The Great War, Setting the East Ablaze, 28mm

After our brief foray into 10mm, this was a welcome return to “the one true scale”. This game followed on from the one last week involving the Freikorps. We were using it as a vehicle to put Setting the East Ablaze, an update of Chris Peers’ Contemptible Little Armies rules, published by Partizan Press/Caliver Books. The game was a set in East Prussia during the opening month of the war, and was a meeting engagement between two equal-sized forces. Both the Germans and the Russians had eight 10-man companies of infantry, an 8-man squadron of cavalry, plus one field gun and two machine gun sections.Both sides also had a commander and a staff officer. The rules work by drawing cards from a deck, each one letting you move, rally or fire a unit, or go onto “overwatch”. For the first few turns both sides advanced towards each other, the Germans occupying one farm, and the Russians the other. A small wood dominated the centre of the table, and sure enough both sides headed towards it.On the Russian left their Cossack squadron launched a charge at a unit of German infantry out in the open. The Germans were badly chopped up, but managed to disengage and flee to the cover of some trees. That let the Jaeger s’ maxim gun chop up the milling Cossacks. By then it was clear that the German right was too strongly held, as it rested on a well-defended farmhouse, backed up by both machine gun stands. However, in the rest of the table it was still all to play for.

The German attempt to advance on the other farm ended in disaster, as the German company was shot to pieces as it advanced in the open. Over on the Russian right two companies of infantry had gone into “overwatch”, forming a line between the farm and the railway line. Wanting to prove they could fight as well as look good, the German ulhan squadron rather rashly launched a charge against them. That was when they spotted the Russian maxim gun, tucked in at the back of the farm. It was also on “overwatch”, and its opportunity fire stopped the cavalry in their tracks.The survivors were promptly finished off by the infantry. However, everything wasn’t all going the Russians’ way. from the woods beyond the railway line a German company opened up on the Russian line, and caused heavy casualties on the right-hand unit, which had, incidentally, just run out of ammunition. Still, on this flank things had reached something of an impasse.In the centre the Russians were suffering a bit from machine gun and artillery fire, but they advanced through a cornfield to reach the fringe of the small central wood. For some reason the best part of a German battalion was inside it, but as its far side was now covered by Russian machine guns, field guns and infantry, they couldn’t really go any further without risking very heavy casualties. That of course was the stage when we had to pack up. The club had an EGM earlier that evening, which wasted a good 90 minutes of gaming time. Still, this short game gave us a better flavour of the rules, and was both colourful and enjoyable – two things you wouldn’t really expect from a game set in the Great War!

Tags: Setting the East Ablaze