Great War - Skirmishing on a Sunday afternoon!

Mike brought out some WW1 Germans and French Sunday afternoon for a couple games of the now discontinued Games Workshop Great War. It's basically WH40K set in 1914. We played two very small skirmish scenarios involving Erwin Rommel's early career. The Scenarios were pulled from Skirmish Campaigns' Rommel's Route to Verdun.

The first scenario was "Recon at Cosnes" featuring two German sections trying to recon three objectives while opposed by a single large French squad. Alan and I took command of the Germans, and Chris commanded the French. Mike GMed.

Here's the battlefield:

Our setups. It was pretty well a blind setup. Chris gambled that we'd be entering from the short edge and was well-situated to deal with that. We expected him to be deployed a lot more centrally. Our plan was to simply try to zip up the side and snag the hill and (hopefully) the orchard objectives.

About 3 turns in. The French are no longer hidden and managed to kill one of Alan's group.

My boys bag the first objective while Alan lines his up to repel the French who are coming to visit.

My squad heads for the orchard. The French close in on Alan. The plan is working OK - Alan has tied up the French to the point where they can't prevent me from reconnoitering.

The French storm across the field to assault Alan's section!

And the Germans get carved up pretty badly.

Alan searches madly for some lucky dice. Chris explains to Mike that he's been given trash troops and that the scenario is rigged in the German's favor.

Rommel kicked a lot of ass before he was taken out by the Bleus. Final score - 19 to 6. The French force counted as being captured (10 points) and I got 9 points worth of objectives. The Germans lost six models to the Frenchies.

We won handily but given the tricky nature of the scenario for the defender, it was a tough task. I honestly think the French were too poorly rated as well. Next time we need to beef them up a tad. 

The second scenario was "Contact at Hill 325," the second in the Rommel series. This time, the Germans had to exit 10 troops off the far board edge under the cover of fog. The fog meant everyone had a 12" sight range.

Our cunnin' plan. Run everything at full pace through the wide-open gap on the right side of the table. No nasty terrain in our way - just a nice wide track for sprinting. Of course we had no idea where the French were. We sort of assumed they'd be covering the path of least resistance.

After a couple turns, the German plan was chugging along gloriously! The large French contingent was a looooong way away and was going to have a hell of a run to catch us.

A section of poilus reveal themselves (gross!) in the nearby woods and kill one of Alan's troops. 

Alan goes bonkers on the French in retaliation. His main squad fires at the big French squad while the command section assaults the group in the woods. I concentrate on getting my boys off the table, victory conditions being what they are.

The assault went terribly well for us - Alan wiped out the small squad. The gunfire was worthless - no casualties.

French return fire was equally effective. Alan's troops assaulted the French while I fired at them. My first combat of the day! Hurrah! 9 shots, 2 hits, 0 kills. Feh. I'll stick to running around and skulking, thank you. The assault went much better, with the French falling back off the board! Another German victory!

The second scenario, much like the first, was slightly gimped by a tragic French deployment. Since the French were "dug in," Mike and Chris should have said "fuck it" to the cover of the trees and formed a thin blue line or two across the center of the map. Oh well, live and learn.

For two very small games, with not a whole ton of action, they were both quite enjoyable and we all had fun which is all that matters anyway. I'd like to lash out at shitty GW game mechanics but I'll keep my opinion of their bad games to myself.