Landings at Anzac

I've been reading a bit recently about the Dardanelles campaign of 1915, and the 'Gallipoli' landings. Not exactly a campaign in which allied commanders covered themselves in glory, and a campaign in which Turkish commanders mostly did. One of the wargames obstacles I have faced, particularly with the Anzac landings, is the complexity of the terrain and how to model it on the wargames table. I have also pondered how you could model the path of the battle at Anzac with the hindsight of our historical knowledge, and the very small force of Turkish troops immediately available for the defence. How did you stop this assault with such small defending forces?

Source: https://heritage.hamiltonlibraries.co.nz/objects/5154/landing-at-gallipoli

I had a fresh read of Shawn and Robert's scenario book 'Our sons as well', featuring the battles on the peninsular. There were several specific rules amendments in particular that caught my attention, and led me to give this a try:

• The landing rules, that in particular slow the speed of progress off the beach. HQs cannot move off the beach without an order change, the roll being reduced because of the relative remoteness of the higher level command elements out to sea, and
• Troops can only land if there is room for them on the beach front, otherwise they must wait another turn, and the length of beach on which they can land is limited, and
• The reduction in speed (half speed) for elements crossing contours, to reflect the relative difficulty of the terrain facing the Australians and New Zealanders.

I used every single contour piece I had in my terrain collection, and even then wasn't able to model the four contour levels that the terrain warrants.

The first Australian brigade starts to land, not all there yet

Defending Turkish gun battery

Defending platoon at Fisherman's Hut

The forward defending Turkish company, which became an early casualty

Flank fire on the attackers

Australian infantry move off the beach

By turn 5, one Turkish company has been eliminated, along with four Australian companies

Turn 6 and another Australian Brigade is landing. The Turkish defenders from Gaba Tepe on the right of the beaches have moved onto the flank of the attackers (right edge of the photo)

The attackers are beginning to get strung out by the terrain

Having been held up in front of the defending Turkish company, and gun battery, I decide to push the bulk of the attackers on past them. Sari Bair beckons. The attackers are held up by the failure to roll high enough for the orders changes for HQ.. this rules mechanism works well in reducing the attackers' flexibility, and speed of advance. It's all about timing ...

The leading attackers now well out ahead

Move 8 and the degree of attacker disorganisation is becoming evident

And still the attackers race for the inland heights

Still the Turkish gun battery holds out, albeit suppressed at this stage.. it actually survived the whole 10 turns I played

Pressure on the attackers' right from the troops that have advanced from Gaba Tepe

Move 10 and the first Turkish reinforcements arrive .. most of a Turkish regiment, top left of the photo

Turkish reinforcements .. and under strength regiment

The view from behind the Turkish reinforcements

I stopped at this stage. This was a solo run through of the attack. I was interested in if or how this would play out, as on paper I had the impression that it was a damned hard ask for the Turkish defenders to keep the attackers at bay. By move 10 the leading Australian Brigade was approaching a morale check, with not quite 50% casualties, and was already facing a fresh Turkish regiment, with another regiment only two moves away.

As I suspected, the limitation to the attackers' ability to get off the beach created by the rules addition that requires an HQ to sit on the beach until it rolls a successful order change, the normal existence of a command radius for all units pert the standard rules, and the impact on movement of crossing contours coupled with the complexity of the terrain with ridges and valleys, has a profound impact on the attack. That is the intention. I initially sat thinking I'd shoot it out in a firefight with the few defenders, and then being conscious of the impending arrival of Turkish reinforcements, decided to rush forward and grab as much high ground as I could, meant the attack became disorganised.

Sounds realistic to me...

Now I was loose with the rules, as one may be when solo 'gaming something (are you?), and so the rigour of a 'live opponent' might well change things. However my overall sense is that this is a fascinating wargame, much much more than a simple historical recreation for visual effect. Both sides can win.. that's a win!!!

The game was fought using my 6mm armies, created using miniatures from Irregular Miniatures. The boats signifying the landing are also from Irregular. I showed them in more detail here.

You can see Robert's Gallipoli demo game here.

 

Beach landings at Gallipoli

With time freed up lately I have turned my mind once more to war games projects. I bought the Great War Spearhead scenario book 'Our sons as well', scenarios for the Gallipoli campaign 1915, when it came out, and at the time found the complexity of the terrain challenging. I put the book aside. I've decided to have another look, after reading a couple of books on the campaign.

I find that I am increasingly paying attention to the aesthetics of games, although I haven't yet made the inroads into the terrain that I would like. What I did do last week was buy three ships boats from the Irregular Miniatures 6mm range to use as 'markers' for beach landings at Gallipoli (or elsewhere for that matter).

They painted up quickly. Here are three shots of them posed with the Canterbury Battalion, obviously on manoeuvres practising for a beach landing.

The power of a book

My reading material has always been reasonably eclectic. Over this last week I completed reading Les Carlyon's work 'Gallipoli', an extensive and almost lyrical piece of historical writing which I thoroughly enjoyed.

I picked up a 2010 collection of poems by NZ'er Brian Turner (some beautiful work), and began reading that, and also looked around for another 'what next'. My eyes settled on this:

It's one of the few books from my childhood that I had chosen to keep. It was a Christmas gift from my parents (oops .. I mean, from Santa, of course), and I may have been around 10 years old ('ish) when I received it. I recall reading it numerous times as a youngster, and being inspired by it every time. Opening the pages and beginning this re-reading was much like meeting up once more with a long time friend with whom you hadn't met face to face for many years.

W.E. Johns has a lot to answer for, in my case. His inspiration went on to inspire a life long interest in World War 1, especially at a time when amongst our wargames colleagues it was definitely 'persona non grata', and also a lifelong fascination with WW1 aviation. I would read endlessly about WW1 aircraft, model them in plastic, and be attracted in some way shape or form with how to how to 'game aerial combat.

My parents were reasonably pacifist in their leanings, and I have often wondered if they realised how they were indirectly responsible for my interest in military history, an unintended consequence of their thoughtful gift-giving. My father was an avid model maker, although in wood and metal, not plastic, and his work also inspired the model maker in me.

More generally I find it fascinating to ponder where our inspiration comes from for our human interests in general, and our specific military/'gaming interests specifically. Something just fires in our imagination, doesn't it. To my parents, I have much to be grateful for.

The Battle of Maida 1806

Jon and I caught up for a yarn, a cup of tea, and a game this week.. he'd been overseas for a few weeks, and we didn't really need much of an excuse. Jon researched Maida as a game that would fit the bill as a small game to accompany a good catch up (as opposed to having a good catch up around a game) - 8 infantry stands per side, a few artillery batteries, and a single French cavalry stand, and we used my 25mm Napoleonics (remember the figures are 40+ years old and painted largely in the styles of the 1980's so please be gentle in your judgement of the aesthetics).

I commanded the French, Jon the British. In theory all stands (cavalry included) should be linear (so small is the battle). I don't have any Napoleonics on linear bases (but the temptation for a new 15mm project is very real). We used my massed based stands but played them with the linear factors per the Volley and Bayonet rules. The artillery are all 1 strength point battery stands.

French at the bottom of the photo, Jon advancing the British from the top

I was too aggressive, and attacked the British right on my left with two infantry battalions... and failed. Jon counter-attacked and routed one of the infantry units.

I then sent the one French light cavalry stand into the attack and routed one of the British infantry stands

Jon advanced and brought the cavalry under fire, eliminating the one SP stand cavalry stand with a large amount of musket fire.

I was also pushing forward on the French right, hoping to take the British flank from the rear as well

Jon promptly sent the Highlanders (a shock unit) into the attack against the artillery battery. Even though it was supported, the artillery lost the combat and was eliminated (it took a SP in casualties)

  

and eliminated the artillery

It was all over really. I'd wanted to reduce the advantage of the British shock infantry ... but it simply didn't work.. a short sharp game.. 

Great to see the 25mm figures on the table again, they don't get bout too often.

 

A few Victorian Science Fiction shots

I've been plying a few HotT (Hordes of the Things) games over the past week. Last night veteran 'gamer Nick came around and we played few more. I love the aesthetic of Nick's British VSF, it inspired my own British VSF army a few years ago (thanks Nick). These photos are from a game with Nick's British battling my Turkish VSF army. Both of our armies have been built in 20mm.

Just a few random shots from one of our games.

Nick used this awesome piece as an aerial hero, but it could equally be an airboat

Nick's behemoth, a steam tank, ably supported by knights (lancers), and shooters in the background of the photo

A few of my own Turkish VSF, including my behemoth, and my hero.