Assault on Gallipoli - The August Offensive

Richard was keen to play the final scenario from this game, reprising his role as the Turk while I took the ANZACs.

This is the set up.  There are only five turns.

Each turn has a variable number of rounds, minimum of ten.

None of the rounds lasted much over ten rounds.

End of the second turn.

Fighting has been centred on Battleship Hill.

End of Turn four.  Not much has changed, but the carnage amongst the Turks

 has been ferocious as you will see.

Turn five was a bit of a fizzle.

knowing there are no more turns it became rather pointless to do much.

However, the ANZACs did capture Lone Pine Ridge.

But just look at the casualties!

The Allies lost 16 units and 3 leaders.

The Turks lost 37 units and 9 leaders.

Lucky for them the offensive was over.

 

The Lamps Are Going Out again and again

It had been a while since Richard and I had last played this game.  The first game saw the war over by Christmas, but the second ragged on with a Russian Revolution and a very late US entry. Richard was the Central Powers in both games.

Germans spend Christmas in Paris.

US isolationists caused a critical delay.

Richard has provided the following (with a few edits from me)

The final scores for the second game were as follows:

Central Powers Points earned:

• Russia defeated:  4
• Serbia: 1
• Romania: 1

Entente Points earned:

• East Africa: 1

For a net of 5. The Central Powers need 7 to win.

The game was lost for the Central Powers when the Entente got back the Somme early in the game (1915). There was no real coming back from this as the Russians had built up so much that the Germans couldn't even spare a single army for the Western Front if they were going to make any progress against the Russians. The Russians had also made that extremely difficult by leaving armies behind to threaten the German flanks and Baltic supply line tying up two of their armies needed at the front.

The Russian fast build up was also made easier by super early Italian entry (fewer Austrian-Hungarian units used against Russia) and particularly no Gallipoli campaign (this might have been the first game where there was no Gallipoli). That was a critical factor which freed up a British army at a critical

time. The British seemed to always have more than enough production points throughout the game as the maximum U Boat attrition was only two which still leaves the British five.

The High Seas Fleet put in a good account after technology improvements, causing the British to expend production to repair their fleet, but it was too late by then.  The Germans pushed their luck with an extremely skimpy defence in the Rhine, but it failed at a critical moment and cost them a permanent army lost, which really hurts the Germans as everything is needed in the final turns. One more army

would have meant saving Belgium and another VP. With the late US entry, although a long shot, it was all still up for grabs, which is great as you never feel it's over until it is.

We did have a few mistakes over production points and fleet usage as well as forgetting to use poison gas, although the latter is understandable. 

A Near Run Thing on Gallipoli

Richard and I played the second scenario that comes with this game.  It was indeed a near run thing with the game going to the last turn, last move, last combat and last card to give the Turk (Richard) a victory.

Richard provided the following commentary.

The Turkish Assault scenario was certainly a bloody affair.

The Turks certainly had some great cards in turn 1 which set them up for a chance at winning, despite which it all came down to card advantage in the final close combat, so a very close run thing, which is what the scenario is called.

On turn 1 the Turks definitely benefitted from having a Co-ordinated attack card and the Keep Moving card which allowed two Turkish rounds in a row. This allowed them to clear Russell's Top after a series of artillery bombardments which weakened the defenders who were then overwhelmed by a Turkish assault. Coupled with Night Attack played immediately after, this limited the British ships' ability to interfere with the assault on Turn 1.

On turn 2, with yet another Co-ordinated attack card to play, clearing out one of the British ships with the Submarines Attack card as well as pinching a card through play of espionage, turn 2 was also a good one for the Turks. The crucial element, however, was playing the Underground Mine card on Lone Pine and removing the wire. This allowed a steady flow of Turkish units to move directly to Lone Pine, something which couldn't be done with adjacent spaces which were all wired and meant the Turks were kept at bay or entered the spaces in insufficient strength.

Turn 3, was all about shooting it out and getting as many units into Lone Pine as possible.

A few gamey atrocities were committed by both sides, with the ANZACs stripping ANZAC Cove of defenders and the Turks responding in kind moving a couple of units out of Gabe Tepe.

All in all, a very intense game, which is what it's meant to be I guess.

The Game itself:

This campaign is quite difficult to game I think. They certainly did a better job than the GMT Game Gallipoli of a few years back. I had that and sold it before even punching out the counters. Very drab looking and just not inspiring to look at.

The only thing I really dislike is the limited number of remnant counters. I'm not sure of the rationale behind this. I am going to post a question on BGG to find out the designer's thoughts.

Also, it seems like the British naval firepower is overwhelming strong. I don't remember reading anything which emphasised this, but that might just mean I haven't read enough about the nitty gritty of the fighting to remember it.

Otherwise, it's a very entertaining game (if somewhat stressful), the counters and map are nice and it does play very quickly. The close combat card system adds a final nerve-wracking element to game play and almost nothing is ever really a done deal.

Post Script

The questions re British naval power and the use of remnants were quickly answered in Boardgame Geek  https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/3525126/article/46192326#46192326

Assault on Gallipolli Again

After our previous game we both had some new strategies to try out.  The ANZAC landings got delayed due to beach congestion caused by Turkish remnants rushing to block them.  They were eventually cleared and three victory locations secured.  The game then settled into a battle for Gaba Tepe (bottom left-hand corner).  The ANZACs would blow the Turks away only to have the Turks sneak reinforcements into the area in the nick of time.

It certainly was a fight to the death,

although I didn't need to play that card in the end.

Assault on Gallipoli

Another new game to try with Richard.  Given I hadn't read the rules and was playing the ANZACs it worked remarkedly well.  Reminded me a bit of the Stalingrad game, but with cards for random events/bonuses and an interesting combat system.

Set up.  Beautiful looking game.

Coloured cubes represent victory locations.

ANZACs need six to win.

Units become exhausted after they move or take hits.

Then there is combat which is about to occur in the above image, round The Nek and the Sphinx.

Turn three and the ANZACs look like they have won,

but one combat remains.

The critical two cube area.

It was close, but the Turks wrested it back,

a good point at which to end the test game.

Looking forward to playing it again.

Kaiser class versus King George V class

I am working on an adaption of Avalon Hil's Jutland with SPI's Dreadnought to use with miniatures.  So far I only have the basics, 1" equals a 1,000 yards and one turn is 10 minutes and just doing battleships, but it was enough to give it a try with the help of Simon, Brad and John.  

Four King George V class battleships

captained by Simon and Brad

Four Kaiser class battleships

kaptained by John and myself.

The British using the longer range of their guns 

dropped three salvos on the lead German battleship, the Kaiserin.

The "splashes" represent ship's being fired at.

Once all the fire has been plotted,

hits are rolled and totalled

by placing dice recording the hits achieved.

The Germans are coming off worse.

It pays to pair off firing, but also to be able to gang up on ships.

Individual ship charts record hits keeping on table clutter to the minimum.

For a first game it was a success.  The Germans took a pounding but kept afloat (but not for much longer).  One British ship almost sustained a critical hit.

HMS Lord Nelson 1/1800

Coming in at a mighty 75mm we have the last of the pre-Dreadnought battleships, HMS Lord Nelson.  A 3d design from War Times Journal and printed by Karl.  

Steaming on a placid sea.

Detail is amazing and it was so easy to paint.

Seagull or more likely, albatross eye view.

The funnels are actually hollow 

and the cotton wool was just held in place by a pin

providing an easily variable effect.

The paints used.

Dogger Bank Scenario from AH's Jutland

In the tradition of read the book play the game (or with Weimar, play the game watch the show), Richard and I had a go at the Dogger Bank scenario as part of a learning exercise with AH Jutland.

German Battle Cruisers commanded by Richard top left.

Big blue square represents the hex centre 

and is really only there in case we moved off table.

The blue arrow is the wind direction which we failed to use,

as it is to show where ship smoke will be to obscure the target

(but I'm thinking as firing is line of sight, smoke in between won't help either party).

British Battle Cruisers sailing to intercept.

This game was first published in 1967.

The capital ship counters are detailed representing individual ships.

Cruiser and destroyer counters represent multiple ships. 

Two of the German screens are sunk.

Other damage had been inflicted, but this is recorded on a separate sheet.

The last German screen unit is sunk,

The British destroyers launch torpedoes.

Sadly there are no counters to show critical hits of which there were a few.

Two British Battle Cruisers are under no fire restrictions from hits,

while two German Battle Cruisers are under no move restrictions due to hits.

At this stage we had learnt enough.

Jutland by Donald Macintyre

To give him his full title that is Captain Donald Macintyre DSO & 2 Bars, DSC RN (Retd), so an authoritative figure with service in WW2 so not a contemporary, but someone who knows the business.

The book was published in 1957 and the copy I was given is the 2nd printing from 1966.  It has lovely, yellowed pages but is falling apart.

It gives a background to the war and the naval race, focuses on the challenges of both sides and gives an account of the operations leading up to the final encounter at Jutland.

Both sides were trying to gain an advantage over the other and both sides thought they had this which led to the battle major.  What the Germans didn't know was that the English were intercepting their radio communications and so had their trap ready.

What the British didn't expect was the superiority of German seamanship and the resilience of their warships to damage.  This enabled the Germans to escape the trap they had fallen into greatly assisted by the failure of various British commanders (including the Admiralty) to keep the commander of the Grand Fleet fully informed of what was happening.  Not easy with communications that required line of sight or wireless, which was still in its infancy.  However at least one commander managed it (mostly) - Commodore Goodenough of the First Light Cruiser Squadron.

Operationally it is best described as a draw, but strategically it was a British victory as the High Seas Fleet (although there were two subsequent sallies) wasn't able to break the blockade.  The blockade which contributed to the German collapse.

The book was enjoyable to read and contained plenty of detail plus useful diagrams to illustrate various stages of the battle.

Now to find some boardgames that cover it.  I have one, SPI's Dreadnought, but that would be a labour of love to use as although it has all the counters and a scenario for the battle, there is a lot of record keeping.  Also, having read the book, I doubt it would catch the fog of war (or in this case sea mist along with clouds of smoke deliberate and unintended) which played a major part in the battle.

Letting More Stuff Go

When someone said they were doing some WW1 in 1/72nd scale I knew I had a home for these chaps.

My attempt to convert some of the "new" Airfix French Foreign Legion to be Belgium's.

Same set used for early war French.

Some proper French infantry,

but oh dear, brittleness has struck!

My attempt to convert some Matchbox WW2 Germans to be WW1 late war

Airfix Germans.

The grenade thrower was one of my favourites.

Airfix British

plus a flipped German to show I even painted the underneath of the figures.

US Infantry.

The base on the left was for the rules I was using which have since been well and truly forgotten. 

WW1 French painted up for WW2, but I am sure they can be used for late WW1

if they don't crumble to bits in the meantime.

Left over Foreign Legion

Classic

These two where for my WW2 Alpini project since aborted in favour of 15mm for WW2.

A few more leftovers now going to a good home.

The Lamps Have Gone Out - Again

Game over.

By the end of 1917 it's getting very dim in Russia.

No revolution, but a hard-fought military defeat.

Well...

It was looking good for the Central Powers,

but then the Yanks arrived and spoilt everything.

Richard provided a bit more detail:

Looking back through your Blog, I'm surprised to see this is only our third game. I thought we'd played it a few more times given the quality, low time commitment and high enjoyment factor. Such a great game and always an exciting tussle.

The final scoring was as follows:

Russia conquered: +4 VPs

Serbia Conquered:  +1 VP

East Africa held by Entente: -1 VP

Hanover held by Entente: -1 VP

For a net total of +3VP, with a +7 VP needed for a Central Powers Victory.

This is the first game where the Americans made a big impact, mainly in terms of being able to lend production points, but also with the double attack possibility.

I suppose they also had a big impact on the last game we played (in that they didn't enter the war at all) with the CP winning that one by a narrow margin.

Of the three games, the Entente has won twice and the Central Powers once. It's very much an uphill battle for the Central Powers to win. Still, it's fun to try.

Look forward to playing this again soon.

The Lamps Are Going Out - Again

In a break from the Crusades, Richard and I went back to an old favourite. I was the Central Powers.

Germany got off to a very good start, capturing Poland and

even capturing the Verdun area but was unable to hold it.

1915 saw Austria conquer Serbia,

but all was quiet on the Western and Eastern fronts

with both sides trying to build up their forces. 

Bulgaria and Italy joined the war.

Our session finished with 1916 with the Central Powers breaking into Russia.

Turkey is hanging on, but East Africa looks bleak for Germany.

The US has also just entered the war.

The Sleepwalkers

What the Dark Valley does to understand the roots of WW2 this does for WW1.

It is a complex subject and this book certainly doesn't try and hide that.  As with The Dark Valley, the parallels to current events and attitudes are disturbing.  While there is not social media, there is the popular press and public opinion; at times ignored and also used as justification.  Politicians and leaders seemed more focussed on the "good for their country" rather than staying in power, however if you are a monarchy or absolute ruler, the thought of not being in power probably doesn't enter the thought process.

The feeling that time was running out motivated some countries; the belief that war would be a short lived glorious enterprise; the resignation that it was inevitable or that it was in the hands of others; the denigration of some countries importance while building up that of others; wonderful levels of hypocrisy.

I read this two years ago and in looking at Christopher Clark's new book I recalled I might have read something of his before and found this unpublished post.  Published now.

The Lamps Are Going Out Again

Second game.  This time I was the Central Powers and remembered to take photos.

Set up

The start of 1915.

The Germans have been thrown out of Belgium

and Serbia is holding off the might of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Already the Germans are referring to their ally as being like "shackled to a corpse"

German U-boat activity is proving effective.

But by 1916 Serbia has fallen and the Germans are heavily entrenched on all fronts.

But just look at all their technology cards!

They have five to the Allies one.

By 1917 the Allies had suffered a few disasters.

The Tsar took command and things went pear shaped.

The Rumanians tried to come to their rescue,

and staged a successful invasion of Galicia,

until they realised they were on their own and heavily outnumbered.

Still it took a lot of Austrian effort to crush them.

The Gallipoli landing was a disaster.

However the Germans have almost been driven out of Africa

and the German Imperials Navy has been sunk.

But the start of 1917 sees Russia conquered

and the US entry track has started to go backwards.

Come 1918 and Greece has entered the war and conquered Bulgaria.

Turkey is again cut off as it turns out you can't send supplies through the Caucasus.

Austro-Hungary was getting ready for a big push into Italy,

but troops needed to be diverted to the Balkans. 

Game over.

The US never entered the war.

The Greek triumph was short lived,

but saved Italy and possibly a few lives on the Western Front,

as Germany had to send troops to stop the Greeks.

All this represented a Victory for the Triple Entente, although I'm not convinced.

(scroll down to the very bottom of this post to find the adjudicated outcome)

Additional Commentary

The following are comments from Richard who was the Triple Entente player.

This game rates as one of my all time favourites, despite my (obvious) frustration with it revolving around competitive die rolls!

There are only a few things which I can criticise it for. Perhaps the effect of the blockade is understated somewhat, although historically it only really started to bight in 1918 and there are cards to reflect that (which didn't come up this game). I think anything harsher and the game would be almost impossible for the CP to win, so all, in all, it's probably justified in game terms.

Otherwise it has the most brilliant, really simple mechanism to make you play it like it was WW1 with you needing to send in wave after wave of assaults knowing you probably aren't going to break through and just to wear the enemy down, whilst simultaneously exhausting your own forces.

The Western Front was completely static after entrenching was allowed and the Eastern Front was fluid. I love all the little chrome elements, which reference things that happened during the war. If you didn't know much about the conflict it would be a great learning experience.

It was an exciting game from start to finish and so absorbing. After our last session on Tuesday I was totally exhausted from the concentration. I ended up going to bed even earlier than normally.

The game has the CP really up against it, which I suppose is a reflection of the historical issues associated with the likelihood of a CP victory. For a realistic chance of victory, I think the CP needs to go for broke on the first 2 turns to try and get to Paris. Whoever is the CP next time should try that strategy. Although, having said that, in this game, if the CP had Belgium it would have given them the win.

Although harder for the CP, in my opinion, there is no easy victory in the game, which is one of the reasons it's so good I think.

I know myself I made several strategy errors, which I'm definitely going to try and correct next time around. I think I'm going to make up a little "battle card" which lists the decisions you need to make (such as using gas) before starting die rolls. as we both constantly forgot things. I also have a specific strategy I'd like to explore as the CP which neither of us really did in either game.

In terms of this game, a CP victory was very close and would have only needed them to have had Belgium, which would have made it 7 more VPs than Entente:

Russia +4

Rumania +1

Greece +1

USA Neutral +1

Belgium +1

East Africa -1

So in game terms, forcing the CP out of Belgium on turn 1 ended up sealing the (eventual) victory so it was a very close run thing. Other than the first couple of turns the Entente were on the back foot for the whole game. It was amazing how the game turned around from turn 3. I think we were both expecting a short game with the Entente in Belgium and 6 Russian armies on Germany's doorstep.

In this game, you getting both U Technology cards early on really crippled the British, which meant fewer attacks in the west and thus more German largesse in terms of production transfers. In the previous game, me not getting Bulgaria as a belligerent early enough meant Turkey couldn't be reinforced and you were able to conquer it relatively easily. You raped the British with U Boats this game and the USA didn't enter. I did nothing with my U Boats in the previous game and the US entered with enough time to provide an avalanche of PPs and you had a lot of British points to prop up the French who were down to 3 PPs for the whole game, and you still managed to cling on in France and had enough forces to send 4 armies to Turkey. In neither game did convoys occur to the Entente...

Despite all that, it was still a struggle for both sides in both games. 

Aside from an automatic victory, the eventual winner seems to be the side which does well in the Balkans/Turkey. The CP conquering or forcing Russia out is a pre-requisite of course. If the CP holds the Balkans/Turkey and does more or less historical on the western front, which would mean holding Belgium and the Somme at the end of the game, even if the USA entered and the Entente captured East Africa it could still win. If the Entente has any Turkish areas, it would make a CP win very difficult.

I think there are a lot of aspects to this game left to explore. What makes it really exciting is how certain events can really turn the game.

I feel, in both games, I should have paused to consider the strategic situation based on what had come up and then try and adjust. You just get so caught up in the game play sometimes to make this difficult - in some ways this almost simulates the criticism of the unimaginative generalship of WW1. I think one of the best things about the game is that you always feel like you've got a chance right up until the end.

All in all, a 10/10 game made better with a 10/10 opponent.

STP

On further checking, Serbia is a VP for the CP since it was a enemy controlled area at the start of the game.

So that gives the CP the necessary 7 point margin.

I'm going to claim a moral victory on the grounds that not a single furrow of Flanders fields was touched, the rape of Belgium was called off before you could get your britches down and we did it all with leaky boats and no help from the yanks.