austrians too have had a Regiment of Guards wihtdraw to reform and were lucky not to be routed.

The end of Turn 3. With no action from the Cavalry as both sides are reforming or holding back, the Prussian Infantry pushed forward, but at considerable cost.

A Prussian Regiment on their right wing is routed.

In the Prussian centre, another Regiment of Infantry is about to rout.

The overall situation at the end of Turn 3, after routs and rallies have taken place.

The Prussian right wing has lost all offensive potential, with the Cavalry only able to look on at present.

The Prussian Guards in the centre are not a cohesive force at present.

Only the Prussian left wing has some semblance of a force capable of offensive action.

The end of Turn 4. On the wings the cavalry advance or charge at each other, whilst in the centre the Prussians once again take losses they can ill afford.

The Prussian Cavalry advance forward to try and cover their right wing. The Austrian Cavalry moves forward to observe.

The Prussian Guards lose another Regiment whilst one is reforming. They are a spent force now.

The Prussian left wing is now under severe pressure and needs to withdraw to try and preserve itself.

The Cavalry charge on the Prussian left wing sees both sides lose their Cuirassiers.

End of the Game

At the end of turn 4 it was obvious that the Prussians had been well and truly beaten.

An overview of the table at the end of the game.

What remains of the Prussian right wing.

The Prussian Guards in the centre are hors de combat.

The Prussian left wing is still a cohesive force, but is close to losing units if they stay in the fight, but they would be fighting a losing battle.

The Cavalry have been unable to gain an advantage over the other side.

A view from the Austrian left wing.

The Austrian right wing.

The Austrian centre.

The Butcher's Bill

As you can see below, it was a very one-sided contest at the end.

Post Game Thoughts

Not having played a game for ages, it was nice to get the toys on the table and to roll some dice, even if it was a pretty simple scenario. As always Honours of War gave a great game and I only had to refer to the rulebook a few times, but by and large the QRS was all I needed. So some post-game thoughts in no particular order:

• Using the 15mm QRS which fits the unit frontage of my figures provided a quicker game, as from the off both sides were in Artillery range and by the end of Turn 1, in musket range too.
• For future games I feel I need to increase the table depth to allow for a bit more room to advance forward, ditto on the length, as it all felt a bit cramped on a 2' x 4' board if I'm honest. Not a problem for this quick and dirty game, but certainly for future games more space will be required.
• There were a lot of units for me to command, given it was a solo game, as I did struggle to be able to concentrate on all that was going on across the table. Certainly the 12-15 units per side for solo games as the 'perfect number' did occur to me during the game. Even when playing mullti-player ones, I find a Brigade or two is more than enough for each player, as more than that slows the game down and the concentration required goes up exponentially.
• The Austrian Artillery counting as 'Superior' made a difference at the start, but as the game went on was not too overpowering, which some people have commented upon in the past. It was not helped by the fact that at times the Prussian shooting was dire!
• Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but giving the Austrians two units of Jagers was too much and proved to be too powerful. In contrast the Prussian Hussars has nothing to do nor room to manouevre and make a nusiance of themselves.
• It was nice to finally have the chance to use Guards, Heavy Artillery and Howitzers in my games after all these years. They will certainly give me much more flexibility in my games going forward.
• The game took about 2 1/2 hours to play, with a small break for lunch. i imagined it would take longer, but the effective Austrian fire from the off, combined with poor Prussian fire at times, meant it all ended quite quickly. I certainly find these day that around 3 hours is the perfect length of time for a game. If I have a proper break for lunch, I find the momentum is often lost and it certianly becomes a game of two halves!

What Next?

Playing Lobositz is high on the agenda, but I need to find some time to do this scenario justice and not rush things, so I'm not sure when this might hit the table. I'm still awaiting the HoW scenario book, so that might spur some ideas, plus I have the next OHW scenario roughly mapped out for play. A mini-campaign would be nice, but at this time of year I find it hard to get the time and the motivation to play, if and when some more Summer weather arrives!

As always, thanks for reading and any comments greatly appreciated!

TTFN.