Sunday, January 1, 2023

Last (and First) Game of the Year

Last and First game of the year?  How is that possible?

When one player is situated in the USA on the afternoon of December 31st and the other player hosts the game from Australia on the morning of January 1st.  That is how.

Peter (Grid Based Wargaming) set up his table in a continuation of his WWI Palestine solo campaign.  Rather than fighting the next battle in the campaign solo, he asked if I would consider taking command of one of the armies.  Without hesitation, I said, "of course!"

The scenario background and details can be found on Peter's blog at WWI Palestine Turn 4 - Game 2 prep.  I would command the Turkish defense of the hill objective.  If the Turks can have a unit on the hill at the end of fifteen turns, they will be declared the winner.  Outnumbered and outgunned, I thought the Turks might have a difficult time hanging on for the requisite turns.  To compound the Turkish misery, the EEF can call in a bombardment mission upon the hill before the game begins in earnest.  Ouch.

Let's see how the battle played out.

The Turkish defenders await the attack
but there is only enough trench to protect one unit.
Preliminary bombardment causes heavy casualties
 on the Turks caught in the open.
Lead elements of the EEF arrive.
While one battery deploys to provide support, 
infantry move into the light woods
and mounted cavalry advance along the road.
As the EEF closes in on the hill,
Turkish reinforcements appear on the horizon.
For now, aid comes as one battery and supporting infantry.
Heavy fire is exchanged at the hill.
With the high ground proving too hot to hold,
the Turks fall back off the hillcrest. 
Turkish artillery targets the mounted infantry.
Taking fire, they dismount.
Turkish guns continue to pound the dismounted infantry.
EEF infantry fire from the cover of the woods
 against the approaching Turks.
Caught in a crossfire, the dismounted infantry
 in the open see their casualties rise.
The last of the Turkish reinforcements appear.
Hoorah!
With no targets remaining within sight,
EEF guns must redeploy.
The attack is stalling.
Sharp firefights continue on the EEF right
as the armored car moves to turn the Turkish left.
As the Turks begin to deploy in depth,
 EEF guns move up on the left.
Fighting is intense on the EEF center and right.
Turkish guns and infantry target the armored car.
Dismounted cavalry are destroyed in exchange
 for a Turkish infantry with MG. 
EEF infantry advances to take the hill.
Can this position be held until the final turn?

A second EEF unit is destroyed near the base of the hill.
The EEF holds the objective with its guns
working their way up the hill.
The Turks continue pounding the armored car.
Failing its activation, The armored car is wrecked.  
With EEF infantry on the crest coming under
a deadly crossfire, it can take no more and scatters.
EEF guns destroy the rightmost Turkish infantry.
Before this opening can be exploited, the sole EEF
infantry is hit from the right. Casualties are heavy.
The remaining attacking infantry is destroyed
 as the Turks move up to secure the hill.
Recapturing the hill with only EEF artillery remaining,
Turkish victory is complete. 
Victory to the Turks!

This loss for the EEF likely puts their plans, once again, behind schedule.

Neil Thomas' OHW scenario offered up another interesting and challenging fight.  With only two units on table at the start and two reinforcements arriving on Turn 3 and the remaining two reinforcements arriving on Turn 6, I figured staying in the game might be a challenge for the Turks.

The pre-battle bombardment caused some damage, but follow-on artillery barrages caused a lot of pain on the two Turkish units stationed on the hill.  While both Turkish units on the hill vacated their positions by Turn 3, I probably should have pulled both back off the heights on Turn 1 to preserve their fighting strength.  I realized this almost too late after they both were already heavily damaged by enemy artillery fire.  Once on the back side of the hill, these Turks were protected from enemy fire by the intervening crest.  As it was, heavy casualties prevented these two units from activating time and time again.

In the end, Turkish refusal on their right while concentrating fire against EEF elements on their left, brought about a winning combination.  Three EEF units fell in quick succession as the Turkish left got into range.  The EEF right was open and turned.  Turkish coordinated attacks kept the enemy from securing its objective but only in the nick of time.

This action was the third to see Peter's D3 adaptation of Thomas' OHW.  The third different period too.  Again, the rules and scenario produced a very good game.  Yet again, the result came down to the very last turn.

A great way to end an Old Year and start a New Year.

Happy New Year!

50 comments:

  1. Ha! The best way to start Ne Year!
    Happy 2023!

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  2. Always good to end the year with a win.

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    1. I do not count wins/losses but games played and friends gained. Victory was sweet, however.

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  3. What a splendid game, tis indeed a grand way to see out the old and welcome in the New Year.

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    1. Peter did a great job in game prep and presentation of the remote game. We both ended and began our year with a game. That’s the way to do it.

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  4. Another good example of a few units giving a very full game (Peter’s speciality). I do hope we see Neil Thomas put pen to paper again at some point. Happy New Year.

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    1. The limited number of units offering up such an interesting and closely contested action was a topic of post-game discussion. My Turks only mustered six units to the EEF’s seven. Every unit was important and could be wasted unnecessarily.

      Happy New Year, Norm!

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  5. Nice looking game Jon and a period we don’t see much 👍

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    1. The game is all Peter's handiwork. All vehicles are scratchbuilt. Amazing. Not a period I see outside of Peter's games.

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  6. Great looking game and what a way to finish your gaming year off! Happy New Year!

    Cheers, Ross

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    1. Going out with a game. A good way to the end the year.
      Happy New Year!

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  7. Happy New Year Jonathan. Great way to end 2022.

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    1. Happy New Year to you, Richard! Fun to end the year with a game.

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  8. What a great game that was. Happy New Year Jonathan, to you and yours.

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    1. It was a close contest, Ray filled with good tension.

      Happy New Year to you, Ray!

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  9. A rare achievement to fight a game with players in two different years. Well done.

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    1. I reckon that this is a rare occurrence on the wargaming table, for sure. Perhaps a new tradition has begun?

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  10. What a superb game with Peter Jon. I love his WW1 eastern theatre stuff. This period has a lot to offer in terms of the OHW scenarios - just the right level of modern warfare, a little mechanised, whilst still rewarding traditional wargaming tactics. Excellent stuff.

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    1. Happy New Year, Darren!

      Peter did a great job on this game. It is an interesting theater and one I know very little about. I gamed this theater many years ago when a long-lost buddy had a big collection for this period. Peter may invite me back to the table to revisit this campaign.

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  11. A fine game there by Peter as always and you certainly did well with Johnny Turk. A good point about withdrawing them behind the ridge earlier too. In these small games you do really become aware of not wasting your limited resources, given that every unit does count.

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    1. Thanks, Steve. I believe Peter and I both learned some valuable lessons in this match-up. If replayed, we both may approach the solution a little differently. By not pulling back beyond the crest and out of LOS from the enemy, I wasted the combat power of two of my six units. Nearly a complete waste!

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  12. Great AAR for a theater not often seen gamed. You did well, falling back into your own lives is difficult and counter intuitive, and you saw how effective it can be. Good
    Looking table.

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    1. Thanks, Joe! Pleased to see you enjoyed the Battle Report. At the beginning, I had little sense of time and space. I could not properly assess how quickly the EEF would fall upon the Turkish positions. Had I been more aware of the situation, pulling the Turks back behind the crest on T1 would have been prudent. Those two units on the hill were almost destroyed before they could get into the fight.

      Peter sets a fine table.

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  13. Great report, Jon. I’ve been following Peter’s WW1 campaign with interest, and this looks like another challenging game. Good to see the pair of you playing all the way across the Pacific and the International Date Line….one for the diary, I think!! What a novel game!
    Happy New Year to you and yours.

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    1. Thank you, Martin! Great to see your return to the comment section. Much appreciated.

      Like you, I have been following Peter's Palestine Campaign. Actually participating in one of the battles brings a whole new understanding and depth to the campaign. Great fun too!

      Yes, playing in two different years was a fun novelty. Perhaps this can become a tradition?

      Happy New Year to you!

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  14. A unique way to straddle the incoming year--an across the globe game! And for us, a splendid way to usher in the new year by following along. Happy New Year!

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    1. Yes, this was a fun twist to my pan-pacific remote games with Peter.

      Thanks so much for your continued support and encouragement, Ed.

      Happy New Year !

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  15. A lovely looking game Jon, Peters figures and table look superb. A good win for the Turks too.

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    1. The game was a real treat. I think Peter may be enjoying the challenge that playing a live opponent offers.

      Yes, pleasing victory for the Turks. The EEF offensive ground to a halt on this field with not much left save artillery.

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  16. What a great way to end/start the year…
    All the best and a happy and prosperous new year to you and yours… Aly

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    1. A great start/end to a year, indeed!
      Happy New Year, Aly!

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  17. Great looking game! Happy New Year! All the best, Karl

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    1. The look of the game is all Peter's handiwork. Notice that his vehicles are all scratchbuilt from blocks of wood.

      Great to see you commenting regularly.
      Happy New Year, Karl!

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  18. A fine looking game and I had to go back and have another look at those vehicles. He has done an amazing job on them.

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    1. Hi Lawrence, the vehicles are amazing. Hard to believe they are scratchbuilt. Peter is a craftsman.

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  19. Happy New Year! One game, played in the past and the future simultaneously? This sounds like some kind of time travel/magic to me! Your post-game analysis reminded me that one of the things I like about the OHW rules (I haven't looked at Peter's latest D3 iterations) is the lack of a morale mechanic. In many rule systems, those hilltop defenders might have broken and fallen back, possibly disordered, or maybe even routed. The game would have been over before it started! Instead, you were able to move them to relative safety to attempt to use them later -which feels more realistic to my mind, like men taking cover in dugouts and such during a bombardment, emerging when it ends.

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    1. Happy New Year, John!

      While OHW has no morale rules, Peter’s D3 variant has a mechanism that could be considered as offering morale attributes built in. D3 contains an activation mechanism in which a unit’s ability to activate and get things done decreases as it takes hits. To me, this decreasing probability to activate very much reminds me of a morale system.

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  20. What's it like to communicate across the years like a time traveler? ;-)
    Congratulations on the victory. Great AAR.

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    1. Glad you enjoyed the battle report, Chris. It was a satisfying victory for the Turks. Who knew time-travel was an option?

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  21. Well JF, you've accomplished Wargame Miracles! Games in teh past and future simultaneously!
    Great BATREP- thanks for sharing. Yes Neil Thomas' stuff seems so simplistic at first- well too simplistic....but I keep going back to his OHW over and over again!

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    1. Thanks, John! Odd to think of playing a game in two different years at the same time, isn’t it?

      OHW leaves stuff out I expect to see more attritional for tastes. Peter has made good modifications to the base rules that just seem to enhance the game.

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  22. A very cool game to see out the year. Peter puts on a great spread too. Those camel riders!

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    1. This was a very fun game! What is even better is to see Peter dipping into hosting remote games. This is a rewarding step forward. He does put on a good-looking game.

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  23. Super game in a not-so-mainstream period. Great way to start (and end) the year!

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    1. Mike, this is a period I have only gamed a few time. That was a long, long time ago. Great way to end (and begin) a year.

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