Great Big Square Bashing

James and I have had a few games of Square Bashing now and despite the clunky move sequence that takes a few turns to get into they do give quite a good game.

On Thursday we were invited to the Burton and District club to participate in their big Square Bashing game run by Simon which would be a pastiche of the Anglo-French attack at Third Battle of Artois in the autumn of 1915.

A good long table was setup that was the usual six rows deep but a massive 24 columns wide, each player controlling a six column frontage but allowed to stray two columns either side.

Neither James nor myself have any 15mm WWI troops but Ray had kindly prepared a force of roughly 500pts each for us from his own collection of Germans. I was paired up against a chum from my old Sealed Knot days, Richard Bason, it would be his baptism of fire with Square Bashing, I was hoping not to forget too many of the rules!

The Germans were defending a trench line and we each had a MG in a forward position, the scenario rules meant we  were pretty beaten up to start with and I had loads of troops in the reserves pool. The bunker and two positions on the trench-line were each allied players objective.

Richard came on in strength and was assaulting the machine-gun bunker in the first phase although the machine-gun was damaged I did repulse them with heavy casualties.

The game developed and Richard was concentrating his force against my machine-gun bunker and the left flank of my line. Although causing heavy losses among the British the bunker eventually fell. On my left I was able to reinforce the line and hold off attacks against all comers for the duration of the game.

Things were not going so well on my left, the French had ejected the Germans from the trenches and were rolling them up, could I hold the British off while that flank was stabilized? Emboldened by their capture of the bunker and not to be out-done by the prowess of the French on their right the British attacked again. Again my left held, as did my right, but the depleted troops in the trench-line behind the bunker succumbed and the British captured that.

A German counter offensive was unable to eject them and at the end of the game the British had a tenuous toe-hold in my centre.

A great evenings gaming with excellent company. Simon has done a report on the BAD Wargamers blog. I cannot claim any credit for any of the terrain and figures on this one, please direct any compliments to the chaps at Burton on Trent.

Square Bashing Verdun

Yesterday evening the former White Hart Gamers met up at a  new potential venue for dinner, a chat about the future and if time allowed some games.

Alongside our 28mm collections that have seen extensive use of late James has also been painting a collection of French and German troops from the Kallistra 12mm range. As you'll see from the photos they do look rather splendid.

We set up a German attack on the remains of the village of Fleury-devant-Douaumont. The French defenders of mainly reservists had to hold the villages against a concerted German attack.

Myself and James played the French while Matt and Mike took the Germans. The initial bombardment was telling, our infantry was largely unscathed but all our support was either damaged or forced into reserve. The Germans came on driving in equal force at both objectives and in a bit of fortune for the French none of the promised German support materialised.

The extreme right flank of the Germans was held by a single damaged machine-gun company that fortunately and successfully repulsed a battalion strength attack. On the French left they also fared well when a battalion of Chasseurs repulsed almost an entire regiment of German Jaegers.

The  German artillery soon got the range and interdictory fire fell upon the defenders while the Germans massed their main attacks. However, the French also managed to disrupt the German plans, but, a German attack in strength soon drove the French from their positions in the right of the village.

Again the French Chasseurs repelled another attack on the left, however, the Germans regrouped and screening the Chasseurs with machine-guns attacked in strength against the weakened reservists who were driven from the village.

With the Germans now holding both sides of the village the French called in a massive bombardment from their 155mm guns in the rear.

With the German defenders dazed by the bombardment and without support the Poilu charged home with white-gloved officers leading from the front. The Jaeger resolutely held their ground and the Poilu were driven off. A solid victory to The Bosch.

All the figures and terrain were painted by and are from the collection of James Morris.

Square Bashing in Burton

On Thursday evening James and myself travelled to the Burton and District Wargames club to meet up with Simon and Peter for another crack at Square Bashing.

We stopped off on the way for a carvery at The Cherry Tree then on to the venue to meet up with Simon and Peter.

Last time Peter and I were the British while Simon and James took the Germans. This time Peter and James took the French while Simon and I were Germans. We based our force and strategy on being the attacker, unfortunately, this was not the case. Some splendid rolls from the French saw all their conscripts replaced by Senegalese regulars and they would be on the attack supported by their massed batteries of Soixante Quinze.

Some poor reduction rolls saw the Germans thinly spread out along the outskirts of a large town. Our left flank was open and two units of Uhlans held the right.

On came the glory of France, rapidly crossing the woodland and broken ground as if it was not there.

A desperate charge by our Uhlans into the oncoming mass was swiftly brushed aide and all looked lost. However, despite a friendly fire incident by our own artillery assisting in the the right flank of our town falling to the Zouaves and Senegalese the centre of our line held up well and a last minute barrage of fire falling among the Frenchmen caused them to fall back in disorder.

Holding on against the strong attacks on our right the clock ran down and it was a slight victory to the Germans by the slimmest of margins.

All the French are by Peter while the Germans are by Simon. The terrain is also all from Simons' collection.