WW1 in Five Games

One nice idea with One Hour Wargames is to string together a series of engagements as a mini campaign. On the AMW yahoo group some kind people have pre-done some already, and a First World War campaign of five linked battles caught my eye.

The first two are 1914 and 1915, so we had a go at these at the club. They are so quick to play you can easily get through two in an evening.

These were all played with my 15mm early war figures, generally four bases to a unit (two for artillery).

The first scenario is the river crossing one. Germans entered from the right.

And British from the left.

The German cavalry pushed very aggressively over the far bridge, supported by infantry, into the face of the British artillery position.

But massed firepower saw the Germans melt away. First game to the British.

The second scenario was defence in depth. Four German units dug in on the far side of the river.

The British had the un-enviable task of bludgeoning their way across the bridge.

The isolated German cavalry were overwhelmed despite their entrenchments, and the British went on to roll over the other German units in fine fashion.

We called it a day there. I keep meaning to go back and do the 1916,17 and 18 scenarios but some of the players said they found the mechanisms really too simple for comfort, so we've not returned to this. A shame, as I think the games were a lot of fun.

There may be some mileage in a WW1 version of 'Simplicity in Practice' which combines some elements of the fast play aspects of OHW, with a bit more crunchiness, but without the endless dice rolling of his more complex sets. Again, something on the to-do list.