A successful day's gaming at the Bournemouth Beachhead show allowed us to fight our game to a conclusion. We fought the first military action from my Dorsetshire campaign.
Background:
A motorised column of British Fascisti from Royalist Bournemouth was heading towards Anglican Wimborne Minster. Following one of their lorries hitting a roadside bomb at the Village of Longham earlier in the day, the Fascisti vehicles moved cautiously towards the village of Hampreston on the outskirts of Wimborne. Meanwhile, a similarly sized column had been despatched from Wimborne. Both sides had also requested reinforcements, which arrived during the course of the game.
The tabletop action:
Fighting started at 5:30pm campaign time, which left the opposing forces with about three hours to bring the action to a conclusion before sunset.
A lucky Quick March event card allowed the Fascisti to quickly advance into the village and one platoon to occupy the nearest house to the crossroads, while another moved into the field on the other side of the road from the village. Meanwhile, the Anglican Wimborne Militia advanced to occupy the rest of the village.
The Fascisti platoon in the field were surprised by the arrival of a platoon of LDV on their flank, who promptly charged the Fascisti. The LDV succeeded in forcing the Fascisti back. To add insult to injury, a second platoon of LDV arrived and the two platoons, drove the Fascists back to the crossroads.
On the other side of the village the Royalists brought up reinforcements, including a platoon of TA infantry, more Fascisti and a section of yeomanry field artillery. This combined force proceeded to bombard the church, from which a platoon of Wimborne Militia were shooting at the Fascisti holed up in the house by the crossroads.
The game ended with a charge on two fronts by the Wimborne Militia's scout platoon and a platoon of OTC schoolboys. These drove the Fascisti platoon and their company HQ back from the crossroads, in turn threatening the house occupied by Fascisti next to the crossroads.
Across the table, the Royalist bombardment had virtually wiped-out the Anglican platoon in the church.
With the sun setting the fighting ended. The Royalists inflicted far greater casualties on the Anglicans than they received. However, they were unable to take advantage of this. The church was now a ruin and unsafe for troops to enter, while in the house on the crossroads the Fascisti platoon decided their position was too exposed and made their escape under cover of the fading light.
Game Notes:
We used a home-made set of company level rules thet we are developing, in which a typical platoon is represented by 10 figures and a support section of two guns or armoured vehicle is represented by a single model.
The pictures: