Cambrai 20.11.1917 the breaktrough

[Emporium]

Hi,
my wargame club (GLA gruppo ludico aglianese) has decided to prepare a ww1 scenario to celebrate the first massed use of tanks in history, the battle of Cambrai, or better the breaking of the Hindemburg line on the 20th of November 1917. It's worth to note that this year is the annyversary of that battle and we choosed to bring the scenario at Empoli games, a 3d wargame convention held in Italy and attended by our club as every year.
We planned to portrait a platoon/company level engagement, beeing inspired by a scenario described in Stout hearts and Iron troops expansion book for the celebrated Thorough mud and blood ruleset by TFL. Since the game is pretty one sided, as was in history, we tought to strenghten the german force adding some support.
I'm really proud of this project since, unlike other club scenarios , this time we have involved 8 members that are painting  minis, preparing the scenics and testing the scenario.
Atm we have almost finished the table (180x240cm) and the german minis while the british forces (2 platoons plus 3 mark IV tanks) are still on the workbench. Since we would like to run a partecipation game, we are still unsure about the ruleset to use, the choice is between Mud & Blood and  Bolt action ww1.
Anyway here come some pics of the WIP.
Cheers 

[marianas_gamer]

Thumbs up! I look forward to seeing your progress on this project.
LB

[Mad Gadgeteer]

Nice....

What color did you use on the German tunics?

[Emporium]

Hi, for the minis i've painted i used mainly italeri graugrun as feldgrau. On some tunics i used GW castellan green to add some colour and variety: actually i've read that in 1917/18 the tone of the feldgrau was Greenish rather than greysh as before.

[Emporium]

Hi, yesterday we Tried for the First time the scenario. Since the British aren't available we used as proxy ww2 minis and Tanks (most of them were actually Germans :-). Even if we have strenghtned the german defence the British Attack was almost unopposed as the german defenders spent most of the time in the Shelters due to the artillery barrage.
Next time we Will halve the strenght of the barrage and will give the germans some SOS artillery support, just ti improve the playability.

[Miantanomo]

Great looking stuff!

[Emporium]

Little update of our wip: the tanks are ready with fascines too. Perhaps fascines came out a bit too big, but must be said that mark IV tanks from warlord seem small and a bit out of scale if compared to great war minis. What do you think about it?
Also the barbed wire fields are ready (but no pics available, sorry) and the painting of the british infantry has just begun.

Well with just 3 weeks to go we are a bit late with the schedule but i think we can manage to finish the table in time for Empoli games con.

Stay tuned! 

[Emporium]

At last the barbed wire fields are ready!

[Emporium]

Hi all,
at last we completed the scenario in time for Empoli Games con. The scenario was played two times: the first time the brits had no problems in reaching the second german trench with 3 working tanks (one with a spare fascine too) gaining a decisive victory. The second time was a hard fight, the brits lost almost immediately a tank and the german SOS bombardment took out two infantry squads. Neverthless the brits kept going on until a timely shot from a german field gun killed the driver of the tank holding the last fascine, making impossible to the surviving tank to cross the last trench line.
The scenario has been much appreciated as we won the prize for the best scenics, huzzah!

[fred]

Very impressive looking game. Its great to see the evolution too, from the early shots with proxy troops to the finished troops and battlefield.

[Baron von Wreckedoften]

Little update of our wip: the tanks are ready with fascines too. Perhaps fascines came out a bit too big, but must be said that mark IV tanks from warlord seem small and a bit out of scale if compared to great war minis. What do you think about it?

Actually, that was the first thing I noticed when I looked at the penultimate photo in your first post on here (not a comment on your modelling/painting skills, they are first rate, just a rather obvious visual thing).  Having stood next to one of these beasts, they are HUGE, and I did wonder if you were using modified Airfix kits for the tanks, as these were 1/76 and would look very small next to 28mm figures.

Otherwise, very well done - more than deserves the prize you won.

[SABOT]

Love the trenches which always look better when dug in properly like yours.

[James Morris]

What'an excellent looking game! Great work all round.