Another Kick At The Can

Disclaimer; this battle actually took place back in November 22, but as I haven't posted about it yet until now kindly disregard any facts that don't match. My memory is not great.

I guess I'm a glutton for punishment. I say this because yet again I attempted to take the Germans to victory in my friend Wayne's 1915 Ypres scenario.

The starting lineup

 Once again I've decided to dispense with the machine gun unit to have an extra squad. The range of the machine gun is awesome but it is slow and only four extra Dice (not counting the crew). As opposed to 10 extra guys which is in most situations 10 extra dice. The extra manpower is effectively a meat shield against the expected casualties and there's usually a lot of casualties with this system. The iron Ivan rules tend to be a little bit on the bloody side but still great fun.

The stalwart defenders

Wayne has done a lot of research about the first world war. And it shows in his setup of the defending trenches. I can expect a lot of resistance from that direction. I can only hope that the gas does its work. My goal on this side is to breach at least one trench and do enough casualties to breakthrough beyond. Even with the gas it won't be easy.

Rushing towards the trench

My forces head off to the middle trench. I don't reach it before the gases swept past. And I lose a few of my men to defending fire. But not enough to stop the advance and I push on. It's quite hard to inflict casualties at range against units entrenched so I decide to put my trust in some hand-to-hand fighting.

The grand melee

The black markers represent those few lucky troops who have improvised a gas mask (in other words urinated on a handkerchief, yes really look it up) in the white markers denote soldiers who have picked up a Lee Enfield rifle to replace their somewhat deficient Ross rifle (the Ross rifle was issued to Canadian troops at the start of the war most were tossed away by frustrated troops after its tendency to jam). Between the gas and some lucky shots the entrenched troops are thinned down a little bit but have been reinforced from the flank trenches.

This trench is now German territory

After some tense rounds of hand-to-hand fighting I take the position. When he moves up support troops and puts the trench under fire. The gas has already passed them and with the cover they prove resilient to my counter fire.

Not as many as there was before

I managed to push back the defending troops a little bit. However the damage has been done. Wayne's defending fire and the gas lingering in the trench have taken too many of my remaining troops. And it becomes obvious that I lack the manpower to continue the attack. To the right I have control of one trench and therefore one of my objectives so the end result is a draw.

The butcher's bill