VBCW newbie's question - factions

[Bullshott]

Yesterday a mate and I were discussing putting together a few figures for VBCW skirmish games. There seem to be a lot of possibilities and I see there are some source books available. However, before we dive headlong into spending this new project, can someone give us a brief 'idiot's guide' to the various factions involved (what their motives are and which forces are alingned to which faction)?

Also, what is happening in the West Country area from Bristol down to Poole (Bath/Somerset/Wiltshire/Dorset), as some of our games may be based on battle locations of the English Civil War.

Thanks in advance.

Dave

[twrchtrwyth]

This should answer all your questions.
http://gwargamesp.18.forumer.com/index.php?s=4a5a0e0c5e31865ebe323dee39667530&showtopic=1689

[Bullshott]

Thanks

What I was trying to get my head around was, with so many factions, who is allied to who (or alternatively who hates who)?

I'm tempted top put together an Anglican League force, based out of Bath or Salisbury. How would this fit in to the background and who would they be fighting (and why)?

[twrchtrwyth]

I found this chart somewhere, probably from GWP3. It might prove useful although I'm not sure about the BUF and Anglican League number, I'd have put it higher, so less chance of co-operation. Chart is in both Open Office and Microsoft Office versions.

[6milPhil]

Thanks

What I was trying to get my head around was, with so many factions, who is allied to who (or alternatively who hates who)?

I'm tempted top put together an Anglican League force, based out of Bath or Salisbury. How would this fit in to the background and who would they be fighting (and why)?

I'm playing VBCW in Kent, and yes there's plenty of factions and with every new player the possibility of yet another faction. We're mainly playing BUF v AL, which is a tight fight so both are trying to build as many bridges as possible in a bid to avoid defeat. The basic relationships are covered in the source books or on the web as others have shown, but that doesn't mean you can't generate new alliances or possibilities based on your campaign.

There's been a fair amount of action in the West Country, it might be worth a visit to GWP to have a natter.

In the meanwhile if you need some free banners for your forces please pop along to my blog http://6milphil.wordpress.com/2010/12/25/vbcw-flags-of-convenience/

[warhammergrimace]

Over on GWP we're starting to put together a clearer picture of what's been happening in Cornwall and probably Devon as well since the books were written.

I'm in the process of putting together a small campaign regarding infighting amongst the Socialist factions in the Redruth and Camborne area.

Below is the very rough start I've made to that campaign.

This is a rough background information for a campaign I plan to run very soon, with some friends. What follows is a rough piece of background setting. The campaign is designed for small skirmishes in both a rural and urban setting. Its a civil war within a civil war, as the socialist factions in Redruth fight for supremcy and control of the town and surrounding areas. There is still more to add, and smooth out in areas, plus additional factions to be created, along with sceanarios.

Redruth Redshirts (Socialists Brigade)
This faction has backing from Russia, as a result they have been able to equip themselves very quickly with modern weapons and equipment. Their uniform is brown, with a red shirt/jacket, hence the name Redshirts. They have suddenly become a potent force within the South West, which is troubling the Kernow faction and the Royalists in Cornwall.

They have developed links in South Wales and further north, it is believed by Royalist agents that members from the Free Liverpool state are training them in urban warfare, along with two former Russian officers. They have also built a smuggling operation between Redruth and Ireland.

So far they have set up operations in Redruth, taking control of the town, and have implemented defences. They also send out patrols on a regular basis in the countryside around Redruth, clashing in small skirmishes with Royalist and BUF supporters.
Battle for Redruth

Redruth in Cornwall has become a stronghold for soicialist factions, but overall control has been sought by two factions, Redruth Redcoats and Redruth Socialist brigade. Until now this infighting has only been shown through political means, debates and rallies. Now its turned ugly, with small skirmishes breaking out.

The Redshirts have made a direct challenge for overall command of Redruth and all socialist factions in the surrounding area. This was been spurred on by the advice of the Russian military advisors attached to the Redshirts. They advised the command of the Redshirts, that the socialist factions needed to be commanded by one group/commander, if they were to make any significant advance towards a socialist led Cornwall.

Early skirmishes have been nothing more than street fights, after political rallies and speeches. These have been led by mainly younger members of opposing factions, and have been nothing more than scuffles. That was until the skirmish following the speech made by a local right wing socialist, Alfred Penversey, who advocated direct military action against the Redshirts, who he indicated were just merely puppets of their Russian masters. What happened has gone down as the battle for Penryn Street.



Penryn Street Battle

A small group of Redshirt supporters, had attended the speech by Alfred Penversey. During the speech they jeered and shouted abuse at Mr. Penversey, and this provoked some of the younger members attending to engage in scuffles. It was when Alfred accused the Redshirts of being Russian puppets, that a shot rang out, no one was injured, but following this a group of teenage supporters charged the area where the shot had sounded from.

As the teenagers charged into a group of Redshirt supporters two futher gun shots could be heard. Suddenly the scuffle broke apart as two teenagers had been shot, one was on the floor dead with a bullet hole in his head, and the other had been hit in the shoulder. After the initial shock and pandemonium broke out, there were shouts for the murderer to be hung. The Redshirts crowded around the shooter, but as the lynch mod moved closer to them the shooter fired in their general direction. Slowly they backed down the street, as more supporters came to aid both sides.

It seemed that the incident might end there, as the two sides didn’t seem to want to clash, then from the socialists side a petrol bomb was thrown towards the Redshirts. It was at this point that fighting broke out. The local socialists have always claimed that they didn’t throw the petrol bomb, and suspicions have always been, that the Redshirts had engineered the situation to topple over into a full blown military conflict.

Once the news had spread across the town that the Redshirts had killed a boy, socialists and non socialists flocked to the side of the local faction. Soon fully armed faction members on both sides were arriving. Gunshots could heard across the town as the battle for Penryn Street had began. It raged for roughly 3 hours, with several people killed and injured, but the better armed Redshirts had gained control of the situation, and gave them sufficient excuse to declare the commanders of the following factions criminals.

They quickly acted on the victory of Penryn, by declaring marshal law in Redruth and taking command of the town. Other local factions, either sided with the Redshirts or declared against them.

After Penryn Street

With the town now under Marshal law, the Redshirts slowly locked down the town looking for various faction commanders, and those who they knew would given them trouble.

The Thresweld Siege

One such person was a local former military officer, and current Police sergeant William Thresweld. He had been informed that some Redshirts were on their way to arrest him, so armed with a rifle and pistol, he holed himself up at his house waiting for them. As one of the red shirts approached the building, William killed him with a head shot. He then fired four shots from his pistol at the group of other red shirts, standing in the street, hitting a further two. The remaining members quickly took cover, and sent for assistance. William held them off for several hours, until a well armed group of Redshirts under the command of Arthur Garrity stormed the house under the cover of machine gun fire. Once inside the house Garrity was killed at close range by William before succumbing to a hail of small arms fire.

[Hammers]

Over on GWP we're starting to put together a clearer picture of what's been happening in Cornwall and probably Devon as well since the books were written.

I'm in the process of putting together a small campaign regarding infighting amongst the Socialist factions in the Redruth and Camborne area.

Below is the very rough start I've made to that campaign.

This is a rough background information for a campaign I plan to run very soon, with some friends. What follows is a rough piece of background setting. The campaign is designed for small skirmishes in both a rural and urban setting. Its a civil war within a civil war, as the socialist factions in Redruth fight for supremcy and control of the town and surrounding areas. There is still more to add, and smooth out in areas, plus additional factions to be created, along with sceanarios.

Redruth Redshirts (Socialists Brigade)
This faction has backing from Russia, as a result they have been able to equip themselves very quickly with modern weapons and equipment. Their uniform is brown, with a red shirt/jacket, hence the name Redshirts. They have suddenly become a potent force within the South West, which is troubling the Kernow faction and the Royalists in Cornwall.

They have developed links in South Wales and further north, it is believed by Royalist agents that members from the Free Liverpool state are training them in urban warfare, along with two former Russian officers. They have also built a smuggling operation between Redruth and Ireland.

So far they have set up operations in Redruth, taking control of the town, and have implemented defences. They also send out patrols on a regular basis in the countryside around Redruth, clashing in small skirmishes with Royalist and BUF supporters.
Battle for Redruth

Redruth in Cornwall has become a stronghold for soicialist factions, but overall control has been sought by two factions, Redruth Redcoats and Redruth Socialist brigade. Until now this infighting has only been shown through political means, debates and rallies. Now its turned ugly, with small skirmishes breaking out.

The Redshirts have made a direct challenge for overall command of Redruth and all socialist factions in the surrounding area. This was been spurred on by the advice of the Russian military advisors attached to the Redshirts. They advised the command of the Redshirts, that the socialist factions needed to be commanded by one group/commander, if they were to make any significant advance towards a socialist led Cornwall.

Early skirmishes have been nothing more than street fights, after political rallies and speeches. These have been led by mainly younger members of opposing factions, and have been nothing more than scuffles. That was until the skirmish following the speech made by a local right wing socialist, Alfred Penversey, who advocated direct military action against the Redshirts, who he indicated were just merely puppets of their Russian masters. What happened has gone down as the battle for Penryn Street.



Penryn Street Battle

A small group of Redshirt supporters, had attended the speech by Alfred Penversey. During the speech they jeered and shouted abuse at Mr. Penversey, and this provoked some of the younger members attending to engage in scuffles. It was when Alfred accused the Redshirts of being Russian puppets, that a shot rang out, no one was injured, but following this a group of teenage supporters charged the area where the shot had sounded from.

As the teenagers charged into a group of Redshirt supporters two futher gun shots could be heard. Suddenly the scuffle broke apart as two teenagers had been shot, one was on the floor dead with a bullet hole in his head, and the other had been hit in the shoulder. After the initial shock and pandemonium broke out, there were shouts for the murderer to be hung. The Redshirts crowded around the shooter, but as the lynch mod moved closer to them the shooter fired in their general direction. Slowly they backed down the street, as more supporters came to aid both sides.

It seemed that the incident might end there, as the two sides didn’t seem to want to clash, then from the socialists side a petrol bomb was thrown towards the Redshirts. It was at this point that fighting broke out. The local socialists have always claimed that they didn’t throw the petrol bomb, and suspicions have always been, that the Redshirts had engineered the situation to topple over into a full blown military conflict.

Once the news had spread across the town that the Redshirts had killed a boy, socialists and non socialists flocked to the side of the local faction. Soon fully armed faction members on both sides were arriving. Gunshots could heard across the town as the battle for Penryn Street had began. It raged for roughly 3 hours, with several people killed and injured, but the better armed Redshirts had gained control of the situation, and gave them sufficient excuse to declare the commanders of the following factions criminals.

They quickly acted on the victory of Penryn, by declaring marshal law in Redruth and taking command of the town. Other local factions, either sided with the Redshirts or declared against them.

After Penryn Street

With the town now under Marshal law, the Redshirts slowly locked down the town looking for various faction commanders, and those who they knew would given them trouble.

The Thresweld Siege

One such person was a local former military officer, and current Police sergeant William Thresweld. He had been informed that some Redshirts were on their way to arrest him, so armed with a rifle and pistol, he holed himself up at his house waiting for them. As one of the red shirts approached the building, William killed him with a head shot. He then fired four shots from his pistol at the group of other red shirts, standing in the street, hitting a further two. The remaining members quickly took cover, and sent for assistance. William held them off for several hours, until a well armed group of Redshirts under the command of Arthur Garrity stormed the house under the cover of machine gun fire. Once inside the house Garrity was killed at close range by William before succumbing to a hail of small arms fire.

Sorry, but this is not an idiot's guide. This is the encyclopedic guide.

[thenamelessdead]

When I read about a game of VBCW in Wargames Illustrated 281 I thought "they've got a good sense of humour and a quality idea for a game, how original" I didn't realise that it was actually an established game.  I'm quite keen on the idea of it.

The above 'fluff' regarding scraps in Cornwall is interesting to say the least!  I'm a Devonian and would naturally be interested in coming up with something for the inhabitants to fight about.  I was surprised to learn (via a handy tip-off from another LAFer) that there was significant BUF membership in Devon at the time, and may get this book if time/logistics allow:

http://www.stevensbooks.co.uk/hth/BSD.html

[Arlequín]

The bulk of BUF studies tends to concentrate on the London branch, but there was significant activity elsewhere. It pays to dig deep into local history as invariably there were member branches all over the place, even if they were one man and his dog affairs.

Thanks for the link, I'm sure it will be gratefully received! 

[fastolfrus]

Locally we looked at commercial activities leading the way for VBCW affiliation: everyone has to eat, for 1930s Scarborough with only limited industry locally, a sudden demise in tourism leaves fishing (or possibly smuggling) as the main local source of income and food. Scarborough is out on a limb politically - York to the west, Hull to the south, Middlesbrough to the north, all opponents of each other, so if Scarborough shows any favour to one it's likely to get targeted by the other two. But Scarborough was also a traditional port associated with the annual cruise of the Scottish fishing fleets. Local pleasure steamers served at Dunkirk, so for the VBCW it doesn't seem out of place to equip them with deck guns and turn them out as "fishery protection vessels" (for an appropriate fee).
Everyone needs food, and with civil war disrupting usual supply routes, the local Chamber of Commerce have a chance to influence things, with a sort of armed neutrality combined with healthy racketeering, so lots of small raids and skirmishes, train robberies, perhaps even piracy.
Perhaps you could look at a local 1930s map and see if there's any obvious inspiration as a starting point. You might also look for nostalgia books "Poole in 1930s photographs etc". You may find it similar to Scarborough (apart from the Scottish herring girls).

[Luddite]

Yesterday a mate and I were discussing putting together a few figures for VBCW skirmish games.

Welcome to the war old boy!

There seem to be a lot of possibilities and I see there are some source books available. However, before we dive headlong into spending this new project, can someone give us a brief 'idiot's guide' to the various factions involved (what their motives are and which forces are alingned to which faction)?

Others have done that well enough.  I'll just add that the beauty of AVBCW is that you can take a local area and make it your own, so 'motiviations' etc., are whatever cassus belli you happen to favour.

We're up in Durham for example and the main conflict is very much the iconic battle fo the war - Communist vs. Fascist.

The BUF (mostly southerners shipped into the north to try and secure the coal industries) are based in Gateshead and are going head-to-head with the vigorously emerging 'Chopwell Communists'.  Around this key conflict are other factions like the Regular army (primarily defending the border against the Scots and the Northumberland Freedom Fighters.  The Socialist Ashington & Newbiggin faction trying to build their own little territory based agound control of their coal mining operations, and the private army of Lord Lambton, who's taking the opportunity to try and carve out a larger share of the pie for his family/dynasty.
The Anglican League is as yet to make much of an appearance, controlling Durham City itself and a significant part of Newcastle.
There are also a number of Socialist splinter factions, and raiders/deserters up from Catterick...

So for us control of the coal fields is the vital conflict, with the BUF/govt. fighting the Communists/Socilaists.