"...the gun, however, had been removed..."

Last weekend we had the opportunity to recruit another member to our section of Mud and Blood enthusiasts. My friend Ash has played other wargames with us a couple of times, and he was up to trying something new. Mr Sherwood and I gave him a brief run-through on the basics of M&B and of simple infantry tactics, and then he was given command of a raiding party (with Mr Sherwood acting as his trusty senior NCO...)

For the event, I had put together a simple scenario that I hoped would be a fairly painless introduction to the rules, providing enough challenge to be fun while not being so brutal as to discourage the beginning player. As the subject, I picked the very first ever trench raid, as mentioned by Anthony Saunders in his Raiding on the Western Front.

This action took place in early November 1914 near Festubert. A German unit had pushed a sap forward towards the British lines and placed a machine-gun there "which was causing annoyance", according to one source. The 2nd Battalion, the Black Watch staged a small attack to capture or destroy the gun and its position.

Ash and Bryan had two sections of Highlanders to clear the sap and its supporting trench. They advanced side by side separated by a road, one section crossing an open field and taking cover in a tree line while the second section occupied the ruins of a farm about 50-60 yards from the sap.

The Germans had a good deal of trouble with their MG. They fired off a couple of bursts at one section of Scots as they advanced to the treeline, but after dropping a couple of kilties, they suffered a stoppage that lasted through the rest of the game. The supporting gruppe of riflemen did their best to stave off the inevitable, but with the MG out of action, the Germans were like the Lady of Shallot--their doom had come upon them.

I had tried to give the British an edge (justified by their success in the historical event) by including both the Up and At 'Em and Mad Minute cards. These proved crucial, as they allowed the British to get in position under cover and to pour a steady stream of fire onto the German positions that even their trenches could not wholly shelter them from. Eventually, the Highlanders just shot the Germans to pieces, with the German NCOs being shot down last, one by one, as they tried desperately to get their gun back in action (once the German units were gone, I allowed the British to shoot directly at the German Big Men). The Hun lost the MG, the sap, and the trench, with all ranks wounded or killed. The British took four casualties, much the same as in the historical raid.

I was quite happy with the result. It was intended to be a British win from the beginning, but I was impressed that the players managed (with help from the dice gods) to keep so close to the original British casualty figures. I think the scenario works well as a starter piece, a short scenario with the beginner as the British and an experienced player in the German role (and, if necessary, acting as umpire--it's not about winning and losing, so he can stand to be impartial). We skipped out on using blinds and spotting in our game, so as to limit the complications, and since they would be likely to be of short duration in any case.

Incidentally, on digging around for more information on the original action, I found a brief passage in Mereweather and Smith's The Indian Corps in France that describes the action and gave me an additional piece of information.

Before dawn on the same day, a similar raid on a smaller scale was carried out by the 2nd Black Watch, with the object of capturing or destroying a machine gun which was tormenting our men. Captain Forrester with twenty men rushed the German trench, and had a hand-to-hand scrimmage with the enemy, of whom they killed ten. The gun, however, had been removed, and the party were lucky to get back to their own trench with only Captain Forrester and one sergeant wounded.

Another account (A History of the Black Watch (Royal Highlanders) in the Great War, 1914-1918, A.G. Wauchope, ed.)says

The chief incident in the left section was a night raid made on the German trenches by some twenty men of No. 2 Company under Captain Forrester, with the object of destroying a machine gun which was causing annoyance from a sap pushed up close to our line. The raid took place on November 9th. Captain Forrester was wounded through the lungs as the raid started, but continued to lead his men, who reached the German trenches and killed ten of the enemy in hand-to-hand fighting; the machine gun had, however, been removed. The party returned with Captain Forrester, Sergeant Wallace, and one private wounded.

So, in fact, our stoppage had had a fairly historical effect--the original German defenders had not had the advantage of an MG to defend themselves with--and neither did our fictional Germans!

I'll publish the scenario here as soon as I can format it properly.  Here's the scenario.

A few new toys

Among the things I got at Cold Wars were some of the Old Glory WWI figures and a special pack from Great War Minis.

I had heard that the two lines are not terribly compatible, and I have to say that's so. The Old Glory line, while quite nice based on these Germans and some Americans I acquired, are a good bit smaller, possibly true 25s compared with GWM and Renegade, which are more "heroic" 28s. Nonetheless, I think that of one doesn't mix the two in the same units, they can get by in the same force.

In the image above are two Old Glory pieces, in the top left and bottom right. Top left are a pair of kneeling/seated figures, one operating a radio or field telephone, the other taking notes on a pad. The latter could as well be paired with an officer observing through a filed periscope or some such. His base is not nearly as thick as that of the handset man, so I've added a small base under him, which leaves him slightly elevated over the other figure, but more or less on a level.I'll have to do some creative ground-sculpting.

On the bottom right is a chap holding a pigeon, with a nice wicker basket that presumably held the feathery messenger. The set also included a runner with a satchel, who is not in this shot.

The three other pieces are Great War miniatures, and beautiful work they are, too. In the lower left corner is a Granatenwerfer 16, an Austrian spigot mortar adopted by the German Army. The Soldier's Burden has a nice page on it here. The GWM piece comes with a granatenwerfer in two pieces, an operator, and an additional crewman.

I suppose the latter might as well be a support for the central figure, a gunner with a Mauser Tankgewehr M1918, or 13mm anti-tank rifle. He provided a nice excuse to pick up some of the lozenge-shaped bases that Gale Force Nine includes among its inexpensive MDF bases (for sale, alas, only at conventions). In emulation of my hero, Uncle Sid, I've decided to go with these for my WWI forces.

Speaking of these pill-shaped bases, the third GWM set uses one of these to carry a team using the Kleinflammenwerfer, or small flamethrower. The Soldier's Burden has a page describing the German employment of these devices. While initially effective, they became less so once British and French troops overcame their initial shock at the use of fire, and (as mentioned in this piece on firstworldwar.com), the life of an operator was dangerous and, if captured by the enemy, very short indeed.

I also acquired some Brigade Games German sentries (not pictured), some of which are smoking, the slackers! These will be useful for M&B for sure--I might even get them some special bases for their special role.

In addition, with my pre-Cold Wars purchases (thanks to the chaps who bought my old 15mm Franco-Prussian figures!), I now have enough figures for a half-Zug of early war Germans, another half-Zug of late war Germans, and a platoon of Americans. Now to start painting...

A Lesson in Success

While reading whatever I can get my hands on concerning the practice of trench raiding (I have recently acquired and look forward to devouring Anthony Saunders' Raiding on the Western Front), I came across this nice article on the Calonne Trench Raid (PDF), published in a 1999 issue of Canadian Military History. It's short (~10 pages), but it very neatly provides background on the Commonwealth Western Front practice of trench raiding, explains the purposes of the practice, gives the lead-in to this particular attack, details the planning and organization for it, and describes the action itself. it then wraps up the results and brings the reader back to the overall rationale and effect of raiding.

A sampling of the other accounts I've run across on the Web so far include several accounts on a site dedicated to the 11th Bn., East Lancashire Regiment: a patrol, a raid, and a raid by the 13th Bn., York and Lancaster Regiment. Also a nice animated presentation on a 1916 raid the the London Scottish, an account of an American who fought with the Royal West Surreys, another American serving under his home colours, and a short account of an action by 6th Bn., Seaforth Highlanders.

All Quiet At The Hissing Fuse

There's a brief hiatus underway while I prepare for Cold Wars (which won't have much Great War focus for me, at least this year). I'm continuing to read up on the battle of Vimy Ridge, which (for those who hadn't sussed it out yet) is the setting for our Winter Sports escapades.

I hope to develop a little mini-campaign of WS scenarios that will serve to involve the players in the preparations for the assault. The Canadians practiced trench-raiding extensively, often on a large scale, and it both "blooded" new men and contributed to the intelligence gathering that made the attack such a huge success. In the end, I'd like to tie the results into a larger depiction of the attack, maybe a couple of Storm of Dice scenarios or a Corps Blimey game.

The first step will be expanding the scope of the missions and ruse cards from the original article. While they're brilliant for the first few games, once you've run through them several times, they need updating to keep the suspense going. These will be a mixture of events and items that will be applicable to any Western Front setting and some that will be specifically applicable to Vimy Ridge.

One thing I'm looking forward to about Vimy is that it matches up the Canadians (the shock troops of the British Empire) against the Bavarians. The Bavarians had a reputation as doughty and ferocious fighters, and were, towards the end of 1917, the first to come to grips with the Americans as they arrived in France.

[A well deserved reputation! I got to command a division of Bavarians recently in a scenario playtest for Bruce Weigle's 1866 rules (he has a good scenario lined up for Cold Wars), and I found them quite redoubtable, considering the overwhelming Prussian firepower they were facing.]


ETA: Brief account of Cold Wars here.