This blog will largely comprise of my solo war gaming experiences across a number of ever changing periods and systems! Whilst I do play a variety of games at a local club and occasionally elsewhere I have been trying to game more at home to help justify to my wife the amount of stuff I have and continue to accumulate, plus it is good fun!
I recently completed two short skirmish war games using the rule set Flying lead. These rules are based on the Song's of blades and heroes game engine by
http://ganeshagames.net/ which is a very good rule set for fantasy skirmish games.
This was my first real game using Flying lead so it took me a bit longer to get going with it and I know I made a few mistakes or outright omissions (but as it was just me playing... ). Namely Morale and any special abilities as I wanted to make it a fairly free flowing game until I get more used to the rules.
Both games were (very) loosely set in the alternative history setting of a Very British Civil War (VBCW) which is set in 1938 and focuses on what would happen if King Edward remained on the throne and married Wallis Simpson rather than abdicating. There is already a number of very detailed and dedicated websites and Blog's which cover this setting in great detail so for now at least I shall not go into much more detail.
The first battle was set in a desert colonial outpost somewhere around what would now be Morocco or somewhere on the African coast across from Spain. (This is a fairly unusual choice for the period as most people game within the UK itself however I recently acquired some very nice terrain for a desert setting and felt the need to use it!) (It is not based on any Historical/real premise or location).
I set up a BUF (British Union of Fascists) supply base guarded by 6 troopers equipped from German supplies, and fielding a BUF marked Truck and a light Tankette.
Opposing them were some Mercenaries hired by the Anglican forces to capture the base, this comprised 6 mercenaries, a Light Tank captured from a skirmish against Socialist forces and a Truck.
To keep it simple all troops on both sides had the following stat's Q4 ("Quality" of 4 means they needed a 4-6 on a D6 to do an activation) The main game mechanic for Flying lead as with all systems based on SOBH is that you choose a figure/vehicle to activate and then role from 1-3 D6 and for each success (in this case 4,5 or 6) they can do one action i.e. move, shoot. However if they role two failures in one role that ends the turn for the whole side regardless if it is the first or last figure being rolled for, this can lead to unlucky dice letting one side make rapid progress and does nicely allow for different Quality of troops to shine against inferior troops. They also have a Combat rating of C2. I won't go further into the rule mechanics as it is a very reasonably priced set of rules that are worth picking up if you are interested.
The BUF guards relax in the scorching sun
There truck begins the game unmanned and parked up.
Enter the Anglican Mercenary force, all the troops start the battle within the Truck.
A bit of bad luck on their opening activation roles mean they can do little more than enter the field.
This allows a rather brave BUF trooper to rush the tank armed only with a simple bomb. Given at AT +5 to represent it being less useful than a RPG or Bazooka for example.
Even though I rolled the dice I expected this loan trooper to get wiped out by the tank however a lucky (or unlucky depending on your point of view!) dice roll meant he scored a Knocked out result on the Tank with his first attempt! (Point of note I would rather have used some cotton wool than turn it over however I appeared to have misplaced it!)
Panicking the Mercenary forces pile out of their truck in shock!
Making a move forward an exchange of fire leads to two BUF and one Merc getting Knocked out results.
The BUF Tankette rolls out from its hidden starting location catching a Merc out in the open...
Some simple shooting leaves another two Merc's on the floor, things are looking bleak. The Truck was also knocked out by the Tank and things appeared to be going only one way!
A last ditch flanking manoeuvre leads to a one on one shooting match, and like the best of comedy spoof films they continue missing each other at close range for a couple of turns. He would eventually try to flee.
A guard had made a run for the Truck and getting it going just as two Merc's got there promptly mowed them down.
The last Merc promptly surrenders when attempts to flee fail.
Thus a successful defence of the base even if 4 of the 6 guards bit the bullet along with 4 of the Mercs their Tank and Truck!
A most enjoyable half hour was had by myself and I felt the rules would be great fun with a few players each fielding a small squad to break up turn overs, plus bringing in more variation in terms of special abilities and different quality ratings etc. which I will most likely do next time!
Also the Morale rules would have most likely had the Merc's flee the table much earlier but I decided they were driven to complete their mission as it had a large bonus attached!
The anti-tank rules did take me a bit of time to get playing right but that is more down to my dyslexia than the rules themselves (I just couldn't grasp how it was trying to work until I played it through a few times).
