FoW Great War: The Big Push AAR

Chris and I played our first game of FoW Great War today. Since Chris did a lot of the work on FoW 1918 and WW1 FoW is kinda his "thing", he already had all the figures and terrain ready to go (mostly Peter Pig and Minifigs). So we played a 1500pt game of "The Big Push"

The Germans (Confident Veteran) were attacking. They had:

• HQ + two extra flame throwers
• Three full infantry platoons
• One full Stoss platoon
• One 7.6cm Minenwerfer mortar
• One A7V tank (Confident Trained)

The British m(Confident Trained) had:
Four full infantry platoons
Four Vickers HMG (swapped out for 1 HMG and 1 HMG pillbox due to scenario rules)
Four Stokes Mortars
Two independant 18 pdrs

The scenario is a defensive battle with the Germans attacking fortified British. The British have a trench line, gun pits, a pillbox, and a span of barbed wire stretching the entire board. All open ground counts as bullet proof cover to stationary infantry (Cratered Ground rules). As the attacker, the Germans get a form of "wave attack" (Overwhelming Force), and can bring back destroyed platoons to fight again, although they still count as destroyed for morale.

The objectives are the two inspections where the front trench line intersects the communication trenches.

Deployment was pretty simple. He deployed in the trenches, with two infantry platoons, two mortars, and a HMG in reserves. The Germans deployed stretched across the whole table, with my mortar and A7V in the middle and the Stoss on the far left flank.

The Germans move up to the barbed wire on turn one and take some ineffective pot shots and infantry in the trenches

On the first British turn, the HMG pillbox lays down impressive fire

Several German casualties early on

On the German second turn, they manage to gap almost all of the barbed wire across the board. 

Ironically, the one section of wire not gapped? The ones with the Stoss!

Harsh British return fire pins down several German platoons in front of the trench lines

Including the Stoss, who are the ONLY ones to unpin on my turn

The Stoss flamer ignites the trench

And the Stoss move in

A platoon of Germans attempts to move in to the trench in the center

But overwhelming defensive fire pushes them back

 

British reinforcements arrive in front of the Stoss

Stoss move up and assault the trench mortar

Taking it out and reforming on the objective

The British reinforcements move in an assault the Stoss. The Stoss fight fiercly, destroying the fresh British platoon, but being reduced to a single command stand (and the CiC) in the process

British HMGs arrive on the far flank

And MORE infantryman near the Stoss

The far flank is fairly quite...

Until the far right platoon unpins, and dumps flame into the trenches

They advance in, clearing the trench out of British

And settle into their new home

So...missing a bunch of pictures here, but the British manage to shoot Germans out of the trench seen above. However, since the Germans get to bring back destroyed platoons....

HONEY, We're home!

Moving into the Trench again

Also, the Stoss came back, moving into the trench they cleared earlier

Far flank Germans moving into the trench

And once again getting cozy 

The Stoss assaulted the last remaining British platoon on the left, but got pushed back by defensive fire

 But, the far flank Germans were sitting comfortably on the right objective for a German victory.

All in all, it was a fun game. At first, I expected the scenario to strongly favor the defender - the trench system, the fortifications, and the barbed wire stretching across the board made it look grim at the start. However, the ability for all destroyed attacking platoons to return, practically within assault range of the action, is pretty amazing for the attacker, when the defenders men are limited. However, if the British list had a lot more HMGs, I'm not sure I ever would have gotten in the trench in the first place.

You'll notice I didn't really do much with my A7V. I'm not sure how the tanks fit into this era. I know it should be charging ahead leading the spearhead on the assault, but in comparison to the rest of my army, it's so easy to kill, and it doesn't get to come back with the Overwhelming Force rule. So I kept it out of range of his AT guns and took pot-shots at the British mortars. I'm pretty sure it only hit once, and didn't kill anything all game.

I'm looking forward to playing more of FoW Great War. Especially since Chris has all the figures, super easy! Why did I pick Russians for my WW1 army again? -_-