Having painted quite a few stands of WW1 cavalry (German, and Russian in the main) it's not unreasonable to expect some table top scenarios. This was my first attempt. I wanted to use the full 8'x5' table size, and allow for as much mobility as possible. The first 'tactical stance' that occurred to me was something akin to two armies advancing towards each other, both using cavalry to screen their own forces while trying to uncover exactly what the opponent was bringing to the battlefield. This is the second of our 25th Anniversary Great War Spearhead games for the year, as we try to 'change it up' with different forces and scenarios. With only an understrength cavalry division on each side it was a comparatively small game.
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| This was the table top, the German cavalry advancing from the top right corner, the Russian cavalry from the bottom left |
If you check out the 'roster sheets' below you'll see how I constructed the forces and arranged for their entry onto the battlefield.
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| The German plan for their advance |
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| The Russian plan for their advance |
The Russian commander had his three brigades advancing in three columns. The German command pushed one brigade (reinforced with the divisional Jager battalion and the divisional MMG company) down the road to grab the main bridge as soon as possible. He decided to push his other brigade
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| View from behind the Russian advance |
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| The German column pushing up the road, with the second brigade (reinforced with the divisional field artillery) positioning itself to attempt to push across the river hoping to uncover opposing Russian forces |
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| German cavalry |
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| Cossacks .. |
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| The German column reaches the main bridge and pushes across |
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| The German left flank brigade |
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| A 'dense' column of Russian cavalry |
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| The central Russian Brigade pushes past anoter town |
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| Contact is made on the central road. The German cavalry on the right had already dismounted. |
The German plan of advance made use of a series of timed orders. The advance down the main road was timed to pause at the bridge crossing for two turns in order to check for advancing Russian forces. They then had a timed order to resume the advance.
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| The German left flank brigade approached the river, planning on crossing and pushing through |
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| The German Jager battalion pushes through the cavalry to take up the battle against the advancing Russians |
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| The German left flank brigade has pushed across the river and taken the copse to its front. The Russian cavalry to their right was subject to an order change pushing across to block the German advance. Two field gun batteries are pushing across the river, while the third deploys to support the troops across the river |
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| Close up of the German cavalry pushed across the river |
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| The field artillery battery in the process of deploying |
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| Deploying from a column in the face of enemy is difficult |
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| The Russian cavalry column at the top of the photo is pushing around the German cavalry |
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| The lead German cavalry squadron is eliminated |
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| Russian cavalry crosses the river into the town sector |
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| The German field gun battery deployed to fire on the Russian cavalry across the river |
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| The Russian right flank cavalry applying pressure against the German left |
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| The German left flank brigade is well ensconced in the copse. Their timed order had them pause there before resuming their advance |
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| The German centre brigade still struggling to deploy. However the divisional MMG company has deployed on the road firing on the Russians |
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| The Russians similarly having to work hard to deploy out of their column |
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| A firefight develops on the German left. On the random morale throw the Russian cavalry brigade proves to be 'veteran' |
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| Having come under fire, the centre Russian brigade proves to be 'Green'. |
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| The Jager and the MMG company |
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| The German left is well positioned to blunt the Russian cavalry pressure, their remaining artilllery batteries across the river ready to deploy |
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| The firefight.... |
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| The German MMG compoany causes casualties amongst the cenre Russian brigade |
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| The Russian left flank brigade chose to pass through the town sector, creating a significant bottleneck |
Night was falling and the one Russian brigade in a position to push on through the German cavalry screen was tied up in the town. while the other two brigades were in action against their German opponents. The German cavalry was too thin on the ground to contain the Russians.
A video panorama of the battlefield as darkness fell ....
This was a first attempt at devising a scenario that would make good use of the cavalry. I designed the scenario to try and allow for plenty of manoeuvre. The use of the table certainly allowed that. It was however reassuring that the action became a stalemate, after all that was so often the case in reality. That's always a great comment on the rules.
In retrospect the German force was a little light, allowing it to be outmanoeuvred by the more numerous Russian force, but that's perfectly fine on the table top. After all, how many battles in history were a nicely balanced affair with equal forces lining up across terrain favourable to both commanders?
