A bridge too far - The batrep

It’s been two weeks since I played the game but I’ve been so busy breast feeding my baby chickens that I’ve not had a moment to commit the action to paper so to speak. This is the concluding game of my short VBCW campaign - pitting the defenders of Brompton against a Mosleyite force of black shirts. Game 4 of 4 saw the Brompton force attempting to destroy a bridge ahead of Edward VIII ‘s advancing army of the Severn Valley.

Arriving near the bridge the Brompton lads got off their bicycles, readied their weapons and split into two groups on either side of the road. The armoured car “unlucky for some” crept cautiously towards the bridge and following up behind was a lorry packed with TNT. The plan was relatively simple, the armoured car would flush out any opposition, the infantry would sweep the flanks and the lorry would be driven up onto the bridge and then detonated. The only fly in the ointment was that they had a mere six turns to reach the bridge before the lead British Army vehicles arrived, so they were going to have to get a wriggle on.

The black shirts were deployed in two of six random locations, and since the wife placed the counters I had no idea which of the six they were actually at.

On the right hand side of the road the Brompton boys and the armored car were relieved to find that no one was lurking behind the wall. 

On the left hand side of the road, things immediately took an unfortunate turn for the worse. The Brompton force ran slap bang into 6 of the ten man BUF defenders…with predictable results.

Despite the BUF retreating to the woods, within minutes those attackers that weren’t injured or taking cover were legging it off the board to be counted as losses.

The armoured car provided much needed fire support, preventing a total rout, but couldn’t hang around since the other defenders still needed to be located and suppressed before the regular army arrived at the bridge.

The brief respite did allow the Brompton flamethrower chap to recover in the nick of time, allowing him to barbecue a couple of BUF who’d run over to finish him off.

The armoured car pressed on towards the bridge only to discover Action Group leader Hartwell and three other defenders lurking nearby. Armed with a turreted MG it should have been curtains for the BUF at such close range…

But it was not to be. Hartwell had a grenade…and he wasn’t afraid to use it. With the best die roll possible  he damaged the armoured car enough for it to immediately withdraw instead of risking a protracted engagement and potential destruction. 

Pulling back off the road, it left the way clear for the lorry full of TNT to make a last minute dash for the bridge.

Too late! The first armored vehicles of the Royal Tank Regiment arrive on the bridge and open fire on the lorry. At this point I realised that there was no way the Brompton force could now reach the bridge to destroy it…but they still had a vehicle packed with TNT that could maybe block the bridge with a disabled tank?! Wedging a brick on the accelerator the driver leaps from the cab as the lorry begins to pick up speed.

And just then the gunner of the tank gets his eye in. The second shot finds its mark and a lorry full of TNT  becomes a cloud of smoke and a blast that shatters the windows in the distant cricket club. Hartwell was very close to the explosion and was only saved from serious injury by the wall. Some of his nearby associates were not so lucky! 

So that ended the matter pretty conclusively. The BUF’s victory in this mission gave them enough points to win the entire campaign, so Hurrah for the blackshirts, or boo hiss depending on your political leanings. I have a British army infantry and naval shore party force to paint up so I’ll probably return to Brompton at some point in the future but for now it’s on to pastures new.

It should be noted that the change in rule sets for this battle may have worked against the Brompton boys. Turns in Five Men In Normandy can be one of three types, an all firing and no movement turn, a cautious all movement turn and a regular turn with a limited number of figures allowed to move and fire. With a tight deadline for reaching the bridge the Brompton force spent too long bogged in positional firefights and unable to advance. Them’s the breaks I guess.

Next post will be 100YW related. I didn’t buy the Ecorsures rules for this as I’d planned because after a bit more digging I discovered aspects of the system I wasn’t that keen on. Instead I stumbled across a set from a gentlemen called Mr Atherton, on the interweb, which look cool - so I’ll trial them on here with a bit of a knockabout to see how they work on the table.

The15mm ECW is definitely now “a thing” but progress has been set back by the continued absence of my Steel Fist Miniatures test order. Going on their website to enquire as to their whereabouts I noticed that most of the Steel Fist range I actually want are suddenly “currently unavailable,” Another hour or so on the interweb saw me chance upon the Blue Moon / Old Glory range and I have now “invested” in them instead. They’re not as intricately detailed as the Steel Fist figures but it’s a pretty comprehensive range at a much more competitive price. 

They even do a camp set which looks pretty swish and I’ll most likely order the thing even if I haven’t got the slightest idea what I’ll actually do with it.

Two of the rather sweet little 4 Ground houses finally got built with a third still under construction. 

Okey cokey, I’d best be offski. It’s half four here and not a child in the house has been washed as my gran used to say. 

Behave yourselves until next time…and remember. Wherever you go - there you are.