Centennial Gaming in the Great War – Tips For Playing in Trench Warfare
May 27, 2018 by dracs
Today we're joined by @Oriskany our Historical Editor to discuss the top tips for Gaming in the Great War, more specifically; Trench Warfare.
Read The Series Here
What are the top five tips for gaming the Great War:
- Know what you're playing.
- Beginnings & Endings
- Expand your horizons.
- Devil in the details.
- All trenches are NOT equal.
Hopefully, this series has you aching to get back into historical games and more importantly, building your own trench warfare tables and with the tips above explained in the interview will have you roaring across the battlefield increasing terror into your enemies.
How do you play your historical games?
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My biggest tip for WWI trench warfare is when everyone goes up the ladders………….DON’T.
Actually not bad advice. 😀 Strike into voids as water flowing in a stream, as Sun Tzu says, go around the rocks, not against them. But of course in 1915-17 there was nothing BUT rock, at least on the Western Front.
At kind of an oblique angle, your suggestion was basically “Tips 1, 2, and 3” in the video … ways to play World War One engagements without dealing with trenches.
When I play WW1 I generally place the game in the middle east, mainly so I can take Rols Royce armoured cars.
There you go. I’ve never used those Rolls Royce armoured cars in WW1, but honestly in WW2 – when some of the regiments of the Western Desert Force under O’Connor were still using them during Grazianai’s initial invasion of Egypt and the counterattack of Operation Compass … and also against the Italian invasion of British Somalia. By then a few of them I think were up-gunned with Boys antitanks rifles, which makes the Rolls Royce AC the lightest “tank destroyer” I’ve ever used on the table top. 😀 Fortunately for them, the Italian CV-33s and Autoblindas they were aiming at… Read more »
I always though Trench Warfare gaming would be boring and impossible. Thanks for the tips! Glad to know I was right to stay out of trenches. But I appreciate the suggestions on how to handle it if I do “fall in”.
Yep, the old dilemma of wargaming – making it “realistic” without the misery of the real thing.
In think it was the Battle of Loos where it took the reserve British Infantry nearly 24 hours to get from their start positions to into their own front line trenches which was only a few miles to support the initial attack
One of the problems( in a completely unsportsmanlike way) was the enemy would be sending conflicting signals by flare or flag that an objective had been taken. This led to commanders delaying crucial decisions while they waited for original signals to be confirmed
Thanks, @torros – and yes, you pose a great example of this difference between the flexibility of operational response to a threat posed by tactical mobility – an overly-engineered way of saying my defensive reserves are faster than your offensive reserves because my guys can come in on trains. 😛
I really loved the concept of having to plan out artillery strikes before the game. (And working out patterns of strikes etc)
Are there any other interesting mechanics options for artillery strikes that anyone knows of?
Thanks, @warzan – I hope others have some ideas on this. For me, the best examples were the usual Panzer Leader model, where battery fire is just recorded in secret at least one turn in advance – battery number, target hex (not sure how you would do this on mini tables). Actually, I take that back – for miniature tables … Battlegroup has rules for predesignated firing points and time artillery barrages you can buy and add to your list … just a variation on the same theme, really. So you write down units / batteries of artillery / mortars… Read more »
Through the Mud and the Blood (Too Fat Lardies) has probably the best mechanics. You get your available artillery then you have to pick what kind of shells you’re firing (there’s a handy list of who used what when in the book) and then decide what level of fire you want to apply on the Wire, Front Line, Secondary Line and Enemy Artillery. You can also have SOS Artillery which represents an officer quickly calling in some unplanned fire. You have to decide Pre-Game how long you barrage will go on for, it gets less intensive/more expensive the longer it… Read more »
Awesome, @elessar2590 . I have downloaded a .pdf book strictly on World War I artillery tactics, it’s amazing the amount of detail they go into, and how precise, complex, and intricate some of those artillery barrages could be (all without radios, of course). Naturally it HAD to be that well planned because of a general lack of flexibility.
I’ll try to post a few images out of that WW1 artillery book on the support thread.
Very good tips, especially for the objectives and the MG arc of fire. I remember pictures taken in trenches, where the MG position is rather like big hole in a low palisade. Not much space to swing the gun to the left or right. I also read about an occasion when imperial Germans attacked an enemy trench just to get food and drink. Another objective tip: Prepare your force for “the inevitable counterattack”. Limited time or limited opportunities as to where and when to set up your troops and such like. Print out the trench system, put down where you… Read more »
That’s actually a really great suggestion, @jemmy re: supply raids in trench warfare – especially from the German perspective. I never even thought of that. But yes, by 1918 the supply / naval blockade situation was getting so bad for the Germans that they were unable to get enough supplies to the men in the trenches or the people back home – so some trench raids were launched simply for the purpose of stealing supplies, especially food (and sometimes a little rum). 😛
Yes, I forgot the rum. Remember the scene in “All Quiet on the Wetern Front”, Tjaden opening the bottle the rough way and glug, glug, glug (film version from 1930).
The proper course of action, @jemmy , when one runs across a fresh bottle of “cope.” 😐
I was going to post a trench map showing arcs of fire drawn on it but for some silly reason I can’t post pictures here
We’re working on it 🙂
Cheers.Thought it was me
no no there is a bug that @nakchak is trying to squish 🙂
Oh, and apologies to everyone … I don’t know what happened to my audio – I don’t know if my microphone $h*t the bed there or what … 🙁
Found these online which are Canadian Barrage maps. Just click on the image
http://digitalarchive.mcmaster.ca/islandora/object/macrepo%3A71695
Sorry wrong link try
http://digitalarchive.mcmaster.ca/islandora/object/macrepo%3A75444
YES Thank you @torros ! These are some of the maps I was talking about, there are literally hundreds of these if not thousands available on line. They can be great reference or inspiration if you’re trying to build a WW1 trench table or set up a WW1-style predesignated artillery barrage. 😛 Thanks for the link!
You used to be able to buy them all but it all seems to have gone to http://www.greatwardigital.com now
Awesome! 😀
Great discussion guys, thanks for that.
No mention of the Aussies under Monash?? What about the battle of Hamel?? Coming from Down Under you never see this mentioned- a battle to smash the german trenches that went 2 minutes over time- it took 95 minutes to smash through when Monash had planned 03 minutes 🙂
Look at Toofat Lardies for “through the Mud & blood” for trenches or “may the Lord spare us” for higher level in the Middle east eg Beersheba 🙂
We do not forget the Australians, @richardd , these get their shout out (admittedly a brief one) at 6:00 when we’re discussing Part 03 and the Goergette Offensive beginning 9 April. This is the larger contextual engagement which contains the Battle of Hamel you mention. Through the Blood & Mud and May the Lord Spare us sound interesting. When we get the support thread up and running again (give me a day or two) I would invite you to please post some game play photos, information, battle reports, or links. We can never include everything in the articles, naturally, but… Read more »
Montgomery said Monash was the best General on the Western Front
Interesting writeup and portrait here:
https://www.portrait.gov.au/portraits/2007.3/john-monash
Thanks very much, @ghostbear ! Always glad to see what Clan Ghost Bear has to say (and I am very keen to keep the Ghost Bear as an ally!) 😀 😀 😀
Clearly historical gaming is your Great Work.
@ghostbear – I do what I can – I do what I must … for House Beasts of War. 😀
(Or “Bear” of War?) 😉