"Opening shots 1914" Topic

I have posted an AAR of this week's game 'Opening shots 1914' in which an Austrian division meets an Russian division in an advance to contact in August 1914.

The game was played using Great War Spearhead II, and the AAR can be found here:

link

One of the most exciting GWSH games I can recall playing. Great fun!!

Kind regards
Robin

Early war Eastern Front is the way to go (IMHO). It sounds like a hard fought action. What color did you use for the Austrian infantry?

79th

I mixed as I went.. light grey with a touch of blue added.. this meant that each time I mixed on the palette the colour was slightly different. The final colours range from light grey to quite definite blue grey.

I think this is important when painting armies of these massed industrial times because dyes were often manufactured in different places, and even within batches there were variations.

The early battles were quite open, and the GWSH rules do give you the often prolonged firefights that were a feature of the early battles. The work of Zuber and Sheldon digging in to the remaining German archives (those that survived the WW2 bombings) definitely support this. This was true on both western and eastern fronts in the opening weeks accoding to the available evidence.

However like you I really like the look/feel of the eastern front battles.
Kind regards
Robin

I liked this! Interesting theater and of course always a fan of your 1/72 scale games.

Thanks,

John

Cool stuff. I'm busy painting up early war armies for GWSH, but in 10mm.

We will be learning the rules from the book – are there any tips to 'getting' how the game plays?

Fred the key to GWSH is understanding the command and control system. The command arrows and the order you give the division/divisions is critical. The combat is fairly straight forward although once you start playing anything beyond mid 1915 your artillery use becomes a big factor as well. Depending on where you play the game takes on different flavours and frankly my sons will both tell you that the Trench Warfare system is both slick and fun to play. You have to keep your head about you though – orders are not easy to get changed once you have committed to a course of action. If you don't belong to the yahoo group and you don't mind yahoo I would recommend joining. Lots of good info on the site from historical information to various scenarios.

Shawn

fred12df, in addition to Shawn's comments I would recommend starting with a 1914 scenario. Robin has several on his website, along with the scenarios included with the rules. This will make it easier to become familiar with the mechanics.

Robert

Thanks Chaps – I was planning on starting with 1914, so that's lucky – we will get to learn the new weapons and tactics as the war progresses.

With regard to the command arrows, I take it that each player has a copy of the map of the battlefield, and literally draws an arrow on this map? Is the end of the arrow normally on a terrain feature or similar?

Shawn – I have joined the Yahoo group, in-spite of the new format, though it seems quite low traffic.

Hi Fred, yes the command arrow does two things it direct the precise line that the Commander of the formation (be it Regiment/Brigade/Division or Corps MUST follow and they must stop at the very tip of the arrow if under attack orders. Once there they would fall into Defend orders until given further direction. Their troop can move in and around them staying within command zone radius.

Traffic has been low the last bit but should pick up again soon. Also there is a good archive of messages just really difficult to find anything now with the new change.

The command arrow does not have to end on a terrain feature or similar. It should end at the furthest limit that you want that HQ stand to be positioned, bearing in mind that the stand's position will then determine the limit of the infantry stands.

Traffic on the Group is relatively low but that is true of all WW1-related groups.

Robert

Worth stating also that once the HQ stand reaches the end of the arrow, you have one turn to position the fighting stands for defence, and they then remain there until you have spotted enemy. At that stage you can 'fight' your regiment i.e. reposition your fighting stands, as along as the HQ stand doesn't move (unless you are able to give the regiment new orders.)

R

Thanks chaps – that helps.

But just to get things clear in my head – the arrow is drawn on a paper map of the battlefield?

Fred

Yep.. or over the past year Nick and I have taken to using iPad with Draw tools

R

Ta.

Like the iPad idea – much easier to take a photo and then draw on it.

fred12df, there are some examples of command arrows in the Cambrai AAR that Robin has on his site.

Robert

I usually prepare a couple of maps so that the players can draw their arrows.

Wow that Cambrai game is something!!! Epic hardly does it justice.