A Very British Civil War, The Great War, 28mm

Just saying this was a game put on by Colin Jack is enough to set alarm bells ringing. His games are never straightforward, they often involve several rival factions, and they tend to be ever so slightly silly. Well, this was a classic. Someone somewhere came up with an alternative history period, which they dubbed “A Very British Civil War, 1938”. Briefly, it sets King Edward VIII and Oswald Moseley’s British Fascists, Daily Telegraph readers and other bad types on one side, and the Church of England, a broad alliance of the left, and a few other strange factions on the other. Don’t ask me to explain it all – there’s plenty on line about this entertaining nonsense! Well, in this game, my lot were the Anglicans, represented by a unit of the British Territorial Army (the National Guard in the US), supported by a unit of armed miners. Our job was to hold an airfield somewhere in Northumberland, to prevent it being used by King Edward VIII, Wallis Simpson and the fascist Duke of Northumberland, who wanted to fly out of the country – probably for secret talks with Herr Hitler. Forcing their way through to the airfield were units from the British Union of Fascists (BUF), the Glasgow Auxiliary Constabulary (whoever the hell they were), and – even more bizarrely – a Royal escort consisting of Grenadier Guards, still wearing their ceremonial uniforms! I told you this was silly…The game went something like this. The Fascists led the attack with an armoured car, which was knocked out by the Territorial Bren gun team. Less easy to deal with were the Guardsmen, who attacked a farmhouse held by the Territorials, while covering the advance of the black-shirted BUF. Meanwhile the Glasgow Auxiliaries (a first outing for my unit of “Black & Tans”) rammed the perimeter fence of the airfield, and began a firefight with the Territorial defenders. The Territorials were supported by the miners, who fought a brisk and fairly bloody engagement against the BUF, which effectively ended in stalemate, with both factions too weak to continue the battle.Then, when we thought we had managed to keep the Fascists at bay, a Junkers transport plane arrived, and disgorged a squad of German troops. The Territorial outpost defending the airfield now became a last bastion. While riflemen engaged the Germans, the Territorial’s last Bren team knocked out one of the engines of the Junkers. It suddenly started to look as if the dastardly King Edward and his American bride weren’t going anywhere! At that point we ran out of time. While both sides had caused a lot of casualties, the airfield was still in the hands of my Anglican Territorials, while the King and his entourage were nowhere near the plane. In the end the game was declared a draw.For rules, we used Warhammer’s The Great War. I can’t say I really like Warhammer rules, with all their excessive and pointless die rolling. Still, everything moved along at a good pace, and the system was easy enough to pick up. Will I play this “period” again? Well, probably, if Colin Jack dreams up another silly game. However, I have to say, if I really wanted to wargame something in the late 1930’s, then I wouldn’t choose this. Instead, I’d be off to the barricades around Madrid, refighting the Spanish Civil War. Last week I just happened to pick up a nice bunch of 28mm SCW figures, so that might actually be happening fairly soon…