We played out first playtest "Corps Blimey" last night, a set of rules for Corps and Army level actions played on 1:100,000 scale British Army maps of the Western Front. Last night we used Sheet 11, the Lens area.
The game started on the 1st February 1917 with the Allies standing before the Hindenburg line in the area of Arras, overlooked by the imposing Vimy Ridge. Their briefing was to prepare for a limited objective attack in the spring that would suck in reserves to allow the French to launch a
major offensive to the south.
In the sector of the game, which stretched for about twenty five miles, the British had four Corps totalling twelve Divisions in the front line with a further nine Divisions in reserve that could be used for an attack. The Germans had less flexibility, having ten Divisions in the front line and with their reserve controlled at Army Group level.
I wanted to test almost all aspects of the rules, so both sides started with limited stockpiles of supplies, and part of the game was the players deciding on their plans and then accumulating sufficient supplies to then undertake that. The Germans, meanwhile, were looking at limited objecive operations designed to frustrate the British in their build up.
The British decided on an initial attack south of the Scarpe river launched to take advantage of the river protecting their northern flank whilst sucking in German reserves. Once that was underway the main attack would be to the north against the Germans directly opposite Arras and on Vimy Ridge.
The Germans were initially more pro-active in their trench raiding, getting a good picture of the Allied front line, and they were fortunate to enjoy air superiority, thanks to the Red Baron, that allowed them to supplement that lots of aerial reconnaissance.
During February a couple of very minor adjustments to the trench line occured, with successful trench raids being exploited and a couple of sections of the British lines being snatched. However the chief German decision was to launch an offensive in the southern sector to seize a
British supply depot and cut an important railway line that was being used for moving troops. They recieved two Divisions from Army Group Reserve to conduct this and their Z-Day was set for the 7th of March.
Across the lines the British had set their Z-Day for their first offensive; the 7th March in the southern sector! Actually the German attack was slightly to the south of the British one, but with a shorter preliminary bombardment. The British began their bombardment at 05.30 with plans for it to run all day and night before their main attack went in on the morning of the 8th. The Germans relied on a
shorter Hurricane bombardment followed by a three Division attack in the morning of the 7th.
The British were faced with a real dilema. Did they halt their bombardment and adjust their forces to face this new threat, or did they stay focussed on their objectives and keep their nerve? In the end they removed one Division from the planned attack to support the threatened sector, but kept their guns bombarding their own onjective.
The German attack broke into British positions, obliging the defending Division to retire about half mile into their reserve positions. The British Division sent to support them was sufficient to halt the German attack by the end of the day, much to the relief of the British.
On the morning of the 8th the British guns neutralised the German gun lines with gas and pulverised the wire with high explosives before three Divisions lauched their attack. By lunchtime the attack was underway and come 4pm the Germans had been pushed out of their forward trenches in a state of serious disorder. Overnight the German Division was pulled
out of the line and the 6th Bavarian Division was sent to replace it, plugging the gap. The Gruppe Artillery heavy guns were lined up to support the defence along with the guns of the adjoining Divisions.
At 05.00 two fresh British Divisions, supported by the original three, were committed to thrust down along the Cambrai Road into the rear of the German defenders to the south, thereby splitting the Germam defences in two. The 6th Bavarians were caught only partially in place, their guns were unable to provide support, however the weight of
the German heavy artillery was sufficient to ensure that progress was limited. By the end of the day the front line had stabilised with just a two mile pentration into the German lines.
To the north of Arras the British and Canadians launched their main attack. This was now, due to lack of supplies accumulated and too early a start to their spring operations, limited in both its objectives and potential duration. That said the heavy artillery from two adjacent Corps played its part in shooting in the attack and creating a two mile deep pentration that seized the southern half of Vimy ridge and threatened to cause a major rupture in the German centre.
The German commander was frantically calling for eight Divisions of Reserves to plug the gap and restore his lines.
At this point we finished. The British were running short of supplies, the Germans supplies and men, so it was clear that the British would be spending the next few days stabilising and straightening their line, connecting the two bulges in the line into a coherent new front and,
hopefully, clearing the remaining German from Vimy Ridge.
We used the maps covered with an acetate sheet and OHP pens to mark the units for both sides. Some players really liked this as it did give the maps the look of a commander's map of the front, others thought that unit counters, a la boardgames, would be a good idea.
What the game did achieve was to enlighten the gamers in the ways of staff work, the importance of planning, allocating resources, allowing a margin for error and the unexpected. It also showed the classic issues of the Great War – how easy it was to break into an opponent's lines with the right support behind you, but how difficult it then was to exploit that. Gains were pretty much exactly what their historical counter-parts achieved. All in all a very enjoyable and enligtening exercise.
It was also great to get to use the 1916 maps for a gaming purpose. I knew they'd come in useful one day!
dips his toe into the Russo-Japanese War.
