3MA - John Tillers Squad Battles World War I

Started by spelk, April 09, 2015, 04:08:10 AM

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Cyrano

HA!  I mock you saucy system warning that this has not been posted in for 120 days or more.  It matters not!  Boggit and I still play.

So, now on the fifth of the 10 Gallipoli scenarios (allowing for life events, my trip to Europe, &c.) Boggit has a 3-1 scenario lead.  The Central powers must step up their game, I fear, lest this outcome become ahistorical!

Scenario 5 has my Turks defensing a hilltop prominence known from the battle onward as Russell's Top.  As with so many other things Gallipoli, the folks at New Zealand heritage have done an amazing job of capturing this battlefield.  Do not envy Boggit's brave men their task as they try to climb and conquer THIS:

http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/media/interactive/russells-top-panorama-gallipoli

This is easily the longest scenario so far and will certainly be a bloody one...

Sergeant at Arms of La Fraternite des Boutons Carres

One mustachioed, cigar-chomping, bespectacled deity, entirely at your service.

You didn't know? My Corps has already sailed to Berlin. We got there 3 days ago and we've been in the Tiergarten on the piss ever since. -- Marshal Soult, October 1806

Sir Slash

"Take a look at that". Sgt. Wilkerson-- CMBN. His last words after spotting a German tank on the other side of a hedgerow.

Cyrano

Well, there's been no AAR for Gal5 between Boggit and Cyrano, but, let it be said, it ended very, very badly for the Allies.  The ANZACs pushed like devils to get into the trench system at the top of Russell's top, but, in the end, were pushed out of all but one VPLOC.  Central Powers major and the CPs pull to 3-2.

And then I opened Gal6.

I'll let the scenario description speak for itself:

1915 May 19, Gallipoli Front. 0900 hours.

Size: large (battalion)

In the early morning hours of the 19th, ANZAC forces were awoken to the sight of a massive Turkish attack along the whole of their perimeter, an attack that the Turks intended to as a decisive blow that would drive the ANZAC into a the sea.

In the Pope's Hill sector, at the northeastern tip of the ANZAC line, the Turks advanced under the light of flares into an Australian force that was ready to meet them.

MISSION:

(Allied Powers) Hold our forward trench line at all costs! Fall back to the strong points (bunkers) if necessary, but do not let Turkish forces advance through our position to the west.

(Central Powers) Capture the enemy forward trench line and, if possible, break through to the west. Doing this will overrun their front line in this area and will cause their whole ANZAC position to collapse.

NOTES:

*Historically the Turks advanced bravely and were shot down en masse. In a couple of hours, the Ottoman attack along the whole front line had failed, with over 10,000 dead and nothing to show for it, although Pope's Hill came under serious threat of overrun.

*Allied forces in the campaign had no hand grenades because high command did not plan on any trench warfare occurring. The Turks on the other hand had a seemingly endless supply of hand grenades, which they constantly lobbed at allied lines. In the ANZAC sector, there was nothing to be done by to try to throw the grenade back before it exploded. Allied forces met this threat by making improvised hand grenades which they called "jam tin grenades". These improvised grenades were made from ration cans of jam, explosive filler and any steel fragments they could find.


I'm one turn in and my Turks are advancing bravely and getting mowed down like wheat.  I've wondered what this system would be like in the larger scenarios and now I know -- it really shines.  Because so much of the fiddle that comes with managing combat on a tabletop is managed by the game, you can do a much better job of sending firing flares to illuminate the night, firing into known enemy positions, and, yeah, sending the boys over the top.

Great stuff...
Sergeant at Arms of La Fraternite des Boutons Carres

One mustachioed, cigar-chomping, bespectacled deity, entirely at your service.

You didn't know? My Corps has already sailed to Berlin. We got there 3 days ago and we've been in the Tiergarten on the piss ever since. -- Marshal Soult, October 1806