Austro Hungarian mountain troops for World War 1

Painting motivation comes and goes at the moment. While ferreting through that inevitable box (well boxes plural) of unpainted figures and latent projects I came across a bag of Airfix 20mm World War 2 German Mountain troops. They are old. So old, the plastic on some of them has gone brittle, the figures subsequently snapping at the ankles.

I say 'bag' because obviously someone had given these to me sans box, and clearly incomplete .. no heavy weapons. What had I in mind for these? Ah yes, when I acquired them I was thinking about Austro Hungarians for World War 1. Well, it was the cap, wasn't it. Of course, these days there are good quality AH figures available - mine are from HaT. However there are those times when several ideas come together in what seems like a great new idea .. AH mountain  troops. But for what purpose?

Here's the second idea. When playing Robert Dunlop's ANZAC landing scenario recently I was really taken by Robert's very simple Great War Spearhead mechanism for reflecting the difficulty of the terrain, the steepness of the contours: it takes any stand half a move to cross a contour. Yep, that simple, and it worked like magic in the scenario.

So.. how about some of those actions in the Carpathians, or the Italian alps, where ordinary troops are struggling across the terrain, but these mountain troops don't pay that contour crossing penalty? This sounded like a 'purpose' for fielding mountain troops apart from the aesthetic (which I suspect will in fact most often be the only reason).

Anyway, here are the first of the mountain troops. I need to complete two more fighting stands, and the Regimental HQ, for which I have the figures in hand, in order to give one complete GWSH regiment. I will also need an MMG, but that may require a purchase. I suspect one regiment is all I'd ever need.

The base on the left was my prototype. I tried baking soda and PVA mixed to simulate the snow, but wasn't that happy with the result. For the remaining stands I embedded the figures in my standard white basing compound, and added 'rocks', grey gravel, and a small patch of grass.

Some figures are painted with snow camouflage tunics and trousers (yes historically some were). 

Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Austro-Hungarian_ski_patrol_on_Italian_front_in_snow_camouflage_1915-1918.jpg

The remainder wears a mix of pike grey/blue grey uniforms. Yes I know the uniforms aren't strictly correct for the WW1 Austro Hungarian mountain troops, but this is a 'paint conversion', so no rivet counter comments please.

A week in 'gaming ..

It's been one of those weeks. A return from a relaxing long weekend away, and then three Volley and Bayonet games. It happens sometimes.

The first game was a refight of a section of the Battle of Perryville with Andrew. The scenario had been downloaded from Keith's website in 2000 (the date is printed on the footer of the page). It is't currently available on Keith's revamped site. It's a small action, but I was fascinated by the nuance it captured. The game ended as a draw (neither side achieving its victory conditions before night set in), but the Union only survived because the turn limit was 5 turns, and the fact that last move was a night move. I didn't manage to capture photos during the game, so these photos are of the game at the end. The number of yellow and red disorder markers on Union stands reflects the chaos that had ensued. The game was played with my 15mm ACW armies.

The second game was a Franco Prussian war game. The armies are from Adrian's 15mm collection. The scenario was set during the later Republican phase of the war. I was one of the French commanders, and it would be fair to say the result was a French disaster, in part because of my inability to roll 6's with the dice.

The last game was a 6mm Napoleonic game, set in 1809, using Keith's 6mm armies. Again I didn't keep a record pf progress during the game, so the photos are really just eye candy to reflect beautiful figures on lovely terrain.

I feel somewhat blessed to have such great friends and 'gaming companions who are so generous in sharing their time, their expertise, their laughter, and their beautiful armies and terrain.

Another Boxer Rebellion game

One of this week's gaming opportunities was a Volley and Bayonet game featuring the Boxer rebellion. Loosely, the scenario saw an allied force trying to capture a fortified town, and a defended island. This post is simply a chance to feature Adrian's beautiful figures and ship models: two Chinese junks, a British paddle steamer, and British and French river gunboats.

The combat units were from Adrian's 15mm VnB collection. And for the record, the allies failed to take the walled town.

The Battle of Driskos in the Balkan Wars 1912

Having spotted a Balkan Wars scenario in the Great War Spearhead iOGroup files section, I invited Jon to come on over and give it a go. The scenario represented the Battle of Driskos in 1912, with a very understrength Turkish division attacking a 'ragtag' group of Greek units. The game was played using my 6mm armies, with WW1 Russians proxying for the Greek troops.

This was the scenario map:

The open ground across which the Turkish infantry would have to advance looked very daunting. A quick of a topographical map however showed this:

This is fairly rugged ground. We added some ridges running across the Turkish line of advance. The deployment restrictions on the Greeks however meant that this had little effect on the game.

The battlefield with Turkish troops attacking from the right, the Greek forces positioned on the terrain protecting the two spot heights.

Jon commanded the Turkish division and concentrated on his right against a single Greek 'regimental group'. He drew carefully constructed command arrows anticipating a disciplined advance. 

At each stage Jon would advance, and enter the firefight

The overwhelming weight of small arms fire meant that within three moves he had essentially won the firefight on the extreme right

The Greek left flank was held by a mostly Green regimental group. It survived the first morale check at 33% casualties, but failed the second, and the Greek left disintegrated

The Greek position was untenable, and their defence melted away, much as it did in reality. The game was a good foray into a relatively uncomplicated pre-WW1 period of battles. In hindsight, with this battle in particular, when you look at the topo map the ground is more rugged and challenging to an attacker that the scenario models. We felt that the Greeks should be defending at least four contours. We connected this with my experience playing the Gallipoli/ANZAC Cove scenario developed by Robert Dunlop. This modelled the difficulty of the terrain with a scenario rule whereby attackers could only cross one contour at a time, and that at half speed. We finished by wondering if that might more effectively represent the terrain that you see in reality in this battle.

Forcing a river crossing in the American Civil War

Inspired by various accounts of early war (1861) battles in the American Civil War in which one side attempted to cross a river to take a significant road/rail/ferry 'node', I tried to create a scenario that incorporated an opposed river crossing. I built a simple raft styled model as a means of representing/marking the place of crossing.

The scenario itself didn't work too well, so no tedious after action report. I did learn enough to be able to rejig the scenario, and we'll have another go some time in the not too distant future. In the meantime, just a few more photos of the action, that saw a confederate force supported by an ironclad trying to force a river crossing. The game was played using my 15mm ACW armies. The mechanisms I used to model the crossing were created by Adrian and Jon in a different scenario setting. The 'rafting operation' (a concept rather than a literal representation) allowed for two stands to cross the river at a time. This took one complete move. The stands then landed with their base edge against the 'river bank', and they were disordered for that turn. This represented the vulnerability of troops crossing the river.

Yes you are right: the 'river' doesn't go to the edge of the table... purely a result of the inadequacies of my terrain. Until next time .....