Meeting at Longlier - CDTOB AAR Part 3

We completed the Meeting at Longlier scenario some weeks ago, but I have only now managed to edit the photos and write the game up. I am such a slacker! Anyway, this is the final part of the scenario write-up. Part 1 and Part 2 were posted some time back on the blog. At the end of the last turn, the Germans were pushing hard on their left flank and things looked grim for the French on that side. The town of Longlier was hotly disputed in the centre with both sides occupying half of it. The battle on the right was much more open and the German cavalry had broken round the flank and were aiming to capture the French regimental command.

The situation at the end of Turn 7

How it looked to us

As the French cavalry chased the German cavalry, a French company was dispatched to intercept the Germans, Meanwhile another French company captured a village near the railway bridge and a third company of that battalion was moving to capture the village on the ridge, but it was going to have to fight through a German company in the woods first.

French infantry move to intercept German cavalry

The battle in Longlier saw the Germans pushed back and taking losses, while two French companies closed the pincers on the town to ensure that the Germans would have nowhere to go but into the bag. Artillery and machine-gun fire were doing a good job of suppressing the Germans to ease the French advance.

Longlier from the south (The beige markers show pinned German units. The French are on the left of the photo)

Longlier from the north with the French on the right of the photo

On the French right flank, it was a completely different picture. The fight in the woods had heated up and lead was flying everywhere. The French 75s were working overtime to try to suppress the Germans, while the battalion commander was busily rallying one of his companies. The Germans were starting to take heavy losses here too, but the French definitely had the worst of it with damaged and demoralised companies trying to hold the line and give the artillery time to escape.

The battle for the southern woods. Beige markers show pinned German units. The other pin markers are French and the red and green markers show demoralised French troops

Fortunately for the French, the German infantry had found the whole affair too hot for them too and their entire left flank became pinned down. At this point, the German commander decided to cede the day to the French and regroup his troops. There was be time enough another day to assault Longlier.

French losses

German Losses

Notes

French losses in this game were very light, as the photo shows. The Germans took horrendous losses. This was one reason why Steve called it a day and ceded the game to me. I got lucky in that his morale rolls at the end of turn 7 were terrible, resulting in a very large part of his army pinning. His morale might have held out better had this not happened, because he could then have driven home against my battered troops there. This would have freed up his left flank to relieve Longlier. He would have had between 1 and 5 turns for this, depending upon the game end die roll, so it could have been feasible. Having to rally and regroup his troops first meant that he probably would not have had time for this.

This was a good fun scenario. It worked well as a training scenario to teach Steve the new rules and to remind me of how Command Decision works. I am now keen to play the rest of the scenarios in The Death of Glory, but I also wonder about reducing them in size. They are all really too large to suit the available time we have for gaming, so we need to consider how best to reduce the size of the forces and still play an interesting scenario.

Meeting at Longlier - CDTOB AAR Part 2

We continued our slow progress through the Meeting at Longlier scenario once more. The fighting is becoming more intense, Longlier is occupied by entire battalions from both sides and the Germans are desperately attempting to march around the French flanks.

The situation at the end of Turn 6

As can be seen from the map above, the French advanced rapidly to form up a line centred on Longlier. The Germans are trying to flank the French on the right with a battalion or more of infantry (it feels like more at the moment!) and the German recon cavalry is in the north-west of the map attempting to gallop around and capture the built-up areas behind French lines. Not all units are shown on the map, for the sake of clarity.

The view from the German lines at the end of Turn 4

Turn 4 saw the French artillery deployed and ready to rain all-out thermonuclear heck on the Germans, while troops of both sides marched towards the front at full speed. We set to and I gleefully rolled for artillery response for my first artillery unit. No response. I rolled for the second. No response. What were these idiots up to? I cursed my gunners as they failed to fire at all.

Meanwhile Longlier was becoming the Stalingrad of the Lorraine area. Both armies occupied it but neither was making much headway as new troops were fed in from the rear. On the German left flank forces were building up and things were starting to look dicey for the French.

View from the French end of the table at the end of Turn 5

Turn 5 began with the artillery stonk that I had hoped for on the previous turn. It was much better than the planned stonk from the previous turn because the Germans had parked all their artillery in the walled field to the east of Longlier (top of the picture above). A couple of artillery templates covered the artillery and some infantry, and some lucky dice rolling destroyed the entire artillery battalion. BOOM! The infantry were not happy either. Suddenly the field was empty.

The fighting in Longlier continued as more troops were fed into the meatgrinder, and the German left flank continued to march around towards the French artillery. It looked like they would be able to charge the artillery on the next turn, which would probably not go that well for the guns and the gunners.

End of Turn 6 as taken by an observation pilot in a Bleriot plane. North is to the top of the picture.

The start of turn 6 went well for the French. All the guns fired, suppressing infantry in Longlier and blunting the flanking attack. Better yet, the French won the initiative and were able to charge the first flanking force, destroying part of it and causing the rest to become shaken. The fight in the eastern woods dragged on with honours being even on both sides, but the French troops became pinned by their opponents. Next turn may not go well for them and reinforcing companies are also advancing rapidly around the flank. It may be too late for an orderly withdrawal from that side of the battlefield, but there are no strategic objectives there, so sucking the Germans into a drawn out firefight might actually work in the long run, but at the cost of some brave poilus.

In Longlier casualties mounted up but no progress was being made. Meanwhile the French had a company advancing around both sides of the town. It will be tough digging the Germans out, but it is still a possibility.

To the north of Longlier, German infantry and cavalry were advancing round the flank. A battalion of French infantry was deployed to try to cut them off. The French cavalry who had held part of the town from the start mounted up and moved out through the infantry lines to try to catch the German cavalry and sort it out.

We've made mistakes with the rules along the way, but the scenario is turning out to be good fun. Fog of War cards add something to the chaos without unbalancing the game, and the forces seem fairly evenly matched. Steve is showing his tricksy side with his flanking manoeuvres while I have focused on driving through the middle in best Viking berserker tradition. It's a shame that we cannot play more and finish it sooner but overall I think I have sold Steve on CDTOB now.

Meeting at Longlier - CDTOB AAR Part 1

Last night, we continued the Command Decision: Test of Battle game that we began last week. At our current rate of progress it will take us another couple of weeks to finish the game. The scenario is the second one in the Death of Glory supplement. It pits the French versus the Germans in the Lorraine area in August 1914. Both sides have a regiment of infantry, a battalion of artillery and a recon cavalry squadron. The game will be 8-12 turns long depending upon a random die roll.

The game began with the recon cavalry ensconced in and around Longlier. The French had dismounted to occupy the town better while the Germans remained mounted. Reinforcements in the form of a battalion from the regiment arrive each turn, marching to the sound of the guns. The German artillery battalion must arrive as a unit, while the French artillery battalion arrives as individual batteries together with an infantry battalion. After three turns the French forces have all arrived and the final German battalion is nearing the battle area.

The situation at the end of turn 3 (Not all units are shown to make things clearer)

The French in blue arrived from the south. The Germans in grey arrived from the north-east. As you can see, a traffic jam was building in the town of Longlier. The northernmost French recon cavalry unit (hollow blue symbol) charged the German recon cavalry in the rear but the Germans were able to turn to face and eliminated the French unit. It was at this point that I realised that cavalry charging get no significant benefit from doing so. Boo! We are French, we are dressed well and we have style. We deserve significant bonuses for that!!

The table at the end of turn 3

At least by this stage I have deployed two artillery pieces and can bring fire to bear on the Germans. With any luck I can suppress the enemy infantry with artillery fire in the next turn and my brave poilus can charge home and drive the enemy from the woods with great elan. For the rest of it, I think there is going to be a turn or two of marching and re-ordering the troops so that we can occupy good firing positions and protect our homeland.

View from the west towards Longlier. French troops march bravely to support their brethren while singing lustily as they go

The scenario requires both sides to capture built-up areas, and to destroy the enemy. There are 3 victory conditions: one for capturing the most built-up areas, one for destroying enemy personnel (infantry/cavalry) stands, and one for destroying enemy artillery stands. The winner is the player that has achieved more victory conditions. I made some French and German flags to mark control of the built-up areas.

View from the south-western road. My artillery deployed on the reverse slope where their commander can call fire onto the enemy positions. A second artillery piece will take up position next turn

I am hoping that artillery on this hill in the south-east corner of the table will be a good firing position for my artillery. With two pieces there and the artillery battalion commander, I can call fire onto the approaching Germans and also shell Longlier in support of my own troops as needed. It only requires that my infantry drive off the Germans in the woods. I think I'm going to need better dice!

Figures by Irregular Miniatures

Hexes are GHQ Terrain Maker hexes that I fettled myself

Prelude to a Meeting at Longlier, 22 August 1914 [CDTOB]

It has been a long time coming but I think we are finally going to play a WW1 game tonight. I have spent ages fettling my GHQ Terrain Maker hexes, cutting them true so that there are not too many gaps between them, and reflocking many of them. I have reworked the stream/river hexes with new paint and a spot of Woodland Scenics Realistic Water. I have painted a bunch more buildings so that we have enough built-up areas. N.B. I am not a fan of painting buildings. I never seem to get them quite right, so I tend not to have enough. Not being able to afford to buy more at the moment, some of the buildings for tonight's game are really medieval cottages. It bothers me a bit, but not enough to do anything about it! Fields were constructed to provide additional cover and the roads were fettled to my satisfaction. It's not perfect but I am much happier with the hexes than I was in my previous post about them. The answer is to trim the bought hexes and supplement them with some hand-cut ones that I made myself. The 1/4" hexes that I used for my old rivers are still not right, but I can replace them later as I build terrain for more new scenarios. I have also had to make compromises with some hastily constructed templates, because some of the wooded areas are sized to be only really useful for this scenario. I'm not going to make specialist hexes with limited usefulness until I have a much fuller set of more useful terrain.

My French army for this battle is fully painted and all units now carry objective/control markers to demoralise Steve by clearly showing how much of the table my troops control. Expect to see the Tricolore being raised above each town and village as I capture it. This is sure to be a morale victory for me that will lead Steve to surrender in record time!

So, the terrain is set up, and I now eagerly anticipate some family emergency occurring and forcing us to cancel. If it does not, then tonight we shall refight an action at Longlier that took place on August 22nd 1914. The scenario is number 2 in the Death of Glory supplement for Command Decision: Test of Battle. The scenario begins with cavalry recon elements encountering each other at Longlier. They are reinforced as the game goes on by a regiment of infantry each, supported by a battalion of artillery. The goal is to capture the built-up areas and destroy the enemy.

The game will be fought using Irregular 6mm miniatures.

The view from the west. A French cuirassier squadron (centre) rides towards Longlier

A passing aeroplane snapped this aerial shot from the west

The view from the south. French reinforcements enter from the south. German reinforcements enter from the east.

Command Decision: Test of Battle - Notes and Thoughts

 I have played all the iterations of the Command Decision rules. I first encountered them in the mid-nineties when a colleague introduced me to the first edition and we had a blast playing a spot of WW2 wargaming. The rules have always been geared towards scenario play and have not included any kind of points system until the Test of Battle (CDTOB) variant came out. Originally it was well supported with Command Post Quarterly which included scenarios, orders of battle and campaign games. There were even a couple of campaign games included as articles in Miniature Wargames.

So, when the Test of Battle variant came out, I snapped it up at the first opportunity. It has all the rules, streamlined to make the game less involved, while still maintaining the right feel. There is no longer any need to track ammunition usage for each individual vehicle, and you no longer get a bazillion shots per turn. Spotting no longer relies on a die roll and is now purely deterministic based on range and cover. All of this makes the game easier to play and yet does not detract from the feel.

The first printing of the rules (the version I have) includes six late war Western Front and six late war Eastern Front scenarios to get you started easily. It also includes a scenario generation system including a points system, so you can more easily create pick-up games, and tables of organisation and equipment are provided for late war German, Russian, British and American forces. The ToEs for various armies are provided free on the Command Decision website and you can also download the battlegroups for the scenario generation system. Additional force lists are provided on these pages and in various supplements that have been released.

Scenario Generation System
You are given a core force (usually a little below battalion strength) and buy reinforcements for it. These comprise additional infantry companies, tank squadrons support assets and command elements. The final results seem to reflect battlegroup composition quite well, with not too much room for finagling the super-army or fielding 500 Tiger IIs. As you buy troops they are allocated to one of three forces: Holding, Reserve and Assault. The allocation is done in order, so the first 750 points must be allocated to the Holding force. Then the next 600 points must be spent on the Reserve force and finally 600 points on the Assault force. At each stage the force must comply with the minima and maxima in the lists, which means that you cannot beef up one force and use another as a dumping area for the less good stuff. Leftover points may be spent on later forces, but you may never underspend on a later force and allocate those points to an earlier force. The final result seems to reflect battlegroup composition quite nicely.

The rules include a system for generating the battlefield. A composite map has been compiled from the scenarios that should give players a 'typical' area to fight over. There is one map for the Western Front and one for the Eastern Front. These maps are 6x10 squares, with each square representing a 2'x2' area. The standard battlefield is 6'x6' at full scale. I play at half scale in 6mm because it fits my gaming table better. Anyway, one player chooses a square that must be part of the battlefield and the other then designates a 3x3 square area on the map, including that one square, which will be the playing area. The first player chooses their baseline and the players set the terrain up.

Then the mission is generated. Each player may either pick or randomly determine one of the six possible missions. The mission will determine which force(s) they get to field and which may arrive as reinforcements.

I like this system. I have played around with the various options for the Western Desert which is my preferred theatre and think the games that it generates should be good fun. I suppose that means I should get on with sorting out my forces and playing games using it now, but first WW1.

The Death of Glory
A WW1 supplement, The Death of Glory, was released and I snapped that up. It includes nine scenarios for 1914, one of which features Belgians versus Germans, while the rest feature French versus Germans. There is a small campaign covering the action in the Lorraine which looks fun to play and more manageable than the 'Home before the Leaves fall' campaign in the original CD WW1 rules Over the Top. The book also includes British, French and German battlegroups for 1914 so you can use the Test of Battle scenario system with this supplement.

Death of Glory test game. French on the right and Germans on the left

We put together a test game comprising an infantry battalion each with a single artillery battery in support. Given that it was our first game, the whole thing went very smoothly. For simplicity we ignored spotting this time around but plan to use it in future games. The end result was that I was even more enamoured of the system and that I have realised that I need to buy or make a lot more fields for my French countryside. I am now looking forward to our next game, although I still have a lot of French troops to paint if I am to use painted figures for all the scenarios in the book.

We plan to play all the scenarios and then the campaign this year. If I fail to paint my troops in time for a scenario, should I penalise their troop quality, morale or both? Totally unpainted troops suffer a drop in both? Partly painted troops suffer a drop in just one of the two? What about using proxies? Do they suffer for being substitutes?