Rapid Fire – WW1: Somme, 1st July 1916For the 100th anniversary of WW1, I have been working on a project to look at key battles from WW1 with simple scenarios with 10mm Pendraken figures and custom built trench terrain. David Knight visited yesterday and we had our first WW1 game. This was the first time that we had tried to game a scenario for the project. This scenario was chosen because of the relatively simplicity of the forces.
The rules are the standard WW2 version of Rapid Fire without modification. Infantry companies are represented by ten figures. Both sides are treated as regulars with small arms except for one German Maxim unit which is a MMG on a tripod. Infantry companies can split fire between two targets as two teams of five. According to the rules, each unit makes a standard morale test when reduced to 50% strength. We also added a second rule that a unit is removed when reduced to 30% strength. This represents the few survivors taking cover and also tending to wounded companions.
The scenario is based on the morning of the first day of the Somme as the Pals battalions went into action. The action takes place in a thin rectangular strip of terrain, representing the action in one small sector of a 25 mile wide front. The table is a rectangle 4’ x 2’ with German trenches at one end with a large open area of grassy “no man’s land” in the middle. Towards the German lines there are a large number of shell craters. The British trenches are at the opposite end but there is no need to actually have terrain for the British trench lines as the scenario starts from the point where they go over the top.
The British Army is represented by six units of 10 infantry. The British start 36” from a line of barbed wire in front of German trenches. This equates to six turns of advancing cross country to get to the wire. The wire takes one turn to cross. The whole advance is in the open. At the start the trenches are unmanned as the German forces are sheltering from an artillery barrage in underground bunkers. Three German units (1 x Maxim MMG team, 2 x units of 10 infantry) are available in the sector. According to a D10 dice roll each turn, the German defenders may or may not emerge from their bunkers.
In game 1, German units had a 10% chance of arriving each turn. Unfortunately this left the German trenches unoccupied except for a solitary MMG unit which emerged in turn 2 but only inflicted 10 causalities in five turns. Therefore, most of the British units were intact as they reached the wire. The final assault was a walkover for the British. This played out as the British high command had planned the first day of the Somme. (David British, Mick German)
For game 2, we changed conditions for German troops to arrive – 10% round 1, 20% round 2, 30% round 3 etc. up to round 10. The German MMG arrived in turn 3 and was joined by infantry units in turn 6 and 7. The Germans split their fire to inflict casualties on four attacking units. As they crossed the wire in turn 8, the British had taken a total of 25 casualties, which took three units out of action and weakened another. The remaining British units crossed the wire made close assaults on the flanks of the Germans. Three rounds later, the Germans had successfully repelled the attack. It was a closely fought contest. The result matched the actual historical outcome in several sectors on 1st July 2016. (Mick British, David German)
29 July 2009, 01:47:09 PM