Sinai 1918

'Middle East' during WW1

This “campaign” started when Craig and PeterM played in my WW1 Middle East game using the soft plastic 1:72 scale figures I had painted a few years ago (almost an only one colour and a quick stain job).  Haven’t even done anything with the bases and only painted them a ‘desert’ colour.  The trenches are just self-hardening clay with a quick 'sand-bag' pattern scrawled into it. The terrain is very simple, usually only a piece of felt placed on the tan-coloured wool blanket.  Not very attractive to be honest     ( or at very most 'old-school' ) but the boys had so much fun that we have turned this into a regular meet playing out games using a selected roster of troops …this mostly determined upon how many and of what type I have had painted for each side! 

The final battle of the first campaign stage.  "Battle for Gaza". And yes, the Allies did have tanks (only eight, mind you) for the campaign for a brief period before being recalled to the Western Front.  Some were lost to Turkish fire including one of my models as can be seen.

Australian Mounted Rifles

After each game, we spend a delightful time (for us) analyzing the numbers and changing the rules for the next game.  The rules are the fantasy set “Dragon Rampant” for the stats of each unit employing the basic mechanics which satisfy our needs well. 

 

It's dry in a desert: a WW1 game.

"It's Dry in a Desert"

 Hmm, that could be the title of the my new rules I tried out with the help of KevinA at the club.
( IDIAD)?

After a beer or two at home while looking at new basing techniques for my small collection of 20mm Ottoman and ANZAC troops for the desert of Sinai 1917, a concept for the basis of a home-brew rule set popped into my head,  so I produced a VERY sketchy idea which needed some help filling out. Such as....umm, how far do they move...THAT sort of thing!
Luckily Kevin was game to help me out during the club night and by the end of the evening we had a simple, convention friendly game which we both stepped back from the table, with a grin on our faces and stating "That was a fun game!"

The rules are still very rough but seemed to flow.  Lots and lots of dice.  Only sixes do anything.  Kevin and I certainly have trouble rolling sixes (twice Kevin rolled 32 x d6 dice and did not score a single 6!)  The real slow part was carefully counting out the dice for each roll!

The figures are HaT 1:72 soft plastics with a very simple paint job and highlighting wash.  The trenches are made from cheap self-hardening clay with the 'sandbags' a mere impression in the clay (a very quickly done impression...obviously....). The tents are cut from a large Toblerone chocolate triangular box, painted and glued on card.  Very old school!
I have not finalized the basing still so went really simple but actually kinda works so might stay with it!

Turkish heavy machine gun company.  Lots of dice worth of firepower. 

Australian horse attack Turkish position

Needed only NOT to roll any six to activate on two die.  I couldn't do it for five turns in a row! Thus my poor disheartened Turks continued to mill about.

"but you are suppose to hold here!"

Yeah, probably 2nd Manassas but “The Battle of the Unfinished Railroad Cut” has a more folksy sound;  was an interesting game of DennisC’s 20mm ACW during the monthly Friday ClubNight in which I and KevinA as Confederates were tasked with defending the unfinished railway line from overwhelming Union forces from Colin and Nate’s disparate assaults, using the 2nd Edition Fire and Fury Brigade rules (which new charts really has it resembling the regimental version!) in this fictional what-if scenario.

The Confederates were well-outnumbered in this battle and indeed even had green units (gasp!) 

The grey strip is Dennis's representation of the unfinished railway cutting which I was suppose to defend.  I did, but not in the way poor Dennis would wish the battle to be conducted :)

Dang many bluecoats.  Fun to see the numerous figures I had painted being used on the table.

Dennis near had a apoplectic fit as I promptly advanced my meagre two units toward the four units facing me a hill away and followed that by moving my other two into the woods ahead.  “You are suppose to defend the line!” exclaimed Dennis at seeing my advances. And then he really shook his head when I then ‘vanished’ my crack cavalry unit.  “Where is it?!” asked Dennis. “It’s moving hidden from the enemy”, respond I.  “Well, I better not see it behind my troops!” added Colin (my Union opponent).  “No it will not ”, I answered, “but will be unseen as you still have four blank blocks  ( indicating more possible Union units unknown as of yet ). More than fair I am thinking”

Indeed my charging Rebs were short a couple of inches from the blocks but as the rules indicate visibility into the woods, Dennis as GM, laid them out.  Colin protested but I suggested “they could smell you d*nmed Yankees a mile away” in my best Southern accent.  Dennis placed yet more Union on the table.  Outnumbered 3 to 1 but not defending his beloved railway defensive positions,  Dennis suggested “this was not suppose to happen!”.

We know the Yankees were there as we could smell 'em......

But I was happy in the tactics.  Especially as my other two units had, again, advanced ( “You are suppose to defend!”) and started to attack Nate’s Union open right flank of their attack up hill against KevinA’s few Confederates holding our right part of the line.  The two Union player’s forces had separated, leaving a big gap in the middle for me to exploit so I came to aid Kevin with this flank attack from the middle.

The units of my attack in the center directed by Stonewall himself.  Lots of bonus command points for that!

All was going well but even early in the game, when the artillery was firing at very long ranges,      casualties seemed very severe.  But now as artillery was in effective ranges due to our advances, the artillery fire became absolutely devastating. Unfortunately Dennis had severely overestimated the amount of artillery which was historically deployed and so had perhaps 4X the number of models on the table which amounted to massive grand batteries of firepower.  Even low rolls were causing disorder and mayhem.  High rolls blew away whole units, including my previously hidden cavalry which I had moved around the hill to advance upon the guns which were unsupported and partially destroyed or silenced and alone in the Union empty middle.  But un-like the ill-fated Charge of the Light Brigade which, one might remember still did reach the guns, my elite boys were completely destroyed by a single volley by an average die roll by the guns. Sigh.  

a view of Kevin's defence's on our right flank.  Lots and lots of artillery in this fictional what-if battle made for huge casualties

Kevin was still holding his hill but weakening against the large numbers assaulting him.  My attack from the centre had a nice effect as the green (poor) Union unit at the end of their line routed (Nate had rolled an unfortunate 1 on the d10 dice employed by FnF - which ruleset use of the single d10 makes wide swings in one’s fortunes)
This rout would allow that attack would be effective but as often happens with wargames, real time will effect the battle and it was called.  Both sides claimed victory.

Palestine 1917

Yes, not all World War One battles must be in the mud and cold of the Western Front but can be in the dust and heat of the Middle East.  My "Palestine 1917" collection is one which I really have forgotten how/when/why I have the figures.  But as they are 1:72 (20mm) plastics, I changed my usual method of painting to a white primer, basic colours without much worry about "keeping inside the lines" and finished with a wash/dip. One of my very quick doings.  Not good by any measure but fine for this minor diversion.

Australian Mounted Infantry in the desert

In keeping with my current interest in Dan Mercey's series of "Rampant" rules, I thought to use his "The Men Who Would Be Kings" colonial rules for this campaign.  Not historical for sure, but it should give a reasonable game and is malleable enough.  I want to use airplanes (and tanks?) but I think even that is conceivable within the framework.

The organization of the units was the most difficult point, trying to decide, based on the numbers I had, and the suggested sizes of the rules; what would 'feel' best for the scale of game I wish to portray.  To be honest it is more the former than the latter which dictated the result.

An infantry unit (company?) will have 12 bases (of two figures each), an artillery unit (section or battery?) of four guns equating to the 4 crew in the rules and 4 machine guns again matching the number of crew within the TMWWBK rules. A gun is removed rather than any figures. The doctrine of the day had machine guns generally operating in whole units than independently as part of an infantry command; so the use of groups of machine guns is not strange and fits with their effect within the rules.

Ottoman Turk Infantry

Turkish machine gun unit

Turkish artillery.  Not well served in this game through rather poor dice rolling for them.

Turkish cavalry. Did give them the lance advantage in combat but were destroyed before able to use them!

The Australian mounted infantry would have been a challenge but surprisingly the HaT box contains 12 mounted versions, 9 on foot (in nice kneeling and firing poses, rather than some of the silly poses one often gets from the manufacturers in this scale of plastics) and 3 horse holders (actually looking the part!).  As the rules do not make a distinction between mounted and dismounted and suggests a mix of ‘operations’ a benefit, the box nicely fits within the scheme. Therefore each unit has a mix of poses.  One certainly could divide up the poses as so to replace the mounted version on the tabletop with the dismounted version should the unit dismount on the tabletop but the mix allows a doubling of the number of units.

Sample of the mounted infantry basing

my two units of mounted infantry. 

The morning before club night I made a spur of the moment decision to probably put on the game and thus a day of frantic cutting of bases, gluing of figures, quickly painting of bases, and making terrain occurred. Newly purchased hills at the last convention B&B made their debut as did some rocks I picked up along the way!

Still don’t know about the final terrain on the bases; whether I leave them as is , sort of old school,  or try to match with the mat better.  Simple is good sometimes.

During lunch I was quick reading the rules as this would be my first go at them. (lots of page flipping during the game unfortunately)

While the rules are certainly designed for the Hollywood version of colonial warfare, they adapt easily for this era.  However I did not give gone-to-ground or close order, etc. as these are not applicable to this era.

With modern warfare is less ‘personable’ , I did not use any leadership traits and leaders and simply gave all the Aussies 6+ and the Turks 7+ leadership - a historical reflection I consider (the rules range from superior 5+ or abysmal 9+)  Both have modern rifles but the Turks are downgraded in most categories.  Just means more of them on the tabletop!

 As the game was ad hoc, I gave the players (FrancisM as the Australians and DennisC as the Turks) a brief scenario and even briefer descriptions of their troops.    The Australian Mounted Infantry, as befitting their excellent war record, were significantly upgraded, while the poor Turks historically were seconded in this campaign and so downgraded with the result they have more units on the table including large numbers of machine guns and cannon.  The points were approximately the same for this game but much of the Turkish units could not redeploy against the Aussie attack on the flank of their hasty defence.

Start of the game. The Turkish wide deployment result of not sure the direction of the Australian attack as theirs was a desperate rear guard action.

I do have Australian infantry painted but they did not participate in this campaign, having been sent to the Western Front after Gallipoli.
FrancisM ever the comedian offered that:  “You know how the Aussies are. After a night of heavy drinking, they forgot the horses!”  So mounted infantry but without the mounts?, I reply.  “Exactly!”, he beamed.   Yeah, OK, I guess that works for me, I concluded.  I rated them as infantry nonetheless.

A significant action in the battle happened as I gave the beleaguered Turks a unit of horse; but as they came into the battle, the fortunate die rolling of Aussie firepower destroyed them.

The Turkish cavalry (bottom) already at half strength and pinned, would not make it through another turn unfortunately.
The rules have infantry and cavalry units with 360 degree arc of fire.

The effectiveness of the mounted infantry was certainly evident.  With future additions of heavy weapons they will be a potent force. But I think with a more historical use of defensive positions, well placed machine gun and artillery, should allow the Turks a better go of it.  

Chocolate tents

Well, OK, perhaps more accurately stated,....tents created from packaging of chocolate.
 In this case, Toblerone Chocolate as it comes in quite the handy triangular box.  Great for easy-to-make card tents!
With some paint and a terrain work on the base they should look fine on the tabletop.
I am thinking for my 20mm WW1 Palestine project.  The sizing should be about right.

ACW - the fight of Forney's Field

Free to play at the club's game night at Bonsor,  I joined in Dennis' 20mm ACW scenario which  replicates part of the first day fighting of the Battle of Gettysburg.

My painted boys with the Irish flag added by Dennis.  Of course they continued to hold the wall throughout this game....

map link

Note the yellow stars which indicate "battle objectives"  Now I understand the trademark of Dennis's games -- lightbulb moment!  

He play-tested the scenario and Cutler's brigade quickly collapsed.  Indicating I don't mind if he gave me the "disaster command" I was given these regiments.  In this game however while I did get pushed back,  the Confederate forces could not recover from the combat along the woods so gave me a couple turns to make the right die rolls to get rid of my shaken status.

The yellow star corresponds to the star in the middle of Baxter's command.  Carter's Confederates line the wall.

Meanwhile, the two other Reb commands were making trouble for my counterpart on the other side of the Union's chevron shaped defensive position.  Eventually we were to have limited success holding off the steady deliberate Southern attacks.  The Union reinforcements were scheduled to come on shortly which probably would stabilize the situation for us Northerners.

"Rebs to the left, Rebs to the right...."

the scene of O'Neal's Reb command (see map) advancing.  

For the second time in a many games in which others hosted, I got to play with figures I painted;  in this case the 20mm ACW of Dennis's collection.  Nice to see the boys put to good use!