A Very Brummie Civil War - BKC AVBCW campaign

[toxicpixie]

As some of you may have seen from previous posts on the BKC forum, I've been playing a loose narrative campaign of a home style AVBCW campaign set in the Midlands. It's been mostly solo, and a back drop to give me some excuses to crack the mini's out rather than an ultra serious, loss tracked, area by area simulation (of a made up conflict ).

We've now added three more players at the club, so I've drawn a line under the previous stuff, & assumed that it's left the West Midlands in a state of pretty comprehensive fubar. As such, the three new players are going to have a "Race to..." style campaign, "Race to New Street", fighting initially the NPC factions on their lines of advance, then a big multiplayer game at the end with whoever got to New Street first being the defender and getting bonuses for the amount of time they beat the others there.

I've attached the "Race to..." campaign doc, so feel free to have a plunder.

So, onto the first Bat Rep in next post!

[toxicpixie]

Sitting astride the A34 to Coventry, Knowle Hill Farm has seen more than its fair share of war. First the Italian Expeditionary Force (the CRAPA) seized it, and beat off a hasty attack from LACK-GO (Loyal Army of King George - regulars following "the other King", not the openly Fascist Edward). Then they were grudingly pushed back in a deliberate assault by the BUM (Birmingham Union Militia), aiming to cut off the Sutton Coldfield Union of Fascists from their allies in Coventry. When the Fascists launched a counter attack across the Sutton Park Defence LInes in the north, the BUM was forced to pull its troops back to defend Birmingham, and the Italians have followed up to reoccupy the strongpoint to cover their rear whilst striking west into the city.

In the chaos, new factions have arisen, and facing the CRAPA are the Solihull Boys Brigade, following the rightful King, King George (huzzah!)! For King & Christ! They're aiming to roll the CRAPA off the vital hill and then use the canals and road network to strike at their rear and seize Birminghams massive industrial arsenals and industry for the (rightful) Crown. From the north and west two other factions are striking, but we'll come to them later...

To start, the CRAPA had a platoon of three Conscript infantry and a MMG dug in, supported by a 47mm ATG and two L3/33 tankettes. Mine fields (one dummy!) covered the flanks to channel attackers into the killing zone in front of the hill top farm and trench system over looking the east-west running A34. Wire should have been laid to further cover the front, but it appears the trucks with it on had been requisitioned and sent elsewhere (I forgot in the rush!).

The SoBBs moved a reinforced platoon (each three Boys Brigade Militia, one Royal engineer Regular, a Vickers MMG and a supporting 4.5" howitzer set up behind for covering fire) up through the fields either side of the A38, whilst the "armoured platoon" (two Carden-Lloyd tankettes, a Rolls Royce armoured car and an armoured lorry with a MMG team in) waited in the centre to motor up the road towards the farm and add their weight in.

Good use of smoke and preplanned HE from the SoBBs armoured artillery canal barges let them close to the road in front of the defence line without incident, whilst the Italians shifted their left flank infantry squads towards the middle to reinforce the MMG and ATG teams. Their observer shifted left to try and get a LoS out the smoke, but failed!



As the smoke lifted a confused firefight broke out, with much blundering about in a hail of bullets, shells and smoke, and resulting in the SoBBs losing an infantry squad and being mostly suppressed and forced back behind the line of the road and its fencing. The Italians nearly lost both the HMG and ATG, and did lose an infantry squad that got caught in the open.


A good trade for the SoBBs in numbers (CRAPA breakpoint 1 of 4, SoBBs 1 of 9!), but it's now turn six of eight, and they have yet to get into the objective line or even get anyone close to off table...



We called it there as was a late start due to me being late, but we should wrap up next week. Resolutely handled with sufficient push from the SoBB armour should see some heavy pressure on the Italians but it depends if they've got the intestinal fortitude to crack on!

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Good to see the forces of right and justice giving the forces of right and justice a good kicking!

Nice report fella!

[toxicpixie]

Ta!

Hmm, the campaign doc doesn't seem to have attached... *tries again


Excellent, that's better

[Techno]

Very enjoyable !
Cheers - Phil

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Nice flavoursome attachment too, thank you.
Bostin'! 

[toxicpixie]

Ta

I wanted flavour but not have to write in dialect

We'll see if it survives contact with play over the next few weeks!

[Subedai]

Nice looking table. Where did you get the telegraph poles from? Railway set?

I lived in Brum for 28 years so I have first hand experience of a lot of what you write about. Memories.

Glad you didn't write in dialect, I had enough trouble understanding the Walsall and Black Country dialects when I was working with them. Couldn't understand the local comedic celebrities Aynuk and Ayli (Enoch and Eli to non-Brummies) at all. Luckily I could understand Carl Chinn when I spoke to him.

[toxicpixie]

Technically I've lived in the black hole for 28 years (with a few years out here & there!) as well. Still don't like the accent but it's sunk into me and I keep sounding Brummie :/

Telegraph poles are HO/OO railway jobs in my patented "cork piece on 2p piece" holder I use for them, trees and other up right scatter terrain. Dead handy! They are huge but look ok in camera & on table - I do half intend to chop them down a bit but they get used for 10, 15, 20 & 28mm's

[GrumpyOldMan]

Hello tp

Very nice, looking forward to sitting down with the campaign document to see what I can steal..... er, appreciate 

Cheers

GrumpyOldMan

[paulr]

Hello tp
Very nice, looking forward to sitting down with the campaign document to see what I can steal..... er, appreciate 
Cheers
GrumpyOldMan

Join the queue 

[toxicpixie]

Feel free to plunder as takes your fancy

I've plundered it from the other "Race to..." campaigns, nicked BKC for specific bits (as that's what we're playing!) and so on and so forth

Hope you find something of use there. Current game seems to have gone well, thus far.

Actually, on the subject of rules amendments, any "Old" AK-47 players on the forum reading this? I have a set of amendments for the final version of old AK for using it in a Cold War Gone Hot game that have sat on the RFCM Yahoo! group being ignored for a decade; anyone interested in them? I'll attach them here, if so With the new post-WW2 Cold War toys Leon & Co. are releasing atm they'd fit right in to AK...

[Squirrel]

I used to play AK47 ..... seems a long time ago .... I'd be interested to see what you've done now the 10mm potential is there.

Cheers,

Kev

[toxicpixie]

Drat, can't attach them from the phone, Kev! Will do when I next get hands to fire up my main machine

[toxicpixie]

And so, last night saw the SoBBs gain a Minor Victory on the very last turn! We set up according to the trusty camera phone pictures and led off into the SoBBs turn straight away.

This time, they had a doozy. Their armoured artillery canal boats got the call from FAO spot on, suppressing the CRAPA ATG and disrupting the MMG team protecting the road, then the HQ for the 1st platoon called in a barrage from the 4.5"'ers followed by vicious on target fire from his Vickers team which killed off both. Brave Italian gunners tried to right their pieces in a hail of .303 rounds and paid the ultimate price...



This left the way open for an armoured charge, so the CO deployed his column of tankettes and Rolls Royce A/C off the road and up towards the farm whilst trying to get 2nd Platoon to do anything - its HQ having a bit of a blue funk and failing to motivate!



Sadly most of the SoBB infantry was still Suppressed from the previous round of Eytie fire, so they couldn't press home their advantage immediately.

The CRAPA tried to reorganise, but the arty barrage had also suppressed the CO (their only command unit!) leaving them with little to actually do! One infantry squad dropped back further into the stone walled area bordering the A34 running north; although it wouldn't take further direct part in the battle, combined with the minefields it effectively locked down any chance of the SoBBs exiting northwards across half the board - they'd have to break the Knowle Hill Farm strongpoint for a major win!

In the following turns the SoBBs carefully pressed their advantage to position their militia (the Boys Brigade themselves!) for a well supported charge into the ruins of the Farm. Despite moving the tankettes up in support and some frantic fire from the infantry squad garrisoning the building (and the supporting arty who were starting to get fire in regularly!) the Boys went in. Italian courage was no match for a well turned British calf in baggy shorts, and the Boys Brigade cleared the farm almost at the last moment then exploited out to take one of the tankettes in the flank. Couple of shotgun barrels down the vision slot later and that was that...



The remaining tankette launched a last ditch counter attack into the flanks of the SoBBs assault, supported by the artillery in a stunning barrage but it was too little, too late - though battered the SoBBs had enough infantry to consolidate in the midst of the CRAPA defensive line and force the Italians to grudgingly retreat.



So, where does this leave the campaign? The SoBBs advance one towards Birmingham city centre, but remain outside the city proper. Quite a good result as it took them until the last turn to mount an effective assault on the Knowle Hill Farm position proper. I might have pressed harder, but unfamiliarity with the rules and a desire for force preservation meant the SoBBs commander didn't attack as aggressively as I would have...

You might notice some new toys - there's some nice Pendraken interwar tanks there, and a lovely conversion of an N gauge Bullnose into a "Leatherette" semi-armoured MG armed scout car, and the SoBBs have also acquired some Vickers Mediums and proper armoured canal barges for the future which should give them a lot more punch.

Sadly we're D&D'ing for the next couple of weeks whilst the other players sort some forces out, so no updates for a bit but soon as we're back on there shall be more!