Category Archives: WW1

games, megagames, WW1

Megagame: Iron Dice – Turn 2

2 Comments

From the second turn onwards each turn covers the period of a week. Turn 2 is 24-31 August 1914.

Turn 2 Umpire Map
Turn 2 Umpire Map

BEF Report to the War Office – 31 August 1914

Situation

The Belgian Army is falling back westwards towards TOURNAI, LILLE and GHENT. The Belgian right flank has been badly hammered by German First Army and the Belgians retired to LILLE. German First Army are at SOIGNES advancing West.

We have moved up into a reserve position in the line between LILLE and VALENCIENNES. III Corps and the Artillery are concentrated at ARRAS.

In conjunction with the Belgians the BEF will move to left along the riverline MENIN-GHENT with a fallback position at YPRES-DIXMUDE. The right will remain at LILLE, III Corps will move into the Centre. This will lock our left on the coast. I intend to fight a defensive battle to inflict maximum casualties on the Germans and stop them. If pressed we will trade space and avoid casualties.

Concern is German breakthrough moving through CHARLEROI towards MAUBERGE. The French have undertaken cover that possibility and our right flank.

Team Control gloss

The BEF counters are deliberately not on the map so as to hide their location until the point when they will be in contact with the enemy. This was intended to give some uncertainty to the Germans on where they appeared as the players had the freedom to depart from the historical deployments of the BEF.

Turn 1 – Iron Dice – Turn 3

Related articles
games, megagames, WW1

Megagame: Iron Dice – Turn 1

4 Comments

The first turn of this megagame covered the first three weeks of August 1914. During this turn the British decided on their plan (K) and mobilised the BEF to France.

British Strategic Discussions

There were three plans considered. Plan F was a landing at Ostend to directly support the Belgians; Plan K landing in France and joining battle in Belgium to the left of the French Armies; and Plan W which had the same landing as Plan K but supported the French on their border with Germany.

Plan F was ruled out as too close to the likely focus of a German attack and if the Belgians overwhelmed there is a very high risk of being cut off and having to conduct an emergency evacuation. The consequence of this would be many casualties and the risk of the BEF as a force in being with an evacuation under egregious conditions.

Plan W was not recommended because both flanks would be under control of the French Army whcih would be a risk that we need to conform to their plans rather than act independently as directed by the War Office. Additionally we would not have a secure flank.

Plan K was recommended because it keeps us with a close link to the channel ports, allows independent operation of the BEF and allows us time to find the Germans and engage them on our own terms. Base at ROUEN and railhead at BAPAUME. We will have a secure flank and gives the option of supporting the Belgians and keep contact with the French.

This was approved by the War Cabinet.

 

Turn 1 umpire map
Turn 1 umpire map

BEF Report to the War Office 23rd August 1914

Concentration movements successful, left flank consisting of I Corps & Cav Divn is at ARRAS. Right Flank with II Corps at CAMBRAI. BEF HQ is at PERONNE.

We intend to advance through LENS to the East of LILLE. Both Corps will maintain contact. The right flank will rest on VALENCIENNES with the left on LILLE. Cavalry Division will carry out forward recconaissance towards GHENT. RFC will carry out air recconaissance towards BRUSSELS.

We are expecting III Corps and the Heavy Artillery to concentrate at ARRAS.

Information has been received from the French press that British troops have been reported, we would like the War Office to liaise to ask the French not to report British troop movements in the press.

Team Control gloss

After the players complained about the reports of their movements in the French press the Foreign Office lodged a protest about the egregious breach of operational security and asked the French to censor future reports.

At this stage the BEF was doing some liaison with the French, who were initially reluctant to provide them with enough rail transport to move their entire force, but this was overcome when the matter was escalated to command level.

Iron Dice – Turn Two

 

Related articles
games, megagames, WW1

Megagame: Iron Dice

11 Comments

“If the iron dice must roll,
may God help us”

– Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg, German Chancellor, 1st August 1914.

Later today I will be the British Team Control for the Megagame Makers Iron Dice game of the opening moves of WW1. Here’s the blurb from the Megagame Maker‘s website.

Megagame Makers are marking the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War with IRON DICE, a high-level operational megagame by Jon Casey (designer of Home Before the Leaves Fall).

IRON DICE covers operations in France and Belgium between August and early November 1914. Historically, this was the period from the German invasion of Belgium to the end of the “Race to the Sea” and the First Battle of Ypres.

Players will be a member of a national High Command, an Army Commander or staff officer.

Megagames are an immersive experience, and there are no breaks in them when they start, but if I can I intend to try and record the reports that the British team send to the War Office at the end of each turn. Possibly these will be uploaded during the day, but that depends on wifi/data signal and time. If not then you’ll see them over the next few days as I find time to retroactively update them.

Here is the first of the turn by turn reports for Iron Dice.

Related articles
Books, design, Iraq Wars, WW1, WW2

Book Review – Bullets and Brains by Leo Murray

1 Comment

Brains and Bullets: How Psychology Wins WarsBrains and Bullets: How Psychology Wins Wars by Leo Murray

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Brains and Bullets is an excellent and very readable book which tries to put some hard numbers on a variety of psychological tactics that can be used to persuade your own troops to fight and the enemy to give up.

This is an excellent work on what happens in combat and why. It is very readable, structured into bite sized chunks on the key phenomena and then some joining up when it has all been explained. Each chapter opens with an account from a real soldier who experienced that psychological effect in combat. This is then analysed and explained, pulling in other examples as required to show that it isn’t an isolated incident but a general effect. Those examples range from the Napoleonic Wars right up to operations in Afghanistan, and they’re the products of proper scientific research not just a collection of war stories from unreliable sources.

That said there is no need to be an operational researcher, or scientist to understand the book. The language used is straightforward and direct, each of the concepts is very well explained and it forms an excellent introductory work as well as being well researched. The target audience is ordinary people without a technical or military background (although the author hopes that many military officers and civil servants will read it and think about it). Here’s my favourite line from the end of the book “if you are paid to be a military analyst, don’t forget that you work for the Crown (or the people) and for soldiers. You owe no allegiance to your cost centre manager. Crack on.”

If you do have a serious interest then it is worth saying that this isn’t fluffy pop psychology (I like those as light reading, having read Psychology at uni). All the conclusions are backed up with hard numbers from years of solid operational research. The author is hoping to influence army officers to use tactical psychology to make them more effective, so for example “even the hardest-fought flank attack seized ground with a smaller force, captured more of the enemy and caused fewer fatalities on both sides. flanking attack was six times more effective than a frontal attack.”

I’m not going to summarise this book like I did for the Stress of Battle, it’s way more available and affordable. Go buy it yourself (or borrow from the Library) and enjoy it. I certainly did.

View all my reviews

Related articles
CLWG, design, games, History, Strategy, WW1

Game Design Notes: World War One Strategic Battles

Leave a comment

This was originally written as a game design session prompt for a session at Chestnut Lodge Wargames Group back in April 2004. A discussion thread on about this excellent blog post http://sketchinggamedesigns.blogspot.com.es/2014/01/the-wrinkles-of-tactics-first-world-war.html lead me to dig it out and post it here.

World War One Strategic Battles

Turn structure

Three turns per year, March – June (Spring), July to September (Summer) and October to February (Winter).

Actions

Small offensives can be prepared and launched within one turn. Large offensives take a turn of preparation and then take a whole turn of offensive action. Small offensives can be carried on into large offensives.

Battles are fought in phases.

  • Preparation: divisions are allocated to the line, first wave, second wave, exploitation, training and reserve tasks
  • Bombardment
  • Assault
  • Counter-attack
  • Continuation phases if appropriate

Resolution

Fighting is resolved at Army level, with Divisions as the smallest unit (two down). One player per Army?

Three kinds of Division:

  • infantry (standard)
  • cavalry (rare)
  • artillery (representing Corps/Army artillery)

All divisions of a particular kind are the same except for level of experience and training. This can be open to the player as it was generally well known which units were the most effective and had the most offensive spirit.

Special training can be given to units to allow them to be competent at tasks, e.g. building fortifications, pioneer tasks, tank support, amphibious landings etc. The number of turns that they get in this task should be recorded separately from that of infantry training.

Infantry divisions take one turn to raise, cavalry and artillery take two turns. Ideally more training should be given before a unit is used in combat. A minimum of three turns of training is suggested before committing a new Division to the assault.

Training States Turns Experience

New 0 none

Effective 2 time in line

Regular 4 time in line

Experienced 6 time in major offensive (including defending)

Veteran 8 Several major offensives

Both the number of turns training and the combat experience are required for the troops to be considered at the higher training state. Note that the training state is just a label and not a guarantee of performance.

Political End

Resource allocation

Sources of resources

Taxation – can set a proportion of GDP to be spent on government. Level has effect on popularity, standard of living, economic growth, industrial output.

Loans – need to be repaid later but avoids some of the problems with increasing taxation. Can also inject foreign capital into paying for the war which increases overall resources available to any particular nation.

Manpower

Can conscript or get volunteers. Quality issues with conscription but increased numbers may offset that. Volunteers make more aggressive units, conscripts more passive ones. Has impact on economic growth, popularity & industrial output. Also issue of women’s rights if they are mobilised for the war effort.

 

Related articles

 

Enhanced by Zemanta
CLWG, design, economics, games, WW1

CLWG July 2013 Game Reports

1 Comment

There were five of us at July’s CLWG meeting, myself, Nick, Mukul, Dave & John. There were three game sessions presented:

  1. I went first with a two part committee game called “The High Ground” about the consequences of cheaper surface to orbit space travel;
  2. Nick presented an economics card game for educating people about markets and the effects of money and credit;
  3. Mukul’s session on the 1914 campaign on the Eastern Front.

Continue reading CLWG July 2013 Game Reports →

Books, History, WW1

Company Training by Gen. Haking

Leave a comment

When in Southport last week I found an antiquarian bookshop in a very small gap between two other shops. It was very much like the fabled ‘magic’ shops that when you go back to it isn’t there. (Although I hope it is if I get a chance to go back, it had a fantastic collection of books, archaeological artefacts and sea shells!)

General Sir Richard Cyril Byrne Haking, comman...
Image via Wikipedia

I bought three books from there, but the one that intrigued me most was ‘Company Training’ by Brig-Gen R. C. B. Haking, C.B., p.s.c which looked like it had spent some considerable time in the pocket of someone engaged in using it (complete with underlined passages in pencil in places). I’m a sucker for infantry training manuals and this one was pretty cheap because of the battered nature of the cover (although internally it was fine, personally I view the pencil as adding to usefulness rather than damage).

Turns out, on a little googling, that General Richard Haking was also the Divisional commander for the first battle of Fromelles and then the Corps Commander for the second battle of Fromelles in 1916. I’ve been following the Commonwealth War Graves Commission‘s recovery of the bodies from that battle and the re-interring them in the new cemetery at Fromelles. I also recently bought a copy of Paul Cobb’s ‘Fromelles 1916‘ which covers both the battle and the recovery of the bodies and building of the new cemetery.

So I’ve got a couple of linked books, although a quick read through the contents and the preface etc, makes the Haking book clearly the work of someone who has seriously thought about soldiering and what it means. Looking at his service record, even by 1913 he was a combat veteran, including some very modern counterinsurgency in the Boer wars. I doubt he’d be very much out of place in today’s British Army and I’d think that his book would be worth reading by junior officers and NCOs (and even private soldiers who aspire to be career soldiers). I’ll write a proper review when I’ve read it all.

Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta
CLWG, design, games, WW1

Hot Blood & Cold Steel – onside Report

Leave a comment

This was a design session on how to do a WW1 skirmish game, focusing mainly delivering a participation game for Jerry Elsmore’s 50th Birthday con. I’d already done a first darft of the rules but wanted to talk through some of the principles about what I wanted to achieve.

I found the discussion particularly useful in clarifying my methods for running a participation game at a show. Gone is the idea of having all the action in a static circle of squares that represented all that could be seen (I may do this at CLWG sometime as I still like the idea, although it would be too time-consuming for being run at a show). I did get some ideas for making changes to the terrain though so that it would only become clear when figures entered the square in question.

Also useful was the discussion on how to simulate disorientation and when that might be appropriate. This means that I have some ideas for retaining the confusion that can happen when patrolling at night, especially when shooting starts.

The next version of the game in a complete and playable form will be around at the January meeting and again in February so that it will have had a couple of outings by the time Jerry’s birthday convention comes round. Any volunteers to help run the game on the day will be more than welcome.

In the meantime the draft rules (which are an evolution of Jim’s Starship Solder rules converted to work with 2d6 and have a WW1 flavour) are on the web. http://www.cold-steel.org and there is a fledgling mailing list (using my usual server) at list@cold-steel.org (send a blank e-mail with ‘subscribe’ (no quotes) in the subject line).

Also if anyone has photos (preferably aerial ones) of trenches or shell craters (regardless of period) then I wouldn’t mind if you could send me some scans. I need to make up a stack of terrain cards for the game and one of the things that impressed me at the conference was Jim’s use of laminated card pictures for counters. I reckon that terrain cards made up the same way would look pretty good.

Related articles