Valor & Victory - 1918 (German v. French Megagame)

Okay, now that the trench boards are set designed, printed, cut, and mounted, it’s time to try them out!  I’m setting up a trench assault game of US Army vs. Imperial Germans, circa September 1918 in the St. Mihel Offensive, leading into Argonne Wood, etc.

As discussed in the video, we’ll be playing this game where the Americans have already reached the German trenches (and undoubtedly paid a grim cost).  But now two companies are in the trench system (not a single line, but more of a “banded web” of communication trenches, primary and secondary trenches, support and supply trenches, artillery trenches, observation trenches, what have you), trying to secure and expand their lodgement.

Centennial Gaming in the Great War – Tips For Playing in Trench Warfare

The German force – based on two rifle companies.  Each has a -2 Hauptmann (captain) , and a -1 Leutnant.  They then have three platoons, each with three full 4-5-4 rifle squads.  One squad in each platoon carries an MG 08 15 light support weapon.  Each company also has a weapons section  (commanded by another leutnant) – with two full MG 08 heavy machine gun emplacements and a 7.58mm “minenwerfer” trench mortar.   Each company also has a modest supply of stick grenades.

In all, each company has 87 officers and men, for a total German force of 174.

Here are the Americans, also with two companies.  But these companies are a little larger, with each platoon having two extra four-man fire teams.  However, because they are on the attack, they do not have heavy machine gun support (M1917s, etc.).  They do carry extra grenades for trench assault, and (and I forgot to include these in the photo), they do have light and heavy barrages available for a nice opening artillery salvo that should hopefully weaken the German defenders a little.

In all, each American company has 99 men, for a total force of 198, plus off-board artillery.

Here is the map.  Four sheets is pretty big for a Valor & Victory game, but we’re trying to “stress-test” the 1918 Edition units and the new trench  boards, to see if they really work.  Trenches usually give a +2 defense bonus, but we’re taking that away IF the attackers are actually in the same trench with you, or attacking from an adjacent, connected trench.

What were going for here is a “tunnel war” almost, where the attackers have breached the trenches, now they’re trying to clear this sector and secure the breakthrough for successive echelons of attack.  The Germans, of course, are trying to stop to delay them (until their own artillery can lay new barrages, or reserves can be mobilized to the threatened sector).