VBCW Malta

[Vanvlak]

Okay guys, that fell flat... I was joking. 'The elephant in the room' is an idiom for something that is so blatantly obvious or apparent, yet is being ignored for some social or political reason. A lot of it went on back then. An example would be old Colonel Blimp, asleep at the club with his trousers unbuttoned leaving him 'exposed'; everyone can see it, but nobody wants to mention it to another, nor indeed cause the colonel embarrassment by pointing it out to him... apply it to any glaring social phenomenon, or event, as you wish.

Forget I said anything... 

  

Well that shows mods are taken seriously! And it didn't fall flat - in fact it was almost funnier this way 
I needed that today anyway... and I liked the circus idea. I already am building a human cannonball cannon for another scale, why not 10mm as well? 

Tym: yep, and trams and football and parades and grotesque masks and a bazillion things. The Anglican League St Chamond - any pics?

[Arlequín]

Certainly my dreams of a career in stand up comedy lie in tatters. 

But any way.... this could be good. Big enough to fight convincing actions at whichever level you like. Outside interference is limited by geography and its small enough to really go to town on your movers and shakers.
 

[Vanvlak]

Certainly my dreams of a career in stand up comedy lie in tatters.  

But any way.... this could be good. Big enough to fight convincing actions at whichever level you like. Outside interference is limited by geography and its small enough to really go to town on your movers and shakers.
 

And anyone who wants to interfere just ships in*.

Small is beautiful  

*Edit:
Or drops in - I just remembered I own one of these, and 1:144 is reasonably close to 10mm scale.....

[Vanvlak]

you could have a nice eboat/mtb like conflict in the waters around the island too

Sorry Scurv, missed this post - yes,that's a splendid idea actually - hmmm....

Meanwhile, my small order of VBCW books has arrived, and this includes The Concise Sourcebook, Went the Day Well? and Tales from the Fall of the Empire Part1.

My hiatus resulted from an unusually cautious approach (for me): waiting for the books to try not to mess up my allocation of models.
Surprisingly, Malta gets a mention in the Fall book, and even more surprisingly my thoughts of a governor aligned to the King OR to the Anglicans materialised in the latter form - which is brilliant. The Fall book says the French would cautiously support the anti-Fascists, so now I have two factions:
1) the Governor's forces with some French support in the form of the (useless?) St Chamond, not to mention the Vickers.
2) the local uprising by the Italophile nationalists (they did exist in real life) and the church (Catholic), making a bid for unity with Italy which is strongly supported by Italy (also pandering to the Fascist monarchists by opposing the Anglican governor). Italy sends a couple of Renault FT17s (which were in real history in use by Italy).

So the tanks are settled, the aeroplane will probably be scenery, although it could support the Italophiles. All I need are troops. And a communist faction....

[Arlequín]

There are always communists. 

Look up Dom Mintoff and Paul Boffa and the trail should lead from the socialists of the Labour Party to more hardline elements.

Mussolini's interest in Malta would have bordered on an obsession if he thought there was a chance of bringing it into the fold too.

[Rob_bresnen]

Sounds like a very good basis for a VBCW campaign. Or should that be VMCW?

Plenty of believable factions, who hate each other, and have the means to fight each other.

[CaptainBigglesmay]

Don't know if you've seen this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?x-yt-ts=1422579428&v=ne6PodCVYEo&x-yt-cl=85114404

Looks a good video for kit ideas

[Vanvlak]

Sounds like a very good basis for a VBCW campaign. Or should that be VMCW?

Plenty of believable factions, who hate each other, and have the means to fight each other.

I thought of VMCW, but decided against as Malta was part of the Empire back then, and is well within the context of the BCW.

Arlequin: Communists - labour hardline and more, a 30's author in Malta, Juann Mamo, published a very controversial book which could be considered Marxist, and I'd like to include him as a character. The real chap was mysteriously found dead during WWII.

CaptainBigglesmay, thanks, hadn't seen that. I'm familiar with the location, it's on the Victoria Lines - very nice setting for a VBCW scenario!

[carlos marighela]

As there seem to be less than two dozen Maltese surnames to serve the entire population, I suspect you could have a faction per family clan. Psaila vs the Grech clan. Falzons vs Attards, Borgs vs Gaucis , etc, etc, etc.

[Vanvlak]

As there seem to be less than two dozen Maltese surnames to serve the entire population, I suspect you could have a faction per family clan. Psaila vs the Grech clan. Falzons vs Attards, Borgs vs Gaucis , etc, etc, etc.

Heh - I could.
Borg would win, they outnumber the others badly.
And I'd be very much a loser having a locally rare Brit surname I inherited from great-great-grandad.

[Arlequín]

Borg? I thought I'd ended up on the wrong board for a moment. 

[Vanvlak]

Borg? I thought I'd ended up on the wrong board for a moment. 

Which brings up a funny true story:
Some years back - over a decade now - in an election one of the parties had a billboard with a huge cube and some sort of slogan. The cube was very tech-looking, and surely enough someone or other sent a letter to the Times to suggest that said party want to assimilate voters with their Borg cube.

So far so good.

A couple of days later an obviously quite irate correspondent wrote to the editor in reply to the above letter, angrily asking why his small company had been dragged into a letter on partisan politics published on the pages of the Times.
His company made ice cubes, and its name wasn't overly imaginative. Furthermore, Mr Borg was clearly not a Trekkie.....

[Valerik]

There are always communists. 

Truer words wuz nivver spoke!!!

Sounds like a very good basis for a VBCW campaign. Or should that be VMCW?

Plenty of believable factions, who hate each other, and have the means to fight each other.

Might I be allowed to submit to the mélange:   Pantellerian Mercenaries!!



Gotta have some Carthaginian representation after all, eh wot!!

I'm following this with great interest, as I dare not participate!!

Valerik

"Remember, Rome wasn't burned inna day"

[Harbadix]

Looking to start playing VBCW this thread caught my interest! My brother and I started discussing the idea of putting Malta into VBCW. We didnt want to see anything too drastic happening to our beloved island so our games will be quite light hearted, like a kind of Maltese 'Allo 'Allo set in the VBCW universe. Our plot line is going to be based around the real political conflict that occured in the late 30's over language, namely the obolition of Italian as the official language and being replaced with Maltese and English.
So, we would have two main factions - the Nationalists backed by the Italians and the supporters of Stricklands Labour Party. In real life the British sided with Strickland as strengthening ties with the fascist Italians was not desirable, however in the world of VBCW and a Mosely governemnt in England we are allying the British with the Nationalists as well. This makes  them very powerfull. So we have a strong fascit backed faction and an underdog 'workers' faction. Keeping it light hearted though of course as I said before so we will also have a small communist faction (largely inefectual, sitting around in the local bars spouting retoric and nothing much else). Also due to the strong Royal Navy presence in Malta before the hostilities began we will have as small enclave of Albertines, these will be British and Maltese 'toffs' full of blaster (plenty of retired old British officers) but again not much else. We'll have to have a bar similar to that of 'Allo 'Allo where all the intrigue goes on as a neutral zone (this will of course be located in the infamous Strait Street)

Now to source some figures. There are plenty of nice partisans around in 28mm but I'd like to find some that arent wearing as much warm clothing. Would prefer to find partisans in rolled shirt sleeves, no jackets etc.

[Valerik]

Now to source some figures. There are plenty of nice partisans around in 28mm but I'd like to find some that arent wearing as much warm clothing. Would prefer to find partisans in rolled shirt sleeves, no jackets etc.

Bob Murch Pulp sailors!!











A few over-dressed matelots in the bunch, but overall good for sunny climes!!
& universal enough to make an appearance most anywhere in the '20s-'70s.

http://pulpfigures.com/products/category/12

When a man's able to paint 'em they go quick & are fulla character!



http://pulpfigures.com/products/category/16

Also RN types, including a landing party, & army lads it tropical kit, with Sikhs & Scots too!!  More'n a few packs & plenty of individuals to staff your VMCW!!

Bob Murch is Da MAN!!!!

Not sure who to use for those pesky Pantellarians though....

Valerik

No connection other than a very satisfied repeat customer