Barbarians attempt to turn back spider invasion

This week I manage to introduce Murray to Big Battle HotT. As his own armies are all currently at 24-46 points, we opted to use my Barbarians and Spiders in an epic squishing slashing stomping affair. This is not intended to be a detailed AAR. It just gives the 'flavour' of the game. The game was played with my two 20mm armies, using the HotT (Hordes of the Things) rules.

Initial deployment

Human knight general, supported by blades, behemoth and hero

From left to right .. spider airboat, behemoth and hero general

EEwww.. spider heroes, with some of their multitudinous hordes in the background

Clash in the centre

A mass of spider hordes advances on the spider right, facing three blade bases

The centre facing off around some bad going

Another mass of spider hordes on the left

The human blades attack the hordes.. there was some wallopin' and some whumpin' and some hootin' and some hollerin' .. and lots of slashing and squishing and screaming

It got messy in the centre

The gaps in the spider horde reflect the initial impact of the blades in killing spider hordes

On the left finally enough movement PIPs to allow the spider airboat to attack the human line in the rear, disrupting the formation

... although the human shooters did drive the airboat back

it's messy .. still ..

Now the formation of blade attacking the spider right is broken up, as a result of the occasional lucky die roll for the spiders

There was an ongoing battle between an airboat and a human hero

This was never intended as a move by move AAR. Suffice it to say that both sides were hampered by low PIP die rolls at the most inopportune moments. This meant that we were both slow to get into combat. The nature of the bad going terrain also caused a lot of disruption. The end result was that we had to call time when one Barbarian command was demoralised, and the spiders had 'saved their necks' several times by bringing back some of their lost hordes. That of course meant that attacks at the front line were often delayed. 

All in all a cool battle, very 'flavoursome' in the uniquely HotT kind of way. I think Murray is away looking out more figures to grow a couple of his 24 point armies into 72 pointers. My work is done here.

Battle of the Boyne

Last night's Volley and Bayonet game was a refight of the Battle of the Boyne. As usual, this is not an AAR, but a chance to showcase Adrian's beautiful 15mm armies, and scenery.

We did have one of those memorable game moments. Background: in mēlee/assault, units hit on a die roll of 6, the number of dice thrown being determined by the unit type, and period. Elite units are higher morale so more likely to actually go into combat in good order, and if they have shock they hit in the mēlee on a 5 or 6.

Jon commanded half the Williamite army, trying to cross the Boyne. His forces included two units of elite Dutch infantry, M7 with Shock. Jon threw a unit across the river attacking a defended village against the river bank. This meant that they were disordered going into the assault. They were supported by three stationary artillery units.

Jon rolled his eight attack dice (the two for the assault from the infantry requiring a 5 or a 6 to hit, and six from the three stationary gun stands. He rolls five 6's, meaning five potential hits. The defending unit received saving rolls, because the attacker was disordered. Robin saved four of the five sixes. Harrumph from Jon, but at least he had one casualty on the defenders.

Robin rolled his four dice in defence (the defending infantry stand was stationary). He rolled three 6s, causing 3 casualties on the attackers. 

The attackers being already disordered now rout. The unit does not have enough strength points and is eliminated.

If you've played Volley and Bayonet you will understand the improbability of the entire combat.

After a number of moves of immobility for the Williamites, they finally created gaps in James' defenders, gaps sufficient to allow them to cross the river. It was a hard fought battle but James' forces lost. In our refight James was killed while leading a cavalry unit in combat.

Review: "German breakthrough in Greece: the 1941 Battle of the Pineios Gorge", Jeff Plowman

I've lost count of the number of times in my lifetime I've heard the refrain "New Zealand has no real military history worth writing about". This is often reprised with 'just those bloody maaari wars which are not worth worrying about". Yes, the right wing racist tone is intentional. 

Admittedly we never had a Napoleon or a Caesar or a Manstein (or did we?). But we had Pene Taka Tuaia and Hone Heke, and Russell and Freyberg. And to suggest that New Zealanders never wrote any pages in the military history books is to do a gross disservice to the thousands of New Zealanders who fought, and the thousands who died, in two world wars and numerous other conflicts.

Jeff Plowman has found plenty of New Zealand military history to write about. Various Google searches tell me that he has credits for between 14 and 19 titles (the total chnages each time I search). I have four of them, including his latest "German breakthrough in Greece: the 1941 Battle of the Pineios Gorge".

In this narrative Jeff traces the deployment of the New Zealand Division to Greece, initial plans to deploy it along the Metaxis Line supporting the Greek army's proposed defence, the shift to the Aliakmon Line, and the subsequent withdrawals to and battles around Mount Olympus. He chronicles the defence around the Platamon Ridge, and the subsequent withdrawal through the Pineios Gorge, the main focus for this book. 

This is a story of fighting in difficult terrain, about difficult withdrawals and dogged defence. It is not a story of sweeping armoured thrusts with hundreds of tanks. It is a story of small packets of tanks, a story of dreaded German panzers stopped with mines, artillery, and sheer guts. It is also a story of tactical flexibility amongst some German commanders, and a corresponding lack of flexibility amongst some allied commanders

Jeff spends some time considering the situation and the decision making of Lt Col Macky, commander of the NZ 21st Battalion. In doing so, he debunks some of the post war official history myth of poor performance in the field, while still identifying key errors made in the command decision making.

For example, in his final chapter 'Anatomy of a pyrrhic victory", he states:

"Macky's primary mistake has been put down to his failure to adequately prepare for and deal with an attack by tanks from the gorge. This is curious because it would appear that Anzac Corps Headquarters was not prepared for such an eventuality either."

Perhaps the underlying narrative here though is that the campaign demonstrates that the German war machine of 1941 is not deserving of the invincible superhero status that it might have been given in other narratives. The logistical failures alone, the inability of the 'system' to keep the front line troops supplied with petrol, food, and ammunition, and the subsequent grounding of the German advance at critical junctures, speak of a system inherently human in nature.

Then there are the accounts of those small scale actions that halt the attack. New Zealand field artillery causing substantial losses on advancing German tanks, German reconnaissance units being cut down almost to the man by accurate disciplined New Zealand infantry fire. These are stories that often counter the myth of German invincibility in these early stages of the war.

This extensive quote from the review on Bookshop.org gives the flavour:

Ten days have passed since the German invasion of Greece and the Anzacs are in trouble, even if they don't yet know it. The small German motorcycle battalion that has just reached the 21st NZ Battalion positions at Platamon is a harbinger of the panzer battle group yet to come. To the south is the strategic town of Larissa. North of it almost the entire Anzac Corps is spread out along the line of the Olympus mountains, with its western end anchored on Kalabaka, where a small brigade group waits for the appearance of the 1st Armoured Brigade further north. Larissa is their only escape route and the German thrust is aimed straight at it. Worse still, as the fighting intensified at Platamon, the Anzac Corps high command seemed slow to react and almost turned a blind eye to it as they continued to reinforce the west against what was only a perceived threat. That this lone battalion, with four 25-pounders in support, managed to hold off the attackers for as long as they did until Anzac Corps Headquarters finally reacted was certainly not due to the latter's commander, Lieutenant General Thomas Blamey. There is a view in some quarter that this successful delaying action only became possible for the intervention of Blamey's Chief-of-Staff, Brigadier Sydney Rowell. However, the complete evacuation of all Anzac troops north of Larissa may owe much more to the propensity of the New Zealand soldier for misappropriation of other people's assets, in this case British anti-tank mines.

Jeff has adopted what I am reliably informed is the trend in scientific writing to develop text and explanation using diagrams, graphs and other illustrations. The book is copiously illustrated. Not only has Jeff sourced many photos that I have certainly personally never seen before (not that that in itself is any sort of meaningful benchmark), but each illustration comes with extensive captioning. The captions add significantly to the narrative.

Pages 150 & 151

As you might expect in a book from a series titled 'After the battle', the text is interspersed with plenty of modern day photos, many of which Jeff took himself during his own battlefield tours. There is a fascination in seeing a modern day photo taken of the same geographical location, from the same angle, as an historical photo.

His analysis is succinct. He makes extensive use of primary source documents, as good history does. Jeff's repeated references to top secret German High Command signals intercepted by Ultra, decoded, and forward to the top level command during the campaign in Greece, were a revelation. I had no idea that the senior commanders were so well informed on German high command intentions.

His career as a biochemist is apparent in the meticulous way in which he writes, yet his style is eminently readable. Jeff is a good communicator. I can't help thinking that he is too often overlooked as a writer of New Zealand's military history. The book is highly recomnmended.

In the meantime, reading this latest book has sparked enough interest that I've gone back to my bookshelves and picked out his 2019 book 'Greece 1941'.

It's time I revisited this narrative too. You can buy Jeff's latest from Pen and Sword, here.

Playtesting an Italo-Turkish war battle from 1911

Shawn, author of Great War Spearhead, recently sent me a draft scenario for the battle of Sciara-Sciat, a battle in the Italo-Turkish War of 1911. It is a small action by Great War Spearhead standards, but potentially one of some interest, taking place in 1911 when the level of technological sophistication has not yet ramped up as it did from 1915.

The map below (from the Wikipedia page) shows the larger picture. The scenario takes place on the right hand side of the map, in an area that the map denotes as 'oasis'.  Therein lies a significant decision in the scenario design: how to treat this vegetation. Shawn recommends that it be treated as limiting visibility to 6", and also therefore direct fire range. The Italians, on the defensive, have some naval gunfire support, and therein lies a second significant decision: the ease with which that NGS is obtained, and how far onto the battlefield it can exert influence.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_and_massacre_at_Shar_al-Shatt#/media/File:Sciara-1911.svg

Jon and played this small scenario twice in the evening, the second play test involving different answers to those two key questions. In the first we assumed that the oasis area not only limited visibility and ranges, but also offered 'soft cover', i.e. it offered some limited protective value when taking fire. We also went with Shawn's recommendation on NGFS, it only be available once Italian stands had come under attack, and then requiring a die roll of a '6' to call it in. The scenario was played using my 6mm WW1 armies, all from Irregular figures.

Shawn's scenario map. Most of the photos are taken looking from the left edge of the map across the table/battlefield

The view from behind the Italian lines. Tripoli would be a the lower left off the table.

Italian defences, facing south, part of the defensive lines around Tripoli

Villagers from Sciara Sciat (proxied by ANZAC's.. sorry) go into immediate attack of the nearest Italians, a company occupying a degraded fort.

Similarly villagers attack the Italian defensive line from the rear

The vilagers destroy the Italian defenders of the fort

Meanwhile the Turkish and Arab troops sweep forward. From the camera view, Arab infantry on the left, dismounted Arab cavalry in the centre, and a Turkish regiment on the right

The Italian centre comes under attack

Villagers eliminate several companies of Italian defenders after attacking them from the rear.

The outcome we pretty decisive. The Italians were well and truly defeated.

We then tried a second run through, this time with the oasis not offering any defensive value (although still limiting visibility and direct fore ranges. We also allowed the NGFS to be available as soon as the Italians were attacked.

The NGFS was immediately devastating on the Arab infantry nearest the coastline (and the only unit that was vulnerable because of visibility limitations

The Italians defeated the villagers quite decisively this time (the result of die rolling), and were able to turn to face the advancing Turkish infantry. The fire fight did not start well for the Italians however, the Italian MMG company, and attendant infantry company, are suppressed

The Italian Bersagliari regiment that was deployed forward defending the forts executed a 'Break Off' move and withdrew two turns. This saved the unit from being overrun and eliminated. It also bought time for the Italian reserves to enter the battle.

The attacking Arab troops had suffered badly from the NGFS

 The second trial with its altered assumptions meant that the scenario was more of a 'game'. The Italians were still pushed from their position, but it was more of a fight. We'll be interested to see how Shawn evolves the scenario, given our play tests and feedback.

Thanks Shawn.