VBCW (possibly)

[H.M.Stanley]

One of the guys at the club has been broking a VBCW project for a while now and hasn't had so much a nibble, let alone a bite.

However, i picked up the Concise Source Book admit its an interesting concept. Naturally i'm drawn to The Peoples Armies (so that i can use my SCW collection of Militia and International Brigade)

So, how to start? Rules, Campaigns, films even? I can see the boys doing a small campaign with their current figures and take it from there.

Cheers

James

[Red Orc]

Rules - whatever you're using for SCW, I would think; that'll provide mechanics for movement, shooting and morale, as well as hardware.

Campaigns - where are you based? That's the easiest place to start.

Films - Land and Freedom, Richard III (Mackellen), any Jeeves and Wooster

And then you have to make random event cards, to be drawn at the beginning of a turn (depends on how your turn sequence works, obviously)...

Suggestions:

Tea Break - one unit gets a brew going and cannot move or shoot (but can defend themselves if attacked hand-to-hand) for one turn

Bad Weather - a sudden squall makes the going treacherous; all units on the table move at half-speed for one turn

Ducks on the Road - animals (ducks, cows or in urban areas, children) are crossing the road, field etc; one unit cannot move, fire or be fired on, or attack or be attcked hand to hand, for one turn

Game of Footie - two opposing units within 12"/30cm begin an impromptu game of football; for this turn and all subsequent turns until BOTH commanders make a suitable control/leadership roll to regain command, the two units will play football instead of fighting. No other units from either side may attack, fire on or otherwise interfere, except that more senior commanders may try to intervene to restore order. If order is restored at the beginning of a turn, each unit must move its maximum move away from the enemy, before being able to move and fight normally on the following turn

Just a few suggestions there...

[Mick A]

Basically as Red Orc said, any WWI, interwar or WWII rules are easily adapted. The Ian McKellen Richard III is apparently the spark that ignited the whole thing so its highly recommended viewing

Mick

[H.M.Stanley]

Thanks chaps

I quite like the alternative history of this but i'll step away from the Buffoonery of Wodehouse [i enjoy the books of course] 

I've ordered that version of RIII

I'm minded to use Bolt Action as it worked for my SCW games

James

[6milPhil]

The original idea was to use whichever rules you'd use for that period, so if you're happy with the BA one's it's a goer.

Related books are typically about the BUF, and Guy Walters did a good similar themed novel "The Leader". There's a Moseley mini-drama on DVD but probably not that vital tbh.

There's a dedicated web forum over at http://vbcf.freeforums.org/index.php
and my media empire has some examples of models, figure, etc, but also plenty of free handy bits like flags, banners, posters,chance cards, and the like; http://6milphil.wordpress.com/?s=vbcw
plus there's jp1885's excellent miniature guide; http://vbcwminisguide.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/welcome-to-vbcw-miniatures-guide.html

[H.M.Stanley]

Thanks Phil - i'll have a look

[Red Orc]

Thanks chaps

I quite like the alternative history of this but i'll step away from the Buffoonery of Wodehouse [i enjoy the books of course] 
...

One's willingness to shoehorn Bertie and his antics into VBCW is entirely a matter personal taste. I regard all 20s-30s gaming as part of one big Pulp-style mega-setting which includes, apart from Bertie and Roderick Spode (one of two Fascist leaders in my fictionalised 1930s Britain) a dollop of Agatha Christie and country-house murders as well as eldritch happenings of blasphemous and cyclopian aspect... or 'Professor Plum versus the Nazis of Kadath Parva' as I described it once. Not that everything has to appear together of course. And other ways of playing are possible. But if you do use the same rules as for your SCW games, I really do recommend coming up with some slightly daft 'random event' rules to do with tea, the weather, games of football and listening to Arthur Askey or Tommy Dorsey on the radiogram - they're the main thing in my opinion that make it a Very British Civil War, as opposed to a very generic civil war.

[H.M.Stanley]

Oh i agree ... to some extent.

Have you seen the Sword and the Flame Action/Event Cards? Great fun and not necessarily balanced.

But the whole "Earl of Snodgrass Gentleman Volunteers" blah blah [insert stereotypes] leaves me cold and is the reason i wasn't interested in the first place in VBCW

Pulp i like, within reason

James

[jp1885]

Take a look at the blogs in my signature, and join up to the very british civil forum at vbcf.freeforums.org 

The film 'went the day well?' Is also worth a look.

[paul c]

"But the whole "Earl of Snodgrass Gentleman Volunteers" blah blah [insert stereotypes] leaves me cold and is the reason i wasn't interested in the first place in VBCW"

Me too, but I've built up a mighty People's Army of Norfolk agricultural workers, Norwich shoe-workers and busmen, miners, postmen, socialist militia, returned International Brigade-members, Scottish republicans, Liverpool Free State security and cadets. My interest in the 1930s has been in the Hunger Marchers, the anti-fascists at Cable Street, the men and women who fought Franco and the ordinary decent working men and women of the British Trade Union movement, not Lord Muck's Hussars.

For me, nothing is more British than the Durham Miner's Gala, a colliery band and a sing-song in a pub. If you fancy that side of VBCW you are not alone and Solway's "The People's Armies" (which I wrote) should be to your taste. Many folk use SCW figures, perhaps not sombreo wearing ones though...Up the workers!

[H.M.Stanley]

I see that you're a man after my own heart, your first paragraph in particular 

[Luddite]

But the whole "Earl of Snodgrass Gentleman Volunteers" blah blah [insert stereotypes] leaves me cold and is the reason i wasn't interested in the first place in VBCW

Each to their own.

Make of the setting what you like.

Etc.

However, missing out this tone sort of misses the 'Very British' Part of it doesn't it?

I feel its charm as a game setting is precisely this sort of thing. 

Troops should be storpping for tea breaks, or getting distracted by unattended beer barrels.  They should be led by Captain Mainwaring or Lord Flashheart.  Cabbage patches, and cricket lawns should be impassable terrain.  Vehicles should be living embodiments of Messers Heath and Robinson.  Prisoners should be taken with a hearty handshake, a generous fill of their pipe, and a nice chat about the events of the day.

The way you play the game too should perhaps reflect this shouldn't it? 

Random cards seem a popular way to mechanise this, but when your opponent rolls all '1's', sure its the gentlemanly thing to let him reroll?

Isn't the appeal that this is a CIVIL war, rather than a civil WAR?

 

[H.M.Stanley]

I get it, i really do.

But the more i look at this the more i hear Spain calling again.

Salud!

[jp1885]

As us VBCW veterans like to say, 'it's -your- VCBW' so please don't feel pressured into changing the tone or direction of your pocket of the genre. 

I've seen threads on the VBCW forums, ranging from jolly japes with Colonel Sillyname to all out class war in miniature - to each his own!

[Luddite]

As us VBCW veterans like to say, 'it's -your- VCBW' so please don't feel pressured into changing the tone or direction of your pocket of the genre. 

I've seen threads on the VBCW forums, ranging from jolly japes with Colonel Sillyname to all out class war in miniature - to each his own!

I agree, as i said in my throat-clearing.   

But don't you think a sort of grim, bitter, Balkans-style grubby little war is just a bit Not Very British?!

Whatever people like i guess, but for me its the 'Cricket with shotguns' approach that i really like.