My first game of the year was a remote game with Jon of Palouse Wargaming Journal. Due to time zones it was Jon’s last game of the year. The game was part of my WW1 Palestine campaign and Jon took the defending Turkish side.
The game is using One-Hour Wargaming scenario #8 - Melee. The game setup and background can be found in my previous post (here).
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| The tabletop setup for the game. |
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| Sketch of the 5x4 foot tabletop |
The Turks start the game with two units positioned on the ridge, one unit is entrenched. They get two more units on Turn 3 and another two on Turn 6. The objective of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF) is to clear the ridge for victory. They begin the game with a planned bombardment of the ridge and their first wave arrives on Turn 1 and wave on Turn 4.
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| The Turkish defenders positioned on the ridge. |
The game uses a variation of One-Hour Wargames Machine Age rules using D3 dice and activation of units.
The game report…
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| The EEF artillery position themselves to bombard the ridge. Infantry occupy the broken ground and mounted infantry dismount on the road. Initial Turkish reinforcements can be seen arriving in the background. |
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| Turkish units defending the ridge choose to retire behind the ridge to avoid the shelling by artillery. More troops arrive for both sides and begin to take up position. An EEF armoured car races down the road to harass any Turkish units it finds. |
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| The EEF are about to begin their advance onto the ridge, but the Turks have organised their defences behind the ridge out of sight from the EEF artillery. |
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| A close up photo of the advance. |
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| The battle for the ridge is underway. |
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| The EEF artillery push up to support the advancing infantry who are suffering losses. |
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| The EEF attack falters and on turn 15 the Turkish reoccupy the ridge. |
A well earned victory to the Jon and the Turkish forces. The post game discussion concluded the defenders need to retire to behind the ridge at the start of the game, and the EEF artillery need to move down the road to harass the reinforcements as they arrive. As it was they got stuck for much of the game aimed at a ridge empty of targets.
The battle was great fun, Peter. Well done on putting this together.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the game, it proved to be most enjoyable.
DeleteSuperb Peter. I love this period more and more when I see your battles, and the research you have done. It has a genuine 'boy's own' style ripping yarn feel at times, despite having roots in WW1 action. What a fantastic game - and played across the world :)
ReplyDeleteYou a right about the ripping yarns feel to the period. It is a fascinating campaign to read about and play. Thanks.
DeleteA fine game there Peter and the Turks seemed to play a good game, as shown by your post game chat.
ReplyDeleteJon played a canny game and after some initial set backs was able to organise his reserves to contest the ridge.
DeleteWhat a beautiful table! Happy New Year! Karl
ReplyDeleteThank you and happy New Year to you.
DeleteGreat game report. The Turkish forces played well, saving their strength from the EEF bombardment. The Last Crusade recounts how difficult it was for the EEF to bring up heavy artillery - or any artillery at times due to the rough terrain, so it may take some time before sufficient strength is gathered to shoot-in the next assault.
ReplyDeleteCorrect, the hills around Jerusalem proved to be very hard going for the EEF. As for this campaign stage it now moves to a third game consuming more time on the campaign calendar.
DeleteAnother cracking read! Jon is a wily opponent.
ReplyDeleteHe certainly is :-)
DeleteThe Turks hiding behind the hill to avoid artillery fire! Surely that manoeuvre was copyrighted by the Duke of Wellington! Bad form! 😁
ReplyDeleteVery cleverly done by Jon and the first time I have seen this done in a wargame.
Great looking game as always Peter and I really thought you had the game in the bag with your cunning plan!
The scenario set the scene for a very interesting game. Using the reverse slop was a smart move and my cunning plan came to naught.
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