SPRING BIG GAME 2022 - FIRST REPORTS !

The Fleet Street ticker tape has been busy clacketing with news........

FALL OF LEOMINSTER !

VICTORIOUS BROMYARD SOCIAL DEMOCRATS OCCUPY VITAL TOWN!

ANGLICANS "NOWHERE TO BE SEEN"

"PRESTEIGNE SOVIETS" STOPPED IN SUBURBS

PUBLIC SCHOOLBOYS SUFFER SEVERE CASUALTIES

CAPTAIN COURAGEOUS or COWARD OUTRAGEOUS ? - HASTY FLIGHT OF GILES

"UNPRECEDENTED PLAGUES" SEVERELY DAMAGE GOVERNMENT'S "WYRD FORCE"

FIRST SIGHT OF STRANGE "CULTISTS" UNDER MORIARTY COMMAND

FORE! THE SMASHING RETURN OF HEREFORD GOLF CLUB HEAVY ARTILLERY

FIGHT AGAINST IMPOSSIBLE ODDS or THE PRICE OF IGNORING BATTLE PLAN - SENIOR CAPTAIN MAYNARD CAPTURED BY PRESTEIGNE COMMUNIST FORCES

OFF TO GULAG WITH YOU, TOO - EUSTACE SPODE JOINS MAYNARD IN CAPTIVITY

BRAVE TELEGRAPHISTS "ACCORDED HONOURS OF WAR" - MARCH FREE AFTER "HONOURABLE FIGHT AGAINST OVERWHELMING STRENGTH"

BOOZE CRISIS - SUPPLY FEARS AS COMMUNISTS TAKE OVER LEOMINSTER BREWERY - STOCK MARKET LATEST

HMG FORCES "ADVANCE SOUTHWARD" TO "DINMORE HILL LINE"

LAST STAND BEFORE HEREFORD IMMINENT

MARLBROOK UNCOVERED - STRATEGIC CHOCOLATE SUPPLIES AT RISK

BRISTOL FLEET NOW REPORTED STEAMING TOWARDS WELSH COAST

More extensive and fully illustrated news as Fleet Street receives all the photographic evidence from the combatants.....stand by, all........

SPRING BIG GAME 2022 ("LAST TRAIN FROM LEOMINSTER?") - URGENT NOTE RE. VILLAGE HALL

For anyone coming along to the Spring Big Game 2022 ("Last Train from Leominster ?) and checking this blog for the first time "the night before" (hello again, Comrade Colonel Professor Winters...) some important news:

THE BIG GAME IS ON

BUT NOT AT OUR USUAL VENUE, BURLEY GATE VILLAGE HALL

INSTEAD, AT A WHOLLY NEW VENUE:

YARKHILL VILLAGE HALL

9am - 5pm

SATURDAY, 26th MARCH 2022

That's right - we've been forced to change venue as the Burley Gate Village Hall has been undergoing certain overrunning renovations of late, and while everything will be complete by this Saturday, the varnish on the floors will not be dry..............

Yarkhill Village Hall have nevertheless very kindly stepped in to the breach, and as it is situated within 2 miles of Burley Gate, so it is hoped that the late change of venue will not inconvenience anyone too much.

Yarkhill Village Hall Info No.1

Yarkhill Village Hall Info No.2

An email has already gone round the "I'm IN" group of VBCW Gamers with the above details, so this post is just a safeguard page in case anyone has for some reason not received their notice. Just for the avoidance of doubt:

DON'T GO TO BURLEY GATE VILLAGE HALL

THERE WILL BE NOTHING THERE

(OTHER THAN SLOWLY DRYING VARNISH)

GO TO YARKHILL VILLAGE HALL.

OK?

Once more unto the breach - at Yarkhill Village Hall!

HEREFORD 1938 - THE CULT OF SHODDY

The story of that famous VBCW tank producer, Elstree Industries, is of course well known to VBCW historians. The number of PhD theses being produced annually in relation to all aspects of the Elstree works, including, in particular, to their demand-led but disastrous sub-contract with the Schezuan Ordnance Depot and Delivery Yards ("SHODDY"), threatens to overwhelm even the bulging archives of the Ludlow Institute for Peace and Reconciliation. And if you've no idea what we're talking about, see HERE and HERE.

With that curious crossing of the timelines and/or strange seepage into alternative universes that is so characteristic of the Hereford VBCW, we've also been able to record the remaining 38,062 years of "Shoddy corporate history", courtesy of LAF Bearwoodman, who has taken the "Shoddy Tank" -  assisted by the back of some miscellaneous cereal packets, a few plastic bits and bobs, considerable modelling skills and a vivid imagination -  into GW's 40K Universe - see HERE and HERE. As Bearwoodman has noted, the company owes its lengthy if undistinguished history to "staying one step ahead of a stream of product liability claims and health and safety prosecutions through frequent name changes and regular relocations...."

For the full LAF Bearwoodman 40K experience, including brilliant White Dwarf parodies, see his LAF thread and lots of photographs HERE.

Thus, from humble beginnings in the backwoods of VBCW Herefordshire, the SHODDY tank has proved not only to be an international, but even an inter-galactic, success story (if breaking down on the first move or having one's turret blown away shortly thereafter can ever be categorised as a "success story"). With this background, it was only a matter of time before SHODDY became a fully fledged cult.........

Behold, LAF Bearwoodman's latest creation on a SHODDY chassis, the "Circle (Ritual, for the Use of) Armoured Platform"!

In a particularly generous gesture wholly in keeping with the VBCW spirit, LAF Bearwoodman has donated his newly minted "C(R)AP Shoddy" (otherwise known as an Armoured Cultist Mobile, or ACM) to LAF Moriarty for use at the Spring Big Game 2022. Moriarty is bringing an entirely new force of Villagers, Farmhands and Cultists to the Big Game, and now he has (potentially much more than) "Armoured Support":

The C(R)AP Shoddy's Operator. As LAF Bearwoodman noted, he is wearing a mask.
It is a mask, isn't it? Isn't it?

AA/AT BATTERY - LEOMINSTER HMG

After the welcome reinforcements of the Combined Public Schools Anti Tank Battery, Senior Captain Maynard (C in C, Leominster) has let it be known that Leominster's existing Anti - Aircraft defences can also be used in a "ground role" against enemy armour:

Leominster's AA defences - the Arthur Daley AA gun and "The Mighty Quad"

Those "Opposition Factions" presently boasting of their "Independent Tank Brigades" may therefore wish to have a care should they dare to assault Leominster....

[Note 1] Given that "the Mighty Quad" is clearly marked as a BUF piece of equipment, it might be thought to be crewed by Oxford men. That, however, would be a reference to entirely the wrong type of "Quad", as Comrade Colonel Professor Winters and his troops may shortly find out....

[Note 2] Many thanks to Alan for the photograph.

AT BATTERY (COMBINED PUBLIC SCHOOLS)

After this post on the flags of the English Public Schools (or at least the base material in order to make them), it is ironic that the very first Public Schools unit to make an appearance in the HerefordVBCW did not have a flag at all - and for very good reason.

Service with an Anti Tank Gun was considered somewhat beneath the aspirations of the usual public schoolboy - all that dragging shells about and operating machinery. Horror! Much better to be in a whip smart rifle unit. Hence, AT recruits usually came from the socially unacceptable at school - tugs, tykes, nargs, fatties, gingers, speccies and, worst of all, "mathmos". Even with these criteria and more than the usual degree of "Tom Brown's Schooldays" bullying by the prefects (i.e. just about everything short of crucifixion), recruitment to the Anti Tank Batteries was slow, forcing the authorities to form a "Combined Public Schools" unit. 

Hence, no flag - but, nevertheless, expensively purchased equipment:

Staff Captain Maynard, C-in-C His Majesty's Forces, having become increasingly concerned by reports of "considerable enemy tank strength" encircling Leominster, has now rushed this Combined Public Schools AT battery "to the front" with orders to assist where needed. It remains to be seen quite how effective they will be.

Notes: AT Guns scratchbuilt - metal Napoleonic trails, Airfix WW1 British Artillery gun barrel and shield, odd plastic wheels from the "bits box". Crew all vintage lead figures of "Dinky" size, i.e. shorter and slighter than 28mm. Carriers Airfix 1/72.

SPRING BIG GAME 2022 ("LAST TRAIN FROM LEOMINSTER?") - THE SET UP

It's all very simple .... on paper...

As a result of the Autumn Big Game 2021 ("Advance to Leominster"), the forces of HM Government (a mixture of Royalists and BUF) are under increasing pressure from the advancing forces of the Opposition Factions - Anglicans to the north, Social Democrats to the east, and Comrade Colonel Professor Winter's Communists to the west. 

Notwithstanding the heroic resistance of Staff Captain Maynard against the Communist Shock Armies to the west of Leominster, and the triumphs of the notorious "Wyrd Force" against the Social Democratic levies of Bromyard to the east, the defeat of Spode by the Bishop of Lichfield's Anglicans inevitably caused a "thinning of defensive lines" around Leominster, together with a withdrawal of Government forces into its immediate suburbs. The stage is now set for the Spring Big Game 2022 ("Last Train from Leominster?"), a "companion game" to its immediate predecessor....

There are three of our usual large tables, plus a smaller central table.

TABLE ONE (North of Leominster)

The attacking Anglicans take on HM Govt. Forces in defence. Amongst other terrain features, Table One has a "central objective" of a Church. Govt. Orders are "to hold the line". Anglican orders are to "brush aside" the defenders, take the Church if possible, and penetrate into central Leominster......... 

TABLE TWO (East of Leominster)

The attacking Social Democrats take on HM Govt. Forces in defence. Amongst other terrain features, Table Two has a "central objective" of a Rifle Range/Arms Dump. Govt. Orders are to "hold the line". Social Democratic orders are to "defeat" the defenders, take the Rifle Range/Arms Dump if possible, and penetrate into central Leominster.....

TABLE THREE (West of Leominster)

The attacking Communist "Shock Armies" take on HM Govt. Forces in defence. Amongst other terrain features, Table Three has a "central objective" of a Cider Factory. Govt. Orders are to "hold the line". Communist orders are to "exterminate" the defenders, take the Cider Factory if possible (and not drink the contents), and penetrate into central Leominster.....

THE CENTRAL TABLE (Leominster itself)

A model representation of the built up areas of central Leominster exclusively arranged by Terrain Tsar Roo! Amidst other notable architectural features, the Central Table showcases the "BUF Black House" on one side of Corn Square, the supersized statue of Arrowsmith in the centre of the square itself, together with a "BUF Special Train" ("the Black Arrow") slowly getting up steam at Leominster Railway Station......

SPECIAL NOTES

(1). In the event that any one of the attacking "Opposition Factions" declares "a breakthrough" on their table (alternatively, any of the HM Govt commanders orders "a withdrawal" from their table), the Umpires will adjudicate and arrange the transfer of forces on to the Central Leominster table. Fighting may then continue within Central Leominster;

(2). "Opposition Factions" may of course attack each other within Central Leominster. This may be something that HM Government would wish to encourage....

(3).  The BUF Black House within Central Leominster may contain an additional section of "desperate defenders" determined to hold out to the last. They may accordingly not move from the Black House, but are not subject to any morale rolls. Control of this "forlorn hope" may vary from player to player on the Central Table, according to Umpire Rules to be communicated "on the day".

(4). Dependent upon the events of the day, the Umpires have prepared special "luxurious sealed envelopes" of "additional orders" for possible distribution to the players. The only certainty is uncertainty.....

(5). If any of the Opposition Factions penetrate into Central Leominster itself, the whole game can be won by taking and holding ("until stumps are declared") the supersized Statue of Arrowsmith. It may be that a friendly local building contractor can then be persuaded to "bring his crane along" in order for the statue to be unceremoniously pulled down.....or it may be that such a "cheeky chappie" will be unceremoniously "shot out of hand" by remaining Government defenders for his damned impertinence....

AND

The Umpires previously declared the Autumn 2021 Big Game to be "a linked game" with the Spring 2022 Big Game. Given the results of the "Advance to Leominster" games, additional armoured forces have therefore been awarded to the attacking Opposition Factions according to their previous success (or otherwise), as follows:

Anglicans - an "Armoured Brigade" of 3 tanks;

Communists - a "Shock Front" of 2 tanks;

Social Democrats - a solitary tank.

HM Govt have accordingly rushed a variety of anti-tank weapons from Hereford to Leominster, which have come under the central command of Staff Captain Maynard. He will consult with his Government commanders at the start of the day and dole out these last reserves according to his defensive plan.....

Additional Govt AT weapons do not require their own Initiative Card, but move according to their HQ Initiative Card. The Opposition Factions "additional armour" requires an additional Initiative Card, to be drawn at the same time as each move's other Initiative Cards.

AND FINALLY....

These PLATOON GENERATOR RULES are in operation. Dice rolls "on the day" will determine the experience levels of your troops, so be prepared (1). to roll for your Opponent (2). to take a note of your own results.

The USUAL RULE AMENDMENTS are in operation. However, products of the 2021 Modelling Challenge will not be making a repeat appearance at this Big Game. The "bordel" has been evacuated from Leominster....

Just for fun, "CRICKET SCORING" is being introduced for HM Govt Commanders. The aim is to stimulate healthy, manly, cheery competition between HM Govt. Commanders without affecting their central strategic aim. "Cricket Score Sheets" will be distributed on the day (each "turn" counts as "one wicket") with the defenders scoring as per this post. Who will post the highest score ?   

That's it, folks! Until Saturday, 26th March !

NOTE: For all posts on the game, click the "Spring Big Game 2022" label to the right.