"Square Bashing game II" Topic

We set up the British vs. the Ottomans in the mid-east on Thursday. It was the fast game with assets (artillery, planes, etc.) The Brits (Tom and Rick) attacked Bill's Turks. Bill left a woods objective in the British setup area and gave it away. I am not sure about this strategy but it worked before. The preliminary depletion removed two Turkish artillery batteries, a machine gun unit and reduced Bill's left flank infantry battalion by half. He pulled it in. The Brits advanced at top speed and were through the left in a few turns. Their first attack on the left flank ruined farmhouse was thrown back without loss on either side.

We broke for dinner. After that, the British put more troops into the breakthrough instead of attacking the objective again. By game end there were British troops behind the Turkish center in row 1, but none of the three Turkish objective squares had fallen. Few had even been attacked. We counted up. It first looked like a substantial Turkish victory, but a second look at how many row 2 and row 3 squares were held by the British brought it down to a minor victory. This is mostly due to the handicap that the Turks get for their technology-starved army. You really have to beat them like a drum. Also, we are still learning exactly how the victory points are counted. The British had three breakthrough columns, but no more than two count. The lesson: take those objectives.

We also had British aircraft over the table twice. The first time they observed and a point barrage soon followed, though it drifted off some of the targets. Later in the game they showed up and strafed a hill, getting some Turkish infantry. There was a late game rolling barrage. It enabled a British assault to take a hill, though elsewhere it also hurt an Indian battalion that was behind the Turkish lines. The game went 6 turns – one more turn and the Turks would have probably lost an objective or two. Not counting set-up, dinner and the usual banter, the 6 turn game took 3 hours to play. This week we are looking to run a full scale game with the whole pre-game drill. We'll see if the Turks go on the offensive. That should be ghastly if they do.

Sounds really good, looking forward to getting the rules myself after Xmas…I dont suppose that you have any pics?

No, perhaps I'll remember this week. Umpiring a new game takes most of what little brain power I've got left.

This is with 10mm Pendraken figures. We'll have some Wings of War planes for the next game.

Looking forward to pictures of the next game.

Hmm, we may be using 15mm, Germans vs. Brits (with a little help from the French, unless the Jerries attack).

in any case, I'll charge up my camera batteries.

How many 10mm figures you did use in each army?

Around 150 or so. My infantry is based 2 figures per stand, so a 4 stand battalion is 8 figures.

The 15s are 3 per stand.

Hmm, the 15mm show is off. It will be the 10mm Brits and Turks this week.