Advanced Guard
Advanced guard - August 1914
Background
The German advance has continued almost unchecked since the battles of the frontiers, although "the right hand man" in the German advance has not exactly done as Schlieffen had demanded: there were no German right hand sleeves brushing the Channel coast so far. During the course of the BEF retreat both German and BEF forces have lost contact wth each other: where are they?
The German advance continues, while a local BEF commander, working on the so often ignored reports of British aviators, wonders if he can force the German advanced guard to deploy and so buy the other divisions of the BEF more time to pull back to the next defendable river line: the river Marne. This scenario was written by Robin Sutton and play tested by Robin and Stan Walker.
Designer's notes
This fictional scenario is a somewhat fanciful one, putting the BEF commander into a position that no BEF troops actually faced and none of the BEF divisional commanders adopted prior to the counter-attack on the Marne. It has been designed to present an interesting tactical challenge to both players as they take on the rolls of advanced guards in August 1914.
Objectives
B.E.F.: Hold the ridge line represented by Objectives 1 and 2.
German: Take and hold the ridge line represented by Objectives 1 and 2.
Entry points
Starting edges are shown on the map below.
Terrain
The grid squares on the map are 12" squares.The terrain has been designed to represent the rolling ridges typical of some parts of northern France and southern Belgium. The relative positions of the two objective parts of the ridge is important.
OOBs
The OOBs for each command can be downloaded as pdf files using the links below. I recommend that the OOBs are downloaded separately, as there are some variations that would best be kept to each player to provide an element of surprise for the opponent.
Notes:
1. The German attack may include a flank march.
