The Bigsworth-Bombard caper. The game

[Doug ex-em4]

BIGSWORTH -BOMBARD CAPER -
A short, solo game in my VBCW campaign

Rules: Black Ops

Background to the game is here, including the detail of the raiders: https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=147472.0

Set-Up: the Intruders dice to see which board edge they arrive on. A D4 is used. On a 1;2 or 3, they come in cross-country. This means they are delayed and arrive in daylight. On a 4 they arrive on the service road at night. This is what they plan to do but it depends on the die-roll.

The die roll is 4 so the Intruders arrive by the road at night. On with the game.

The police guards are deployed as follows:
The game is at night so there are 5 constables on patrol plus the second-in-command, Sergeant “Chalky” Black. The initial placement is 1 at each corner of the compound, 1 guarding the gap in the perimeter fence leading to the conveniences and Sergeant Black in the compound outside the guard hut. Once the game starts, the police on duty will patrol randomly unless alerted to the presence of intruders.

The other 4 constables plus the leader, Inspector Alf Tupper, are asleep. The constables are in the tents. The Inspector is in the hut by the entrance.


Game length: 5 turns + D3 which is rolled on turn 4.



Outstation Bombard




The area round the camp




The view down the Sacred Path to stone circle




Outstation Bombard is taking shape. Not a lot of thought has been given to defensibility. For example, a gap has been left at the back to make access to the conveniences more convenient. Mind you, the conveniences are surrounded by the camp of Alf Tupper and his lads so what could go wrong? Arnold Hovis has his own The tent within the compound is for Arnold Hovis. He and project director Lytemuff are not present.


Borsetshire’s finest, Inspector Alf Tupper in command

It’s 2.00 am. A moonless night. An owl hoots. A fox barks. A tiny vole delicately passes wind. Then politely apologises - as is well known, voles are probably the most polite of all British mammals.

Silence briefly reigns. It is broken by the arrival of a battered old lorry, borrowed from the Catalan machine gun detachment, which deposits Comrade Major Braddock’s team on the service road leading to the Outstation. The team park the lorry out of earshot of the compound. The morale of the team is high, they are determined to wrest the secret of the Bigsworth-Bombard from the hands of the bourgeois running-dogs….

The Team arrives

Scouse Shelagh quietly gets into position covering the main entrance to the compound with her Lewis gun. Flora and Gracie run off to the Sacred Path, heading towards the stone circle. The Prof follows at a more leisurely pace along with Bessie. Something, instinct or nerves maybe, has spooked some of the guards. Sergeant Black strolls towards the gates while Constable Mendoza and Constable Puddock walk towards Bessie and The Prof <note: at this point, the guard’s movements are random as per the rules - they are not yet aware of the intruders>

The team (minus Shelagh) head along Sacred Path



Remember, its nighttime and nighttime is quite dark. Here’s an attempt to give an impression of what dark is like.





The guards wander aimlessly about




Talking of wandering, Constable Dan Mendoza wanders towards Bessie
Bessie spots Mendoza heading her way so takes the initiative and attacks him before he spots her but she fails to cause any damage. He immediately yells "intruder alert" and fights back. In the ensuing fight,  Bessie manages to fell him. Despite the shouted warning, the guards are still moving randomly. By accIdent, Sergeant Black blunders into Bessie and they trade blows. This time, Bessie loses out and is down. Unaware of this, Prof keeps moving towards the stone circle.




Sergeant Black having just felled Bessie is shot in the back by Flora. In the background lies Constable Mendoza



Gracie continues along the Sacred Path towards the henge whilst Flora peels off to the left to investigate the shooting. She finds herself behind an unsuspecting Sergeant Black. There seems no point in being sneaky any more so she shoots him coolly in the back. Sergeant Chalky Black is a very tough old copper but his luck has run out - he’s down. And what’s more, he’s left the gate to the compound open…! Without giving her victim a second glance, Flora heads towards the gate. Seeing the success of Flora, Gracie also makes for the gate.




Gracie joins Flora and they head towards open gate



As above but in realistic nighttime mode





Shelagh opens fire

Shelagh has seen Sergeant Black and as Bessie goes down, Shelagh opens up on the sergeant but with no effect. This alerts Constable Millar and Constable Hardwick. Millar opens up with suppressive fire towards where the shot came from while Hardwick runs towards the area. Despite the shots, the rest of the guard detail continue to mooch randomly and none of those off duty have their slumber disturbed by the noise. Shelagh, meanwhile is taking no chances. She fires at Millar and Hardwick and hits both. They are down.




Flora and Gracie going through gate - no coppers around




As above




Shelagh & Prof follow Flora and Gracie into the compound

The Prof abandons her plan which was a wide encirclement to get to the gap in the fence at the back of the compound. She reacts to all the shooting to her left and decides to head that way to investigate. At this point, three of the five night duty guards are out of action along with Sergeant Black. The two still in action are blissfully unaware of what’s happening and those off duty, including Inspector Tupper are happily sleeping on.

Having taken out the guards by the gate, Shelagh decides to advance. The Prof joins Gracie and Flora as they head towards the open gate. Apart from Bessie, who is out of the action, all the team are heading towards the open, and apparently defenceless, gate. Constable Joe Bones, stationed at the gap in the compound fence by the conveniences, turns round to look into the compound but sees only shadows. Constable Puddock strolls along the perimeter fence away from the gateway. Alf is still fast asleep in the guard hut, his snores being heard throughout the compound.




Gracie and Prof enter the hut after Prof has opened the door


Shelagh enters the compound and takes up a position covering the guard hut to be followed shortly afterwards by Gracie and Flora. After a pause to confirm there are no enemies, Gracie heads to the door of the main building while Flora keeps watch over the compound. A few minutes later, The Prof arrives in the compound and hurries to the door of the main building. She is skilled in lock-picking as well as other burglarous skills and soon opens the door. While she does these, Constable Bones, still unaware of events in the compound, turns about to survey the area of the camp.




Gracie locates the Bombard

Once The Prof has gained entry to the building, Gracie goes quickly to the store room at the end and finds the Bombard, all crated in advance by Lytemuff and Hovis.




Prof & Gracie make off with Bombard

With The Prof’s help, she quickly exits the building and heads back to their waiting lorry.


Prof & Gracie get away, covered by Flora and Shelagh

Shelagh and Flora cover them and then follow to the vehicle.


The team make it back to the truck, Bessie having regained consciousness and made her way back to the vehicle.


Meanwhile, Bessie has managed to stumble back to the lorry so the team, flushed with success, drive into the night, leaving behind five sleeping coppers including Inspector Tupper, two patrolling coppers, still blissfully unaware anything untoward has happened and three unconscious with non-fatal bullet wounds.

Summary. The game didn’t go as expected. I think I was reading the rules correctly but it was surprising that there wasn’t more reaction from the guards. At least 4 shots were fired but the off-duty guards slumbered through them. One guard was able to raise the alarm but only two others responded to this. They managed to return fire but were quickly neutralised and from then on, the only action from guards was to wander round randomly. The raiders got in and out of the compound and away without interference.

Nevertheless, an enjoyable little game and it contributed to the narrative of my VBCW campaign.

Doug

[marianas_gamer]

Nice write up and educational as well. I now know much more about the British vole 

[Red Orc]

Absolutely amazing write-up Doug; I particularly love the shots that 'attempt to give an impression of what dark is like'. 

[Doug ex-em4]

Nice write up and educational as well. I now know much more about the British vole 

Thank you for that, glad you liked it. Also, I’m now encouraged to begin work on my seminal volume "The Digestive Systems of the Smaller British Mammals".
 

Absolutely amazing write-up Doug; I particularly love the shots that 'attempt to give an impression of what dark is like'. 

Cheers Red. I thought it’d be useful to remind folks that you can’t see so clearly at night

Doug

[Legionnaire]

An entertaining read and a very well photographed action, with "night lens"  .

Although, one would very much argue, that, during the quiet of night time, yes you can't see very much (as was so beautifully illustrated). But hearing gunshots would be a rather different matter (miles away, literally), so at least the ambulating coppers shouldn't have had any difficulties knowing something dastardly was afoot.

Nevertheless, well done old chap for showing us this little bit of entertainment  .

[CapnJim]

Lovely little report.

As pointed out, Black Ops uses random movement rates and directions for guards until The Alarm is raised.  Noise (running, climbing, gunshots, someone yelling "Intruder Alert". etc.  affect those rolls in a positive manner for the guards, while distance from the noise and any hard cover between the guard and the noise affect the roll negatively for the guard.  Roll well enough for a guard, and the gig can be up.  Roll poorly enough, and blissful ignorance reigns.  Besides, acoustics can do some very weird things, especially at night and with-in built-up areas...

And not cast aspersions on Borsetshire's finest, one may not hear what one doesn't want to hear...

In any event, great report!  I love Black Ops for this type of mission...

[Doug ex-em4]

An entertaining read and a very well photographed action, with "night lens"  .

Although, one would very much argue, that, during the quiet of night time, yes you can't see very much (as was so beautifully illustrated). But hearing gunshots would be a rather different matter (miles away, literally), so at least the ambulating coppers shouldn't have had any difficulties knowing something dastardly was afoot.

Nevertheless, well done old chap for showing us this little bit of entertainment  .

Lovely little report.

As pointed out, Black Ops uses random movement rates and directions for guards until The Alarm is raised.  Noise (running, climbing, gunshots, someone yelling "Intruder Alert". etc.  affect those rolls in a positive manner for the guards, while distance from the noise and any hard cover between the guard and the noise affect the roll negatively for the guard.  Roll well enough for a guard, and the gig can be up.  Roll poorly enough, and blissful ignorance reigns.  Besides, acoustics can do some very weird things, especially at night and with-in built-up areas...

And not cast aspersions on Borsetshire's finest, one may not hear what one doesn't want to hear...

In any event, great report!  I love Black Ops for this type of mission...

Thank you Legionnaire and Capn Jim for your kind words - much appreciated.

Legionnaire, I felt the same as you that the gunshots would inevitably wake the sleepers and bring those on patrol running. I think I followed the rules faithfully (it was my first use of them) and they (the rules) decreed that there was no raised awareness due to the shots. I’m grateful to Capn Jim for putting the other point of view and he makes a lot of sense, based, I think, on real-world experience. Anyway, it was a fun solo game (they can so often be disappointing in my experience) and it moved the narrative onto the climactic fight that was played out at Snapcase Hall a few weeks ago and which I need to write up.

Doug

[Mad Lord Snapcase]

An excellent story and a very enjoyable write-up. Loved the realistic night mode! If the Defence of the Borchester Road is next, everyone here is in for a real tale of derring-do and audacious pluck! However, no spoilers here.

[Vagabond]

A great scenario,  break in,  grab the prize,  get away.  It all worked so well, except for poor Bessie Braddocks failure.

I think we used Black Opps to break in to a prison camp and spirit Madame de Gaulle away from the Germans early in the invasion of France. The guards then also seemed very reluctant to wake up, the Mad Lord was interpreting the rules so it must have been correct. 

Looking forward to reading the next instalment from Borsetshire.

[Khusru2]

Great! Keep it coming.