Oriskany's Final Days of the Great War - Australians + British tanks vs. Germans at Hamel
Not to be outdone, also some Australians for WW1.
Not to be outdone, the Australians now also have a force in 1918 Edition of Valor & Victory. Some people feel the Australians were a little left out of the Great War article series we did earlier this year, I don’t think they quite realized the limited scope of that series or that most of the 1918 battles for which the Australian Corps / Fourth Army / BEF are famous actually took place afterwards.
But now we are “afterwards” so I definitely wanted to include them.
I actually made these guys really badass, note the “E” elite rating and the 5-5-6 full section combat values. This makes them actually a little better than even the US Marines I drew up for Belleau Wood. Much as I love and have close personal ties to the US Marine Corps, especially at Belleau Wood, the Marines of that era were hampered a little by inexperience, American army weapons, and especially French support weapons.
The Australians had none of those problems, and were every bit as aggressive and innovative as the Marines. They were just more experienced and had slightly better weapons (Lewis Guns instead of M1915 Chauchats, etc).
** the only difference would be I give my Marines a -1 difficulty on close assaults, that’s the Model 1897 Winchester .12 gauge shotguns and entrenching tools. Always dread the Marine and his “lobotomizer” This makes my Marines just a shade better in close assault, even though the Australians are probably better overall.
For comparison, my German “stosstruppen” (shock troop) storm troopers have an even BETTER assault value (actual SMGs, two extra pistols per man, extra grenades, etc), but a poor casualty rating (combat losses were nigh-suicidal) and a short range (4 instead of 6).
Anyway, here are the Australians for now. This would by the four infantry divisions in General Sir John Monash’s Australian Corps, Rawlinson’s Fourth Army, BEF, July-November 1918.
The -2 commander (remember, -2 is a bonus, not a penalty) is named for my Australian friend @jamesevans140. The -1 lieutenants are named for Australians who won the Victoria Cross in 1918 specifically. There were plenty to choose from, a total of 66 Australians won the Victoria Cross during the Great War.
Look good Jim. I could go all rivet counter about the uniform but it doesn’t matter Nice work
Reality check time … If I went “rivet counter” on anything anyone posted or said on BOW I would have no time for anything else. The research I pulled indicates that by 1918 Commonwealth uniforms were more or less homogenized. Just please remember this isn’t “early war” or mid war, and not for use in the Mid East or Gallipoli, etc. So no barracks covers, bush hats, forage caps, etc. That said, I freely admit I just used my images for British on the Austalian counters. The rising sun collar pins and “Australia” shoulder flash are probably for parade /… Read more »
Looks great! I’ll also add some recommendations!
The Australian one was slightly longer and a different green. I did learn something new yesterday in that the British used these Hotchkiss Mg in their tanks. I always presumed it was a version of the Vickers they used. The counters do look great though
Yeah, I always though American units used the Vickers, at least until the M1917 came out in sufficient numbers. Turns out they used some Hotckiss as well (probably down to most of their divisions being deployed in areas of the front administered by the French Army). Fortunately, I have Hotchiss .png assets saved from when I made my French V&V counters, and of course the American templates – so making American Hotchkiss MG counters will take, well, less time than it took me to write this post. 😀
I think when the Americans first arrived in 17 the French supplied all the mg’s and mortars and tanks fir them and the British the artillery