AVBCW: The Welsh Invaders of Longstreet

22/02/2014

For the second skirmish game using Brink of Battle, we opted for more buildings. JP laid out a single central road, hence the name of the fictional hamlet of Longstreet.

JP chose to deploy his Welsh militia – an elite force all tooled up with ‘traits’ such as Marksman, sharpshooter etc, so there was only 5 of them. Yours truely took the cut and paste approach and did the same 7 guys just in black.

I set a couple of guys out across the left hand field.

The other five lead by my commander went up the road – and the commander promptly got knocked down (luckily not dead) by one of the Welsh marksmen.

The rest of the troops made better use of ‘concealment’ and ‘cover’, which when we read the rules properly are two different factors. The Welsh militia and BUF then exchanged fire whilst inching forward down the centre of the table.

JP tried a falnk attack, but we both learnt one key issue – the order in which you command your men. His guy out in the open had a very close shave, got behind the hedge before eventually being bumped off by me using the turn sequence tactically.

Ultimately my firing line behind the stone wall proved too much and the Welsh militia was driven off.

God save the King & Mosley ! The BUF Three Counties League will have to retaliate against the separatist Welsh and bring them to heel !

What we learnt:

  • Cover, and Concealent are dealt with differently in Brink of Battle
  • Though we still have enough Action tokens to command all our troops in these small battles, the order in which you activate your troops is very important.
  • Don’t stand out in the open !!!!!!!!
  • JP really had bad dice rolls
  • Traits are really important and make a real difference.

Looking back at an earlier posting, many of these points were noted before, but not rammed home until the rules are actively used in anger so to speak. They remain a fun set of rules for real low level skimishing. JP is considering a horde of ill equipped farmers to test things out further.

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AVBCW: A chance find, and a status update for Herefordshire….

01/11/2012

Paving

Just a quick posting, when I Hit the Bright Lights of the Big City, I visited Hellfrauds, and next to it was a new(ish) Hobby Craft store which I decided to have a wander round.

Its one of those stores that you’ll find something in that you didn’t know you wanted. In my case, wandering down the aisle with the dolls house’s accesories (as you do), I found a roll of printed paper that looked ideal for paving slabs for AVBCW (or even BoB or any other C20 conflict). Here’s a slice of it:

It’s actually described as slate tiling, though no roof slates were ever arranged in that pattern in my experience ! They’re just about the right size as well for 254/28mm figures: 1cm x 1.5cm which equates roughly to a 2’x 3′ paving slab which is common enough in old Blighty – I have a couple round the side of the garage for projects in the garden.

I’d been scratching my head on how to produce some pavements for AVBCW scenery, the OO/HO scale is too small, and too expensive. So at a price of £2.99 this roll of paper is ideal.

It is available from: The Dolls House Emporium. I suspect there are more scenery gems to be found from this manufacturer !

It’ll need a bit of weatehring, but looks to be a cheap and ideal option to create some pavements for AVBCW.

Hereford 1938

JP has updated his blog with events in Herefordshire. He generally covers western, central and southern areas of the county whereas I am more focused on the east and the Malverns (which technically is in Worcestershire).

This is a key issue with AVBCW: the players (gentlemen) are the ones driving the narrative in their own localities. So JP, myself and others are free to make up stuff and map out our own campaigns with out own quirky ideas.

We’re also gearing up for a game with four of us to extend our narrative towards the borders with north Worcestershire and Shropshire.

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AVBCW: BUF Air Corps

20/10/2012 4 Comments

My latest acquisition:

Flasheart:
Ah! Tally ho, then! Back to the bar. You should join the Flying Corps, George. That’s the way to fight a war. Tasty tuck, soft beds and a uniform so smart it’s got a PhD from Cambridge.

NOT painted by me, but by one of my delinquent mates Ook! who I have met via AVBCW Big Games in Evesham and Tring, and at the bar at Colours. Normally I don’t buy stuff other people have painted, as it often doesn’t fit in with my painting and basing styles. On this occasion however, having seen Ook’s work, and not having to worry about the basing I went for it, and when it arrived this morning I was very pleased.

Never played a game with planes, so will have to check out some rules for them, the A World Aflame rules book has some basic rules which look up to the job. The Bombardier, JP, Tym & I are planning an AVBCW game in November, so I guess that might be a time to try out these rules. Now I need to paint some of those nice Copplestone (BC5) and Artizan pilot models (PLP015, PLP039 and PLP048.

An amended quote…

BUF Adder:
No thank you. No thank you. I have no desire to hang around with a bunch of upper-class delinquents, do twenty minutes work, and then spend the rest of the day loafing about in Madresfield drinking gallons of champagne and having dozens of moist, pink, highly-experienced young British farmer’s daughters galloping up and down my . . . Hang on!

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