Cold January night in Sunny Berwick

Way back in January I came up with the idea for an attack on Berwick by the forces of the Scottish republic.This was an idea bouncing round my head since I read the first VBCW source book back in 2009.A point was made about keeping the railway open between the north of England and Berwick and since my working life sees me going up and down this line very frequently(I work on the railway)I thought it sounded like a good idea to stage an attack not from the obvious North but sweeping around with mobile forces and also landing naval forces in the port of Tweedmouth to link up with the Scots army and cut Berwick off from the south.Once again the best laid plans of mice and men.

                     My plan was for my own forces to attack Berwick from the west,Colin's forces to sweep round and attack two of the bridges from the south whilst Bart would land troops and take the smallest bridge nearest the sea.I think it went to plan for a whole thirty seconds.

                       My forces met with defending royalists in Berwick castle and with a well placed mmg decimated my artillery.Colin's forces were ambushed by an antitank rifle team supported by local police.Bart landed okay,took the harbour but found crossing the bridge to be slightly more difficult.

         

I finally took the castle only to be met with heavy fire from Berwick railway station which caused my forces to abscond towards Coldstream leaving the local Buf to just walk back into the castle.Colin cleared the ambushers eventually but at some cost.Bart had sent his recce motorbike up to the bridge to draw fire-which he did,eventually losing the bike.

                    Bart came up with a plan for one of his sailors to swim the river and bring back a boat(Hugh didn't bother to put any rowboats in the harbour-as you do) and since I was umpire-what the heck.
                       Due to the constraints of Bolt Action and only having twelve dice per side(therefore only a possibility of twelve units moving)our reinforcements took its time to move up in order to cross the bridges.

                        Bart finally got a squad across the river and established a bridgehead.All going to plan until he charged his cavalry over his bridge,albeit destroying a gun in the process,only to be met by some skulking fascist women with sub machine guns(just another normal night in Berwick).The cavalry were no more.
                                          Colin brought up his heavy armour and began to clear the town which was good as my forces which eventually took Berwick railway station were coming under intense pressure.

       

  Berwick was taken but we expected a counterattack from forces heading up from Alnwick and Newcastle.That story will be told another day.

 Scenario and umpiring-Tim Watson
Figures-Colin Jack,Tim Watson and Hugh Wilson
Scenery-Hugh Wilson
Photos-Bart Zynda