The Battle of Driskos in the Balkan Wars 1912

Having spotted a Balkan Wars scenario in the Great War Spearhead iOGroup files section, I invited Jon to come on over and give it a go. The scenario represented the Battle of Driskos in 1912, with a very understrength Turkish division attacking a 'ragtag' group of Greek units. The game was played using my 6mm armies, with WW1 Russians proxying for the Greek troops.

This was the scenario map:

The open ground across which the Turkish infantry would have to advance looked very daunting. A quick of a topographical map however showed this:

This is fairly rugged ground. We added some ridges running across the Turkish line of advance. The deployment restrictions on the Greeks however meant that this had little effect on the game.

The battlefield with Turkish troops attacking from the right, the Greek forces positioned on the terrain protecting the two spot heights.

Jon commanded the Turkish division and concentrated on his right against a single Greek 'regimental group'. He drew carefully constructed command arrows anticipating a disciplined advance. 

At each stage Jon would advance, and enter the firefight

The overwhelming weight of small arms fire meant that within three moves he had essentially won the firefight on the extreme right

The Greek left flank was held by a mostly Green regimental group. It survived the first morale check at 33% casualties, but failed the second, and the Greek left disintegrated

The Greek position was untenable, and their defence melted away, much as it did in reality. The game was a good foray into a relatively uncomplicated pre-WW1 period of battles. In hindsight, with this battle in particular, when you look at the topo map the ground is more rugged and challenging to an attacker that the scenario models. We felt that the Greeks should be defending at least four contours. We connected this with my experience playing the Gallipoli/ANZAC Cove scenario developed by Robert Dunlop. This modelled the difficulty of the terrain with a scenario rule whereby attackers could only cross one contour at a time, and that at half speed. We finished by wondering if that might more effectively represent the terrain that you see in reality in this battle.

Forcing a river crossing in the American Civil War

Inspired by various accounts of early war (1861) battles in the American Civil War in which one side attempted to cross a river to take a significant road/rail/ferry 'node', I tried to create a scenario that incorporated an opposed river crossing. I built a simple raft styled model as a means of representing/marking the place of crossing.

The scenario itself didn't work too well, so no tedious after action report. I did learn enough to be able to rejig the scenario, and we'll have another go some time in the not too distant future. In the meantime, just a few more photos of the action, that saw a confederate force supported by an ironclad trying to force a river crossing. The game was played using my 15mm ACW armies. The mechanisms I used to model the crossing were created by Adrian and Jon in a different scenario setting. The 'rafting operation' (a concept rather than a literal representation) allowed for two stands to cross the river at a time. This took one complete move. The stands then landed with their base edge against the 'river bank', and they were disordered for that turn. This represented the vulnerability of troops crossing the river.

Yes you are right: the 'river' doesn't go to the edge of the table... purely a result of the inadequacies of my terrain. Until next time .....

The Siege of Lucknow: a Volley and Bayonet game

This week, I joined Jon, Adrian and Alastair to play Adrian's scenario 'take' on the Siege of Lucknow from the Indian Mutiny. The game was played using Adrian's 15mm armies, and his beautiful buildings and terrain. 

The British forces deployed defending the walls

The CinC, and some of the civilians to be protected

The attacking forces advance

The first breach in the walls, and the first assault

An attack against an intact section of the wall

The defenders took serious casualties, and withdrew to the hasty works that formed the second line of defence

The attackers assault the second line

It got ugly

And the inner defences were breached

British casualties were horrendous

Adrian and another group had fought this scenario once before, and it resulted in a British victory. In our case, the attackers (Jon and Alastair) were 'on fire' with their die rolling. The British casualties were horrendous, and we were given one of those 'serious thrashings' All the same, it was a 'bloody good game'.

Towns and rivers: an ACW game

This week's VnB game was an American Civil War game with Murray, fought using my 15mm armies. The scenario creates a battle over strategic river crossings and towns. We allocated victory points to town sectors and crossings. Alternatively driving opposing divisions into exhaustion accumulated victory points.

The Union began in possession of the central town and main river crossing with one division on table, the remainder of their force to enter the table from the right. The Confederate attack came from the left.

The battlefield, the CSA attacking from the left.

The Union army included a regiment of cavalry that deployed on their left with the aim of outflanking the enemy advance and harassing it with fire

The Confederate army also included a cavalry regiment which Murray deployed on his left, with a view to surging forward and ceasing one of the river crossings.

The Union division holding the main town ..

... albeit badly deployed on its right, failing to take advantage of the defensive advantage of the river bank

The Confederates surged forward on their right and captured the town sector objective

A confederate division came forward on its left to support the now dismounted cavalry in holding the river crossing

Half the Union force is massed on their left

The Union cavalry slips past the Confederate right, and turns to threaten the advance

... while their right flank division makes its way through the forested terrain to contest occupation of the river crossing

The Confederates attack the Union centre

Two of the three Union brigades lose their fight and retreat

The Union centre collapses, taking such heavy casualties that it suffers a moral collapse. The Union centre is wide open

Meanwhile the Union cavalry on their left attacks the Confederate right. Murray omitted to respond to the cavalry threat and I couldn't resist the opportunity. It's rare for cavalry to charge home in our ACW games. The CSA brigade passes its morale but loses the melee

The Union left attacks the town sector in a well supported charge

Meanwhile another Union division advances towards the Confederate right centre

.. and the Union right pushes to the edge of the forest and begins a firefight with the CSA left across the river

The CSA right is exposed with the Union cavalry rampant. Murray withdraws and reorients

The CSA attacks across the river on their left, but is repelled

The reoriented CSA right

In a turn of extraordinary luck, in one turn the Union fire eliminates a CSA brigade and forces the left flank division in to exhaustion

Fire from a Union sharpshooter unit causes an additional casualty which tips the CSA right flank division into exhaustion

This was a really interesting game. The early loss of the Union centre seemed to herald the demise of the Union army. The CSA forces were slow to exploit that opportunity before two of their divisions were exhausted in a turn of extraordinary luck for me as Union commander.  A lucky escape for the Union, and an outstanding game.