AVBCW: Shobdon 2019 03 23 – Part One

A Big Game in the Village Hall – you’ll spot we’ve just started renovating it…but that didn’t detract from the gaming tables provided by Clive and Too which were as ever excellent, aided and abetted by Tim.

The day for me was great, marred only by a hacking couch that had come on with a vengeance and developed in to laryngitis over the next week.

First posting focuses on the table I was.

On my own, holding Shobdon Airfield, against 3 forces of revolting Reds.

What was surprising that both sides were fielding sailors…in land locked Herefordshire !

So here’s the arifiled, yes an empty field nicely mown. No defensive obstacles installed by the nimble brained Royalists that pleaded with Wryrd Force 1 to defend. And who parked the a/c and lorry on the furthest point from the road ? BUF !

So I was allowed to deploy on the edge of the airstrip, and what’s this – the red blob, yes a fizzing bomb dragged around by two sheep courtesy of the local pacifist group (or rather the GM’s EVIL and disruptive plans…each player got an extra initiative card to move one of these round the board to cause mayhem). Somehow, mutton was going to be on the evening menu.

The enemy deploy, or “Sailors Sir, thahsands of them !”.

Plan A was the Marines were to load up in the lorry and go rescue the “Special Stuff” that resided on another table, as per my orders. However it rapidly became clear that (a) the rate of progress cross country by the vehicles was laughable, and that a third squad was needed to defend against the advancing unwashed hordes.

A squad of Jolly Jack Tars advanced towards the edge of the field and towards the road leading in from the middle table (see subsequent post).

BOOM ! The bomb and the sheep were machine gunned, in order to secure the airfield’s land strip – the bombs would cause craters which aren’t good for the incoming planes that were meant to collect the “Special Stuff”.

Just for good meaqsure, I moved two pigs and a bomb in front of Rob’s hedge removing tank (his commander got longer and longer numbers of titles throughout the day something like Comrade, Commander, Captain Commisar….).

Sadly, Rob then used his card to keep the pigs out of the way.

Incoming – the radio tower had got one of the cargo planes incoming !

The hedges were my only “cover” and were quite far forward, so the hedge clearing tank despite coming under fire from my mortar, Oikerlon AT gun, and HMG advanced unscathed.

My advance got this far and no further. The lorry (top right) broke down with a puncture courtesy of random event cards so never made it to the road even, instead being turned into some cover !

Second aeroplane lands. So now I have the means of getting the “Special Stuff” out of the airfield, but there was no sign of my “allies” turning up.

There was also a lot of sign of Roo’s cavalry dismounting and pillaging the farmhouses along the road and taking up position to rake any traffic coming down the road.

Rob’s infantry were not far behind – they had sensibly used such novel inventions as “gates” as opposed to trying to jump over hedges.

In a pattern to be repeated throughout the rest of the twentieth century, vandals ripped out the hedge, my only cover, and allowing easy access for the red hordes.

Just as the red artillery opened up. Luckily only one casualty, and the squad being Veteran and Courageous stood their ground (for good or bad).

Now all three transports were landed, fuelled and ready to take off.

A BUF biplane fighter made a brief strafing run, before…

…being shot down by LMG fire and crashing at the far end of the airfield.

Having ruined the hedge, the tank withdrew as the infantry piled in. Finally, I hit and immobilised the tank, and then machine gunned an enemy squad.

Now where were my allies with the “Special Stuff” ??

Cont’d…