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.

12 comments:

Rodger said...

Very nice report and photos Tim.

Robert (Bob) Cordery said...

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

Tim Gow said...

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

Tim Gow said...

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

Martin Rapier said...

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!

Paul said...

Great AAR and end to the game.

Maybe there is something to this megablitz after all!

Tim Gow said...

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

Tim Gow said...

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.

Geordie an Exiled FoG said...

Sounds like a super little action

Al said...

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

Tim Gow said...

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

Tim Gow said...

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