One Hour Wargames: Scenario 11 Surprise Attack

Today's wargaming jaunt was back to c1918 with a British v German encounter using scenario 11 in the OHW book. It's a tough one for the defender as they are heavily outnumbered at the start of the game. The German Major only had a company of infantry and battery of artillery to face off against an on-slaught of four infantry companies, a horse battery and troop of brand new Mk IV tanks. These lumbering behemoths avoided any breakdowns and made a speedy advance using the road bonus to overwhelm the battery, which despite making a tactical withdrawl was finally caught at the crossroads, the scenario objective.

The German re-enforcements began to arrive on turn 3 but already the British advance was gaining the upper hand. The German Major arriving on the scene tried to rally the battery and give it a bit of an edge against the tank assault but was lost with the demise of that unit on the next turn. 

I've added a close assault rule which allows a unit with less hits to force a morale check on the defender if they advance to within "assault" range. I've adapted this for other period rulesets where there is no explicit hand-to-hand for infantry interpreting this as column assaults, bayonet charges or shock tactics depending on sub-period. Not exactly melee rules but an indulgence to a need to get to short range to inflict psychological aswell as physical damage. It also feels right as units that fail the check must retreat which can mean being forced to relinquish terrain or be pushed off table. It works a bit like flags in M'44 in pushing forces back and disrupting the battleline. 

Anyway the British were trying to force the latter outcome on the two recently arrived German companies but these were stubborn troops that withstood the attack. Despite this the final German re-enforcement wave would not be until Turn 9. By turn 7 the German units on table had been lost so the British were in a strong place to adjust their forces to face the likely attack direction which I ruled they had anticipated correctly as being from the West. Despite a formidable German attack of two companies, one of which was Heavy Infantry, the superiority of firepower was overwhelming and when the Heavy Infantry were blown away the trailing second company decided that discretion better than valour and quietly slipped back off the table.

Observations of the game. A real tough proposition for the Germans. They weren't helped by some poor card event draws at the start that resulted in two turns of ammunition shortages! If I was playing again I might have given the defender some edge in terms of quality units. My elite rule allows these units to roll two dice and select the better score when fighting. It works nicely to give these units a consitently better performance in battle. 

The game stretched to turn 10 with a complete British victory. Despite appearing rather one-sided it still contained a surprising amount of variety and was an enjoyable WWI jaunt. I love playing the tank!