Silent and Deadly

A Second English Civil War Scenario

…from down the road the sound of machine gun fire could be heard, a helicopter gunship thundered overhead, a rare sight in this fuel scarce era. Private Smithson of the 7th East Anglian Regiment looked out from the window of the cottage she and her platoon had spent the last two days. The Republic’s thrust deep into Wessex had started three days ago. The rebels ran at first, but were now fighting back and fighting dirty. Snipers, mines and booby traps were everywhere, but you fight fire with fire. Now rearmed and fuelled up, the East Anglians were ready to make the final push. Smithson and her platoon crept out into street. An incoming artillery shell could be heard. “Hit the deck”, screamed Smithson. The shells landed, no explosion, breathing difficult, coughing, blackness…

Introduction

The Second English Civil War is a background I developed some time ago to play a few games using British equipment and to avoid the “tedious” Warsaw-Pact versus NATO games that were the norm at the time.The background continues to be developed with the introduction of US Marines (aiding Wessex) and European forces “peacekeeping” on the side of the Republicans.

It is set around the late 1990s, a timeline is being worked on which should give more details as and when the break down of the union.

Background

The objective of the Republic’s attack was to cut off Bristol from the rebels command in Taunton. At first things had gone well, the rebels taken by surprise had run, retreated far into Wessex. Then, trouble, they fought back, attempting to cut the supply lines, the Republic’s vehicles had ground to a halt, starting to run out of fuel and ammunition. But they had failed, the Republican troops were in retreat, falling back to Republican lines.

Re-grouping they made another push, this time with more air support and better logistics, it started to look like they could turn the tide and win the battle, and if they can win the battle they could end the war…

The Provisional Government of Wessex met in emergency session and decided that enough was enough and started to fight back.

The Scenario

In this conflict we see a major conflict of the Second English Civil War with combined forces from both sides engaging in conflict around the village of Chew Magna. The Republicans should attempt to push back the rebels and force them to retreat.

The Forces

These are only suggestions and basically it will depend on what is in your model collection. On no account should you attempt to make things fair, as war is never fair… In the forces breakdown I have referred to “sections” this has nothing to do with the military term but should be seen as a base of infantry. For example my 6mm troops are based three figures to a base, therefore a section for me would be two bases (six troops).

The Forces – Republican

    • 7th East Anglian Regiment 12 sections of Infantry
    • 3 sections of Heavy Weapons
    • 1 command section
    • 16 Land Rover 110s
    • 2 AH64 Apache Helicopter Gunships
    • 7th Armoured Tank Regiment 12 Challenger MBTs
    • 1st Armoured Division 6 Scorpion Light Tanks
    • French Army 9 AMX30 MBTs
    • The Republicans can count on the air support of two Tornados.

The Forces – Wessex

    • 4th Wessex Tank Regiment 8 Challenger MBTs
    • 4 Chieftain MBTs
    • 1st US Marine Corp. 10 M1A1 Abrams MBT
    • 10 sections of Infantry
    • 1 heavy weapon section
    • 1 command section
    • 6 LAV25
    • 10 Fast Attack Vehicles
    • 1st Bristol Guards 9 sections of infantry
    • 2 sections of heavy weapons
    • 1 command sections
    • 6 GKN Saxons
    • Chew Magna Militia 5 sections of “poor” infantry
    • 5 4×4 Vehicles (Discovery, Range Rover etc..)
    • Wessex Air Support consists of three Sea Harriers from HMWS Ark Royal.

Rules

Use the rules you normally would use for 6mm moderns combat.

Models

There are various models for this era available in a variety of scales, though the game lends itself to 1/300th over anything else. I would really like to play this game in 15mm, but moderns in 15mm is an area that needs development by figure manufacturers. Update: with the release of Team Yankee we now have a range of 15mm models with which to play Second English Civil War scenarios with.