FWC Bootcamp 2017

The 8th annual Future War Commander Bootcamp, a weekend of 6mm Sci-Fi scenarios, took place at the Tudor Arms in Slimbridge, Gloucestershire, organised by the very efficient Mark

 There were 10 players this year including a contingent from Reading.

The first scenario is the traditional 1000 point Mad Max 2 themed Gastown where Hunter-Scavenger clans (that's Orks) each try to get their tanker into town to fill up. The game is pretty chaotic with 9 players all trying to avoid destruction due to mandatory assaults when within 15cm of the enemy and still meet the objective.

Gastown and it's lush surroundings - well that's what it says in the brochure.

Most of Gastown is underground.

One of the Scav Clans, David's, on their way to fill up

Rodge'sClan spent most of it's time blundering backwards

Graham's Clan which eventually won through no fault of Graham

My Clan's airforce -  Jagdstaffel 60 - known as Jasta Minute

Steve's Scavs overlook Gastown

Graham & Jon's troops clash

Gordon dropshipped his troops into the back of Dan's Clan

Rodge's tanker can't decide to whether to go forward or backwards

Jasta Minute returns to base after their tanker gets destroyed

An entertaining start to the weekend that saw Graham taking the honours and everyone else taking everyone else apart. 

We then went onto to play 1 v 1 2500 Point Encounter games. There were 5 worlds to play on.

Urban World - Steve's Kraytonians v Mark's Cyber Undead (Necrons)

Abandoned World -  Dan's Space Marines v Rodge's Pac-Fed Humans

Alien World - Mike's Eldar v Graham's I.K.E.A Droids

Ice World World -  Gordon's Imperial Guard  v Jon's Hunter Scavengers

Desert World  - David's Cybernetic Species X31 (Tau) v my Pax Arcadians

You manics - you blew it up

The Pax Arcs advance

The X31s advance 

We meet in the middle and start shooting

Quite a lot of shooting as neither army really likes close combat

David's army was beautifully painted - the models are Okami Combine by Onslaught Miniatures

Another shot of the X31s/Okami Combine/Tau

Sunday began  with our Holy Grail - the 1500 Point Stargate Scenario.  This is where two teams, each with a Home try to find the codes to the enemy's Home world which are scattered on 3 other worlds.

Black Team on the Ice world comprised Gordon, Graham, Mike, Rodge and Steve. Red Team on the Urban World consisted of Dan, David, Jon, Mark and myself.

Red Team's Space Marines form up to go through the gate on Urban World.

Red's Pax Arcs encounter a band of mercenaries on Alien World

On Desert World Black's 's Eldar, Pac-Feds, X31s AND Kraytonians attack Red's Red Guard and Pax Arcs - bring it on lads!

Black's Space Canadians(?) and  Red's Space Marines tough it out on Abandoned World.

Back on Desert World Black's Eldar assault Red's Pax Arc Mammoth tanks in the rear and fail thanks to Defensive fire and support from Red Guard infantry. 

Black's Space Canadians finally reach the Gate Code station on Abandoned World...

...but Red's Scav force comes to the aid of the Space Marines.

So 2 Home World codes apiece but Red controlled two of the three Outer Worlds and had broken Black's Kraytonian force. Therefore no outright winner but a major victory to Black Team in the Never-ending Stargate War

The final game on Sunday was the 1250 point Woken Furies scenario based on the book of the same name. This is a cooperative game  where the players have to clear a city of Mimints - nano-tech cyborgs or something like that. 

Mark runs this game and puts on an excellent show with superb scenery and models

Harlans World - New Hok

The Cleared Area

Jon's Scav Gargant poses for a photo whilst clearing the city

The team advances through the city

After a BBQ and a few beers the Pax Arcs decide to join in the fun

Some of the city's wildlife

Whilst Jon's Gargant kills a few architects (top right) the Pax Arcs prepare to blow away some Mimints

With the city having been cleared someone had killed enough Mimints to claim victory. It wasn't me as I only killed a blue furry thing that was a UN protect species but could rip a tank in half.

And that was the end of another cracking weekend of sci-fi gaming.

Thanks to Mark for setting it all up and thanks to everyone who played especially Dan, David and Jon for trekking down from Reading. 

This was probably Graham's last Bootcamp as he is off to Canada so he will be sorely missed.  

And after 8 years of playing the Pax Arcs, wonderful army that it is, I'm going to retire them and start a new FWC army (honest).

Fire In The Bush - Modern Africa using BBB

Rodge has a lovely collection of modern African kit in 15mm. We mainly use RFCM's AK47 v1 which is a great set of rules but can be quite random. Rodge has been tinkering with his own set, Fire in the Bush, for a while but he has taken Bloody Big Battles and tweaked it for modern bush warfare.

The Baako township held by the rebels under Beeko Mumfasa

Shaun played the Government forces led by General President the Right Reverend Jomo Bangbalaonabulu. I played the Rebel forces under Beeko Mumfasa. Our objectives were to destroy the opposing forces and kill or capture their leader.

Government Forces
Unit	Morale	Bases	Attributes
Armoured Car	Trained	1	AC Class 2, Cannon, Load 0, Fragile
Armoured Car	Veteran	1	AC Class 2, HMG, Load 1
APC	Trained	1	APC Class 2, LMG, Load 5, Fragile
APC	Veteran	1	APC Class 2, LMG, Load 5
Lorry	Raw	2	Lorries Class 1, Load 5, Fragile, Tactically Inept
Lorry	Veteran	1	Lorry Class 1, Load 5
Limo	Veteran	1	Armoured Limo Class 2, Load 1
Jeep	Trained	1	Technical Class 1, HMG, Load 1, Fragile
Infantry	Trained	5	4 x Assault Rifle, 1 x LMG, Fragile
Infantry	Trained	5	4 x Assault Rifle, 1 x LMG, Fragile
Infantry	Trained	5	4 x Assault Rifle, 1 x RPG, Fragile
Infantry	Veteran	5	4 x Assault Rifle, 1 x LMG, Aggressive, Infiltrate
Infantry	Veteran	5	4 x Assault Rifle, 1 x LMG, Aggressive, Infiltrate
Rebel Forces
Unit	Morale	Bases	Attributes
AA Lorry	Veteran	1	Armoured Lorry Class 2, Wheeled, AA, Load 1
Technical	Veteran	1	Technical Class 1, Wheeled, HMG, Load 1
105mm SPG	Veteran	1	SPG [105mm] Class 2, Tracked, Load 0
Infantry	Raw	5	5 x Rifle, Tactically Inept, Aggressive
Infantry	Raw	5	5 x Rifle, Tactically Inept, Aggressive
Infantry	Raw	5	5 x Rifle, Tactically Inept, Aggressive
Infantry	Trained	5	4 x Assault Rifle, 1 x LMG, Fragile
Infantry	Trained	5	4 x Assault Rifle, 1 x RPG, Fragile
Infantry	Veteran	5	3 x Assault Rifle, 1 x LMG, 1 x RPG, Infiltrate
Infantry	Veteran	5	3 x Assault Rifle, 1 x LMG, 1 x AT, Infiltrate
Infantry	Veteran	1	Sniper, Infiltrate, Devastating Volley 0-12”

The battlefield looking west

All vehicles have an Armour Class which certain weapons have no effect against eg a rifle can cause no damage to Armour Class 2 but can disorder it.

Some weapons must fire on their own eg the 105mm SPG can not combine fire with Assault Rifles

Load is the number of bases a vehicle can carry.

Infiltrate is basically the ability to move from one piece of cover to another and is based on Brucie's Play Your Cards Right

Rodge may well post his variant to the BBB Yahoo Group

I deployed the Rebels in the Township and Shaun had the choice of arriving on the Norther East or North West road. He selected the North West road

The approach road taken by the Government forces

Beeko Mumfasa admires his trusty AA truck "Ndege Bunduki"

It's not all work for Mumfasa - he also plays in goal for Baako Rovers

The 105mm SPG "Kunguruma Tembo" spots a Government APC

Government traffic jam on the road to Baako

Government recce scouts the local lock-up

Ambush! A Rebel RPG takes out a Saladin A/C 

Government and Rebel troops get into a fire fight north of the township

General President the Right Reverend Jomo Bangbalaonabulu remembers an urgent appointment in the capital and heads for his limo

With most of their armour destroyed the Government forces fall back

After the battle Mumfasa leads the Victory Parade...

.. and finally The Victory Speech in front of his loyal supporters

A most enjoyable game - it ran very smoothly and quickly as we all know BBB. The Rule tweaks worked well. BBB is a very good rules engine that lends itself to adaption to other periods. I'm looking forward to Mumfasa's march on the capital.

Rodge made all of the buildings and converted the vehicles. The majority, if not all, of the figures are 15mm Peter Pig.

Camerone - 154th anniversary re-fight using BBB

It's a club tradition that we refight Camerone near the anniversary. We use the excellent scenario from Tim Tilson's Colonial Campaigns book Maximilian in Mexico. Although Tim's scenarios are geared towards using The Sword and the Flame rules they work well with other rule sets - in this case Bloody Big Battles. I've listed the rule tweaks at the end

The French Force

Captain Danjou
Sous-lieutenants Maudet and Vilain
4 units each of 4 bases of Legionaries - MLR, Elite (never go spent), Aggressive
Incidentally this means that the French figure:man ratio is virtually 1:1

The Legion prepares to defend La Trinidad Hacienda. 

The upper floor of the house is occupied by a 2 base Republican cavalry unit (dismounted of course!)

Captain Danjou stands in the middle of the courtyard where he "urged his men to take an oath to fight to the death rather than surrender...he made them swear their fealty on his wooden hand"

The walls of the Hacienda were too high to climb and the Republicans had no ladders so the only entrances are two at the north wall and one in the south-west corner.

Dismounted irregular cavalry 

The Republican Force

3 Commanders

Irregular Cavalry: 4 bases - MLR , Raw, Ragged Volley, Fragile, dismounted

Irregular Infantry: 4 bases - MLR , Raw, Ragged Volley

Regular Infantry: 4 bases - MLR , Trained

The Republicans attack in 3 Assault Phase. Each Phase is either 4, 6, 8 or 10 units of regular or irregular infantry or cavalry chosen by the Republican players. Each regular unit is worth 2 Victory Points (VP) to the French and each irregular unit  is 1 VP. The Republicans get 2 VPs for killing a French base. There are also VP awarded  to each side for other activities but I'm sure Tim would appreciate it if you bought his book to find those out.

An Assault Phase ends when the Republicans roll less than the number of units that are Spent.

For Phase 1 the Republicans selected 6 units of Irregular Cavalry

More dismounted irregular cavalry 

Rodge's finger points at his dismounted irregular cavalry

Having cleared the upper floor of the ranch the Legion defend it against repeated assaults

At the end of Phase 1 the French have 6 VPs and the Republicans have 2 VPs

For Phase 2 the Republicans selected 6 units of Regular Infantry.  A good choice as they have to lose 2 bases before doing spent. On the downside it means an extra 12 VPs to the French

The Mexican Regulars break into the courtyard from the north but are held at the  south-west corner by sous-lieutenant Maudet and his squad.

Phase 2 saw several assaults that were drawn which wore the Legion down and earned VPs for the Republicans.

Score at end of Phase 2 - French 18, Republicans 14

For Phase 3 the Republicans went in for the kill and selected 8 units of Regular Infantry giving the French another 16 VPs.

Sous-lieutenant Vilain valiantly holds the northern wall.

The final assault begins

The Republicans, led by Colonel Francisco de Paula Milán , storm the walls. 

Lieutenant Maudet forms a ragged line in the courtyard.

Meanwhile Captain Danjou, Lieutenant Vilain and a handful of Legionaries occupy the house

The Republicans overwhelm Maudet and his comrades. Only the house remains in French hands.

Finally the house is taken.

Viva Mexico!

A victory for the Republicans - or was it? The beauty of this scenario is the Victory Point chart which requires the Republicans to overwhelm the French with minimum force

So the final tally for points - French 34 to the Republican 38. So even though they took the Hacienda and destroyed the French it was only a Minor victory for the Republicans.

The BBB rules worked very well as always.

The following changes were made to the rules (with a nod to Pat for his ideas)

• Units may not combine fire although they may individually target the same unit.
• Units fight to the last base
• No second ranking firing in Assault
• Leaders have no Command range, only the unit they attach to gets the command benefit
• Attached Leaders count as an extra Base
• Attached Leaders can be killed on a roll of 2,3,11 & 12 if the unit is Disordered.
• Legion units never go spent
• The Hacienda is classed as a village
• Low on ammo is permanent for Legion units

Thanks to Dave N, Mike, Rodge & Shaun for playing.

The Hacienda was lovingly handcrafted by Rodge

The figures are all QRF / Freikorps 15mm