Saturday, 22 March 2025

THE BATTLE OF OF STALLUPONEN AND GUMBINNEN - 17TH- 20TH OF AUGUST 1914

Again WW1 but this time 6mm! and the home made rules "Bloodbath" I call them (working title).

And the opening fights leading to the Russian disaster at Tannenberg, the battle of Gumbinnen/Stalluponen. Where actually my Grandfather participated under the 41/5th East Prussian Regiment.

Bart was too happy about it as he could fight Russians! As he re-read the historical battle report he was the more happy to go along and fight for every square meter and make a stand.

Me and Andrew were the perfect incarnations of the indifferent Russian nobility and shared the command over Rennenkampfs corps ... what could go possibly wrong.

We learned with the rules and like the historical commander we send troops in BEFORE the artillery had done its deed... who cares about two divisions ...

That should cost us greatly, I hadn't fixed any victory conditions as we were all learning the rules,  but the Russian casualties piled high from the get go...

In the end we cleared Stalluponen Once!!!, one turn... thats it. High peak of our performance, the Germans lost also nearly all their front divisions, but to the price of our double (2:1) ratio.

Congratulations Bart, you defended East- Prussia ... 

Initial set up

Main defence of the German line

Fictional HQ of Rennekampf

The Russian set up

The German defence stand

And their reserve

The Russian advance

All good in the Hinterland

First turns we let them be ...

Andrews north attack came first under fire

then my south pincer movement stalled ...

Then we changed tactic ...

Halted the pincer and ...

... took out their guns ...

They had longer ranges, but we had more guns ...

the centre became under rising pressure ...

still no reserve was called in apart from cavalry

then my south attack hit home ...

to a terrible price ...

we stalled the pincer and barricaded into the forrest

At the end we had the village just a turn ... shambles... like in history



Thursday, 20 March 2025

1918 - at the end of the Michael Offensive ...

28mm, WW1, Fire for Effect plus amends and Gordon had to umpire me and Peter fighting for Gott, Kaiser und Reich, while Tim and Ben were defending France for King and Country.

The Stormtroopers (Peter) and the normal mop up (me) were just jumping into the first line of defense whil an elite platoon of tommies were already set into the second line, barrages were out of ammo/silenced (just to make it simpler) so the carnage could begin ...

We actually never had a chance, but that was to be expected ... my normal troops made quite good progress but had to sacrifice a lot because of it. The Mark V with all LMGs didn't help there either.

If Tim or Ben would have a better dice day It would have even stopped at the beginning...

Still - the rules are dead easy (pardon the pun) and it is a real pleasure to play WW1 with this system again - will do this more often - this is how a platoon game in WW1 should be - easy quick and veeery bloody!


My casualties after the first turn already ...

Tims right flank fleeing finally ...

The way to Paris ...

Stuck in the mud ...

... next to Lotti AV7 ...

My flame thrower team advances ...

Tims platoon is colecting hits ...


 ...the frustrations of trench warefare ...

Tims right flank ...

My left flank marching up ...

Peters stormtroopers ready to go ...

Everybody over the top!

Advancing through the connection trench ...

Tims platoon awaiting us ...

... especially with MMGs ...

...which inflict heavy damage ...

... even stormtroopers have to dug in ...

... and give fire protection ...

my Granatwerfer ...







Bens left flank gets hits ...

While the stormtroopers get nearer ...

Bens hill looks brittle ...


My flame thrower are clearing out the Tommies ...



And the Stormtroopers are nearly there ...




but it could have been more ...

... the entire field ...

... so close ...

Tims flank is crumbling ...

But the centre is solid ...

Finally they run away ...

sadly just a little part of the trench ...