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Introduction

A fairly simple scenario from the first weeks of the war. The Russians advancing in support of their French allies through East Prussia over-run the village of Gumballen. The Germans, under direct orders from the Chief of Staff himself are counter-attacking. The objectives are equally simple. The Russians will have to get at least half their infantry over the river, while the Germans have to retake the village of Gumballen. Its an encounter game so no entrenchments and no preparatory barrage.

Notes on Terrain

Practically everything on the table was considered difficult ground, the woods and wheat fields on the German side of the river and the rough  ground on the Russian side. The wheat fields and the woods were considered to be obscuring terrain, while the rough ground offered limited cover. All the buildings in the village were considered to be hard cover and capable of holding a platoon of men (one stand), the church could hold two platoons.

Notes on Deployment

The Russians deployed in two lines between the village and the rough ground. A battalion of grenadiers held the village and all the MG's set-up in the rough ground.

The Germans deployed in a single line, with the MGs on the right flank ready to exploit cover from the woods. The cavalry deployed just inside the wheat fields, while two battalions deployed between the wheat fields and the woods and one battalion deployed in the wheat fields.

Notes on the Battle

The Germans rolled brilliantly for on-call barrages (getting twenty for the game), while the Russians rolled a measly five.

In the first round, the Russians placed all their barrages and proceeded to fail every single registration roll. The Germans dropped five barrages across the Russian frontline and registered all except one. The devastation was enormous! The Russians moved their second line forward to replace the losses from the first wave. The rest of the turn wasn't overly surprising with some desultory small arms fire from both sides.

The second turn resulted in another five barrages falling on the Russian lines. Several barrages were concentrated on the ground where the Russian MG's were hiding, and the rest were dropped between the two waves of Russian infantry, again causing considerable casualties (but nothing like the first turn). Most of the Russian barrages registered this turn, but the German line had already moved off. Only one barrage had any significant effect, devastating the rear companies of the battalion moving up the left flank through the wheat fields. The Russian cavalry readied to charge across the river into the teeth of the German MGs in the woods. Everybody else just advanced! The small arms fire was again fairly uneventful.

The third turn and all hell broke loose. German barrages came down on the village, forcing the Russian grenadiers to take cover in the church and buildings. The Russian cavalry charged across the river, forcing the MG's and a company of infantry to stand on the defensive, while the German cavalry readied to spearhead an assault across the river. None of the fire was particularly telling, although two troops of Russian horse were felled in their attack. The assaults were ferocious and brutal. The German cavalry was wiped out by the combined efforts of the remnants of the Russian 2nd battalion, while the Russian cavalry was shot to pieces by the MG's as they closed doing only minor damage in return.

The fourth turn wasn't as decisive as it became obvious that the Russians would never make it across the river, and that the Germans would probably need several more turns to capture the village. Some more barrages from the Germans did little damage to the Russians in the village and small arms fire (particularly from the Russians) was becoming increasingly weak. At the end of turn four we called it a day and congratulated ourselves on a job well done.

Debriefing

The rules worked quite well. We've reduced the effect of barrages (although probably not direct fire), increased the effect of fire against cavalry and increased the effect of cavalry in assault. We'll probably significantly alter the blast  marker table as blast markers had very little effect.

As far as the battle goes, I think we did OK. The Germans could have done with sending cavalry up the left flank and with screening the right flank more effectively. The Russians made no major mistakes and were extremely unlucky to have been on the receiving end of such a heavy barrage.

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