Edinburgh Wargames

The Edinburgh Wargames Journal

Issue 45  -  April 2010  

Periods featured in this issue:   Assorted Club games (28mm), Seven Years War (28mm) and Second World War (15mm)

_________________________________________________________________

Assorted Club Games (by Derek Hodge)

Angus is still in Orkney, but life at the South East Scotland Wargames Club goes on.

This week there was a game set in the Second Sikh War, using Black Powder rules. The terrain wasn't up to much, but it still looked pretty;

Meanwhile the release of Warhammer Ancient Battles 2 has got some people enthusiastic about Ancients again.

I'm not sure where and when the Saxons were meant to be fighting the Indians, but the people playing seemed happy enough. They described WAB2 as being "subtly different" from the previous version but were holding judgement on whether or not they preferred the new version.

The Club has only recently forked out a large sum of cash on four mats from Terrain Mats, but nobody seemed interested in using them last night, and stuck with the old boards, which are painted that rather strange shade of green. It takes all sorts....

The South-East Scotland Wargame Club page

_________________________________________

Battle of Hastenbeck, July 1757 (Black Powder) 28mm      (penned by Angus in exile)

A few months ago a few of us got together to stage an enormous Marston Moor game, held in a hotel in a remote corner of Fife, a one hour drive from Edinburgh. Well this time we tackled a Seven Years War refight – the Battle of Hastenbeck, which pitted the might of France against that of Britain and her German Allies. In our game the French were augmented by a sizeable Austrian contingent to make up numbers, while on the Allied side Prussians were used to bolster the British, Hanovarian and Hessian units we had to hand. The result was a spectacular weekend game, fought out on a large 24-foot “L-shaped” table.

The Allies – commanded by the Duke of Cumberland – were deployed with their backs to a forest, which lay inside the “L” of the table. In other words we left it out, to allow the players to reach their figures. On the Allied right the line extended along a wooded ridge at the edge of the forest, with their front covered by a marshy stream. Beyond it lay the French, while in between sat the small town of Hastenbeck . On the Allied left – the other side of the “L” – the troops were deployed in flatter terrain, amid a handful of hamlets and enclosures. In our game – as in the real thing – the Allies were on the defensive.

The French army of Marshal Soubise (played by yours truly) held their ground on the left flank, north of Hastenbeck, but everywhere else the French and their Austrian allies rolled forward, and were soon engaged all along the Allied line. The French left – where the Austrians were standing in for the French – three columns attacked the British contingent stationed beside the village of Voremberg . The British performed well, and caused heavy casualties amongst the Austrians, but inevitably weight of numbers prevailed. One poor Austrian column commander only reached the edge of Voremberg at the end of the first day of gaming, as he consistently failed to roll the dice he needed to advance. Still, by the end of the Saturday what remained of the British were all but surrounded, and on the verge of collapse.

Austrians attack the British on the Prussian flank

This though, was only one of two main attacks. The bulk of the French army concentrated their assault on the high ground to the south-east of Hastenbeck – the lower slopes of the wooded Obensburg Hill. This marked the bend in the Allied line – the corner of the “L”. The aim of course was to split the Allied army in two. Well, the attackers spent most of Saturday morning advancing on the high ground, slowly driving the defenders back as they went. The French artillery proved highly effective, dominating the open ground immediately to the south of Hastenbeck, and protecting the left flank of the main French attack.

The defenders of Voremberg

On the right side of this assault the village of Voremberg was captured, but a supporting assault by Reichsarmee cavalry was repulsed by an Allied artillery battery deployed on the slope behind the village. This was soon dubbed the “death star” battery, as it seemed to spend the rest of the game routing a French unit every turn!

On the Allied right things were much quieter, and Dave Imrie and Bill Gilchrist played their own desultory game involving long-range musketry and artillery fire. Still, by the end of the Saturday's gaming it was clear that the Allies were in serious trouble. A sensible commander - certainly not Cumberland then (played by Ken Pierce) would have withdrawn. Instead, like a true wargamer, he stuck it out to the bitter end.

After a particularly raucous Saturday evening the dozen gamers returned to the fray on Sunday morning, to play out the final stage of the battle. The British collapsed pretty quickly after play was resumed, and the Allied reinforcements arriving on both ends of the table were too late to save them.

On that south-eastern end of the “L” the Allied column at least managed to hold up the Austrians, preventing them from reinforcing the French in the centre. Similarly on the other end of the table to the north of Hastenbeck the Hessian reinforcements- mainly cavalry – caused the French serious problems for a few turns, forcing Soubise to divert his reserve cavalry to prop up the left flank.

Hastenbeck viewed from the south (left) and north (right) - Cumberland's army was deployed along the wooded ridge.

In the end though, order was restored after a dashing charge by the Bercheny Hussars, who saw off a brigade of enemy cavalry, and bought time for the French to re-organise their line.

That left the Allied centre. The Allied cavalry reserve also charged into action to the south of Hastenbeck, but were driven back by a combination of French musketry and canister. On the slopes of the Obensburg the French renewed their attack, and despite the activities of the death star battery” they eventually managed to fracture the Allied line, and so win the day. By then – as lunchtime approached – it was a case of sauve qui peut – as Cumberland and his remaining troops quit the field, leaving the victorious French in charge of the field.

Our refight of Hastenbeck therefore followed the course of the historical battle, although in our game the Allied defeat was even more spectacular than in the real thing. The rules – Black Powder – worked very well, despite the odd quirks like the spinning “death star battery”. Some people had doubts about using such a “simple” set of rules, but in the end the players all agreed that they were ideal for this sort of big, friendly game. Above all everyone had a whale of a time, and we've already laid plans for another large weekend battle, later in the year.

Seven Years War page

  _________________________________________

Hanging out the washing on the Siegfried line - World War II   (Battlegroup Panzergrenadier) 15mm

The continued allied advance had brought them to gates of Germany. Supply problems had almost halted the allied advance and had robbed them of a quick victory in the west. For the Germans this was the 'miracle of the west,' somehow their shattered forces had congealed into something resembling an army.

Our game was based on the initial American attacks on the Westwall around Metz in a continuation of the game played last week. Our game follows the 5th US infantry Division as it probed forwards into the German positions in front of the Metz defensive position. The German forces in the area were the 462nd Infantry division, they occupied a smattering of blockhouses in front of Metz. This is one of those blockhouses.

The US forces consisted of two reduced infantry companies backed up with some armour. Their mission was to probe the German lines and look for weaknesses and knock out the blockhouse if possible. The centre piece of the German position was a concrete blockhouse with a PAK 40 and a HMG. Supporting German forces consisted of 1 infantry company reduced but with plenty of heavy weapons. The front was also well supplied with entrenchments and minefields.

The American forces pushed one company onto the table in rushes, getting into the woods to their front and then settled down to do some observing. There seemed to be a disturbing lack of activity to their front. The rest of the command started to come on from the rear. Finally they spotted some German infantry skulking in the buildings on the south edge of the table. A quick word to the tanks and they pushed round the edge of the wood and engaged the Germans fell back to the other end of the village.

Gathering their strength in the southern most wood the Americans pushed out to attack the village but ran slap bang into a minefield situated on the German side of the wood. The Armour pushed up to look for a gap but was ambushed by a Panzershrek. Fortunately the Germans aim was off the return fire ended the shrek's teams dream of an Iron cross. However during this exchange one of the tanks found it was low on ammo this was to become a worrying trend.

The American pushed round the minefield and had spotted more infantry in the village heavy fire ensued and most of the Germans retreated. Second company launched a quick assault on the village only to find that the front of it had been mined. The attack broke down and some German mortars opened up on the Americans at this time. It was not looking good for the forces of Democracy.

A new attacked was launched to skirt the edge of the village and get into it from the North. A well placed machine gun cunningly hidden opened up stalling the attack a few round from the supporting tankers soon finished him off. The attack restarted pushing into the village, capturing half. The armour swapped fire with the pill box but failed to score any hits one of the tanks ran out of ammo and another went low on ammo. The return fire knocked out one of the Shermans. The American attack had halted in a bit of a mess and it was time to call it a day.

The Americans would probably have cleared the village but they would not have got much further than that. The Germans would probably have launched a counter attack if they could find the forces whether it would have been a success will need to wait for another game.

The inspiration for this game came for a trip to Metz a few years ago. When we were driving down the road, heading of to one of the many battlefields in the area, when we passed this Blockhouse situated in the middle of a farmers field. I always wondered what had happened at here and why it seemed so isolated.

Second World War page

___________________________________