VBCW forces

Now that I've been working on the partisans for a while, I have more than enough Very British Civil War units on each side for a full game of Xenos Rampant. Since on one side I have regular 8th Army troops and on the other a mix of Navy, Canadian and LDV, this would seem to represent somewhere in northern England, on the border between the Albertine enclave and the Royalist Army of the Severn Valley.

Albertines (Defenders of Sautmeat-on-Rye)

Heavy Infantry: Canadian regulars. 2 points.

Recon Infantry: Canadian Mounties. 2 points.

Light Infantry: Naval infantry. 1 point.

Light Infantry, Reinforced: Naval infantry. 3 points.

Since this squad was eight strong, I've added leftovers from other squads.

Light Infantry Reinforced, Heavy Weapon: Naval Infantry with Lewis gun. 5 points.

Light Infantry, Reinforced, Heavy Weapon, Guerillas, Undisciplined: LDV with MG34. 5 points.

Support Infantry, Artillery: LDV with French 75. 7 points.

Soft-skin Vehicle, Civilian, Technical: Open-topped vehicle with pintle Vickers. 3 points.

Royalists (2nd Wessex Regiment, formerly of the Mobile Division)

Light infantry, Reinforced, Heavy Weapon: Infantry squads with Bren gun. 5 points. (X2)

Light Infantry, Reinforced: Infantry squad. 3 points. (X3)

Support Infantry, Heavy Weapon: Vickers team. 7 points.

Support Infantry, Indirect: Mortar team. 6 points.

Fighting Vehicle: A13 Cruiser tank, 6 points.

Fighting Vehicle, Light Armor: BUF L6/40. 4 points.

Either side:

Fighting Vehicle, Light Armor, Anti-Personnel: Rolls-Royce armoured car. 3 points. (X2)

Soft-skin Vehicle, Transport (10): Bedford QLT truck (I think!) 4 points. (X2)

These are well-oversized for normal games (24 points). In fact, if I give the extra vehicles to the Albertines, it's 42 points apiece. Legal armies, even, because only one fighting vehicle is allowed per 18 points. So this is enough for perhaps a small campaign, or a large game played at the club with two or three players a side.

Battle in the Backwoods

So, trying Xenos Rampant on a small scale here. I combined some of the units to make them more manageable:

Edwardian sailors, light infantry with heavy weapon (Lewis) and increased squad size - 5 points

Edwardian sailor command, command, light infantry with increased squad size - 3 points

Versus:

Albertine sailors, light infantry - 1 point

RCMP - light infantry, command, increased squad size - 3 points

Welsh Guards - heavy infantry with assault doctrine (bayonets) - 4 points

Setup

The Edwardians will march forward and battle the Albertines for ... reasons. The reason being to test out the Xenos Rampant rules. I ran this in the background of a voice chat on the VBCW Discord channel to keep me motivated.

First move goes okay, most units get it for free.

First firing phase. The sailors with Heavy Weapon score four hits, but one 6 adds an extra hit. The sailors they shoot at have 2 armor, so would normally take two casualties, but are in cover so go up to 3 armor and only take one casualty. They Firefight back, but only score one hit, not enough to crack 2 armor. Now both must take courage tests: Both require 4+ (3+ for having commander nearby). The Edwardians roll a 5, the Albertines snake-eyes.

Oops. They are now suppressed, and may not move until rallied.

Next the other sailors fire on the Mounties:

Because not all of them can see, I gave the Mounties cover.

The Mounties took one casualty point, but their return fire got seven 5+ hits and took out two points. Both pass their leadership tests, which have negatives for casualties but bonuses for cover and leadership.

Albertine turn next. The Mounties move aggressively towards the hill, hoping to get under its shelter and out of LOS. The Guards move to the edge of the forest. The sailors rally.

Half the Edwardians move up the hill, into LOS of the Mounties. The other unit fires.

This time the Mounties get no cover, as nearly all the 
sailors can see now.

I rolled three sixes and a five, for a total of seven hits. The Mounties have only 2 armor, so three casualties. Should've gone to ground. Minus two on their leadership check, and ... they pass. Responsive Firefight - they score two hits back but since the target is in cover and thus has 3 Armor, no casualties. They pass leadership - which must be taken regardless of casualties.

Albertine turn next. Let's try having the Mounties go to ground. The sailors move to the edge of the forest, and the Guards get to fire for free. They need sixes to hit and score four out of ten, but their targets are in cover so only one casualty is scored. Their targets attempt to Firefight back, but even with a +1 to the roll for nearby Commander, cannot make a 7+ on 2d6. They pass their morale check easily.

Understrength Mounties, holding ground.

At this small scale, the only way one side will win is if they force a rout on an opposing unit and thus badly outnumber the remnants.

Edwardian turn. Concentrated fire on the Mounties. The sailors with the Lewis score six (!) hits, killing two Mounties even with their +1 armor for Gone to Ground. They roll their Firefight response, as it's only allowed once per turn and they'd better use it now before they take the casualties off and have half dice. 

(I wasn't sure here if they would lose the Go to Ground for Firefighting, as that's an activation which ends the former - in that case they'd take three casualties instead of two. In the event it didn't matter.)

They score three hits for one casualty. Both sides check morale. The Mounties at -2 (two casualties, under half strength, Commander nearby) and the sailors at normal score (one casualty, Commander nearby). The sailors pass, the Mounties (rolling on only one die) roll a one! Their score is negative so they are removed from the board!

The Mounties were the command unit, so this is even worse - All other units must test, without +1 to the score. Both remaining units are in cover though, for a +1 there, and are rolling on two dice for greater than half strength, so they pass easily.

The Edwardians aren't done, though; the other unit gets to fire still and aims at the opposing sailors. They score three hits on 5+ for another casualty. The Albertines, being a smaller unit, need 6s to hit and score none. Albertine leadership check at minus one - rolls a two. They retreat four inches and are suppressed.

At least they're behind the forest,
thus out of LOS.

In their turn, the Albertine sailors rally and the Guards fire, but only score one hit and their targets easily pass the test. Should the Guards with their Close Quarter Doctrine have done the charging? Well, the Mounties were a larger unit and so actually have the same Attack roll as the Guards. Perhaps it's not as useful a benefit as it sounded when I built the list.

The Edwardians, a bit wary of moving forward, rain fire on the Guards in the hope of suppressing them. But only one passes its action roll. That one scores five hits, causing a casualty, but the Guards pass their morale check and Firefight back - scoring only two hits which would cause one casualty IF the target wasn't in cover and thus required three hits. The Edwardian sailors pass morale.

It's the Albertines' turn. The battered sailors move back into the woods and the Guards fire again, again to no result. The target fails its Firefight response.

I would like to see what a charge does for testing purposes, so the Edwardians will advance. Well, leapfrog. The Lewis squad tries to suppress the Guards and scores seven hits - not quite enough for two casualties. They pass morale, but their return fire is still for naught. The other Edwardians move to the front. but are still in cover.

Precariously so.

At this point I decide to skip a turn and test a charge without more desultory fire in between. The Guards have the Assault doctrine (+1 to atttack rolls) and I want to try it.

So let's assume they run at each other like madmen.

The Guards get +5 attack rolls for having Assault, the sailors defence rolls of 4+ for being a reinforced unit. The Guards have better Armor, though, so will it even out? They score three hits on the sailors for one casualty, the sailors score six back for two casualties. No, it didn't. The sailors take a Courage test at -1 and pass, the Guards take on -3 (two casualties, under half strength), and fail. They have a positive score still, but retreat and are suppressed. I'll end the game there.

Do I like these rules? Yes! They're less complex than I make them sound. The activation rules in particular (which could be a serious problem in a game this small) are easier on the player than they are in The Men Who Would Be Kings. The game went pretty quickly (barring breaks, cat removal and writing time for this post). With larger armies, I could see running this at the club. Next time...

VBCW and Xenos Rampant

Finished Xenos Rampant. I must say, after 40K it's pretty refreshing to have simpler mechanisms. I'm still a bit iffy about the activation rolls (having tried a round of The Men Who Would Be Kings where neither side did anything for turns on end), but it seems to have been modified, in the sense that the roll is now on 2d6 rather than 1d6. Having units be more abstract is a little tricky, too, especially since I may try this with beginners at work. The zombie rules in particular would be useful for a Halloween-themed game.

My first step is to experiment with Very British Civil War. If I stick with what I bought on the first day at Recon, this will be on a very small scale. The standard army is 24 points.

Mountie command - Light Infantry, Reduced Model Unit, 1 point.

Mountie rifles - Light Infantry, 1 point.

Left, Mounties with rifles. Right, the Inspector,
a grizzled Sergeant, and Scotty the wolfhound.

Welsh Guards with bayonets - Heavy Infantry, Assault Doctrine, 4 points.

Summer Sailors - Light Infantry, 1 point.

Vs.

Winter Sailor Command - Light Infantry, 1 point.

Winter Sailors - Light Infantry, 1 point.

Winter Sailors with Lewis gun - Light Infantry, Heavy Weapon, 3 points.

Winter Sailors with SMGs and Molotov cocktails - Light Infantry, Area Effect, Close Quarters Doctrine, 1 point.

This is six points for the sailors, and seven for the other lot. I could add to the boys in blue:

Open-topped truck with added Vickers gun - Soft-skin vehicle, Single Model Unit, Technical, 3 points.

The sailors steal a civilian vehicle and bolt on a Vickers gun
from the ship's armory before setting out for their objective.

And upgrade the RCMP units to Recon for 2 points. Given their red coats, this may not fit, as Recon are supposed to be Hard to Target! Perhaps it could be attributed to their open-order skirmishing?

That would be nine points a side. Cover the field in pine trees, add a cabin and maybe a stream, and we're set for a (very small) action in the backwoods.

Another possibility for more points would be to count all units as Heavy, making them more effective, and/or perhaps count the Guard section as Increased Squad Size to improve their hit points and combat scores. But I think I'll stick to the simpler versions for now. And I won't use commander traits, either, which are a little too random for my taste anyway.

On a larger scale, ALL of the above could be added to an armored car or two for a full 24-point army, which would face off against the 8th-Army types with their tank and transports. Possibly for a remote game, once I have the rules internalized.

So with lists ready, next post - unless I have a painting or work post instead - will be an experimental battle report.