FIBUA, as I’m sure most of you know, is a British army acronym for fighting in built up areas… but it’s also known by British squaddies as FISH and CHIPS (Fighting In Someone’s House & Causing Havoc In People’s Streets.
As you can see from the piccies below that’s exactly what I’m about to embark upon in the fictional town of Brompton during A Very British Civil War.
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| A general overview of the Parkside industrial area, north is the right hand board edge bordered by the Birmingham road. |
Since the terrain is based on interlocking tiles I can jiggle the whole lot around and reposition things for a different future layout, and It’ll also be possible to add to it with a few rows of terraced houses or even a high street with shops if my spot the ball entries ever produce a win.
I’ve tried to avoid my previous mistakes, made back in the day, where I went full railway modeller and created terrain that looked lovely but that I couldn’t actually fit my soldiers in, so if it seems a bit cartoony, that’s the reason.
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| A view to the north west showing the refugee control point on Caldwell lane. |
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| Looking south west from the Birmingham road. |
While all this was being built I’ve been conducting test games with various skirmish rule sets and was disappointed that the ones I was expecting to use didn’t really cut the mustard. You never really know until you get the toys on the table, do you? Eventually I stumbled across Fistful of Lead which I’d discounted previously as a cowboy and injuns game. To my relief its not, and it really has everything I want out of a system, with the bonus being that its sister game of Bigger Battles works well for my Indian mutiny and possibly my HYW stuff too. Sharing the same core system (mostly) may mean that my increasingly foggy memory isn’t tested too much each time I get the boys out (I live in hope - or hippy, according to the modern marvel that is auto correct).
Proof of the new rules efficacy was provided in the usual way when No2 son turned up, ate everything in the fridge and thrashed the life out of me with them. It’s a family tradition thing.
Anywhoo… I’ll be running five games in a mini campaign, over the next few months, details of which have already been worked out and all of which will involve fighting for control of this industrial area in the North East of Brompton. The game area is about 4 x 3 and if that seems small don’t forget these will be skirmish games involving as few as 7 to 10 figures per side. I’ve had test games that lasted a mere 10 minutes (never bunch up in front of a dug in Lewis gun) and one game that I had to finish the next day so it’s going to be difficult to judge how in depth the expected bat reps will be. Hopefully we won’t have too many…Turn 1 Side (A) died to a man while entering the board. lol.
Modelling will be taking a bit of a back seat for a while, I hope, but there are some new Army of The Severn Valley (British Army regulars), a naval landing party and a bloody great tank with numerous turrets on to get to grips with at some point, so no peace for the wicked eh.
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| Vickers MkIII in case you were wondering. Only three ever produced. |
Right then I’ll be back in February with some games if the Gods spare me, but before I sling my hook I came across this monstrous concoction when I was looking for advertising posters to put on the side of a building.
Jeez. Did they really drink this stuff back in the day?
*****Late Edit*****
This just in from Steve.
Gack. I presume the child is smiling cos she hasn’t tasted it yet.
Toodleooh mes amis.
That is a lovely gaming area. I know you were a bit bothered about the size of the engine shed, but it is a lovely building and the ‘presence’ of each building just adds to a splendid visual and allows the track and train to sit ‘in scale’.
ReplyDeleteI like the tank and at first thought ….. Soviet …. Obviously!
Looking forwards to seeing this play out and getting to the 5th scenario …… now that the chaps know not to bunch in front of a Lewis gun :-)
Hey Norm, I’m pretty pleased with how it’s worked out. I deliberately kept the train tracks, which are the most obviously out of scale bit, as short as possible. The Vickers tank and the slightly more outrageous Indépendant 35 were a real influence on soviet designs but were only ever produced for evaluation purposes by the British army.
DeleteThe thought of that drink makes me boke!
ReplyDeleteI know right. Me too! According to the advert children love it though so maybe it’s just us.
DeleteI agree that one can overdo the terrain of the battlefield to make the table almost unplayable. Simple is better in my book. Surprising how many Western gunfight rules work for a number of different periods for skirmish gaming. Have not looked a Fistful of Lead.
ReplyDeleteHi Jon. FFOL is twenty years old! It started out as a cowboy game but the core is used for everything from medieval to sci fi games and has quite a following as far as I can tell.
DeleteHaving once been a "children" I can say with some authority that milky-gravy would have been "bleched" at promptly. Oxo makes decent poor people gravy but mixing with milk sounds bloody awful.
ReplyDeleteTable setup looks flippin good JBM! I'd happily play on that m'self. Excited to read these battle reports next month.
Hello Dai. Milky gravy sounds bad but it looks like this was a drink in itself - which denies belief. I wonder which genius came up with that? Glad you like the terrain. I’m sure I’ll be using bits of it for years to come in one guise or another.
DeleteTable looks brill and very practical. It's very likely that there are more models in existence than actual Mk IIIs. Mind you, that could probably be said about Tigers.
ReplyDeleteSpot on Chris, as usual. I couldn’t resist it what with all those rivets and turrets.
DeleteDear God - that is a disgusting concoction JBM! The terrain looks great and the "model railway" standard is definitely a trap - there are few like that on YouTube and I vaguely remember seeing one in the flash at a show in Edinburgh circa 1978 - they look great but are impractical for actually playing a game on!
ReplyDeleteCheers Keith, my previous mistake was made when building terrain for 6mm troops. At that scale they came as units on 6x3 cm bases - which wouldn’t bloody fit between buildings or in woods. The boards looked nice but were an expensive disaster.
DeleteGreat looking table JBM. Nice to look at and practical to play on.
ReplyDeleteFantastic looking tank and it will look great moving down the road until it rolls a 1 to breakdown. 😁
Poor British kids. No wonder the blitz didn't bother them too much.
Tee hee. Ben, I suspect the British blitz kids may have written a sign on the OXO factory roof saying “bomb here”.
Deletelol!
DeleteThat layout looks absolutely superb Mark! It's such a joy to look at on its own it almost seems a shame to mess it up with figures. Almost. At least you won't be blowing the livin' jaysus out of the buildings like in real urban warfare.
ReplyDeleteSurely you have had steak de boeuf au lait? I thought it was the regional drink where you are? Perhaps it isn't now that you've moved to hippy. More jus de carotte et de céleri I 'spose.
Best wishes, James
Hi James, you raise an interesting point about blowing up buildings since I deliberately chose undamaged ones from the get go. My reasoning was that since the forces involved would only be using small calibre weapons and the vehicles were not strong enough to go crashing through walls it seemed overkill to make the table look like it had been carpet bombed. With that said I can introduce blown up buildings to the mix in the future on separate tiles (if my toy fund gets topped up again at some point). Having tasted Eau de Vie (which is definitely the regional drink out here) I can honestly say I’d prefer OXO gravy with milk.
DeleteSplendid looking battlefield. I look forward to your battle report and hearing how the rules work for you.
ReplyDeleteAlan Tradgardland
Lovely looking table, JBM! (PS. Apparently they did.. ==> https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51ct+3n8HmL._AC_.jpg)
ReplyDeleteThanks for that Steve I’ve added the picture to the bottom of the post. The wife was convinced the first picture was AI nonsense, but no, it was obviously a thing.
DeleteThank you Alan, first games going to be played at the weekend - and even the wife’s taking part! (albeit in a small way).
ReplyDeleteWell I must say that I do love your terrain set up there Mark:)! A perfect blend of the visual combined with the playable. I fear we have all at one time or another, made stuff that looked great but caused the figures issues etc mentioned above. Sadly I see (from my perspective) too many games at shows that really are dioramas with a hint of a game being played. Lovely to see and all that and very inspirational, but not something I'd want to game on, in part for fear of causing damage moving the models about;)!
ReplyDeleteAh, inter-war British tanks, sooooo much to love about them and of course the Experimental Mechanised Force too.
As for the OXO drink, my Dad has tales of various stuff they were told to drink as kids, such as a pint of Guinness a day for the iron and malt contained therein. I do remember John Noakes on Blue Peter having OXO cubes in a survival tin, but luckily no milk in sight;)!
If Noakes had oxo cubes on standby I might have to revise my opinion of their efficacy. Mind you they could have been for Shep I suppose?
ReplyDeleteWe used to nibble bits of OXO cubes as kids and they are quite tasty, but rather strong as you can imagine!
DeleteA lovely looking set up Mark… Should be a lot of fun to play over.
ReplyDelete“OXO Makes Milk Interesting “… I imagine Gin does as well 🙀
All the best. Aly
Tee hee, it’d certainly keep the little buggers nice and quiet.
DeleteLovely set up, I think youve got the diorama/playability ratio right, watch out hes going full on railway modellar sounds like an interesting phrase?
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
Hi Iain, it is an interesting phrase isn’t it, but unnecessary if care givers and family members recognise the tell tale signs early on. Small bags of scenic gravel arriving in the post are usually the first give away.
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