hi eric, everyone.

my local club put on a ww1 piquet demo game as our club game at the phalanx show
in st helens (20th june, 2009). i have put some pictures of the game on here but
i must add they were took on a mobile phone camera but i will try and get some
on my digital camera (as i forgot to bloomin take it with me).

the game was a trench attack by the british around 1915.

the british forces comprised of a infantry brigade (64 stands) with 2 battalions
(32 stands)in each wave (2 battalions in reserve)with trench motars and machine
guns in support. the british also utilised a creeping barrage.

the german forces was 2 battalions (32 stands) plus machine guns and trench
mortars in support divided between two trench lines with the second trench line
troops designated as reserve troops. these were all placed upon the battlefield
because it looked nicer than being in a box on the sidelines.

the game area was 8'x 5' boards that i made over a period of months. please dont
say that there is no grass on there, they wouldn't let me put any on and i didnt
have time too before the show as i had a lot to finish.

the barbed wire was in a double line in front of the first trench and a single
line in the second. the wire was based up a 4"x1" templates. the reason why it
was a double line in the front was to simulate the large use of wire on the
front line. also to simulate the inadequate artillery bombardments that failed
to destroy it. also because in test games using a single line the british got
through it far easier than you would have expected. the double line resulted in
the british having to spend more impetus to force their way through the wire.

the game started off well (around 10:30 am)for the british. they were winning
the initial impetus easily with opposing dice for the germans not being ready
for the assault. most of the german machine guns were suppresed in the first 30
minutes. but the british generals were too slow to use this advantage and move
up to the wire. one problem could have been that one of the british commanders
brought his full (family) HQ with him and they had obviously lied on thier
recuitment papers about their age by about 12 years which led to unusual
confusion and distract in the command structure of the british. by around 12
noon things were looking desperate for the british. teh creeping barrage was
starting to get away from them. they failed to make it through the wire while
the creeping barrage was sitting on the germans. the few that made it through
were easily suppressed and routed by the germans. even though the germans were
starting to suffer, the intial attack was turning into a disaster. at 1pm the
reserves were called in and after being told (quite a few times) stop trying to
bombard the defenders with those trench motars and get your infantry advancing
did we see some sucess. by 2pm the british reserves were at the wire. suffering
from SoS barrages they manage to start to work their way through the wire so by
3pm the first line of trenches were starting to fall into allied hands. but the
show finished at 4pm and it was starting too look like too little too late.

every game we played was quite different which was really nice to see. the
british failed to explot any advantage in the phalanx show game. be it through
their own stalling or through not winning the impetus or by not enough points.

we had lots of people taking photos which was nice. we also had lods of great
feed back and comments on the piquet rule system in general. one of the ilkley
turned up which was nice and if your reading this i hope you didnt spend to much
at chesire oaks. on the whole we had a great day and a great game. if only we
had advertised it better with a banner saying who we were and what game we were
doing turned up it would have been the icing on the cake.

regards
mike