ITLSU AAR - Clash at Colmins - 3 Sept 1914

[pierre the shy]

We played our third ITLSU action at Call to Arms, the Wellington Warlords annual convention today using all the figures Paul has finished painting.

Three units of 26th Brigade were defending two villages against a mass of Germans, consisting of 4 cavalry regiments, a battallion of infantry and 4 sections of 7.7cm field guns.

A tough day at the office for Bowler and his lads today. Although the 19th Lancers saw off one cavalry regiment on one flank the other village was taken by sabre rattleing hussars who literally put the defenders from
3rd Bttn Loyal North London Regt to the sword. Bowler himself was a little lucky not to be languishing in a German POW camp while less than half a company of the Loyals was able to make its way to the safety of the British lines.
The third unit, the 2nd Hertfordshire Yeomanry, was roughed up by the massed German artillery while forming up trying to counter-attack the hussars and landwehr in the village that they had taken.

We have another days gaming tomorrow so I'll post up something more detailed later in the week. No doubt the German propaganda machine will be issuing its own version of events

Thanks to the Warlords for a great day out, caught up with several gamers I had not seen for quite a while, sold my old Minifigs 25mm Byzantines and found a few more 1/3000 WW1 ships for a song.

[Ace of Spades]

Sounds good, looking forward to the pictures! (I take it the respective propaganda machines will provide some?)

Cheers,
Rob

[Leman]

Sounds like an exciting clash. Very tempted to try something on that level myself rather than at the divisional level.

[Hertsblue]

Sounds like a hard day for the Brits. But I think you'll find that the Loyals actually came from North Lancashire - two hundred miles or so from London.

[pierre the shy]

Sounds like a hard day for the Brits. But I think you'll find that the Loyals actually came from North Lancashire - two hundred miles or so from London.

Lets just say the dice could have been kinder and those Germans are formidable and numerous foes

To give our games some background I'm using fictional units and places for these games, but based in part on actual names/units.

Been writing up each game from the POV of the British as a sort of ongoing campaign narrative....mainly for my own satisfaction but others have been kind enough to say they enjoy reading it.

   

[Leman]

I had gathered they were fictional, given the place names and character names. 

[paulr]

Those damn 19^th Lancers saw off two German cavalry Regiments 

They were ably assisted by a section of 13pdr guns until flanking carbine fire from the Hussars and counter battery fire from two 7.7cm sections drove them off.

A very enjoyable day gaming; with lots of interest in both the rules and the 10mm figures 

Photos will be provided later in the week 

Thanks again to Peter for introducing us to this period and rules, particularly in time for the centenary.   

Lest we forget

[Leman]

Can you remind us again which Lard Island special has the Western Front adaptions for ITLSU?

[pierre the shy]

Can you remind us again which Lard Island special has the Western Front adaptions for ITLSU?

Hi Puritan the western front additions are in an article called Storm of Dice in the Summer 2011 Special...FWIW they relate mainly (90%) to trench warfare. We are doing the early battles without trenches and have found the rules perfectly OK with just adopting the spunk ratings for Western Front that are suggested in the article and elsewhere (TFL Yahoo group files).

Talked to an number of people who were quite interested in the 10mm figure/ITLSU rules combination. Pretty universal praise for both the Pendraken figures and the rules   

[Leman]

Sounds very promising. Will be having a go at painting some German troops this coming week, using the colours I saw in the BBC3 programme on Mons. In it I noticed that the tunics were  a slightly greenish field grey but the trousers were more of a bluish field grey. These were standard infantry and not jager. The single cavalry man shown, the captured hussar, seemed to be the blueish field grey throughout. The helmet covers were a dark buff.

[Fenton]

Another interesting sounding clash

I think DP like other nations there is a bit of variety of colours of the uniforms as the cloth came from different dyers and weavers so they are all a little different.

As to rules I have been looking at Bloody Picnic after that article I found...Any one else used them?

[Leman]

I considered them at one time, but thought they looked a bit too detailed for my taste. Maybe it's because they cover the whole war, so all sorts of factors are taken into consideration. I did try There Are Your Guns, from the same stable, but didn't find them as good as Field of Battle II.

[Fenton]

I do think writing WW1 rules that cover the whole war is difficult as the tactics and weapons changed so quickly in such a short space of time

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

I agree. Although I do like Square Bashing!

[Leman]

I think Square Bashing is a different kettle of fish and is great fun to play (my Russians and Austrians are set up for it). Despite covering the very late 1890s through to 1935 it does not overcomplicate the factors, eg a machine gun is a machine gun whether it's a Maxim, Vickers, etc. Guns are either field, light or off-table. This is why I like the rules; I am not a rivet counter, although I know lots of gamers who are really into the technical differences between various pieces of artillery, AFVs and so on. I suppose that's why there are so many different types of rules covering the same period.