A panoramic view of Little Basely by the Sea prior to hostilities.
I have been away for work quite a bit lately, so I haven’t had a chance to play test my scenarios for Historicon at regular club nights. I invited a few folks over to play test one of Greg’s and my Sea Lion games and Duncan’s Combat Patrol(TM) Napoleonic games.
In this scenario, a German bomber has crashed near Little Basely by the Sea (a name I took from an old Avenger’s television show episode). This bomber, however, wasn’t headed to London. It’s mission was to secretly land some Fallschirmjaegers to cause trouble. Since the German Navy and Luftwaffe don’t like each other, the Fallschirmjaegers were unaware that the Kriegsmarine was also landing a squad of soldiers near the coast to conduct reconnaissance. In the meantime, the Home Guard was out on maneuvers and hears the bomber crash.
Getting read to begin the game.The start of the game.
The units closest to the bomber crew were some Women’s Land Army girls out in the fields (two five-girl teams). The bomber crew began the game stunned. The bomber crew immediately dashed to the waiting petrol truck, but the Land Girls were in hot pursuit.
The German bomber has crashed near the town.A closer look at the bomber.Little Basely by the Sea — the calm before the storm. The buildings and roads are from Sally 4th’s photorealistic building collection. These are wonderful kits that go together easily and look great on the table.The Women’s Land Army advances with shotguns and farm tools to capture the bomber crew.The ladies postpone planning for the upcoming jumble sale and pinch the Vicar’s car to try to run over Jerry.One Land Girl bravely resisted the molestations of the Fallschirmjaegers before being killed. The black bands represent stun. The red band represents a wound. The green markers on the Fallschirmjaeger’s command die represent morale checks that need to be made before the unit can activate again.The home guard captures one of the Fallshirmjaeger equipment containers.The Pubkeeper’s wife spots Germans rowing ashore in rubber rafts. The bunker is from Sally 4th. The figure is from Bad Squiddo.The bomber crew have climbed aboard the petrol truck, but the ladies are in hot pursuit.The Regulars were unable to stop the bomber crew in the petrol truck from driving to safety.The home guard has absconded with the German equipment container while the action heats up in the back garden’s and allotments.The Home Guard passes out German rifles to the Women’s Land Army ladies.Germans land on the beach in rubber rafts.The petrol truck with the remainder of the bomber crew makes it to the coast. The Germans who landed in the rubber rafts, set up a beachhead to protect the bomber crew and await the arrival of the Fallschirmjaegers. (They don’t know that the Women’s Land Army and the British Regulars have killed half of them already.)The Germans who landed in rubber rafts engage in a melee with the church ladies while the bomber crew transfers from the petrol truck to two rafts. The car had bogged down in the woods, as the ladies were trying avoid scratching the vicar’s paint. It was a hard-fought melee, but it ended with just two dead Germans and four dead church ladies. The fifth church lady (named Felicity Kendall) had fled the action and taken cover near one of the bunkers.
At this point, we stopped the game to make sure we had time to test Duncan’s Napoleonic game. I will make a few small adjustments to the scenario before the convention, but in general it worked well.
