Gumbinnen 3

The Battle of Gumbinnen #3 was the final battle in a three battle campaign that broke the historical battle into three parts. Victory was determined in each sub-battle by determining objectives held or taken while factoring in attrition.

The three battles were further experiments as I developed a set of rules called MEM14, a take off on the popular board\miniatures game titled MEM44 by Richard Borg.

Converting MEM44 to MEM14 has been a long process filled with experiment as my goal is to get the right "feel" to an early WW1 battle.

What I've learned from Gumbinnen 1-3 as been incorporated into MEM14 4.0 and that will be tried in two more scenarios titled Creeping Tide #1 and #2.

The campaign resulted in a Russian victory. The Russians won each of the three the three sub-battles sometimes narrowly, but a win none-the-less.

The Germans had the burden of attack and in each sub-battle a fortified town served as a significant obstacle in the path of the Germans and victory. It was difficult to attack in WW1 and the tactics used in 1914 would cause all sides to dig in and trench warfare was the result-although things on the Eastern Front were always a bit more fluid than on the Western Front.

Below are the pics from Gumbinnen #3. The captions will have to suffice since the sequence of events is now fuzzy with me and I did not take notes while judging.

The German assault on a fortified village. It was a good assault and properly supported but it was also properly defended and the German survivors had to fall back.

A nice view of the German assault troops and their supports.

Russian reinforcements including mounted Cossacks move to hold the village.

The fromidable Russian river line defensives.

Russian Horse Artillery. Note the uniform from an earlier time frame. 

A Russian Infantry Regiment with flag flyings. 

Same. The flags add color to our games and are not without precedent for 1914.

Russian defenses next to the critical fortified village. 

A pre game shot of Cossacks escorting the horse artillery and a wagon wagon machine gun. Figures by JZ.

Close up of the MG wagon and Cossack escort. Staged, but very cool.

The miniatures used are a combination of HAT, Strelets, Emhar, Airfix for the plastics and IT and Irregular Miniatures for the metal figures. 

My thanks to JZ, MS and JR for their participation in one or more of the battles.

The Sudan in 6mm

Scene from a recent SWHC game.  Mahdist cavalry and camelry swarm British and Egyptian lancers.  6mm Heroics and Ros. Figures by JZ

ACW in 6mm

Unfortunately, I lost the battle report and do not remember what happened and when it happened other than to say it was a resounding Confederate victory based on incidents on the second day of Gettysburg.

The game was a division level fight that centered around the fields in the upper portion of the first picture below. The rules were On to Richmond. The game was a great time.

The players were JZ and MS while I was the combat photographer. 

The captions will tell some of the story. Enjoy the pics. 

Union Brigades reinforcing the Union right.

Confederate massed battery that dominated the field.

Nice view of the Confederate massed artillery on the high ground while attack brigades move up.

Another view of the Union right with a column moving up the road.

Much of the fighting would center around the pictured fields. 

Nice view of some of the excellent terrain.

I was experimenting with top views. Union Brigade with a supporting battery.

Union brigade column with a supporting artillery battery.

I like this top view of the concentrated Confederate artillery.

Top view of a Confederate brigade.

Union column in top view.

Confederates mass for an advance on the fields.

Taken early in the game it shows the scope of the game.

Fire Fight heating up

Union brigades rebuilding after being pushed back.

Fire fight was hard and fierce. The Rebs would prevail.

Union right was pushed back to the game board edge.

Union battle line! Hurrah!

Extreme Union right.