Tuesday 18 December 2018

World War One Game

On Sunday we played our last game for the year, an early WWI game.

The setup had a battalion each of British, French and Belgian, supported by some cavalry and artillery, fighting a holding action against German advance guard of four battalions, a machine gun company and artillery, cavalry and jager support in the Belgian countryside. The terrain had a mix of features, including farms, a couple of villages, woods, a railway line and a canal (complete with a canal bridge).

The allied forces deployed first across the width of the table, amongst farm buildings, towns, woods and along the ridges. Only those troops visible were placed on the table and at the game's commencement than amounted to the artillery plus a squadron of French dragoons and a company of zouaves that were pressed forward across the canal to observe any German advance from that direction.




The Germans chose to strike the allied right. Two battalions, supported by four HMGs would swing wide and then pivot to the right on a farm building and sweep along the allied position. When the two lead battalions began to pivot a third battalion, supported by the jagers and three HMGs would advance on their right. On the extreme right of the line a weakened battalion, supported by a squadron of uhlans and an HMG would hold the railway line and anchor the left. The artillery would be placed beside a ruined village from where it could support all the commands.

The Germans stepped off on the left, advancing cautiously as the British guns opened on them while the right hand battalion and the uhlans occupied a position between a wood and the railway line.



It was on the German left that the action developed when the first of the British were encountered. A British HMG held a position on the edge of a wood and began to do damage. Bravely a German company stormed forward and managed to drive the machine gunners away from their weapon, but when the Germans pressed forward after them through the wood the MG team held them back with accurate rifle fire.
 


The Germans soon found stiffer resistance around the farm on the British right where another HMG and a company of British infantry held back the German advance for a few turns before being compelled to fall back into the farm buildings.


Here the fighting bogged down for the rest of the day with the smaller British force successfully holding back two German battalions.
 
On the German right the allies quickly determined that there was no threat to their left and moved to reinforce their right. 



The French battalion moved directly against the Germans along the railway line and after some long range shooting the Germans began to get the upper hand. Two French companies fell back, covered by the Belgian armoured car that sacrificed itself gloriously, but left a machine gun team exposed to front and rear. 




The German uhlans saw this and charged the MG team from the flank. To try to save the MG team the French dragoons counter charged, but the German troopers got the better in the combat and routed them. The Uhlans then broke through on the French Zouaves, routing them too. But there the German uhlans ran out of luck. Trapped in the middle of the French force they were cut to pieces.


 

Meanwhile the German centre got moving. The jagers advanced on the British guns and managed to do some damage before being wiped out. The jager HMG managed to stay in action and finally drove the British guns off. Meanwhile the German centre battalion entered the large wood to their right and found it occupied by two squadrons of dismounted British cavalry. A sharp fight erupted, from which the British withdrew, but only when the Belgian infantry entered the fray. The Germans pulled back out of the wood and reformed.




 
About this time the British were finally evicted from the farm. The Allies still had about half their force in reasonable condition and decided to fall back to a new position near the town. Many of the German units were badly knocked about and needed some time to reform.


 


Here the game was brought to an end. And with the game's end came an end to our gaming year.

18 comments:

  1. Outstanding visuals, Mark! The uhlans did what cavalry do best; charge in gloriously but brashly.

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    1. That was the first time in eight games that cavalry has actually done something useful, but lots of fun was had.

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  2. Great looking game Mark - so I take that went down as an allied victory, having successfully held the German advance all day?

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    1. I think the Germans would have won in the end simply because they managed to keep all eight machine guns and all their artillery intact, whereas the allies lost five of their seven MGs and half their guns, and the French force had almost completely dispersed.

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  3. Absolutly superb, I like a lot your collection of artillery, painting and basing, and details on the terrain add a lot to the atmosphere...Gorgeous!

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    1. Thanks Phil, it is just a shame that the French force suffered so badly.

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  4. A really enjoyable post, your woodland looks lovely. I am going to click through the pictures now :-)

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    1. Thanks Norm. I have been short of time this week so I have been quite selective with the photos. I took a number of close ups that were intended for monotone or duotone creation, but just haven't had the opportunity to process them.

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  5. Gorgeous looking game! The artillery pieces are particularly fine!
    Best Iain

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    1. Thanks Ian. The guns were a joy to do. I would love to do limber sets for them too, but at present only the British limber set is available. I scratch built the limbers for the German and French guns, but I don’t have the teams.

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  6. German uhlans,;French Zouaves, and a Belgian armoured car. Fantastic stuff.

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  7. That all looks great, and I especially like the Belgian armoured car.

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    1. I have a nice black and white shot of this edging it’s way out of the town. Maybe I will post it as part of and end of year post.

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  8. Great looking game. Were those German jagers actually AustroHungarians though?
    Not that it matters. Sounds like it was a fun gaming session.

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  9. Well spotted that man! The Jägers were actually jägers (I didn't manage to get a picture of them before they got shot to pieces), but we roped in some Austro-Hungarians - although we called them Wurtembergers - to bolster the German numbers.

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  10. A lovely looking game Mark...
    I must admit that I do prefer the early part of the Great War... it’s like the Franco-Prussian war on steroids.

    All the best. Aly

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    1. I agree about early WWI. There is still a sense of innocence. The armies haven't quite learned thier task yet and there is a fluidity. The artillery, while still a potent arm, is struggling to find its place - there have been great advances in the ability to use indirect fire, but in the ebb and flow of 1914 most of the fire is over open sights simply because the action developed so fast that there wasn't time to lay the telephone lines before it was time to move again. So yes it was very much like 1870 with machine guns and high explosives.

      Once the trench warfare began the role of the guns was dramatically transformed and they, with the MGs, dominated the battlefield. I find this difficult to game as it suits small forces. I like big armies...you may have noticed.

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