Monday, 30 January 2012

Mons, 1914 - part 2

Carrying on from part one of this report, we rejoin the action as the two mighty armies come to grips.
The Germans close on the Mons salient.  The approach across open country meant they sustained quite a few casualties to British artillery fire.
"Right, so all we've got to do is cross the canal and assault the British regulars dug in.  In a town.  No problem!"
Despite the German bravery, the Brits threw some outrageously lucky dice...
...here they had 3D6 needing '2s' or less.....   Gott in himmel!
Meanwhile the German right wing had thrown the Brits back across the canal.
An overview of the action.  The German cavalry division can be seen heading for the right flank - just in case!
Shot in by quite a bit of artillery, German troops finally take Mons.  And overrun a British HQ.  Sherry anyone?
The Germans prepare to follow up on the right.  To the green fields beyond?
The British defences near Mons have by this time become untenable.
Aerial recce photo confirming the German victory.
         The game produced a broadly historical result and took around two hours to play.
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12 comments:

  1. Rodger30 January 2012 at 10:07

    Very nice report and photos Tim.

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  2. Robert (Bob) Cordery30 January 2012 at 10:34

    Tim,

    A very interesting battle report that proves that you can fight large battles on a small tabletop and get a realistic result.

    All the best,

    Bob

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  3. Tim Gow30 January 2012 at 10:42

    Rodger
    Thanks - it's always a bonus when a game is photogenic!

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  4. Tim Gow30 January 2012 at 10:43

    Bob Cordery
    Multi-Corps battle, 3x4 ft table and less than 2 hours for a result. All boxes ticked!

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  5. Martin Rapier30 January 2012 at 12:15

    Historically the BEF began to evacuate the Mons salient mid afternoon as under concentric artillery fire it became untenable. This was replicated in the game.

    Along the canal the Germans managed to force a crossing a bit closer to the town irl, but in both the real thing and the game (sadly missed in the photos) British cavalry conducted mounted counterattacks which went down in a hail of Mauser fire.

    I was very pleased that the game broadly folowed the course of events, it was quite a hard scenario to design at a grand tactical level as the BEF frontage is ludicrously extended. On to Le Cateau!

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  6. Paul30 January 2012 at 18:07

    Great AAR and end to the game.

    Maybe there is something to this megablitz after all!

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  7. Tim Gow30 January 2012 at 18:29

    Martin Rapier
    Thanks for that - I was confident you'd chip in!

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  8. Tim Gow30 January 2012 at 18:30

    Paul
    Thanks - but this wasn't actually a Megablitz game....
    In fairness, Op14 uses a similar level of abstraction, so a 1914 MB game would look pretty similar.

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  9. Geordie an Exiled FoG31 January 2012 at 23:51

    Sounds like a super little action

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  10. Al1 February 2012 at 06:43

    WW1 stuff is always interesting to game, I'd like to try this scenario with CD

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  11. Tim Gow1 February 2012 at 07:55

    Geordie
    It was - the near-historical result being the icing on the cake.

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  12. Tim Gow1 February 2012 at 07:57

    Al
    It certainly worked well with Op14. CD might turn it into a very large game.

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