German Trench Raid, 1917 with Trench Hammer

Got a quick solo game of Trench Hammer in with some of my 3d Corp Trenchs, now dry brushed.  I won't give a blow by blow of the mechanics, but for this game, it is important to remember that troops protected by trenches take 1/2 damage.  Enjoy!

German Briefing

There is a Tommy Vickers Machine gun firing from a small salient sticking out of the British lines that the regimental commander wants to be silenced.  Also, pick up any prisoners that you can and bring them back for interrogation.

To accomplish this task, you will be given 2 raiding parties, one you will lead and one that will be led by your senior NCO.  Our sappers have already cut paths through the enemy wire, allowing one party to attack the enemy position from each flank.

You force consists of 2 Leaders and 2 raiding parties each consisting of:

1 x Assault Squad

1 x Bombing Squad

1 x MG08/15 Squad

We have conducted harassing artillery fire every night in this sector for the last week and will fire a box barrage to cut off the British position from reinforcements. There is a partial moon, but it looks like fog tonight, which should work to your advantage, as visibility will be limited to 12"

Good luck, and if you succeed, there may be an Iron Cross and a few day's leave in it for you!

British Briefing

You are Lt. Arthur Hastings, and your platoon is assigned to hold a salient sitting slightly forward of the main British trenches that houses a Vickers Machine Gun team.  They are well sited to give the Boche a good drubbing if he decides to come over the top and also makes life difficult for the hun along a section of his trench.   Your battalion and company commanders have made it quite clear that you are to hold this position and they are afraid that Jerry may launch a raid to take out the gun.

Your platoon is up to strength and consists of yourself as the leader, the Vickers team and:

1 x Rifle Section

1 x Bombing Section

1 x Lewis Gun Section

1 x Rifle Bomber Section

It is about 1am and foggy tonight, limiting visibility, but your plucky lads are alert and ready for anything.  But just in case, you are holding your Bombing Section in reserve in case the dastardly hun tries any funny business.

The Game

Click to enlarge

Initial dispositions, with German raiding parties approaching from the flanks

 Unsuccessful assault on the Lewis Gun section that led to the German Senior NCO becoming a casualty and eventual destruction of the Assault squad by accurate close range Lewis Gun fire.

 In this terrible picture, you can see the Ger,ans do manage to take out the Vickers Machine gun with a volley of grenades, but their assault troops are held up in the open while the British leader orders his Bombing squad up in support.

 The Huns on the left flank are content to hunker down in craters and trade fire with the defenders.

 Meanwhile, the combined fire from the British rifle section and bombers knocks the Assault squad out of action and leaves the German Lt.  out of action.

Here you see the end game, with the Germans withdrawing before their box barrage ends.

I judge this a minor British victory, as the Germans did knock out the Machine gun, but were pretty badly cut up in the process.  They failed to capture any prisoners or even gain entry into the British positions.

While Lt. Hastings' Battalion commander is not happy about losing the gun, a new one will be sent up tomorrow night and remounted and Hastings at least gave the Boche a good drubbing.

All in all a fun little game, that played out in about 30 - 45 minutes and I think gave a pretty good result.  Next time, I may fancy it up a bit and give the raiders a chance to get closer.

I hope you have enjoyed this and good gaming!

3d Corp Flexible craters and trenches with 10mm

At Siege of Augusta, I picked up a pack of craters from one of the vendors (I cannot remember who for the life of me), with the intention of using them for my 10mm WW1 games.  You can see them in action here, and they have worked well, al; though I will get around to drybrushing them eventually.

Meanwhile, I have been on the prowl for a good set of rugged trenches for my WW1 games.  I don't have the time to make nice sculpted terrain boards and need something that won't damage and stores easily.  So, I ordered a set of 15mm trenches from 3d Corp to use with my 10mm Pendraken figures, and here are the results.

Ordering

The company is in Poland and sells via an eBay store here.  Ordering was of course easy via eBay, I paid via Pay Pal, and shipping time was about 3 weeks, which I think is pretty good from Poland.
I ordered two "Wargaming Scenery XL Flex TRENCHLINE SYSTEM"  which is scaled for 15mm.  One was a section fo trench and the other was a pack with a 45 degree bend, two trench ends, and an artillery position.

PRO: Fast shipping (I think) from Poland, selling via eBay and paying with Pay Pal, I could track the package and I felt I had recourse since this was the first time I have ordered from them.  Plus they seem to have good reviews.

CON: There was a STRONG chemical smell when I recieved them, but they are made fromf lexible rubber, so I assume it was some sort of outgassing and I could not smell it much a week later.  Just FYI

They are designed for 15mm Flames of War sized bases it appears by the pictures, but I wanted to see what they would look like with 10mm...

What do they look like? (Click Pictures to enlarge)

Here is a section of trench on a 3' wide terrain cloth with a 6 inch ruler layed down to give you an idea of scale. I have layed out all of the pieces so you can see what I recieved.

PRO: These are Flexible rubber and I cannot break them!  I can also cram them into a box for storage.

 Here is a closeup with a Mchine gun sap and a British 4 section rifle platoon.  My troops are based on 40mm x 20mm bases to give you an idea of scale and the MG is on a 25mm round.

CON: for 10mm only the trenches are a bit wide and the traverses wind up being pretty long.  I have two possible solutions, one that you will see below involving trimming the pieces.  The other is to assume the Trenches are a bit of an abstration in Trench Hammer and assume there are other traverses in there we cannot see.  Then limit the line of sight alomng a trench to 6" (Assault Range) and Bob's your 4th Cousin!  So this is not a huge con for me, but it might bother some folks.  Plus teh interior of the trench is 30mm wide, so I can clear show squads that are up and manning the firing posts, and slide back the ones that are not.

 Some sneaky German Storm Troopers are raiding the trench.

Another shot with the ruler and troops to give you an idea of size. 

 Here si have rearrainged the pieces t create a "Bastion" like outpost.  To make it fit, I took one of the 8" long straigh sections and cut it in half.

 Here you can see that a bit better, that is one advantage to these, with a good set of shears, you can cut them to the shape you need.

PRO: You can also see the detail molded into the pieces, which I think will dry brush nicely with little effort for a really nice effect.

And here is the bastion again, ready to hold off the Boche.

Verdict - Thumbs up (for me)

Would I reccomend these?  Absolutely for a 15mm gamer.  For myself, gaming in 10mm I still answer yes, as they meet my primary requirement for ruggedness and storability.  For "sit on top" trenches they shoudl blend nicely once I have dry brushed them.

The only downside is for folks that do not want thier terrain a little abstracted, these will feel a bit out of scale for 10mm, assuming a scale of ~ 1:150 then theses trenches are 13 - 14 feet across in scale.

For me these are good balance between my storage requirements and scale and I have ordered a few extra pieces.  I plan on trimming some more to make the traverses a bit shorter.

I hope this has been helpful.  Now I have to finish painting tanks, my new blasted forests, and minenwerfers!  Until next time, good gaming!