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It had been a very long time since we'd played any Great War Spearhead games, so Andy and I grabbed our Middle East troops for a quick foray: Andy's Turkish troops, and my ANZACs, all HaT 20mm miniatures, 'Old Foes'.. We kept the game simple in order to refresh the basic rules mechanisms, no off-table artillery, and just two regiments/brigades per side with a little cavalry and some on table artillery batteries. The outcome of the game was in this case of little import, our game was to refresh rules memories, and .. to push plastic across the table.
The Turkish regiments advance from the left, the ANZACs from the right.
Turkish infantry
Four stands of Irregular Arab camel riders supported the Turkish infantry.
ANZAC infantry advance
A battery of 18 pounders were attached to the ANZAC left wing brigade. Yep, they do look a little BEF'ish
The Arab mounted dismount
The ANZAC right flank brigade has four stands of Mounted in support. hey advance in an attempt to pressure the Turkish left.
The Turkish right is advances.
The Turkish left advances cross the open, hoping to push the ANZAC right back
The Turkish right wing takes the small village in the centre of the battlefield
The Kiwi mounted are caught dismounting in the open, having pushed too far forward before choosing to dismount
The Turkish right deploys around the village and the palm plantation, facing off against the ANZACleft. The firefight begins.
The Turkish right begins to take casualties
The situation on the ANZAC right: The ANZACs are ensconced in the palm plantation, although the mounted are caught in the open taking casualties
Gaps appearing in the ranks of the Turkish right
The mounted are decimated by the fire from the Arab irregulars in particular
The markers show the intensity of this firefight
Similarly on the ANZAC left. At the bottom left you can see the ANZAC attempt at flanking the Turkish position amongst the palms
The ANZAC artillery battery comes in to action
Casualties are mounting on the Turkish right.
However this is not a one sided firefight, and ANZAC casualties too are mounting.
The difficulty of the Turkish move on the right are apparent here as they are seen attempting. to push across the open against the ANZACs in the palm plantation
The Arab Irregulars are now taking casualties too (see at the top of the photo).
More casualties on the Turkish right (upper photo)
Fire drives the Turkish infantry back for the area of cultivation adjacent to the village
And on the right, the Irregulars are eliminated, and casualties on the Turkish left are such that the regiment withdraws (fails a morale check)
In game terms, the Turkish force had been driven back, but would still stand in sufficient strength to prevent any significant ANZAC advance. Most importantly though we had re-acquainted ourselves with some of the basic game mechanics.
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