GALLIPOLI TRENCHES

 For our third Square Bashing test, I thought we'd try the trench game. This time the British would attack against a Turkish trench system.

The centre of the Ottoman line, showing a MG bunker with the main trench
line behind. The wire represents areas of rough going.

Turks in the trenches.

The British poised to attack.

A mine is successfully blown in the centre of the Turkish trench.

A point barrage precedes the attack but does little damage.

The attack reaches the wire.

The Turks respond with their own point barrage which routs the British left.
Nevertheless, the centre and right push the attack behind a rolling barrage.

Despite being attacked from 3 sides the bunker position wins the fight.

The assault on the right also fails, although one battalion
makes it into an unoccupied part of the trench.

Further assaults also fail and a much depleted British force is thrown back to the start line.

We're only halfway through the battle countdown but we stop there. Ostensibly, to go to the pub but in reality the British have been comprehensively defeated.

Another great game, and I'm sure one that we will return to at some point/

GALLIPOLI SQUARED

 Once again it was back to Gallipoli with another Square Bashing playtest. This time I wanted the Turks to be the attackers, so we abandoned the pregame but substituted a quick start procedure, which I devised, so the outcomes part of the pregame was still used.

British depletions with the obligatory 1 in 3 battalions consigned to the reinforcement area.
Along with 2 machine gun companies and a 18pdr field gun battery.

The Turks also had 4 battalions consigned to the reinforcement area
 - as they didn't fit onto the table.

The attackers are confined to a deployment zone, which consists of a single row of squares. This results in the attacker being spread out in an extended line and in the case of large armies, like the Turks, units had to be left off table.

Turkish centre

The British left and centre were relatively heavily defended with buildings and hasty defences backed up with machine guns and guns.

British left

By contrast, the British centre right  was weakly held and an obvious target for the Ottoman assault. 

Weak British centre right

The British plan was to try and delay the Turkish attack, with a suppressing barrage, hopefully buying enough time to deploy hasty defences in the centre.

As I would be relying on my assets roll, I elected the Assets Stance for my Higher Command.

The Turks advanced across the board on a broad front and then rolled for
reinforcements - 6s needed. Oh dear, not a good start.

With Turkish reinforcements massing in the centre it was time to bring down
the suppressing barrage. Thankfully, it was successful and stopped the advance.

The Turks respond with a point barrage on my weak centre.

With the resumption of the Turkish advance, the British struggled to reinforce the centre. It was time to deploy the hasty defences but, despite having the 'asset' Higher Command stance, I failed the roll.

The Turks storm the hill, from front and flank, with the bayonet.
Throwing back the badly mauled defenders.

A nicely timed point barrage, by the British, shores up the crumbling defence.

The Turks retreat under fire from the British guns.

At this point, after two consecutive rolls of 6 for the countdown, the game came to an abrupt end.

A stalemate and a lucky outcome for the British

All in all this was an excellent and enjoyable game. I do have some reservations about whether or not this is a good representation of WW1 warfare, but I'll leave off commenting until later. First it's on to the trench game.....

SQUARE BASHING GALLIPOLI

 I've been meaning to revamp my 15mm WW1 figures for some time now, but real life just seems to get in the way. Although, originally intended for 'If the Lord Spares Us' - a game we really must get back on the table soon -  I thought I'd give Peter Pig's 'Square Bashing' a try. I bought these during lockdown and played a couple of solo games but this was to be their first outing at the club.

The figures need a bit of a 'refresh' to their paint jobs and I want to redo some of the bases but it was nice to get them on the table again. It turns out that an ITLSU brigade sized force transforms to a SB division quite easily. The main difference is that SB uses a lot of on table guns. I have the requisite guns on order but unfortunately they haven't arrived yet - hence we used cardboard counters for the field guns. I know but what can you do?

The sides deploy with the Turks holding the line of the road.

We used the army lists from the rules, which means that the Turks are largely reservists with a much bigger army than the British.

After 'depletions; the Turks have 6 battalions, off table in the
reinforcement area but still hold the line in strength.

Turkish Higher Command

In the pre-battle game, two of my British battalions were upgraded to professional. I decided to mass all 6 of my Professional battalions on the right flank, in an attempt to take 2 of the objectives - the mosque and the wood.

However, as the attacker deploys first, the Turks deployed a strong force, including machine guns and hasty defences, to block my advance.

The first British attack goes in but is repulsed.

It turns out that frontally assaulting machine guns and wire is a bad idea - who would have known? However, as half my infantry were deployed on this flank I had no option but to try again - seems very WW1, I suppose.

The adjacent Indian brigade threatens the Turkish centre.

The British left is hit by a very effective point barrage.

A retaliatory British barrage breaks the Turkish centre
but they are subsequently rallied by high command.

A second assault is also thrown back and the British retire to regroup
and call in artillery support which never turns up.

I spent 3 turns trying to summon up some artillery - in desperation I even tried gas. However, all attempts were unsuccessful and, as my artillery assets were all used up, there was no choice but to send in the infantry again

The third attack is bloodily repulsed. The subsequent morale test was a disaster
and both brigades were forced to retreat with some battalions routing.

The much depleted British left is decimated by artillery - again.
The Turks don't seem to have any problems summoning up artillery!

The British position was now looking desperate and in a last ditch attempt I moved the Indian brigade from the centre and assaulted the Turkish defences for a 4th time. Surprisingly, against all the odds, the assault was successful and 2 Indian battalions stormed onto the hill.

The Indian brigade take the hill.  

The ousted Turkish defenders subsequently routed but it was too little too late as the game countdown was reached.

Although, we have a number of Peter Pig games, we never bother with the convoluted victory point system. In this case, it was obviously a decisive Turkish victory.

A very enjoyable game. I have a few reservations, which I'll probably  detail later, but we will definitely be playing this again.