Since we're using our WWI 28mms, we started off with the Lardies' purpose-designed WWI skirmish rules, Through the Mud and the Blood. I devised a short early war scenario, a meeting engagement between a German infantry platoon and its British opposite numbers. The British hold a small Belgian village with two sections and a machinegun team. The Hun are attacking with three sections of infantry.
And, yes, the figures and buildings are unpainted. Since neither the British player nor I are independently wealthy, it was either play with unpainted figures or don't play. Anyone who wants to donate painted figures or cash to our collections is welcome to.
The table set up with blinds (hidden unit markers). Germans are coming from the left; the British are on the right. The cat supervises. The beer is Guinness.
The British sent several blinds forward to scout the approaching Germans. These proved to be dummies (one or two men who fled back to their units with word of German locations).
The British had fewer runners attached to their platoon HQ, but they did have a sniper, who made short work of the German senior officer, Leutnant von Auffenberg. This had severe negative effects on the German advance, as might be expected.
The Germans advanced with one section to the left and the platoon HQ to its right. The British had their MG covering their right flank and a section in the village to the east of the crossroads. Between them, they generated a very effective crossfire, making the corner of the orchards, where the German infantry had expected to position their fire base, quite unhealthy.
Another German section was moving up through the village on the right.
1te Zug starts taking casualties and shock from the MG.
German reinforcements come forward.
/1te Zug manages to shoot down several of the MG crew.
Most of the German platoon HQ is hit as they direct the action, and a frontal assault by 2te Zug on the British infantry is thrown back with heavy losses.
The British musketry's devastating effect.
3te Zug sneaks forward through the village while the rest of the platoon tries to regroup (the trees need better bases...)
3te Zug's assault also fails, and 2te Zug is mostly hors de combat.
Even 1te Zug has been severely damaged by the MG.
One British section took some hits, but another stayed on blinds the whole time, and the MG came through still functioning.We got a baseline result: a serious loss for the Germans, due to poor tactics (failure to concentrate firepower effectively on a single target) and insufficient force (three sections was not enough to take on two sections and an MG, especially when the defenders had good cover to fight from).
We'll try again with another rules set and see how the next play-through goes. We know and like the Lardy methods, though, so it will be tough for the competition to deliver a stronger result.
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