A few of my Belgians are pre-painted metal castings. These would normally be vastly expensive but were bought at a discount. We've already seen the two Tradition cyclists.
First up is a nice boxed set of eight line infantry from Alymer in Spain. This consists of an officer, as standard bearer and six marching squaddies - all wearing the old-fashioned shako. As in my world a company is six figures, this neatly makes a rifle company and a battalion HQ. All I've done is stick them to mdf bases.
By now the German 6 division had crossed the canal in
strength and was approaching Louvain from the north east. Helped by corps assets, German gunners had battered the defenders of the village sufficiently
that the surviving Belgian guns were withdrawn to Antwerp, together with the far
more important horse drawn field kitchen.
At this point we called Endex and talk through what might have happened next. We agreed that the that the German 5th division would regroup and be reinforced over the next couple of days and
the delay would effectively prevent the Germans sealing off Antwerp for that
period of time. We talked through everyone’s objectives and individual victory
conditions. On balance , the Belgians did slightly better than their opponents. In terms of the victory points for objective locations, honours were even.
Finally, for those of you wondering about the game's title, I refer you both to the individual objectives and the following quote:
“Accent is the last great redoubt
of prejudice.”― A.A. Gill
Following a flood of requests (well OK, one) for more info on my Great War Belgians, here is part one of their story.
And no - before you ask - I haven't built a dog-pulled MG. Yet.
A note on place names. As this action was very much 'inspired by' rather then 'a recreation of', except for the outer area of Antwerp I hadn't got round to naming the other towns and villages. Perhaps inevitably, the large town which ended up being heavily shelled and fought over became known during the game as Louvain. I hear they've had to close the library...
The Belgian infantry regiment deployed with two companies
and the machine gun company in Louvain and the remaining two companies
supported by both of the brigades artillery batteries in village A to the north
Northwest of the Canal.
Belgian Commander Martin set up his HQ in the Fort and
looked to have plans of spending a comfortable war therein.
The German 6th Reserve Division advanced up the main highway and soon engaged by Belgian infantry and machine gun fire.
The 5RD peeled off to the North and initially busied itself desecrating a monastery.
German air reconnaissance (it’ll never catch on) found the suburbs of Antwerp to be free of troops.
After a costly struggle 6 division took Louvain and spent
some time re-organising and preparing to move on.
As they closed in and prepared to assault village A, the Belgian artillery let rip with some (party popper) shrapnel which rather discouraged the lead German battalion.
Meanwhile, the Belgian cavalry and armoured cars made a nuisance of themselves at the eastern Canal Crossing where the Minerva attachment held up a German division for around half a day.
While the Germans reorganised, the cavalry redeployed and soon arrived
north of Lovain. At this point - and in a shock development - they heroically charged a German battalion!
This was a toy soldier game played last week with 54 mm figures, the Belgians provided by me and the Germans by Lloyd. The scenario was more inspired by than based on any particular action but took as its setting the general situation in Belgium in the early weeks of the Great War.
The Belgian Army, having inflicted something of a reverse on the Germans on the river gat is now pulling back in a degree of disarray towards the national redoubt at Antwerp. In our game we had a Belgian mixed brigade with orders and secret individual objectives as follows:
Overall Belgian objective: carry
out an heroic defence and inflict reverses on the Germans.
Nominate three objectives.
The Germans had a reserve corps of two divisions with the prospects of a reinforcement brigade depending on dice rolls. The letter never showed up as Corps commander Simon rolled an unbroken run of ones and twos.
Overall German objective: complete the encirclement of Antwerp and prevent it’s reinforcement.
Secretly allocate 15, 10 and 5 VPs to three objectives nominated by the Belgian player.
Lt General E Draeger (Simon) – IX (Reserve) Corps
