Captain Darling and the Great Antipodean Adventure

Captain Darling and the Great Antipodean Adventure

Or;

The Very Australian Civil War

Or a bit more accurately;

A Rather Violent Australian Civil Disturbance...

Well I'm off on another whim! I'm embarking on a new skirmish game campaign featuring Captain Darling! Even though the good Captain will be involved I'll be posting these games here on the TSOG Blog as it takes place after the age of Victoria and Steam!  This idea came about after I bought some already painted VBCW Warlord and Footsore figures recently for use as WW II partisans but then I thought to myself, "Hey why not combine them with my WW I Aussies and a few WW II Brits for some 'Very Australian Civil War' action?". I also have some vehicles that would be suitable plus it would be fun to make up some armoured civilian vehicles. Of course the Captain will be a little older well not much as he appears to age slowly (sinister music) but he'll feature in the story line and even the battles! Yeah I know I still haven't even finished the Russians Are Coming Campaign yet but never fear it's still on the go and will continue to its conclusion!

Australia in the 1920's and 1930's due to its sparse population density and an overall low level of industrialisation was not likely to be able to maintain a fully fledged war of State against State engulfing the continent even if the intent existed. That said there were examples of political extremism and even secession during the period. I'm thinking I would like my 'Australian Civil War' to have a some sort of grounding in actual history so I'll be setting it in 1932 with such events in mind. I envisage the constitutional crisis in NSW during 1932 as a trigger sparking off a violent conflict between Unionists and the Conservative Federal Government of the time. Various Political and Religious factions will obviously make appearances as they take advantage of the chaotic situation to put their two cents worth in, or in the currency of the time their tuppence worth in!

May 12 1932 and Captain Darling reclined in his Chesterfield sipping on a fine port, drawing on a hand rolled cheroot and perusing his favoured broadsheet. As he read he wriggled in his seat and the supple leather conformed to his every movement he sighed with content as he sunk further and further into the lounge. He shook his head as yet again the headlines were filled with news of the continuing constitutional crisis in NSW. He thought to himself the sooner the Governor of NSW dismissed the Leftie Pinko Premier Lang the better, he made a mental note to himself to write a missive to Governor Sir Philip Game on the morrow. At this point he decided to 'pull stumps' and retire as he believed tomorrow could be a very long day....

I'll flesh out the infamous constitutional crisis that occurred in NSW during 1932 in future posts on this campaign but if you're interested there's quite an good account of it on Wikipedia...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_South_Wales_constitutional_crisis,_1932

Here's a picture of some of the vehicles and figures that'll be getting a run in this campaign!

Oh not sure whether I'll go with TW&T or FUBAR rules for this campaign still thinking about that. Also I may devise an end of game process where troops may 'evolve' (or perhaps even devolve) as the campaign continues...

Longstreet House Rules - Morale & Move/Charge Phase

My mates and I are looking at starting a full nine game campaign after the success of our three game pre-Gettysburg one. For this campaign though I'm going to see if there's interest in a couple of House Rules before we start...

House Rule One

I have always thought in Longstreet our Regiments always fighting to the last man...we'll last stand at least without a single hesitation to get stuck in isn't quite right. Now I don't want to break a game I really enjoy but I've tried quite successfully a simple set of morale rules that don't add much game time and add in flavour where depleted units aren't so eager to charge and get you that extra Epic Point!

Rule:

There is a morale phase at the beginning of each player turn.

Any Infantry or Cavalry regiments (ignore Artillery) that have 5 or fewer bases roll 1D6.

The Die modifiers for this roll are; -1 if in cover -1 if any leader is attached.

If the result is greater than the number of bases in the regiment it fails its morale for that turn.

Failure means that unit can't charge this turn or move closer to any enemy units, it can fire, move sideways, move to the rear, change formation etc...

A natural 6 on the morale roll means that the unit withdraws at 1/2 speed directly to the rear retaining facing (it will keep going to clear any units) this is done at the beginning of the action phase regardless of the option the player selects Charge, Move or Pass...

House Rule Two

Every person I introduce these rules too has the same comment, a bit like when someone first enters the TARDIS and says 'hey it's bigger on the inside' for Longstreet they say 'what do you mean my units can't move and charge in the same turn?!?'. So here it is I've introduced a forth option for players in addition to Pass, Move and Charge...the Move & Charge option! It costs double the cards though so watch your card burn rate! This House rule hasn't been fully tested yet so unlike House Rule One this one is open to tweaking.

Rule:

To initiate a Move & Charge phase the player must discard TWO cards. This enables units to be able to move OR charge in this phase.

A THIRD card must be played to enabled Difficult Charges/Moves.

A FORTH card may be played to assist either the charges or the moves being carried out in the phase.

i.e.  a card enabling extra movement and another card enhancing a charge is not allowed, you can only assist either the moves or the charges with a card.

All Charges must be nominated and completed before the Move 'moves' are carried out.

Stacking must be adhered to at all times at the end of the charge move so a charging unit CAN NOT occupy any part of the the footprint of another unit, even if said unit will eventually move out of its current location latter in the phase.

I'll put these to the guys and look forward to seeing their reaction. All four people that are involved have played Longstreet before, all enjoy the game and all have been puzzled by the inability of forces to move & charge at the same time so their reactions will be interesting. I'll post what they say and then of course when we eventually start the campaign if we go ahead with either of these I'll keep everyone up to date!

Happy GAMING!