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.

Teaser: Other AEF projects

Having started reading (both by printed book and audiobook) about the history of the AEF, I was struck by descriptions of the battle of Cantigny, 28 May 1918. Although American forces had been in action in the line before this point, this was the first coordinated offensive by American troops. Although the French provided considerable support to the attack (artillery, tanks, flamethrower teams, and air cover), the action served as the preview or dress rehearsal for AEF troops to justify Pershing's insistence that he be allowed to create American formations under American command, rather than "amalgamate" his troops into French and British formations as those armies wished him to. If Cantigny had gone badly, Pershing might not have been able to withstand that pressure.

Cantigny proved a remarkable success, however.The 28th Infantry Regiment of the 1st Division stormed German defense and drove the enemy out of the town, seizing its objectives less than an hour after beginning their advance. More importantly, the doughboys held through two days of German counterattacks, retaining the ground they had captured, though at considerable cost.

Both its small size and its pivotal nature suggested to me that this might make a good subject for a game. So one of my Great War projects will be to develop a scenario for the battle, featuring the American assault and the German counterattacks, using Charles Eckhart's "Storm of Dice" adaptation of the Lardies' If the Lord Spares Us rules. With any luck, I'll be able to cozen Rich into including this in a special later in the year.

I'd also like to put together a couple of M&B scenarios featuring the early efforts of the AEF, both its very first action against the Germans at Bathlemont in November 1917 and a scenario featuring some of the fighting around Cantigny.

Not that I'm looking for an excuse to buy a Schneider tank in 28mm; no, not at all. :0)