Opération Womble - Game 2 of 5

Sorry for the 1970´s Britcentric blog post title but as I was designing this scenario I couldn’t get the theme tune out of my head… especially the “underground, overground” part, for reasons that will shortly become apparent. 

If any of my American cousins feel the need for further info on the Wombles they can always google Mike Batt and the Wombles theme song. I make no apologies, it was the 70’s. A lot of shit like that was going on back then and none of us knew any better.

Okay Sherlock - here’s a subtle clue.

So before we get down to the next game I probably need to document the state of play with those who were knocked “out of the fight” in the last one. In FFOL “out of the fight” doesn’t automatically mean dead, it can be anything from a nasty wound to someone feigning an injury, for instance, (god help me I automatically typed par exemple rather than the actual words for instance) - I’m deffo turning French. For those requiring closure (lol) the following chaps were affected.

Our Malcolm was peppered from stem to stern by a 9mm submachine gun, at close range, yet amazingly his recovery die roll yielded a “it’s not so bad” outcome?! I assume the bullets struck his hip flask, his family bible, his lucky rabbits foot and ricocheted off his St Christopher medallion? Alfred by comparison got “it’s the morgue for you” so while Malc has to skip a game Alf has very definitely “gone for a burton”. 

On team BUF we have:

Dennis, now enjoying aromatherapy and hot spa treatments in the Brompton Council House basement, Michael, who after taking two or more shots from a heavy revolver is classed as “it just winged me” (you lay down long enough mate, considering) and Raymondo who ended up the same. Both will be reporting for duty again in the next but one game, though I think all of these chaps should suffer from a shock marker at the outset.

Okay then, Operation Womble: Friday August 6th 1937

The attacker / defender roll off went in favour of the BUF again but the importance of the next mission to the higher command went from moderate to high for the BUF and moderate to low for the defending BLDV. In practical terms the BUF can now afford to have four of their force out of the fight before automatically conceding while the Brompton lads lose if only two of their number are so affected. The BUF will get four campaign points for a win (plus 1 per occupied building) and the BUF only two.

The mission fluff

With Action Group leader Hartwell continually on the phone to Worcester HQ (justifying the groups recent failure), it fell to his 2ic Sergeant Phillip Bradley to plan the next operation. 

All of Phil’s die rolls are done with a D12 rather than the usual D10 and one of his more unpleasant traits is that he gets extra mean in melee if his opponent is already wounded. Nasty piece of work all round I reckon. 

In his former role as Brompton’s assistant Clerk of the Works Mr Bradley had been frequently beset with the Industrial areas sewage problems. Now he plans to use his knowledge of the self same underground byways to get a squad into the factory area, literally under the noses of the defenders. His team would be at their most vulnerable when exiting the sewers so what he really needs is a diversion up top to draw attention. As luck would have it three Spanish volunteers from the International Fascist Brigade had shown up the day before with a tasty looking Hotchkiss HMG, and they, Phillip reasoned, would do just fine in that very role.  

Game set up

Added to the Parkside board are six (numbered and over large) sewer manholes. On turn three of the game Sergeant Bradley and his men will have travelled far enough underground to be suitably unsure of their exact location. Each turn after number three this team will make a single 1D6 roll to establish which manhole cover they can emerge from. I’ve no idea which number is where by the way. If the manhole is not in a good spot we’ll assume they’ve had a peek and decided to move on. The kicker is that on every turn they are underground they will automatically receive 1D6 shock markers between them - transitioning to wounds once (or if) they have three shock each. Why? Well they’ve only got a candle to light their way and God alone knows what they’ll be treading in, or on, down there. When they see the state of their uniforms there’ll be plenty of shock to go around I imagine.

One of the overlarge manholes - but which number is it?

Up top, the Spaniards and their Hotchkiss will set up on the areas outskirts and will fire off a couple of bursts to get the defenders attention. Defenders must attempt to drive the Spaniards off until the sewer lads are spotted, and if you remember from the preamble they can only afford to take two “out of action” results before conceding the game. Two of the defenders start the game on sentry duty and the rest are having a brew in the Farrington’s factory canteen when the action starts.

Ruddy forrins - coming over ere and shooting our commies. And for less money. The ruddy cheek of ‘em! 

The odds may see a little stacked in the BUF’s favour but the penalty for being underground may even things out a bit. Shock and wounds degrade each figures movement and firing capabilities. I guess we’ll see eh? 

A new arrival

Ernie is a Vickers Mk III, which apart from lots of multi turreted goodness also sports a 47mm gun - which was pretty hefty for the mid 30’s. They don’t seem to have produced an HE round for the gun so that’ll be of limited use in an infantry heavy urban environment. 

Egg news

Nothing to do with wargaming but I thought I’d share some Spring / Egg news. Might be a bit premature but Spring (Printemps) seems to be on its way - buds are appearing all over the shop and both Brenda and Makepeace have started to lay again…woohoo!

Brenda is a little Pékin, and Makepeace is a full on plus size Faverolle. I wonder which one laid which egg?

Good job I didn’t want an omelette for tea. 

Here’s the tiddly one in a standard sized eggcup. 

Next batrep might be a week away. 

Toodleooh mes amis.