Monday, 3 January 2022

The Left Bank 1916 part 6 - assault and battery

Having asked the French players to deploy their units, they came back with this:

I/215 and the like denotes and infantry battalion, A/67 a field artillery battery.  I then compared this with the German assault and artillery plan:
The hollow stars are field artillery, the filled ones are heavy guns.  Having compared the two plans I set up a table covering the 'main effort' attack sectors of the German IR94 and IR32.  This was a little under 5x6 feet with 1 ft representing very roughly 1km.  'Rules', before anyone asks, were sparse.  Infantry could move (1ft) or fire (6in close range, 1ft long) and artillery fire was resolved by the traditional matchstick firing cannon.  
For convenience I will refer to some of the positions by their later German codenames.
Most of the figures were Armies in Plastic.
1/211 on Artillery Hill with A/67 in support.
1/211 from the front.
1/215 on Dog Hill.

IR94 prepares to assault....
...as does IR32.
The opening German barrage caused a few casualties and also cut the telephone wires to the on-table French positions.
The Germans surge forward

The wily Boche players had 'paid' for the optional telephone team. (Pre-painted metal set by Fusilier)


Soon 1/IR32 was on Dog Hill...
...with the notorious Stosstruppe Von Gow in support!
IR94 has a battalion of Jagers in support (metal castings of unknown provenance)
2/IR94 approaching Artillery Hill...
...where the French gunners have suffered tragedy!  I made saving rolls for them all - only the dog (top left) survived!

And there we must pause - with the shells still falling and both French positions about to be assaulted.  Who will prevail?
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8 comments:

  1. Rob Young3 January 2022 at 18:39

    Lots of shineys. What's not to like? Love them.

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  2. Pete.3 January 2022 at 20:21

    That looks wonderful Tim. The brown cloth and hills are surprisingly effective.

    Cheers,

    Pete.

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  3. Brad DeSantis3 January 2022 at 21:27

    It looks bad for the French Tim! Those Germans think of everything, even a telephone crew! I look forward to the next report!

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  4. Martin Rapier4 January 2022 at 08:20

    My inability to read a contour map is once more evident. In the original fireplan I never even realised artillery hill was a hill! A decent guess on most of the French positions though.

    I thought a telephone might be useful, and they are nice models.

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  5. Tim Gow4 January 2022 at 15:08

    Rob Young
    That's the spirit!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Tim Gow4 January 2022 at 15:10

    Pete
    In the past 12 months those brown sheets have covered a mountain near the Isonzo, Fort Fisher and now Mort Homme in France!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Tim Gow4 January 2022 at 15:13

    Brad DeSantis
    I'll summarise the sides' 'spending' in the next post.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Tim Gow4 January 2022 at 15:14

    Martin Rapier
    Er, yes that's it - all your own fault. It couldn't possibly be a disconnect between the maps and my museum-quality terrain....

    ReplyDelete