WWI Palestine

The "What should I work on next?" poll result has kick started my WWI in Africa/Middle East wargaming.  I do not have what I need painted up and know very little about WWI in Africa or Middle East.  This all started with the purchase of 10mm Pendraken miniatures at a garage sale that a friend put on a year or two ago.

I had read about the war in East Africa in WWI and there are only limited set piece large battles and it was basically a German withdrawal to fight another day campaign.  The Battle of Tanga may still be doable.  I then looked at Egypt with the Suez canal.  I did some testing of the Battle of Romani, but discovered the Turks did not attack with enough troops and were easily stopped and pushed back.  This battle would not be an interesting scenario.  I am now exploring the First Battle of Gaza (1917).  I think it is doable.

 

As part of putting together a scenario is deciding on what rules to use.  My current favorite rules just don't fit with these battles or are not designed for WWI.  Here are the WWI rulesets I have been looking into potentially using:

• If the Lord Spares Us
• Great War Spearhead
• Field of Battle WWI
• Blitzkrieg Command WWI
• Command Decision
• No Mans Land
• Megablitz WWI (Kaiserblitz)
• Big Table Little Men

I discovered that to really encompass a good variety of units in a battle with some interesting terrain, the rules have to cover a larger map area, otherwise there would just be a few dunes on the table and all the figures on the board would look the same.  For me, a pretty boring scenario.  This knocked out most of the rulesets listed above.  I believe I have narrowed it down to Big Table Little Men (a free ruleset) with some help from Megablitz.  The scale is basically 4cm to 1km and each turn being about 2 hours.  The First Battle of Gaza took place over two days and Megablitz takes this into account.  Using this scale, the British for example have four divisions and about two brigades on the table.  I will say that someone could focus just on the town of Gaza and maybe do a skirmish game, but I'm more interested in something bigger.

I used to wargame 20mm North Africa WWII, and figured I would not go back to desert wargaming, but here I am.  Researching the maps of the Sinai and Palestine, it does look pretty bleak.  Gaza does sound interesting with cactus hedges, but outside Gaza there doesn't seem to be very much.  I'll have to see what I can do to spruce it up somewhat.  I have some ideas for palm trees.  Maybe with all the figures it will look better.

 

I'll be using 10mm Pendraken miniatures.  I have been painting up some Australian lighthorsemen.  I look forward to painting up the interesting variety of Turkish, Austrian, British, Australian, and New Zealander miniatures.  There were aircraft over the battlefield, but I'm not certain how to incorporate them.

After I paint up everything, I can do future battles in Palestine and maybe Mesopotamia.  The Second Battle of Gaza has British tanks.

I am not ruling out picking a different ruleset for a different battle in the future.  The First Battle of Gaza will probably work best for me with the Big Table Little Men and Megablitz combo.

Italian Bersaglieri Band Quick Marches

Here are some fun Italian Bersaglieri bands and military in parades.  Last one is funny.

 

 

 

"Wings" BBC Series

I just finished watching the first season of Wings.  It is a 1977-78 BBC produced series focused on a British 17 year old who wants to fly in the Royal Flying Corps in 1915.  His family are involved in a smithery.  I stumbled upon this series while doing research on the British B.E. 2c aircraft.  It turns out this plane is basically the only British plane featured, but the plane and action looked great in the episodes.

 

 

 

A blog I read recommended watching the series, so I started watching it.  Each episode is about 47 minutes.  It is completely available on YouTube.  Each episode spends about half the time featuring events with his family or love interest at home and the other half with his squadron.  I also recommend watching this series.  I was pleasantly surprised.  The blog that recommended it also recommended not watching the second season, so I'll pass on that.

 

I actually recognized some of the actors in the series.  I think the one that stands out the most is Michael Cochrane.  I watched him play a General in the Sir Henry Simmerson in the BBC Sharpe Series.  You can't miss him in Wings.  Just a wee bit younger.

 

Attack on Berber Campaign Game

Last month I played in a fun Colonial Sudan campaign game.  It was just a small engagement, British vs. Dervishes.  I was on the British side trying to take a town, with some help of a gunboat.  Dan (who is running the campaign) played the Dervishes.  The battle rules for the campaign are The Sword and the Flame.  Everyone knows these rules so I won't go into description about them.  What I will say is I got into historical miniature wargaming 29 years ago because of these rules.  I think I got burnt out on them awhile back, but this campaign is fun and the rules are not that bad.  The subtle changes/additions to the rules have improved things.  Also, Dan always puts on fun games.

Photo from Dan's blog.

Here is the link to the recap of the battle (on Dan's blog):

Attack on Berber