Battle for Henton

Fought a second game at Tring on Friday night. Allan with the Anglican League and me commanding the SFF. The battle was in the village of Henton which is in no-mans land between the Anglican League in Wells and the SFF in Wedmore. Both sides patrol (tax) the village, this time the Anglican League plan to take the village as part of their advance on Wedmore.
The game started with an HQ and 1 section of the SFF in the village when the Anglican League started to advance.

The Village of Henton

The Anglican League’s main attack was down the main road with HQ, 2 sections and an armoured car. A 3rd section and armoured car moved towards the ford, on a side road.

SFF patrol

The lead SFF section came under fire from 1 armoured car which it put out if action with fire from a BAR.

Mule mounted mortar team

Armoured car moves in to the ford

  The Anglican League advanced in the centre with 2 sections and its HQ. The SFF hit a lot of Anglican League but could never kill them. The SFF did destroy both of the armoured cars.

SFF bomb team

The second and third SFF sections were slow to arrive which didn’t help them.

Armoured car moves over bridge while the bomb team wait.

When they did the 1 of the left opened fire on the other armoured car as did the SFF mortar team.
The SFF bomb team waited in the cover of the bridge. The SFF section on the right moved up in support of the lead section.
This was down to 3 men and had to use the commanders pluck to pass its run to the hills test.

Anglican League in cover

Mortar team fires on 1 of the armoured cars.

Last 3 men of the SFF lead section

The Anglican League did a lot better reducing 2 sections to 2 men each. At this point the SFF had to pull out.

We both had a good game and decided the following. I need better dice so I can kill what I hit, armoured cars ARE bullet magnets.

My 1938 Bookshelf

Just started 'The Thirties an Intimate History'. First thing I found when I flicked through the book was a picture of a Black Shirt wedding in 1934. The first part of the book covers what a S@!T state the country was in in the 1930s. This book is another must and I'm only 60 pages in.

My 1938 bookshelf

The great thing about writing about the Somerset Freedom Fighters and the Anglican League is I can make most of it up!
So my 1938 bookshelf is a bit of a mix.
First off ‘A Very British Strike’ by Anne Perkins. This is a great read and well worth a second or third go. Not just for the politics but for what happens when a 1920/30s country comes to a stop. No national newspapers, no trains, the TUC in London had to use despatch riders to get information out to the country.
Also some good background to the dark side of Churchill.
3 Ospreys next all on Ireland, ‘The Irish Volunteer 1913-23‘, ‘The Anglo-Irish War’ and ‘The Irish Civil War‘. All good background stuff.
If you’re going to learn, then learn from the best. The Somerset Freedom Fighters are a guerrilla organisation so the best reads for this are ‘Reminiscences of the Cuban Revolutionary War’ and ‘Guerrilla Warfare’ both by Che Guevara.
For those outside the UK look out for books of photos by Francis Frith. His collection of pictures cover the British countryside from 1900 to about 1950 and are split up by county or region.
If you have any to add please do so.

Battle of Westhay

The village of Westhay

Played my first VBCW game at the Tring club on Friday night. The setup was as follows:-

The Anglican League have decided to try and clear the SFF from Shapwick Heath which is very close to Glastonbury. The areas under there control were getting squeezed and the Anglican League had to come out fighting. The first part of this will be to take the village of Westhay and secure the bridge over the river Brue.

SFF in a trench

SFF
Your intelligence have told you to prepare for at attack. Your orders are to hold the bridge and north/south road.Your troops are
HQ officer+ 2 riflemen (officer has a roadside bomb, see rules)
2 man anti-tank team officer +1 rifleman, 2 sticky bombs, 3 grenades, crowbar.
2 sections each 10 men with LMG.
Throw D6
1= 1 section as above
2-5= HMG 4 crew.
6= Mortar 4 crew

Jim's Rolls Royce armoured cars

Anglican League You have been ordered to take the bridge at Westhay. You must take the bridge or cut the north/south road by taking one of the T junctions.

Your troops are
HQ officer + 3 riflemen
2 man grenade team, NCO +1 rifleman, 1 satchel charge, 5 grenade’s.
3 sections each 8 men with LMG.
Mortar with 3 crew + 2 man observer team.
2 Rolls Royce A/cars

SFF on the southern flank

Jim was attacking and I was defending. The first picture of the table is looking east towards Glastonbury.
Jim attacked with the a/cars on the main road, 1 section to the south of the road and 1 section and mortar in the centre to support the a/cars. 1 section to the north advancing along the lane.
I throw a D6 and got 1 so had 3 sections. 1 south of the main road 1 just north in trenches covering the 2
road blocks and 1 in reserve between the two roads.

Anglican League on the southern flank

Jim moved the a/cars up to the road block with the rest of his men fanned out across the table. I opened fire with an LMG but didn’t damage the a/car.
On the south side our two sections got in to a fire fight which lasted all of the game. On the north side one of Jim’s sections moved down the lane to the road block and attacked my trenches.
The a/cars rammed the barricade and broke through. They then split up going down different roads to flank my defending sections. 
Jim killed 1 LMG gunner in the trenches,but had the driver killed and machine gun knocked out in one of the a/cars, by the reserve section LMG.
My lead section in the trenches went to half strength because of fire from 2 sections and the mortar. The section failed its first ‘Run to the Hills’ test and buggered off. Jim moved his centre section into the trenches.
It then became a foot race between one Jim’s sections and one of mine to reach the bridge.
On the south side the second a/car put flanking fire on to my section at which point the SFF commander went out to attack it with a sticky bomb. Ook had not put Roadside Bombs in the rules and I had not checked before the game so changed to a sticky bomb.
As the Commander attacked the a/car it failed it’s ‘Run to the Hills’ test and buggered off as well.
The SFF Commander then moved over to the southern section to lend it some morale support.
Jim’s section got to the bridge first, but was attacked by my last section.
With my southern section down to 2 men and the mortar set up in the middle of the table, now dropping bombs on my last section, I know I couldn’t win so conceded the game.

1938 Project, part 6

 Here's the finished figure.
The next 4 are all Empress SCW figures. The first one is from the earlier photos.

 The one above has the look of a young kid.
The one below I've added a swagger stick and painted a BUF patch on his left arm.

1938 Project, part 5

As well as Empress figures I also use a lot of Warlord Italain Paratroopers for my Anglican League.

As with the riflemen I cun off the end of the MG42 and then drilled as far down it as I could. Then cut any ruff edges, from out of the left hand and the body. I then cut off the head. I cut the butt off the Tommy gun and trimmed it to fit. Then drilled down into the body to fit the head (which is from Empress).

The figure just needs matt varnishing to finish it, I'll post photo's tommorow.

1938 Project, part 4

Here 2 photo's of finished figures.

I'll post some more later.