"Just nipping down the call box" - AVBCW Scenario.

"Just nipping down the call box". - Words my kids will never say..... I must be getting old.

A couple of pics from a recent British Civil War outing.

Sometimes you can make scenarios over complicated. For me AVBCW lends itself to the simplest of games, besides its been a while since these figures have graced the table.

Both the local revolutionaries and bobbies have on encountering each other decided reinforcements are needed and rush to capture the phone box and dial the switich board operator for more men, they can't destroy it as to do so would lose the support of the local townsfolk so must drive each other away from the objective.

Yes there is still a working phone in this one.

Members of the local working mens club rally round their standard and move on to the table, we were using Combat Zone again, the workers had more men and were better armed, but were green and untested.

The Police were split into two fire teams were of average quality and were only armed with pistols and the occasional rifle. Their improved training and split groups gave them the first move and they were able to make the most of it, moving up to the cross roads they could see the phone boxes, but little else.

What the working men failed to realise is being green simply being shot at can make you lose your bottle and slink off for tea. The MMG bravely brandished by one of the gang, was the first to run away as the opening shots rang out.

Their would be no revolution in the shire today, long range weapons are of little use house clearing and with several of their number ducking back the police with club and pistol in hand together with an extra action each sent the part time marxists running for home.

Next time more groups and better quality is the order of the day.
But a fun 1930's feel to it.

White Dragon Miniatures - Battlefield Clutter

Back in the Spring we were fortunate to win the Hammerhead prize draw for those clubs putting on games, it was late in the day but I had been eyeing up the defences and barricades from White Dragon Miniatures all day. The Combat Zone game from a few weeks ago gave me the nudge to get them painted up...

Cast in resin they come in several parts, I wanted mine to represent back yards and rear alleys and to block line of sight as troops creep around the inner city so based they closely together on single bases. Each piece comes with some nice touches, barrels, cables and rubble to add to the clutter.

The concrete walls are perfect to hold a fire or HMG team and fit in well with my Eureka modern Russians.

 

Meanwhile the metal fencing gives troops the opportunity to rush from dead ground to dead ground perfect for taking on the alien invaders when they are looking the other way.

You can't have a run down backyard part of town without someone taking a spray can to the walls, the occasional flash of red and blue on the fencing, gave the kind of feel I was looking for.

They should add a little more depth to the games and mix in well with the other modern terrain and burnt out cars, now for a suitable scenario to get them in play.

Combat Zone... Dusting off a classic

Whilst having a clear out of old rule sets I came across these from the early 90's.
Back then I had quite a collection of Bikers, Gangers and SWAT teams, most of which went off to e-bay many years ago, but I kept the rules just in case...

Combat Zone was designed as a 25mm skirmish game of large corporations vs low level gangs, very much in the style of Robocop, Escape from New York and the like.

Time to dig out the VHS video player :-)

Flicking through the rules it all came back to me. Units of 5 upto 15 figures. Each fighter comes with a number of action points, these you spend on various activities shooting, moving, take cover or aiming. Bigger Weapons take more actions to fire.

Poor troops have 5 Actions whilst Elite troops have 7.

You carry out one figure at a time, but watch out for those figures who spent their turn getting into over watch crossing roads can be deadly.

I forgot how much fun the rules were, firing was simple, make a roll to hit, take a wound roll where you are either dead, panicked, or routed. Simple. Then it struck me - Why not try them for the modern/near future Russian project and see how they played out in 15mm.

So filling the table with buildings and battlefield clutter, I pulled together a poor quality human force vs some high quality Alien killing machines and set about giving them a try.

The humans had the numbers but without radio comms all troops had to stay within the commanders leadership zone or lose a further action. The invaders did not suffer that penalty.

The battle was soon raging with the Humans if spotted and hit pretty much killed on the spot, the robots took a little more damage before they were taken down, however RPG's made for a great robot killer. The dead ground in the centre of the table made it impossible for either side to strike the killer blow but the mechanism worked really well in 15mm and humans vs Terminator type robots had a good feel to it.

I perhaps need to tweak a few ranges here and there but definately worth exploring further.

Checking the web it's great to see the Combat Zone Chronicles website is still up and running which comes with a load of scenarios which can easily be adapted for low level modern encounters.