Trench Assault

France, 1915, and the French army sets out to break the German line. This is the account of a Great War Spearhead game pitching two French divisions against a defending German division as we test some alternative preliminary bombardment rules.  I played this as a solo game, and I tended to gloss over some of the detail in order to test How would the attackers fare against the defence?

The battlefield with the forces deployed, the French on the left in the photo

The French attack sees the weight of the attack focused on their right

More on the right

The French left waiting for the whistle to 'go over the top'

The defenders feel very thin on the ground, one of the bunkers

German defenders occupying a French village incorporated into the front line

The French preliminary bombardment begins.

Suppressed German companies, victims of the French bombardment

Gaps in the wire from the French bombardment. Note that some of the French wire has been cut by the German counter bombardment

French attackers suppressed by the German counter bombardment

On the French right, very little of the German wire remained uncut

In the centre large areas of the German wire remain, and the attacker are hung up on the wire

Some French attackers in the centre make it into the German lines

French preplanned artillery fire begins to fall as the French infangtry rush forward

In the centre the attacking infantry are confronted with a solid barrier of wire

The intensity of fire builds

On gthe French right the attackers move forward as their preplanned barrage falls on the defenders

In the centre all hell has broken loose

The French left seen from behind the German lines

At the end of the first turn.. the French attackers on the right have taken serious casualties

The French second wave on their right steps off 

In the centre the second wave masses, but the attackers are still hung up behind the German wire

The French left trying to push into the German lines

The French left seen from behind the German lines

The French left breaks into the German lines

Assaults on defending nGerman companies

At the end of turn 2, French on the left

The German regiment on their left defending against the French right flank attack breaks and flees 

Remnants of the German defenders on their left fleeing

The French centre still hung up

The French left has broken into the German right

The German right flank regiment held a battalion in reserve, and these troops move forward to the high ground behind their line to halt then French breakthrough

The extent of the French breakthrough on their right (bottom of the phot) is apparent

A firefight underway on the French left (German right)

The German lefty/French right as the French infantry storm forward

French infantry beyond the German front line

French attackers in the centre have penetrated the German wire

Fierce fighting towards the German right

Preplanned French artillery falls on the edge of the forest behind the German left, catching some of the advancing French infantry

French pre-planned fire falls on the german defenders on their right, opposing the French left (upper part of the photo)

The French left flank attackers under fierce fire

The French centre

The French left again seen from the German position

The German reserve had been committed at the end of turn 3, and advances against the French breakthrough

The French right flank breakthrough as they move forward to take the woods behind the German line. The last of the German left flank defenders can be seen in the lower part of the photo fleeing through the woods towards the bottom of the photo

The centre, with the attackers still stalled by the uncut German wire. Some French companies have managed to break into the German lines 

The centre - slow progress

The French attackers are pinned down in their newly captured German trenches

At this stage there will be a fierce fight for the wooded area behind the German left opposing the French right flank breakthrough. The German reserve regiment commitment was vital to holding the line. The French left flank attack is likely to be held as the localised German reserve brings fire down on any French attempt to move out of the German lines.

Any further French attack will need to await a regrouping as a new artillery fire plan is developed.

Another batch of barbed wire arrives at the front...

Having worked out a look I am happy with, and having for a variety of reasons been absent from the. painting table for some months,. I have finally managed to find a little of the old 'painting mojo', and produced a batch of barbed wire sections for the Great War Spearhead battlefield.

I used Scotchbright pot scrubbing pads (thanks to Robert Dunlop for the idea), cut to size, on textured bases (built up with 'No More Gaps', a building product) to create the sections.  There are 20 sections in this batch, each 3" long. This allows an additional 5' of trench frontage to be covered. Added to the previous batch, I can now model opposing linear trench lines a la 1915-17) of five feet in length.

The batch straight off the production line

A battlefield with some troops deployed. This is a four foot frontage, with one French division (Irregular 6mm) on the left, and two German regiments (Irregular 6mm)on the right. This frontage ought of course to see a French Corp (two divisions) attacking against a German division defending.

Now.. where was I?

Crossfire action in Italy

I haven't played Crossfire for almost 7 years, and for Andy it has been longer. We both have 20mm collections that are well suited to the game, so we got together for a couple of refresher games focussed more on re-familiarising ourselves with the rules than anything. Andy has some Italian paratroopers, and amongst my significant collection are some British paras, so we put these out. We stepped through a small action aimed at checking out mechanisms, and then tried a small British para platoon assault against the Italian paras. As it was essentially our first attempt, we kept it simple, allowing Andy two hidden stands.

The Italian troops in position, with the British advancing in three platoons, the platoon MMG section with the left flanking platoon, and observer for the 3" mortar section with the centre platoon. The Italians had deployed left and right, with their MMG section deployed on their left, against the British  right

The British left flanking platoon

The right flanking platoon. The troops were painted in the 90's, for an Arnhem type game, and these three bases came with their very own portable Arnhem brick walls .. oh dear!!

The Italian left open fire pinning the British right, but with a 'no fire' result for one rifle squad

The right flanking British platoon is pinned

The domination of fire lanes by the Italian MMG prompted the British commander to lay smoke to try to allow his centre platoon to advance

The British centre is pinned, with one squad suppressed

The left flanking platoon enters the wood, finds the hidden Italian squads, and is pinned by their fire

At, this stage initiative is changing frequently, and the Italian right flank platoon suffers two 'no fires'

The British commander attempts a fire fight on his right, but is pinned, with one squad suppressed

... and then suffers the loss of one of its squads

The action shifts rapidly to the left where the platoon is pinned still, and now one squad is suppressed

... and then 'killed'

The Italian MMG is suppressed

But failure to lift the pin on the British right flank means they are unable to take advantage of the suppressed MG

The left flanking platoon suffers the loss of a second squad ...

At this stage it is clear that the British para platoon has come up against a position that it can't take on its own, it needs more support. They say you need 3:1 odds in the attack, with good reason!!!

I'd forgotten how engaging these rules are, the pace of the action with the chop and change of initiative, the challenge of trying to decide where best to focus attention, the need for covered routes of advance, to win the fire fight, al of these things echo a greater degree of reflection of command than any other low level rules set, and we have been reminded of why we liked the rules. 

Ever since I first tried Crossfire, I have had the opinion that they are amongst the cleverest set of rules I have ever used. That's why I like them. I'm just not very good at command!!!

A new base label aesthetic for Great War Spearhead

There's not been much painting on my hobby desk for a while (many months, in fact) .. a combination of busy work life and an eyesight issue that, after a small operation at the end of November, will hopefully resolve itself over the coming month.

I have however been working on a new aesthetic for base labelling, moving away from the generic '1's etc for bases. These are late war bases for Great War Spearhead. I have changed the whole base aesthetic, and added historic unit labels, to add colour to the overall game aesthetic itself.

In this case, these are Irregular British figures labelled as elements of the New Zealand Division in France 1918. The unit names are printed in white text on a coloured background, with the national flag printed at the right hand edge. Using GoogleSheets, this has taken a LOT of messing around to try to get column widths correct, and to get a flag representation in to each cell. Actually I won't say how much work that has taken, but a HUGE amount would not be an overstatement.

I am happy with the overall result.

A new scourge that has to be defeated

 A scourge had descended upon the battlefields of the future. A scourge had taken hold, a scourge crept and crawled and scuttled, a scourge that had to be defeated. And the troops of the Imperial German Kaiser had stepped up, intent on showing that they were up to the task.

The first HotT game in a while, and Andy's Weird World War Germans were attacking my spider hordes.

My horde army consisted of:
1 x hero general
1 x behemoth
1 x spider God
10 x spider horders
2 x spider lurkers

Andy's Germans were:
1 x hero general

1 x behemoth

1 x airboat

3 x undead hordes

3 x shooters

3 x blades

(oops.. 2 points too many)

The Germans advance against the spiders, but a 6 on their second turn means the spider God arrives

On the other flank, hero general and behemoth go against hero general and behemoth

The German airboat swoops behind the spider line

Argy bargy along the line

Spider behemoth

The spider hero general attacks the airboat.. early success!

Two spider hordes come back....

The airboat is destroyed

Along the line

The God is engaged against a blade

All very untidy, and another horde returns

German hero vs spider behemoth

The horde line is being forced back by a combination of fire and combat. At about this stage the spiders roll a 1 for PIPs and the God disappears.. 

. A

The hordes clearly seen backs against the wall, multiple hordes brought back and still in contact with their stronghold

The spider hero and behemoth are also being pushed back

Serious holes in the horde line

The hordes push forward to try to get clear of their stronghold

Horde casualties seen off the 'table' waiting to come back on

A German horde is brought back on, and as it passes through some bad going it is attacked by a spider lurker.. the spider loses an flees from the battlefield

The lines lock in combat again, the spiders are sitting 11 AP casualties

One last casualty and the spiders are defeated, the world is cleansed of the scourge

What a cool game.,. not too demanding after a very hectic work week.. lots of kōrero, a beer, and the chance to push figures... a good Friday night