James and I dug out our WW1 Western Front collections for the first time in a few years for a game of Square Bashing. Taking the opportunity to introduce Pete to the system.
A fairly straightforward assault from the Germans (maybe it was spring 1918?) on the defending British.
Starting positions with the initial German barrage about to cause depletions (this is actually a bit of pre-game abstracts but we like to pt the toys out and stick on explosions as well as just roll the dice!)
The British held the central chateau on the two other built up areas on the central line of the board. One other disputed objective was the village nearest the camera, currently unoccupied by either force.
The barrage was unkind - lots of my precious machine guns would be in reserve instead of the front line - where they were needed.
The Germans stood back and cheered.
Soon the Germans were advancing on the chateau.
My barrage mostly delayed them, but some of it undershot and hit my own troops on the right.
The church was resolutely defended.
My barrage did delay the German advance, but the ticking clock of the game moved only slowly on. (You roll a die at the end of each turn when the total reaches 21 the game ends. Early turns saw a lot of 1s and 2s.)
German force was massing on my left.
And a bloody struggle for the empty village was beginning.
A worrying sound heralded the arrival of a German spotter plane.
The British summoned another barrage to throw back the Germans on the right.
However the Huns responded in kind and, aided by their pilot, rained down deadly fire on the chateau's defenders.
British armour arrived to stiffen right flank defences.
And the Tommies made some headway, although grey clad Germans now held the objective.
The barrage over, the chateau lay undefended.
Hordes of Germans now moved up
And seized the ground the British had relinquished.
Although plucky resistance held the church on the left.
At last the "fly boys" arrived to deal with the German spotter.
But Germans were swarming all over the main objectives.
The British were in no position to counter-attack.
And so despite airborne reinforcements the conceded the field to the German war machine.
Great fun to get these collections out again.
Square Bashing has a really good game system concealed within a badly edited poorly laid out rulebook.
Most of it nips along really well and then you have to spend a bunch of time reading and rereading and cross referencing things that are probably quite simple, but don't always seem that way.
One day James will get round to creating a cleaned up version, but for now we muddle through and enjoy the soldiers anyway.
