Great War

Anticipation over the planned release of the latest version of "Great War" made us get out our figures and try the old edition.  Well, it made sense at the time.  😊 We had to retool our thinking to 3rd edition Flames of War with the Great War modifications, which interestingly to me made me appreciate the changes in 4th edition more.

The Germans had a Stosstruppen company with 7.7cm guns and a pair of A7 tanks in support.  The British had an elite infantry company with Vicker MGs and a full battery of 18pdrs. in support.  The Germans naturally chose a night attack and with their opening move bonus started literally on top of us.

The British trenchline with wire.

After the German deployment.

Those strange cheese boxes on treads looked scary.

A skill test to cross  the wire held up some Germans so others waited.

Despite being pinned by artillery or MG fire the Germans advanced.

A deadly flamethrower.... that hit open air (bad dice).

The sharp-eyed reader might notice the figure stands are smaller than the normal Flames of War bases.  That's because we based our forces on the free "1916" rules and it is too early to consider (and then reject) rebasing.

As did the other one.

The aftermath of a failed assault.  

The British had delayed reserves but got some on the first try.  The Germans have the option to self eliminate a platoon below half strength and bring it all on again, but at their table edge.  Our table was over-sized but it still would take them critical time to come forward.

One of the objectives was so close, but wire and MG fire was
decisive in blunting it.

One "landship" failed its motivation test and abandoned it.

With two of three companies destroyed along with one of the tanks, the game ended after turn three.  All the British reserves were on table and closer to the action so given the situation it seemed proper.  The German dice were abysmal.   Besides the whiff on the flamethrowers, in one assault the Germans failed six of nine saving throws.  One of those days.  The British on the other hand, though frequently pinned, relished the trench cover and only lost one stand.  It will be interesting to see what changes have been made in the new release.

Wind on the Wadi

We continue to test "1916" by War Times Journal.  In this attacker-defender game we gave the former a near 2:1 advantage in units.  However, in the variable dice rolls the Commonwealth side got wire, trenches, mines and four on-table field pieces.  So big chunk of the numeric advantage was negated.  The German/Turkish force got a pre-game bombardment and both sides got three pre-registered call-fire spots.  Here's the table:

Commonwealth view of the left.  Some troops entrenched, some prone.

The pre-game bombardment took out a machine-gun nest on our left flank, which apparently was to be the main focus of their attack.

The far right.  The Central Powers could be no closer than 400
yards, or 20".

The left again.  Note the entrenched unit and mines in front.

One turn two the Turkish cavalry unit was unleashed.  We all expected them to be shot to pieces but inexplicably passed morale and savaged the first British unit defending.

The rampaging Turkish uhlans take huge losses but sweep on.

The enemy tried advancing by rushes, crawling prone, and just walking.

Having swept over the infantry, the uhlans hit the 75mm guns
and engineers attempting to dig them in.

Hitting two units were weren't sure how to resolved the assault.  After discussion we made the not universal decision to roll for each unit in contact.  The uhlans still won but narrowly and were wiped on in the subsequent fire phase.  Being so rare for cavalry to do anything, it's not surprising that the rules were vague.  But since we plan to stage most of our games in the Middle East, we'll need to pin it down.

The Indian troops in the palm trees are driven off, so the Highlanders
redeploy to the right from reserve.

1916 is a d6 game with a half-dozen possible modifiers, most of them hurting your "to hit" chances.  Unmodified, a roll of "one" gives no hits while a "six" kills three stands.  Quite a range of results on a d6.

Things are mighty thin for both sides on the left.  The mines
were effective though.

We are down three infantry units on the left and one 75.

Down one unit here, but heaps of Germans are out there, including
the feared flamethrowers.

After about eight turns the Germans and Turks had shot their bolt and called off the attack, the surviving Commonwealth forces were only too happy to see them go.  But more games are in our future.