YWGS Participation Game at Vapnartak

[John in York]

Took delivery of 6 Zvezda BT5 tanks and some Peter Pig goodness.
Myself and several friends at York Wargames are planning to do Fuentes de Ebro as a participation game at Vapnartak.
They will be the charging Russian tanks.
We will be the defending Nationalist guns.
As one member put it we will be playing tank racing.
Bayonet and Ideology will be used as the base mechanic.
Looking forward to lots of gluing, painting and play testing. 

[Colonel Kilgore]

That sounds like a great project / demo game.

You may be able to do some tie-in with the recent Michael Portillo series (e.g. flyers on the table) to show how "mainstream" this topic has now become?

And if this is Vapnartak 2018 (didn't the 2017 one take place in February?), you should presumably be able to use the new version of the BI rules when they're out?

Please post some pictures of your emerging forces, and of the game / playtests themselves!

[martin goddard]

It would be great to see a SCW game at the show. Power to your elbow John.

[John in York]

Its the Feb 2018 show.
Plan is to buy the new rules as soon as they come out and hopefully use them as written. However its a specific scenario so we may use some of the old rules and / or apply some simplifications of our own devising.
I'm determined though that the core will be PP rules as they use such good mechanics.
I like the idea of table dressing and we will give that a lot of thought.
I will keep everyone posted.

[Colonel Kilgore]

Super!

You may be very pleasantly surprised how fast the new rules play, and hopefully won't need much tweaking: either way, would be good to know what if anything you do feel the need to change.

Following Mr Lurkio's lead, you may also wish to consider planning an article for one of the "glossies" detailing your planning, play-testing and the actual day? Would be a great way to publicise he rules, Peter Pig and your show!

[Leslie BT]

Not only table dressing, are you not going to be in vintage costume as well.

[John in York]

My slight concern Colonel is whether a rule set for Infantry plus assets will 100% work without adjustment for a just assets game (I.e. armour and guns).
I like the idea of an article. I'll look into that.
Dressing up is a thought Leslie. We did dress up as cowboys for our Vappa 2017 gunfight game.

[Colonel Kilgore]

My slight concern Colonel is whether a rule set for Infantry plus assets will 100% work without adjustment for a just assets game (I.e. armour and guns).

Ah - just tanks and guns?

But weren't there infantry riding on the tanks? And presumably some protecting the guns too?

Would be interesting to see how the rules worked without infantry, but you could probably include some legitimately too?

[John in York]

There were but most had fallen off by the time the Nationalist lines were reached. If there are no tank riders then is there any point in plain old Nationalist infantry?. I'm planning to have guys with Molotov cocktails.
Might be interesting to start with tank riders and have Nationalist infantry.
Thanks for all this food for thought.
Something to include in the play tests methinks.

[Colonel Kilgore]

I'm planning to have guys with Molotov cocktails.

You'll need some for the Tank Hunters asset!

[John in York]

Sounds good.
Current idea for the Tank Riders is to represent them with a D6 (held on a scenic base).
Every tank starts with 6.
Each turn they compare their move with a die roll.
So a move of 6 squares and a roll of 4 is a difference of 2 meaning 2 tank riders have fallen off.
At the end of the game the number of riders left is added to the number of rows the tank has advanced (x2) to give a score.
The decision is between advancing rapidly towards the objective or having a better chance of keeping the tank riders.

[Colonel Kilgore]

Very good, and seems very much in the spirit of the latest RFCM games, where fortune may favour the brave (foolhardy?). Or not.

Looking forward to the first playtest reports!

[John in York]

Play testing starts in 2 weeks.
I checked with the committee member looking after games last night and he said we were first on the list.
So no worries there.

[John in York]

Well we had our first playtest evening and it went rather well. Simplified Bayonet & Ideology rules were used (e.g. no opportunity or return fire) to speed things up. Games lasted about 30 minutes which is what we were looking for. One more play test session in the New Year and then onto the show.

[John in York]

Well all the extra painting has been done, play tests completed, winners medals finished and the Republican Flag arrived ready to roll. Can't wait.