A Bad Day for the IRA

For our Tuesday game night with Oliver and Tyler, Arthur came up with an Irish War of Independence ambush scenario.  We used our go-to ruleset, Fistful of Lead.

Arthur was inspired by IRA  ambushes from the war, where the IRA would shoot up a unit of British army or Royal Irish Constabulary and then escape before reinforcements arrived.  That's not exactly what happened today, though!  For those who missed out on the twentieth century, the IRA is the Irish Republican Army. 

There were two groups of IRA and two units of British Army soldiers. Arthur selected figures for the IRA from our collection of WWII partisans, gangsters, revolutionaries and other mid-twentieth figures, and used WWI British for the British Army soldiers.

First group of British soldiers, who appear riding in the truck, led by their sergeant.

The second group of Brits, who will arrive on the turn after the Joker is played.  The Joker acts as an Ace for the player to whom it is dealt.

First group of IRA.

Second group of IRA, including an enthusiastic fellow with a bundle of TNT.

Here's the table.  British objective is simply to drive on the road to the far end of the table.  IRA are allowed to deploy hidden anywhere they want.

The IRA set up a roadblock.  The truck wasn't allowed to leave the road, so the Brits needed to clear the roadblock in order to proceed.

British truck comes on the table carrying the first unit of soldiers.

The truck stops at the roadblock and the IRA initiate the ambush.  The dynamite man throws his explosive bundle, and fails to clear the wall.  Then the IRA leader opens fire with his revolver, and immediately runs out of ammo!  Then the Brits gunned down the dynamite man. Not a great start for the rebels.

Undaunted, the IRA opened fire on the truck, trying to eliminate the soldiers before they could dismount.  The IRA fire was inconsistent, causing some wounds but also many rebels running out of ammunition and needing to reload.

The firefight continued with the IRA unable to get the upper hand despite outnumbering the soldiers.

Finally the joker is dealt, and the British reinforcements start to come onto the table.  Time for the IRA to skedaddle!

Meanwhile at the farm, the chaos deepens.

The reinforcements continue to advance.  Note that the IRA are not skedaddling.

Finally, having inflicted only two British casualties (including the British sergeant) whilst taking seven of their own, the IRA "leader" escapes.

Overall a great scenario by Arthur, based on his own research and his understanding of FFoL and scenario design. Good job Arthur!