Sunday 13 May 2018

WWI Game

Today's regular Sunday game was an early (1914) WWI  game. The game was very much an ad hoc affair.  We had four players two playing Germans and one each playing British and Belgian.

On the German side there were three battalions each of four companies, supported by four machine guns, a jäger company (with a machine gun attached), a single squadron of uhlans and two guns.

The British had six companies of infantry, supported by two machine guns, two squadrons of cavalry and a horse machine gun and two guns. The Belgians had four companies of infantry, one machine gun, a squadron of cavalry, an armoured car and two borrowed French 75mm guns.

The Belgians moved swiftly to take a position on a central height, while the British marched across a canal - the reason we had a canal on the table was simply because one of the group had bought the Sarissa canal bridge and wanted to see it on the table.

The Germans took the initiative and made for the Belgians with eight companies while four companies prepared to hold off the British. The Belgians did well initially, knocking back one of the German battalions, but numbers began to tell and the Belgians were eventually pushed from the hill with heavy losses.

Meanwhile the British cavalry advanced boldly, dismounting and taking a position in a wood while the third German battalion fell back to a better position. 

As the Belgians slowly broke apart the Germans surged forward and broke the dismounted British cavalry and began close on the rear of the British Infantry. Here the game was called with the Germans having the upper hand.

So to some images, in no particular order.





























18 comments:

  1. Awesome pictures Mark, terrain and figures are just superb, thanks for sharing...

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    1. Thank you Phil. It was one of the more enjoyable we have played in a long time.

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  2. That looks awesome Mark! Very well done.

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  3. Great looking game Mark, loving the Artillery.
    Cheers
    Stu

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    1. Agree that the artillery sets are very nice. My personal favourite is the French 75. The a limbers for these and the German guns were scratchbuilt.

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  4. Great looking game,I particularly like the BEF artillery, the canal bridge looks nice too.
    Best Iain

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    1. Thanks Iain. I agree the BEF gun sets are nice. They are the only ones for which Great War minaitures have limbers.

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  5. Inspiring photos and beautiful troops. Is this another of your collections?

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    1. Yes all of the figures, except the British cavalry, are mine. I would like to expand the collection a bit, but don't know how I can fit it into the schedule.

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  6. A great-looking game. That Sarissa bridge looks good as well.

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    1. I must admit I was itching to blow the bridge to smitherines as the allies retreated, but since the paint was barely dry on the model, I took pity.

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  7. Hi Mark - I actually thought I posted a comment yesterday evening, but it does not seem to have registered! Looks like a great game - I am not sure I was even aware it was on, but as it was Mothers day here, the chances of me being able to do anything I actually wanted to do were less than zero!

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    1. G'day Keith. I didn't see any comment come through. Yes the game wasn't particularly well advertised.

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  8. Splendid looking set up with plenty of eye candy 👍

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  9. What a great looking game. I was wondering what rule set you are using here. Thank you for your time.

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  10. The rules are homegrown and are on the blog under Free Stuff. They work well in our group.

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