AVBCW: A Royal Mitre Exchange – Summary

With 14 players and three tables this was the biggest game JP & I have put on, and it went reasonably well.

Table 1

The Royalists failed to break through. They retained the Bishop of Hereford, so are still “in the game”. They escaped with most of their troops. The Socialists prevented the hand over, but had their heavy tank damaged. They lost a fair number of troops though.

On reflection, the “attackers” should have had more troops as defenders always have an advantage.

Table 2

The BUF failed to press home their attack, distrusting their Royalist allies who wanted to make the swap. Both of these factions did a deal to escape Foy, without their heavy equipment. The Baron of Foy also escaped in disguise.

The Anglican League were betrayed by the Socialists who had littered the road with IEDs and has initiated an attack. The long term fall out of this is yet to be seen.

As one player commented:

The gaming was more interesting than just a shoot them up…

Again the divisions between the Royalists and BUF have long term consequences, as do the divisions within the BUF hierarchy.

Table 3

The BUF made a strong attack on one flank but were perhaps too cautions on the other flank. Their use of tanks certainly wound up the opponents. They got unlucky by keeping their infantry in a “target rich environment”.

The ebb and flow was good to watch, but again with hindsight, the attackers should have had more troops.

The long term outcome of Captain Arrowsmith’s utterances is TBD.

Overall

As Umpires, we need to ensure that as well as balancing the tables and players, we also need to recognise the spin that a ascenario should give on the forces, with attackers given more forces to overcome inherent bias towards the defenders.

The players enjoyed the day, and are busy posting their versions of events.

My full set of photos can be found here.
They include 15 pictures taken by Roo, whose forces I commanded at short notice due to his daughter’s b’day party.

JP’s blog entry and pictures are here.

Matt’s write up of Table 1 is here.

Captain Arrowsmith’s comments and photos are here. (Scroll up for the photos)

Leadboy’s comment:

My French clad Anglicans on Table 2 were rather puzzled by my fellow Anglican Mort’s (campaign dictated) strategy of masterly inactivity as deployed in the morning (and equally by the Royalist’s corresponding stance, which seemed to result in much wall jumping and rejumping in a sideways direction). By lunchtime, I think my forces had managed to shoot up a postbox and one IED carrying van. The afternoon became much more complicated, with an attack by concealed Socialists on one of my sections (having sprayed it with an MMG and rifle fire, a truce was immediately concluded between Mort and the Socialists, so my chaps had to watch the murderous rabble file away without reply), followed by the satisfactory repulse of an attacking wave of Nick’s (aka the evil Foy’s) BUF. The afternoon concluded with a flank attack by my slightly out of control cavalry straight into the mud of an impassable railway embankment.

There are a few of the other Matt’s photos on the VBCF thread here.

Sir Gilbert’s chronicle of events.

From Captain Bigglesmay (aka Comrade Smith, Table 2):

Comrades,
Great news from the north of Herefordshire, with supplies gained from out side of the county allowing us to prevent Anglican false deals with Royalists who would seek to put us down. They were taught the lesson to not look for back room deals even after we tried to offer them a peaceful and respectful deal before hand. It is clear they value their old leader the Bishop of Hereford, more than our friendship and we have started to deal a blow against their pride and that they can never be trusted. Our work with Welsh comrades, more of which rush to our side as we speak, as well as Unions from other counties has proved we can become a force within Herefordshire and look to follow the example of other socialist states in the midlands and create a true fair state for our people. We have proved we can beat a Royalist army and make it run from our forces. We have proved we had give a bloody nose to the Anglican league and that they are becoming a force on the out.

Who will take their place as resistance against the Fascist forces and their puppet king? We shall, with our victory today we have proved ourselves and our chances of success. On comrades, to Hereford and victory!

Comrade Smith.

We await more updates