ITLSU Le Mort Homme Photo AAR

[fred]

We were able to get in the luxury of an afternoon game earlier this week, and choose to revisit WWI with Glyn's freshly painted mid/late war French.

The scenario was 'historically plausible' based on the Northern flank of the Verdun salient, with a counter attack by the French 92nd Infantry Regiment of the 26th Infantry Division, commanded by Lt Col Macker. They were attacking from Le Mort Homme hill to retake Le Bois de Corbeux and village of Cumieres, defended by German troops of the 43. Infanterie-Brigade from the 22nd Reserve Infantry Division.


The red box outlines the battlefield with the French attacking from the West to East (left to right). The terrain is very hilly.


I had a big rummage for enough bits of high density and expanded styrofoam to build the hills - which where a fair approximation


Looking W now, with the terrain in place over the hills. The key areas are labelled, the view is from the German commander's view point. Just about visible are the transparent ovals representing the blinds that units will deploy from.


Most troops deployed fairly closely to their initial blinds positions. The two German battalions in defence, with the plain brown bases, the French attackers in the distance with some greenery on their bases.

The French with a surfeit of elan decided to charge the Germans. Perhaps their commander had missed the prior two years of the war!


Looking North again, along the German defensive line - quite a few MGs situated here. With the village of Cumieres in the background, with the Brigade HQ and a couple of artillery batteries situated here.


Close-up of the French charging out of their position on top of Le Mort Homme across the shell pocked ground


Looking East from the German lines - a target rich environment!


The defenders on the slopes of the Bois des Corbeux - they were deployed in line of companies, here they are moving forward a little to get a 2 up 1 back formation.

[fred]

Looking west, the French attack continues, on the left a battalion of Moroccans advance to get in position to lay down fire on the German defenders. In the centre the 1eme battalion's charge stall's in the face of heavy fire power (at the top of the hill is their first company, having retreated through excess shock).

On the right the 2nd battalion is using two of their companies to fire on the defenders whilst the other 2 close - this was more successful as it put a reasonable amount of suppression on the Germans.


Looking east in the bright sunshine, the attack on the Bois des Corbeaux - the foremost French company is shattered, down to 1 stand carrying 28 shock (this would cause them to retreat 18" on their next activation) - they had got to within a few inches of the defenders whose shooting is then at double effect in the 'Dead Close' range band.


The German defenders on the left starting to take some shock - but still causing devastation to the French 1eme battalion attempting to cross the open ground.  On the right one French company did get into charge range - but despite just edging the number of hand to hand combat dice, they rolled worse and where thrown back.


Looking north, German reinforcements make their way forward (these troops really weren't needed - I'd got the force ratios a bit off).

In the centre are the tatters of the French 1eme battalion, and just behind them can be seen the 4eme French battalion making its way forward.


The end. The German reinforcements positioned to drive off the Moroccans, whilst over on the far side the 4eme battalion gets into shooting range, supported by an artillery battery on Hill 265 this shooting was starting to drive back the defenders. 

[fred]

Conclusions & Thoughts
It was good to get back to WWI and with a new army on the table as well - the rather splendid looking French. Both sides figures are Pendraken 10mm.

The French plan was massively optimistic- not sure why they didn't spend some time shooting up the defenders before charging.

The force ratios where off - we've not played ITLSU for some time, and the French battalions seemed big compared to the German ones. But defence is easy in WWI, each German formation could easily have been 2 companies rather than 3.

Battalion size - we felt the battalions where quite large at around 16-20 stands each, I think we will try 12 stand ones for the next game - feels more appropriate for mid war onwards.

ITSLU always gives a good game, and works well for the Western front rather than its native North Africa - the Storm of Dice notes in one of the Lardie supplements adds some Western front specifics, including some new cards, which worked well.

We enjoyed the game, that we are playing again, this time with a German attack, just to the south of this battlefield.

[robh]

That looks like an entertaining game, something generally difficult with WW1 Western Front scenarios.

Would you consider this a "standard" size game for ITLSU?
I picked it up recently as a potential way of using my Rommel/Panzer Korps Levant WW2 6mm armies for Palestine WW1 by swapping out the vehicles and aircraft.

[fred]

I'd say it's about standard sized - the game is basically representing a brigade with each stand being a platoon. So 4 battalions with supporting arms is pretty typical. Battalions can range from 10 stands at the bottom end, to 18-20 at the top end.

It gives a good game - but I'd have to say the rules take some reading to work out - if you are already familiar with Lardie games and card activation then some of this will be easier. But overall the order of the rules and the insertion of historical narrative within the rules makes it quite hard to digest. But I'd say worth the effort the core command mechanism feels very WWI appropriate.

We've used them for 1914 games as well as late war western front with tanks.

[robh]

.......So 4 battalions with supporting arms is pretty typical. Battalions can range from 10 stands at the bottom end, to 18-20 at the top end.......

I did not realise the Lardy rules needed armies of that size, up to 80 bases plus supports each side is a major commitment, that is Great War Spearhead sort of numbers (another set of rules I was recommended for Palestine).

[fred]

The rules don't need that many stands - you can get a good game with half that number - 3 battalions of 12 stands, and a couple of guns.

The rules are written around 15mm figures, with 2 figures per 25x20mm base. We went with 3x 10mm figures on 30x30mm bases (as I had started this basing for GWSH). But the number of figures per base isn't crucial to the rules.

[boywundyrx]

Love that terrain, the hills look great.  ITLSU looks fun, and is fairly unique for that scale and period. I almost got into a game once but the GM upscaled it to GWSH, so we played that.

[fred]

Thanks - we always get a good game from ITLSU. We originally built forces for GWSH, but never really got on with the rules.

But as with most historical games figures work for most others, with slightly tweaks. Mostly we have too much artillery for ITLSU!