On the highest peaks: a Great war Spearhead game set in the Carpathians 1915

During the Great War the eastern and Italian fronts saw fierce fighting across rugged and mountainous terrain. Our preferred WW1 rules system is Great War Spearhead. In his scenario book "Our sons as well', intended primarily (but not exclusively) for use with these rules, Robert Dunlop created a very simple mechanism for simulating some of the difficulties of fighting across this terrain: crossing all terrain contours costs a stand half of its move. Given the nature of the terrain, and inspired by visions of Italian troops using rope systems to hoist gun batteries in to positions in such rugged terrain, for this scenario set in such terrain I added the stipulation that during the battle itself any gun batteries deployed on table could not mount beyond a second contour on any hill terrain.  As it happens, these scenario specific changes had a more profound impact on the way in which we fought the battle than either of us had anticipated (and I hasten to add, it 'felt' as if these scenario specific rules meant that the action was much closer to the difficulties troops and commanders faced when fighting in such mountainous terrain).

The Austrian forces included a mountain infantry regiment. To what purpose, we wondered? Perhaps we could represent their mountaineering skills by making them exempt from the half move penalty imposed on others when cross a contour.

The Russian divisional commander had just taken over this sector. His predecessor's forces had managed to dig some deeper trenches in the rocky terrain, and protected them with wire obstacles. They had also managed to build one bunker and several pillboxes defending some of the highest peaks. They had managed by a feat of human ingenuity to get one gun battery into their bunker on one of the highest peaks.

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/HistoryPorn/comments/klwp7q/italian_soldiers_hoisting_a_crate_dog_and/

This all just in time, as the Austrian command had an offensive planned using a fresh division well supported by artillery. So fresh was the reformed division that two of the regiments were still green. Similarly in the Russian division one regiment had just been brought up to full strength with new recruits, and so was rated as 'Green' in GWSH terms. The Austrians had 12 turns in which to cross the river and take the highest peaks.

The battle was fought using my 20mm armies. The figures and guns are from the HaT range.

The Austrian plan. I tried something new by photographing the table and printing that so commanders could draw their plans on the print. 

The battle begins to unfold, Austrians advancing from the right, Russians defending on the left

The Austrian objective was to cross the river line and take the four and five contour heights

The Austrians advance on their right against Russian forces holding the heights and occupying some of their limited level 2 entrenchments protected with a small belt of wire

Part of the Austrian attack in the centre

The mountain infantry regiment, foolishly (s it turns out) advancing onto the table and going into reserve).. not my finest moment in the context of my games

The Russian bunker, protected by wire obstacles

Action opens on the Austrian right.. immediate casualties for the Austrians

The Austrian attack against the bunker

The Russians opposing the Austrian right flank are supported by a battery of field guns

The weight of the attack on the Austrian left against the bunker is evident here

Austrian Pre-planned fire from a supporting regiment of 250mm mortars falls on the etrenchments on the right.. 

Pre-planned fire falling on the bunker suppresses the gun battery

The Austrian attack pushes around the flank of the bunker

A second round of preplanned fire against the Russian entrenchments facing the Austrian right eliminates all of the defenders .. these are BIIIG mortars

Fierce fighting is erupting as the Austrians attempt to push towards the river. The Russian entrenchments subject to that devastating pre-planned fore can be seen on the right of the photo. We use the red markers to indicate stands that have moved more than a combat move and so are ineligible to fire. White markers indicate stands that have combat moved (and so can fire at a later stage in the fire phase)

There is a fierce artillery battle going on as well.. The Austrians managed to get support from all of the artillery regiments, but then two of their observing stands were eliminated. There was also a counter battery battle going on. Apart from their heavy counter battery regiment, the Russian artillery was proving less responsive.

Attempts to advance against the bunker resulted in heavy casualties, although the Russian infantry supporting the bunker were paying a price too. 

The red dots on the Austrian stands mid-right show stands attempting to move against the Russian defences

The defences facing the Austrian right emptied of defenders, although there is a line of Russian defenders on the hill contour immediately behind, coming under Austrian field gun fire

Again, the red dots give a feel for the attempts to advance on the Austrian left

The Russian forces on their right facing the Austrian left flank advance - at this stage the fire fight appears to be going in the Austrians' favour

A video panorama (about 32 seconds) of the battlefield from Austrian left to right at the end of turn 8 of the game.

The red dots show the Austrian regiment trying to move to apply pressure against the centre Russian regiment, and get across the river

Close-up of the move towards the river and a possible crossing

The advance against the bunker on the Austrian left comes under heavy fire and stalls

Overview of the move against the bunker complex

The en trenchments on the Russian right are hit with preplanned artillery fire

Austrian units advance to occupy the entrenchments , and the Rusaian defending regiment fails its morale check after heavy casualties and is forced to withdraw

Finally, the entrenchments are taken

The firefight continues across the river

The Austrian reserve, the mountain troops, is committed in an attempt to cross the river

More fire against the Russian right/Austrian left. The bunker complex can be seen at the top of the photo

The Austrian right flank regiment advances against the retreating Russian left flank regiment

More fire comes down on the central Russian defenders at the top of the photo, but the Austrian stand acting as 'observer' is eliminated

The Austrian reserve pushes forward, but immediately takes casualties

The Austrian left flank regiment has successfully pushed a battalion around to the extreme left to occupy the woods that lie between them and the Russians. Finally they will be able to apply pressure on the Russians from the left 

Couldn't resist this table top view of the action at the end

The Austrians had 12 turns to get across the river and take the heights. At the end of the 12th turn despite having driven off the Russian left, and being in a position to break their right, they were nowhere near being able to force the river crossing nor take those heights. The Austrian artillery had more limited ammunition, and so was restricted to six fire missions per regiment. Most had expended the available ammunition by the 12th turn. Of course this was in part due to the fact that all of their regiments had indeed been able to respond to calls for their support, whereas the Russians had been far less successful in that regard.

As the Austrian commander I started with a flawed plan. I failed to make best use of the mountain troops. Apart from 'General Incompetence', I had also failed to anticipate the impact of the movement restrictions on this rugged terrain. The half move penalty for crossing a contour, combined with the complexity of the terrain generally, meant movement was slow and difficult. I struggled to maximise the number of stands able to fire in any given turn because of those movement difficulties.

This simple scenario specific rules tweak was remarkably effective in presenting the players with an understanding of the difficulty of fighting in these conditions. This was perhaps the most complex GWSH game I have played.. and wow, what a blast as a gaming experience.