Friday 16 April 2010

Trench Raid Scenario


Well, I have been offline longer than anticipated due to a combination of some nice holidays and a bumpy landing at my workplace. From my holiday reading, I highly recommend the Osprey Campaign 187 "Cambrai 1917", lots of useful stuff for skirmish scenarios (some ideas already in my head).

On Sunday I will play a trench raid scenario written by "Fat Lardie" Richard  Clarke for the SOTCW Journal 68 a few months ago.

The scenario simulates a night trench raid, where the Germans aim to capture some prisioners and documents from the British. A small 4" x 4" table, the British sections are resting in their dugouts and have deployed a couple of sentries on watch role in what apparently looks like another quiet night in the Western Front.

Order of Battle - Germans (Regular/Reasonable)

  • HQ: Lt (III), Feld (II)

  • Section A: Gefreiter (II), 6 bombers, 2 trench cleaners

  • Section B: Gefreiter (II), 6 rifles, 2 bombers, 2 pioneers

  • Section C: Gefreiter (I), 4 rifles, 4 bombers
Germans deploy at the edge of the table in blinds only after the Birtish player has concluded all his deployment arrangements (see below). They should search for the dug outs and once found and cleared look for any relevant papers (maps, high command messagges) and grab some prisioners back to their lines.

Any prisioners captured in close combat fight (see section "12.6 Taking Prisioners") must be sent escorted to the German starting line  (at least 1 guard per 5 prisioners unless having lost the bottle). The prisioner group will move activated by the Big Man card of the section to which the guard belongs.

Order of Battle - British (Regular/Reasonable) 

  • HQ dug-out: Lt (III), Sgt (III)

  • Section A dug-out: Corporal (I), 6 rifles, 2 trench cleaners

  • Section B dug-out: Corporal (I), LMG team (x 2 men), 6 rifle/ammo bearers

  • Section C dug-out: Corporal (I), 6 bombers, 2 trench cleaners

  • Off-table: 1 sustained fire HMG
Special notes:

  1. Two sentries must be posted in the main trench line.

  2. Sentries are activated on their card and they must spot at least 1 German unit to raise alarm.

  3. 1 British squad is allocated to  each dug-out and will be secretly recorded.

  4. Troops in dug-outs are only activated on their Big Man cards after the sentries raise the alarm.

  5. Troops move out of doug out on a 4-6 die result; if the first atempt fails, add +1 to any subsequent turns.

  6. HMG support fire line must be set up before German deploy.

  7. British player must clearly mark the location of dug-outs entries.

  8. Relevant documentation will only be found in the HQ dugout.

  9. Night rules apply (see TMB "Section 13-Night Fighting")
Card deck
British: 5 x Big Man; 2 x Initiative Level I; 1 x Initiative Level II; Sentries
German: 5 x Big Man; 2 x Initiative Level I; 2 x Initiative Level II; 1 x Initiative Level III; Dynamic Commander;  SturmAbteilung Vor; Blinds
Common: Time for Snifter


Schematic map
Trench line in brown, blue portions are dug outs (hidden to the German player).
No-man land section is randomly dotted with shell-holes (-1 pip per dice to movement/provides light cover); note that these are not represented in the map above.

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We will play this scenario on Sunday; I hope to come back sometime next week with a battle report and hopefully some photos to illustrate the game.




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