Trench Hammer in WW1 Palestine

[Bowman Stringer]

So in the sleepy town of Wardiya, a double agent has the plans for the spring offensives. German and Turkish troops are vying with British and their Arab allies to collect the agent and move him/her to safety. I used the excellent Trench Hammer rules are they are very convention friendly. The Germans and Turks first collected enough intel to determine that the agent was Abdul and his trusty camel. Unfortunately, Abdul was firmly ensconced in British/Arab territory. Much butchery ensued and the game went right down to the wire. Ultimately, the Deutsche Asien Korps prevailed, and Abdul (plus camel) were whisked away on the awaiting boat.

[Bowman Stringer]

[Bowman Stringer]

[Bowman Stringer]

[Bowman Stringer]

[Bowman Stringer]

[Bowman Stringer]

This game was held at the Hotlead convention, held in Stratford, Ontario, Canada. My players were very happy and enthusiastic and this made for a great game. They also said they’d download the rules., so I pointed them to Wargames Vault. Here is Abdul and his camel safely on board. Most of the game survivors are visible in this one picture.

[Mike]

That is nice looking!

[kyoteblue]

Too big for me but fine-looking.

[JozisTinMan]

Looks great!  I had some hand in the development (but it was mostly Ivan), I am glad it is getting some table time.

 

Did you play out of the box or use any house rules?

http://jozistinman.blogspot.com/

[Tony S]

Damn!  I knew I should have gone to the Convention.  Family obligations intervened.  I would have loved to play in that fantastic looking table.  That WW1 theatre has always been interesting to me.

[Bowman Stringer]

JozisTinMan wrote:

Did you play out of the box or use any house rules?

Yes, a bit of house rules.

1) I didn’t just want a shoot’em up game. So the units had to search buildings and get the little black marker you see in some of the rooftops. Searching a house cost one pip. This has a number on it from 0 to 3. Once you collect enough information (indicated by your markers totalling the value of 6) you know who the double agent is. This is determined by random cards with descriptions of all the civilians on them. Then you have to escort that figure onto an awaiting boat. There was still enough carnage to satisfy all players.

2) A danger when having closely packed buildings like this is having units staying within the protection of a building for a large part of the game. This makes for a static and boring game. I decided to make a unit less effective when inside a building. Therefore, damage from attacks were only D3. Therefore, the cover benefit from being inside the building was offset by less offensive capabilities. Plus, due to the scenario above, staying safely inside a building was not a good tactic.

3) The German and British units all had grenades which ignored cover in assaults, so the buildings didn’t help much in such close range. Damage was still D6-1.

4) I forgot your rules for armoured cars, so I used my own. Movement is 8″ in good going. They get no orders but every move costs an activation pip. The armoured car can move as often as you want to squander pips. Shooting the HMG in the car also costs a pip and can only occur once per turn. Repairing one unit of damage costs 2 pips and can be the only activation in that turn.

So minor tweaks were made to aid in the scenario but generally the rest of the rules were as written.

[Bowman Stringer]

Tony S wrote:

Damn! I knew I should have gone to the Convention. Family obligations intervened. I would have loved to play in that fantastic looking table. That WW1 theatre has always been interesting to me.

Hey Tony, we have played a few times at Phoenix Games and Hobbies. A small world. I like WW1 but have yet to play the typical Western Europe trench fighting slog-fest. I actually prefer the more mobile early war, or other theatres, like the Middle East. Plus, I have yet to build some trenches, lol.

Ralph

[Tony S]

Bowman Stringer wrote:

Tony S wrote:

Damn! I knew I should have gone to the Convention. Family obligations intervened. I would have loved to play in that fantastic looking table. That WW1 theatre has always been interesting to me.

Hey Tony, we have played a few times at Phoenix Games and Hobbies. A small world. I like WW1 but have yet to play the typical Western Europe trench fighting slog-fest. I actually prefer the more mobile early war, or other theatres, like the Middle East. Plus, I have yet to build some trenches, lol. Ralph

Ralph!  I should have known.  You’re a man of exquisite taste!  Despite my interest in the Great War in the middle East, I haven’t really done anything with it.  Sadly, my interests are fairly wide ranging.

Still, a couple of weeks ago, I had the pleasure of commanding the Tsar’s army somewhere in Poland in 1915.  Nary a trench to be seen!  And luckily for me, it seemed Bruchmuller was elsewhere, as the German artillery failed to hit anything for most of the game.

[Bowman Stringer]

…….my interests are fairly wide ranging.

Me too. And “fairly wide ranging” sounds nicer than “gamer ADHD”.

Those smaller, less well known conflicts are very appealing. Especially in the wide open territories farther east.

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