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Miniatures Adventure => Interwar => Topic started by: Matthew83 on 26 January 2012, 09:54:53 PM
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Hi all,
I've noticed a lot of postings regarding VBCW and am slowly developing an interest from afar.
From what I gather, it's a pre WW2 fascists vs marxists game, googling brings up some scenarios and figures but I'm still trying to understand what it's all about.
Can anyone direct me to an idiots guide so I can get a better understanding and tell me who produces VBCW figures?
Cheers
Matt
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The best advice I can give is read the pot on here and the Gentlemens Wargame Parlor and also pick up a copy of the main book of supporting back story from Solway Crafts and Miniatures. here are the appropriate links:http://solwaycraftsandminiatures.webs.com/ (http://solwaycraftsandminiatures.webs.com/) and http://gwargamesp.18.forumer.com/index.php? (http://gwargamesp.18.forumer.com/index.php?) Hopefully others on this forum can give some advice as well.
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Will check them out, the look very informative.
Cheers
Matt
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Watch the King's Speech. The premise of VBCW is that the Edward wouldn't abdicate and splits the country into support and opposition.
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You'll want to hit the Gentlemens Wargames Parlour (http://gwargamesp.18.forumer.com/index.php) (as of 1/26/2012: 1900 CST it is offline)
This is the miniature guide: HERE (http://www.btinternet.com/~jprice9/)
Its 1938 and Fascists, Royalists, Communists, Anglicans and everyone in between battling it out for King or Country...and then stopping for tea, naturally ;D
.
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Thanks for those.
Ork, can you tell me who is fighting who, are there alliances or is it a free-for-all?
It's a very interesting concept but I find it confusing.
Cheers
Matt
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The Royalists (Edward VIII royalists), who hold much of the regular army are teamed up with the British Union of Fascists (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Union_of_Fascists) who are fighting the Anglicans (Anglican League), who are opposed to the King and his marriage to the American tart (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wallis,_Duchess_of_Windsor).
Some cities have broken away to become "free States" or City-states; Glasgow, West Yorkshire, Norwich, Portsmouth and Liverpool to name a few. These folk are mostly "communist" and have taken arms against the BUF in retaliation for what they have done to the Labour movement and workers associations.
You've got your Landed Gentry assisting parliament types...or the King, for the right price...or Albert and the Albertines (Prince Albert has returned to clean things up (so instead of House of York vs. House of Lancaster, you now have Windsor vs Windsor)...or the local bishop if they are feeling religious that day...or again enough coin fills their pocket, or they're handed over the lastest racing auto.
There are Free Scots, and Free Irish, Free Cornish, Cornish Royalists, Nationalists, Anarchists, Sell-coats, cut-throats and everyone in between vying for freedom from the oppressive government run by Mosely (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oswald_Mosley).
Its all very tongue in cheek, at the end of the day everyone pops down to Mrs. Miggins for tea and crumpets and a good fag.
Watch some Black Adder, Dads Army, Jeeves and Wooster, Richard III, and the Kings Speech, stir, simmer and that's about what you have.
It's good to have an imagination and an interest in history and research when jumping in. Because eventually, when and if you start building an army, you'll come to find just building isnt good enough, you'll want to know the history of the army you are constructing, so you find many people delving into old books and searching the net looking for information about old military units and old buildings and what was in towns and cities (train routes, shipping companies, historical homes..etc..etc..)
;) :D
Many folk get together and hold large gaming sessions for campaigning.
To Date there are have been:
Sussex Campaign
Somerset Campaign
Kent Campaign
Severn Valley Campaign
to name a few...
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Perfect, thanks.
I see many gamers are using their imagination and creating their own units, I like the idea of that.
The artistic licence VBCW allows is definitely for me.
So, I'm off to jot down some ideas and get the sourcebooks.
Cheers
Matt
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Hi Matthew
A lot of VBCW players come our way, have a look at the Great War Miniatures WW1 http://www.northstarfigures.com/list.php?man=20&cat=153&page=1 ,
the Artizan Design Thrilling Tales, http://www.artizandesigns.com/list.php?man=12&page=1
the WW2 British and French from Crusader Miniatures http://www.crusaderminiatures.com/list.php?cat=9&page=1
plus we've a range of interwar AFVs http://www.northstarfigures.com/list.php?man=117&page=1
We also stock the books from Solway http://www.northstarfigures.com/list.php?man=21&page=1
If you've time to browse through my site, you'll find a few hidden gems like the International Brigade figures that are perfect for the VBCW.
Nick
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I perceive, as a Scandinavian, VBCW as if PG Woodhouse wrote a script on the War of the Roses, music score by Noel Coward. The cast is all old Shakespearian actooors. Plus Benny Hill.
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I perceive, as a Scandinavian, VBCW as if PG Woodhouse wrote a script on the War of the Roses, music score by Noel Coward. The cast is all old Shakespearian actooors. Plus Benny Hill.
Of course there are others who take it far less seriously than this... ;)
The idea was, as Orkdung says, was to base it on a potential civil war essentially caused by the abdication crisis. A lot of players have just taken their own locality and established a storyline for it. They've then gone off and dug into local history to come up with all sorts of odd stuff (some of which actually existed); a militant sect of tree-huggers, or an occult society or two not withstanding.
You can play it as you like. At its simplest level, you could game it as 'Government' forces against 'Rebels' (pick a colour), or you could add in more factions to suit. Obviously there are some factions who will not ally, but there is leeway for a complicated set of alliances and Byzantine treachery... or you could just have the local Special Branch men shooting it out with a gang of gun-runners... all your call.
There's no right or wrong way to play it.
:)
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VBCW is like a historic wargame, with all the research, detail etc. Only its in a fictional world, so no one can tell you that your stuff is 'wrong'. Best of both worlds, in my book. The GWP forum is very friendly, and there are regular games across the country, which are unimaginativly called 'Big Games'.
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Watch the Ian McKellen version of Richard the Third, I suspect the fad started there.
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Watch the Ian McKellen version of Richard the Third, I suspect the fad started there.
Yes, that had a lot to do with it. Over three and a half years down the line though, I'm not sure 'fad' is relevant any more. Like it or loathe it, VBCW will be around for a while I think.
:)
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My forces, so far, consist of:
-The girls of St Trillians, student militia, (feminist/anarchist/anti-authoritarian)
-Textile Workers Union Militia, Ladies Undergarments, section 62, Totleigh-In-The-Wold. a.k.a. "The Close Support" (Socialist)
-The Earl of Sidcup's Phalanx, "The Black Shorts", (BUF, fascist)
-The Duke of Nutherland Kennel Club of Monimasket (independent, liberal)
-Totleigh-In-The-Wold Constabulary (government)
-The Joneses (Welsh Gypsy, independent/anti-authoritarian)
-the Alec O'Hall familly (Irish Tinkers, independent/anti-authoritarian)
-Totleigh-In-the-Wold Cricket Club Volunteer Grenadiers (independent, conservative)
-Coldstream guards (royalist)
plus a number of characters.
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Yes, that had a lot to do with it. Over three and a half years down the line though, I'm not sure 'fad' is relevant any more. Like it or loathe it, VBCW will be around for a while I think.
:)
Actually that wasn't intended as put down, I must say I'm fairly neutral on the topic. It doesn't really grab me as a subject per se but it has lead to some wonderful minis coming out.
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Thanks a lot everyone.
Nick, I noticed your site in WI a while back, will definitely check it out now.
Hammers, that's what I'm talking about - utter madness, great names, I'll be joining in.
Glad I decided to dig deeper on VBCW, looks like a world of fun to be had.
'Arlequín : 'there is no right or wrong way to play it'. ..... I like that.
Cheers
Matt
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My forces, so far, consist of:
-Totleigh-In-the-Wold Cricket Club Volunteer Grenadiers
BRILLIANT!!
You using Hasslefree and Foundry figs for the Grenadiers?
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You using Hasslefree and Foundry figs for the Grenadiers?
Take a look...
http://www.adventuregaming.tsome.com/TiWCCVG/index.htm (http://www.adventuregaming.tsome.com/TiWCCVG/index.htm)
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Take a look...
http://www.adventuregaming.tsome.com/TiWCCVG/index.htm (http://www.adventuregaming.tsome.com/TiWCCVG/index.htm)
Brilliant!........mental, but brilliant.
Matt
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Oh boy! Those are exquisite!
Thanks for the link Plynkes! Must make a team!
Ahhhh yes, Ive seen these guys, the guys at the bottom are Hasslefree and Foundry. Where's the bowler from?
Then we have Musketeer Gentlemen (now GB)
Butler and Maid and Volunteers at top are?
.
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The butler and maid are from the Artizan Designs Thrilling Tales range. Don't know about the rest. I'm sure the man himself will be by to tell us sooner or later.
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Actually that wasn't intended as put down, I must say I'm fairly neutral on the topic. It doesn't really grab me as a subject per se but it has lead to some wonderful minis coming out.
It wasn't taken as one. :)
It's not for me either, although it was very enjoyable doing the research for my contributions. The figures that came out for it, are as you say wonderful and I'm determined to find an excuse to buy them at some point.
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The butler and maid are from the Artizan Designs Thrilling Tales range. Don't know about the rest. I'm sure the man himself will be by to tell us sooner or later.
Great War and Musketeer, I believe.
Plynkes is to become a member to. I've had him on the bench waiting to be painted for about a year, I think.
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Great War and Musketeer, I believe.
Plynkes is to become a member to. I've had him on the bench waiting to be painted for about a year, I think.
Literally the last man out then. ;)
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VBCW is like a historic wargame,
Just, y'know, without the history.
It is a silly thing. Just thought I'd put the other side of the argument out there.
Carry on. :)
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Just, y'know, without the history.
It is a silly thing. Just thought I'd put the other side of the argument out there.
Carry on. :)
Sometimes one needs silly, rather than a carrot up the arse.
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well said that man.
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Sometimes one needs silly, rather than a carrot up the arse.
:o lol
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"There is more to life than being sensible"
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Well most wargames lack history to a greater or lesser extent, look at DBM/WRG army lists. Nobody bats an eyelid when someone games the Red Hordes advancing across the German Plains in the 1980's, or a German invasion of Britain in 1940, but suggest that Britain wasn't a happy and contented place in the 'good old days' and you're likely to be swinging from a lamp post... I mean it goes against the concept of the 'Blitz Spirit' and would likely offend the late Queen Mum, gawd bless her...
;)
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that is a Very good point. VBCW is no more silly that many other what ifs. I know some VBCW players like to push the boundries a bit when they are coming up with there own units, but mine are grounded in a relitivly believable 'history'.
The fact is the more your dig into histor, the more oddities you uncover.
For example, I have a force representing the Duke of Farnham and his troops who are defending Chester from the hordes of Socilaism. In his force he has some Rally cars with LMG's to act as a scout company, some White Russians and a School Boy Rifle company. All very silly....
Until you consider, the Duke is 'based on' the real life Duke of Westminster. In reality, the Duke was a bit of a playboy. he loved cars, and spent a fortune on racing cars: His daughter was on of the top drivers in her day (hence the scout company being mounted in his old rally cars from the early 1930's). He also had a long affair with Coco Chanell, who, in the VBCW world, with a suitable name change, has come over from Paris with a company of White Russian emegres who are hungry for a chance to fight Reds (hence the White Russians). The School Boys are the Kings School Cadet Rifle Corp. Kings School is the oldest School in Chester, and in the first World War the older boys were formed into a Cadet Rifle Company. It seemed reasonable that they would have done the same inthis state of emenrgency, hence the School Boy Rifles.
I hope that you can see how basing your units in real history make them even more believable. The fact is, the more you did, the stranger reality is, and the closer it is to the VBCW world.
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That same fervently anti-Communist, anti-gay and anti-Semitic Duke led a unit of Cheshire Yeomanry mounted in Rolls-Royce armoured cars in the campaign against the Senussi Brotherhood in the Western Desert during the Great War.
Perfect character for VBCW. I've been thinking of using a fictionalised version of him myself, in a Great War game.
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You know, you'll find some interesting models for characters and a lot of real period colour if you read Anthony Powell's wonderful Dance to the Music of Time series. You can also garner some fabulous character names, nobody came up with better English sounding names, not even Waugh, Mitford or Wodehouse.
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A lot of VBCW 'characters' are based on real life people, hence the name changes so as to avoid any possible legal problems. While people crow that its not 'historical' it's not that far from the truth. Churchill was all set to form a King's Party if Edward had decided not to abdicate and he'd also become very popular with the 'common people' for a variety of reasons. Presuming that Baldwin had stuck to his guns and resigned there would have been a crisis. Such a situation might have become violent, look at the General Strike for example, it wasn't long before lorry loads of toffs were getting tooled up to have a go at the strikers.
My only real bugbear is that the BUF was spent politically by 1937, so I only see them as minor players, not as the government. I see it more as small c conservatives versus more 'modern thinking' people, perhaps even town versus country for the most part. I would say establishment versus working class, but there were a lot of 'working class conservatives' back then, who wouldn't accept Eddy's shenanigans, nor have the faith in Churchill that came with WW2.. at that time he was a political maverick still.
As for the lack of 'history', the research for the sourcebooks led me down the dark alley of the British Army between the wars, the hard road to mechanisation of the cavalry, the establishment of the Experimental Mechanised Force (and how it shaped German tactics in 1940) several days reading Hansard for the 1936-1938 period, I can tell you almost to the day when the Bren Gun, Boys AT Rifle and Battledress were introduced and when they were actually in service. Even how the Germans would never have gone to war before they took over Czechoslovakia and gained its armament and vehicle plants and why they only supplied the Panzer I to Spain. Then there's the Italian build up on the Egyptian Border in 1936, which went completely unnoticed by the British... who up until the outbreak of WW2 only had 60 tanks across its three armoured brigades to defend the canal.
So no, VBCW has no historical basis whatsoever. ;)
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Basically it's a sort of take upon stereotypical British imagery, with the idea being that everyone can fight a little war over their favourite patch using whatever troops they think are appropriate. I use a few Hinterland female hussars as my unusual if sadly poorly painted models, supported by some partisans. A player in my group who plays Liverpool free state uses cossacks so as long as their interwar applicable you can use them.
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Can you really explain it or you just play it. lol
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Well of course it's well known that the Rev. Awdry, author of the Thomas the Tank Engine books, was a closet fascist sympathiser. The Fat Controller is clearly a, not so subtle, nod to Mussolini, the island of Sodor a clear reference to both Salo and sodomy, a connection later picked up by the great Italian director Pier Pasolini. Pasolini himself openly acknowledged his debt to Awdry despite them having diametrically opposed political views. It's rumoured that the character of the Friar in his earlier Canterbury Tales is based on Awdry with much of the dialoque lifted directly from Edward the Blue Engine.
So yes, the VBCW is as factual or historical as you care to make it. ;)
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Well of course it's well known that the Rev. Awdry, author of the Thomas the Tank Engine books, was a closet fascist sympathiser. The Fat Controller is clearly a, not so subtle, nod to Mussolini, the island of Sodor a clear reference to both Salo and sodomy, a connection later picked up by the great Italian director Pier Pasolini. Pasolini himself openly acknowledged his debt to Awdry despite them having diametrically opposed political views. It's rumoured that the character of the Friar in his earlier Canterbury Tales is based on Awdry with much of the dialoque lifted directly from Edward the Blue Engine.
So yes, the VBCW is as factual or historical as you care to make it. ;)
Jesus, you British are weird...
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It's the humidity you know. It's currently about 90% where I'm sitting at this moment.
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I just realized I have one more faction, which I have completed but also forgotten about:
Captain Blood and his Morrising Merry Idiots. I shall have to find the images...
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Jesus, you British are weird...
You think that's bad... wait till he starts on the political sub-text to Rupert Bear. ;)
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Or, as he is occasionally known in the world of grown ups, Michael Heseltine.
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I met him once, he was tall... ::)
I've never really understood the antipathy generated towards VBCW, or indeed any imaginary conflict. Likewise the incessant rants about Games Workshop, whatever. You either play it or you don't and it's not really a threat to real wargamers* surely?
The appeal of any Inter-war setting to me, is that it's really hard to power-game it. Okay in VBCW you get the occasional guy wanting to field Matilda II or Panzer IV tanks, or the invariable 'German Contingent' *yawn*, but largely people are content to make do with either what was around then, or improvised vehicles, nothing of which it could be said to be overpowering in a game. Nobody fears the charge of the Vickers Medium MK II, or the massing of Carden-Loyd Tankettes on their flank... probably.
If I played VBCW, I'm too serious minded** to field Morris dancers or scarecrow militia, along with the other 'silly' elements people have introduced. However that doesn't stop me enjoying seeing them displayed here and elsewhere, along with the fluff that goes with them. As people have said... you have the freedom to do what you want with it, and although some people might try to impose 'rules' and 'history' on the setting, they generally don't get very far.
* i.e. those whose armies consist largely of the French Imperial Guard, or German Panzer Grenadiers... when was the last time you saw a late WW2 German force fielded without half-tracks, Panthers or Tigers, or indeed any vehicles at all?
** Which is really surprising considering some of the stuff I am into... details of which Hammers is bound to supply in his next post. :D