Great Britain Tactical Notes : Equipment &
Defense Notes : Troops & Units : Keys The British Army began the war with a small but very
elite force of line infantry. Unfortunately this force was largely killed off
in the first months of fighting, and the following two years saw large blocks
of hurriedly trained raw recruits take their place. Only as the war progressed
and the benefits of light automatic weapons and armor support manifested
themselves did the survivors of the mid-war slaughters begin to re-build their
force. One of their greatest enemies were their own officers, some of whom were
tragically conservative. Fortunately for the men, the system did allow the
inspired actions of a minority of great officers to push through the changes
needed for victory.
Tactical
Notes: The British Army continued to use close order infantry formations
at least through the start of the Somme Offensive (when they lost 60,000
casualties on the first day) although many formations are reported to have
begun using open order by 1915. Through most of the war, the British Army never
quite grasped the subtleties of combined arms assault tactics. Many British
officers seemed to have their own opinions of the best single weapon for trench
fighting, be it the rifle, or the bayonet or some other item. In some cases,
they even discouraged the use of perfectly viable weapons such as grenades
because they were viewed as weapons for shirkers. This one-weapon mentality
resulted in the haphazard use of many different methods in ways which did not
take mutual advantage of their best features.
Equipment & Defense Notes: The standard field
gun for Commonwealth units was the Mk I 18-pdr, which is shell size
5 for game play. Below are the defense values used to establish
troop defenses (if any) to be used during the setup phase of the game. These
defensive levels are meant only as rough averages. Players creating their own
scenarios may want to adjust them for different situations. For example, an
"old" battlefield may have very heavy wire entanglements and many pillboxes. A
"new" battlefield located in an area not previous fought over would have very
little or no wire entanglements and no bunkers. See the
Game Setup page or Advanced Game Setup for more information.
- Defense Setup:
- 1914 | Trench ½40
- 1915 | Trench ½70 | Wire ½40 | Pillbox ¼
- 1916 | Trench ½70 | Wire ½40 | Pillbox ½ | Bunker ¼
- 1917 | Trench ½70 | Wire ½40 | Pillbox 1 | Bunker ¼
- 1918 | Trench ½100 | Wire ½70 | Pillbox 2 | Bunker 1
Troops and Units: The
orders of battle shown below offer a list of average unit values in order to
give 1916 players an idea of how historical formations should be represented
for game play. Real life units varied in type, strength and quality, depending
on their location and readiness level. Overall, there were a huge variety of
units created during the war, from forestry battalions to assault companies.
This prevents us from trying to list them all, and players are encouraged to
use these lists as guidelines for creating other units they would like to use
on the battlefield.
- Engineer Company
- Units:1 | Bases:6 | Morale:Brave | Training:Average
- Trench Raiders
- Units:1 | Bases:3 | Morale:Steady | Training:Great | Machine Guns:2 light
- Dismounted Tank Crew
- Units:1 to 3 | Bases:1 | Morale:Brave | Training:Average | Other:Each
base fires as a light machine gun
- "Old Army" Infantry Battalion 1914
- Units:8 | Bases:6 | Morale:Brave | Training:Great | Machine Guns:1 heavy
- Infantry Battalion 1915
- Units:6 | Bases:9 | Morale:Steady | Training:Poor | Machine Guns:2 heavy, 1 light
- Infantry Battalion 1916
- Units:6 | Bases:9 | Morale:Steady | Training:Average | Machine Guns:2 heavy, 4 light
- Infantry Battalion 1917
- Units:6 or 7 | Bases:6 | Morale:Steady | Training:Average | Machine Guns:2 heavy, 3 light | Trench Mortars:1 light
- Infantry Battalion 1918
- Units:6 or 7 | Bases:6 | Morale:Steady | Training:Average | Machine Guns:2 heavy, 8 light | Trench Mortars:4 light
- Infantry Brigade 1914-16
- Battalions:4 infantry
- Infantry Brigade 1917
- Battalions:4 infantry | Machine Guns:4 heavy | Trench Mortars:2 Medium
- Infantry Brigade 1918
- Battalions:3 infantry | Machine Guns:4 heavy | Trench Mortars:2 Medium
- Infantry Division 1914
- Brigades:3 infantry | Other:1
cavalry squadron (horse or cyclists), 1 engineer company
- Infantry Division 1917
- Brigades:3 infantry | Other:2
engineer companies
- Infantry Division 1918
- Brigades:3 infantry | Other:3
engineer companies
- Defense Setup Key:
Each line on the Defense Setup list covers the
setup values for a certain year of the war. These values are approximates only,
and players with special insights are encouraged to adjust these values
according to their own preferences, or for specific scenario elements. Below
are definitions of each basic feature type.
- 1916
The year of the war with applies to the following
defense allotments
Trench ½70 The
player receives game board trenchlines equal one-half die roll (½D6)
multiplied by seventy inches. Other multiples will be forty inches and
one-hundred inches. For example, the hypothetical player who rolled a 5 on this
die roll would be allowed to set up a maximum of 210 inches worth of fire
trenches, slit trenches and foxholes on the game board. Wire
½40 Same die rolling method as for trenchlines,
but applies to acquisition of barbed wire entanglements. Note that for ease of
play, the length of each barbed wire segment should equal the width of an
infantry base. Pillbox ½ Values
shown without a second number immediately following will use that final value
to establish the number of those items allowed for that player. For example:
The hypothetical player who rolled a 3 on this die roll would be allowed to set
up two pillboxes on the game board. Bunker ¼
Same system as for pillboxes, but applies to
acquisition of bunkers instead:
- A ½ die roll means
that a 1 or 2 = One, 3 or 4 = Two, 5 or 6 = Three. A ¼ die roll means
that a: 1 through 4 = One, and a 5 or 6 = Two.
- Troop and Unit Key:
- Formation Type - Year
- Units:number of subunits in the formation ¹ |
Bases:number of bases per subunit |
Morale:approximate formation morale
| Training:approximate training level of the
units | Machine Guns:average number
of machine guns which the formation may possess |
Mortars:average number of trench mortars which the
formation may possess | Towed Cannon:average number of towed cannon which the formation may
possess. | Special:special weapons
or conditions, such as flamethrowers, etc.
¹ Note
that higher level formations will be composed of companies, battalions or
regiments instead of bases and units.
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