Back on the Peninsula .. 1809

 Had a few of the lads around this week for a bit of a bash using the 25mm napoleonic armies. The armies are a good 40 years old, as I've posted before. They are brittle (lead rot), and were painted in the style we used in the 70s and 80s. However none of us is a rivet counter, and it's all about the chance to push figures around a table while enjoying good company. We had both. We fought the game using our standard Volley and Bayonet rules.

This battle is not an historical refight, but rather a 'situation' modelled on the Battle of Tamames on the Peninsular in 1809. As is usually my habit these days, this isn't a full blown AAR, but rather just a few selected photos.

The Spanish forces, a mic of M5, M4, and militia, troops occupy a steep ridge, ands the village of Tamames at its foot. The French are attacking. As I've already said, our game was not a refight.

The buildings are my own, scratch built after the style of Kevin Dallimore who featured similar buildings in Wargames Illustrated in the 1990s.

World War 1 Naval battles.... oh yes I remember them.

Waaaaay way back in the 70's and 80-'s I had a thing about World War 1 naval battles, and naval gaming.  I could recite almost minute by minute the battle cruiser action as it unfolded in the Battle of Jutland. We'd tried several sets of naval rules, including a set published by Navwar at the time, before settling on General Quarters 1. We used these rules to refight the entire Jutland action. I bought and painted enough ships to model the entire High Seas Fleet. Good friend Gerard modelled the Grand Fleet, somethign. he did almost entirely from scratch. At that time he was a travelling salesman, and wiled away those lonely evenings in motels modelling.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_Yorck

The interest waned after that. Other things took over. Ancients, girls, marriage, family, work .. you get the idea.

Until recently, when Keith and Alastair started using the Naval Thunder rules for some interesting small WW2 actions, mostly at cruiser and destroyer level. I resisted.... and resisted ... and resisted .. until.. yup, I bought a copy of 'Clash of Dreadnoughts', the WW1 version of the rules. I haven't read them yet, but I did go and dig out this:

Which had these:

With things like these (all 1/3000th scale, from Navwar IIRC):

I will need to acquire some Grand Fleet elements. I don't imagine too many, as I can't see us refighting Jutland any time soon.,. these days I lack the energy for such large games. But.... 

And as to deck colours, I have no idea why I painted them differently. Recent 'research' (aka internet digging) suggests that they are various shades of grey to charcoal black. Oh well. Thanks Keith, I need another wargames period like a need a. .... oh, who and I kidding.. on y va/let's go.

Watch this space .....

Advance to contact on the eastern front

This Great War Spearhead game (set on the eastern front in 1915) was the second introductory game with Murray, designed to add a little to the complexity, and allow for the opportunity for Murray to see more deeply into some of the artillery interactions that can occur. He took command of a German division with all four regiments, in an advance to contact against a Russian division. The Russian division (total three regiments) had one regiment on table already. All of the Germans were classed as regular, with the full complement of divisional artillery in support. The three Russian regiments were 'random morale' (that is subject to a die roll to determine their morale rating when they first come under fire), and limited artillery support. I encouraged Murray to use his heaviest artillery in counter battery, and deliberately did not allocate the Russian heavy guns to CB in order to demonstrate the impact more clearly. That last decision was tough, because my mantra is 'never leave your baseline without CB support'.

Source https://www.gettyimages.co.nz/photos/ww1-eastern-front

The game was played using my 20mm collections.

The German plan ... the on table regiment would advance immediately to the second river crossing (one of the two game objectives, the other objective was the town it was already occupying). This would be followed by the second regiment advancing to take its place, and hold the right. The third regiment would advance onto the board, and go in to reserve, anticipating the opportunity to strike into the flank of a possible German flanking movement. You can see it's command arrow as it was committed to action in game turn 8.The centre command arrow is the Divisional HQ

The German plan.. all four regiments committed to the attack, with no reserves. Murray planned a solid advance against the centre, and two flanking movements

The view from the Russian left, the Russians on the right of the photo, the Germans on the left. Game play had already begin, and 1st Russian regiment had already made the move to the second objective. The Russian reserve is bottom right in the photo

Russian 2nd Regiment has occupied the second object recently vacated by 1 Regiment, and is pushing past it to hold the right

Russian 1st Regiment have taken the second town and river crossing and is deploying into defence

The Russian left flank regiment sitting in reserve

The German left flank advance

German right flank advance

Combat begins in the centre against the German 2nd regiment

Overview of the Russian right flank, and the centre

The German right flank regiment begins to hook around behind the town objective on the other side of the small river

The Russian 1st Regiment taking up fire positions in the woods on the flank of the objective

The firefight on the German right, against the Russian 1st Regiment, heats up very quickly. The Russians have the advantage of the cover from the woods

German 3rd regiment taking heavy fire, with some companies suppressed. Supporting Russian artillery fire from a regiment of field artillery has begun to fall

The German right, a heavy exchange of fire taking place

The Russian 1st Regiment in the woods, already casualties are occurring, and some of the defenders of the woods are suppressed

Meanwhile German 3rd Regiment advances directly towards Russian 1st Regiment in the town. A Russian company can be seen occupying the town outskirts of the right of the photo. The Russians are calling down supporting artillery fire and the Germans are suffering

This shows the right flank companies of 1st Russian regiment, with the town object on the extreme left. German artillery fire is now falling on the Russians.

Ouch.. and at this stage German counter battery fire silences this regiment of Russian 76mm guns firing in support of 1st Russian Regiment.. they're on their own facing two German regiments

On the Russian right the Russians have caught the German regiment in the flank, and brought them under artillery fire from a regiment of heavy 4.8" guns. These guns were in General Support, so it took a lucky thrown indeed to get their support. The fighting here becomes equally desperate

The right flank companies of 1st Russian regiment caught in the open are taking heavy casualties

The Russian 1st regiment around the objective is suffering continuing casualties as well ...

The German advance against 1st Russian regiment in the town continues, the company occupying the outskirts is eliminated

And on the German right flank.. whew.,. casualties are mounting for both forces

The Russian reserve is committed into a flanking move aimed at eliminating the threat from the German right flank regiment

Heavy firing on the Russian right, both sides taking artillery fire

More heavy fire around the main objective

The Russian reserve is advancing, but the companies advancing in the open are caught by German machine gun fire. The MMG s in the centre of the photo, the Russians advancing in the open are lower right

German infantry close assault the Russians defending the wood on the Russian right

German troops also close assault a Russian company that has reoccupied the outskirts of the town, one German company is driven off by fire, but the other goes in

The Russians in the outskirts lose the close assault combat

Desperate fighting still on the Russian left/German right

Russian 1st regiment continues to take heavy casualties

The German assault against the Russian right is repulsed

The centre and right Russian regiments had regular morale, but the centre regiment (1st Regiment) occupying the town had taken 50% casualties and was forced to take a morale throw which it failed. It was forced to withdraw for two turns. The Russian reserve regiment proved to have Green morale, and was getting close to a morale throw. German casualties, while heavy, had been spread across all four regiment, so none of them was yet close to a morale check.

German counter battery fire had now also eliminated the regiment of 4.8" guns that had been firing in support of the Russian right so the Russian division had been stripped of the support of two of its three artillery regiments. The 3rd Regiment had a regiment of 122mm guns attached in support, but all attempts at contacting the artillery regiment to call in fire had failed. Withdrawal had already begun with 1st Regiment (which had failed its morale throw). The remainder of the division could only hope that it could do likewise, always difficult in the face of enemy fire.

We had to play the game over two nights. The delay in completing it was well worth the wait as the game was able to evolve so that the relative merits of the two sides plans and strengths were revealed.  Next game.. yet more layers of complexity and other possible interactions will be introduced. This will most probably include the use of limited light entrenchments, and pre-planned bombardments (as distinct from 'preliminary bombardments').