The Last Redoubt - Belgium 1914 - part 3

 

As they galloped (and pedalled) into contact the world held its breath. Imagine then everyone’s surprise when the charge succeeded! This effectively ended the German 5th division's offensive capability, a further blow being the untimely death of the divisional commander killed by a stray artillery shell. It would be ungallant of me to identify the nationality of the responsible gunner, right Simon?

 

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assets, German gunners had battered the defenders of  the village sufficiently that the surviving Belgian guns were withdrawn to Antwerp, together with the far more important horse drawn field kitchen.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.

 By popular acclaim the “men of the match“ were the Belgian cavalry cyclists and armoured car crew. Clearly then these are the weapons of the future.

 Everyone claimed to have had a nice day and I was particularly pleased to have deployed my 54 mm Belgians so soon after completing them.  My thanks as always to the players for entering into the spirit of the game and providing such fine entertainment.

 Without wishing to cause undue alarm I can see possibilities for a sequel to this game. Don’t say you weren’t warned.

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