Kings of War - The Halflings Strike Back

Stuart and I had a 2300 point game using the Control scenario. My Halflings were alarmed to see a Dragon-mounted knight leading even more  regiments of Knights than last time when they had ridden us down like dogs. A smaller, more elite force of The Order of the Brothermark. Would our superior numbers make up for our diminished stature? Stuart deployed two Knight regiments,Sir Roderick Demonbane on his Dragon & the two Phoenixes opposite my Poachers, Stalwarts and the Greedyguts in the centre. His Oathsworn Guardians, the Villein Penitents and a regiment of Knights were opposite the Troll Gunners, the Iron Beast and regiments of Ej Grenadiers and Aeronauts on my right. On the opposite flank he set only one regiment of Knights with a Chaplain against my other Aeronaut and Ej Grenadier regiments and my Captain on Winged Aralez, but the Dragon and Phoenixes were never far away.

I started peppering the squishier Penitents with arrows & nervously watched the Knights looming up towards my centre and edging onto my right flank. In reply the Dragon & Phoenixes were flaming my units, but it was early days. I got lucky to waver the Knights on my right and on the following turn broke them with a hail of rifle fire. In the centre the charging Knights obliterated one regiment of Poachers, but the other held thanks to his assailants being hindered by the rough terrain they had just backed out of. My Stalwarts and the Greedyguts joined the fight and broke the Knights so it was going well on the right & centre but on the left the Dragon charged in. He didn't break my Aeronauts, but in turn I failed to break him with all three of my units and when the Knights joined in they routed my lads. 

The battle turned into a swirling slogging match. My Aeronauts and Iron Beast broke the Oathsworn while the Trolls shot off the Penitents. The Phoenixes hunted down my Ej Grenadiers and the Hunter hacked the Greedyguts to bits. The Dragon and surviving Knights went for my Stalwarts and the Gastrospears, but couldn't break them and that extra unit strength made the difference between a draw and my winning the scenario with the Halflings holding the centre and right while the Crusaders were victorious on the left.

Myself and Peter played two VBCW themed games, myself as the Anglican League, Peter as the Royalists/BUF/Black Shorts.

Our first game was using Osprey's "A World Aflame" Rules, with a scenario adapted from Bolt Action where both sides have to try and retrieve a cache of top-secret documents from the centre of the board. I sent in my Allied French regulars to retrieve the cache, supported by two armoured cars and an MMG Team. The French got to the documents first but were then charged by the incoming fascists. The French military training paid off and they held their nerve and their ground, easily repelling the charge at the point of the bayonet. They then successfully made their escape with the documents over to Anglican HQ (hopefully not passing on any of the contents to their masters in Paris!. My victory came at a heavy cost, losing both my armoured cars to Molotov cocktails, which seem to be very effective anti-tank weapons under these rules.

Our second game was using the Xenos Rampant rules, with another scenario from Bolt Action whereby I tried to trap Pete's forces in the centre of the village, but my infantry was easily mowed down by their machine gun teams.  My armoured car scored a couple of good hits, but nowhere near enough to change the result. We were somewhat hampered in this game by not really being able to work out the rules for shooting into and out of buildings with the various different types of weapon.  Somewhat counter to my expectations, I therefore enjoyed the first game more (not just because I won, honest!)

Overall this was my first experience with VBCW, and I really enjoyed the period setting, collecting and painting the figures, vehicles and buildings.

A modern Africa affair set in the fictitious Republic of Zikanga, but based on Operation Barras, an SAS raid on the West Boys Compound in Sierra Leone 2000 to rescue members of the Irish Rangers. The game was played using Xenos Rampant rules.

It was a close run affair. Zikangian regulars assaulted the village stirring up a hornets nest of militia men and despite early successes they were forced backwards but buying enough time to draw militia men from the compound with the hostages for the SAS to launch their assault. It was then a race to the lorries to transport the hostages away, the SF carving through various groups of gun men. The hostages were released from captivity, but with five special forces killed it might not make pleasant reading in the press. Cracking game for the first of the year.