This topic contains 58 replies, has 11 voices, and was last updated by 
oriskany 5 years, 9 months ago.
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Glad to see this thread is still going. Here are the last images I have from @neves1789 –
German infantry has broken into this stretch of French trenches!
“Aerial” view of French and German trenches, with no mans land between them.
Some French infantry and barbed wire.
Two shots of French artillery positions behind the forward trenches.
Okay, @jamesevans140, @jemmy, @neves1789 – well … I have tried. As promised, I really tried to set up a “trench digger” game of Valor & Victory 1918 Edition set up. And actually, I did get it set up, and functionally this game would work, but I think you can see from the photo that playing on this kind of set up really requires a custom board.
Actually these are all custom boards (I almost never “buy” my wargames, to be honest) but they were drawn, printed, and mounted for “patrolling no man’s land, post-trench breakthrough” kind of scenarios like we see at Belleau Wood, Hundred Days, St. Mihel, etc.
This many counters just to set up the topography (and clearly I don’t have enough “Trench” counters, so I’d have to use “Sandbags” as proxies … yes, they both give the same +2 bonus so functionally would work, but this would be a pain in the ass to play on.
I’ll try to Photoshop draw a trench-themed map in the coming days. Who knows, maybe while I have some time set aside and the Photoshop open, I’ll make up British / Australian counters while I’m at it. 😀
(One hour and 10 minutes later) – There, that is much better. 😀
Now I’ll just have to make 2-3 more of these maps and get them printed and mounted. But this is the kind of V&V 1918 board I was picturing.
Do you like the duckboard? That was the most time consuming part.
Good afternoon @rasmus – @torros – @elessar2590 – @jemmy – @neves2789 – @damon – etc. 😀
I figured out how to post images already in the “projects” feature also here in the threads, just in case we want to keep this thread going (absolutely no worries of not) – the advantage of a forum thread being that other people can add their own photos, etc.
Still setting up the forces and opening deployments for the Valor & Victory 1918 game with the new trench boards.
The first American attacks on the breached German trench go in. I still have to resolve American artillery fire (pre-planned, so technically that should have already been done) and German opportunity fire.
“Marine Corps Flanders: Between dunes and trenches”
A few days ago I came across an interesting article in my favourite historical magazine. It dealt with something I hadn´t known before, and it is from WW I. I want to share this with you. Everyone of us history enthusiasts knows about the Atlantic Wall from WW II. However, did you know there was also an Atlantic Wall in WW I?
According to the article it was situated in Belgium.
Its purpose was to protect the German naval bases in Belgium and to fend off amphibious landings by the British. An invasion there would have been a threat to positions behind the German front and the German high command wanted to avoid this.
The text of the next picture says: “On Flander´s coast” “Our war journal”
There is one picture in the article showing soldiers at a shooting practice right on the shore. They are standing behind a parapet consisting of sandbags and wooden stabilising wall, about breast high. In front of them are barbed wire entanglements. Another picture has trenches, small bunkers and sandbag positions that remind of a typical trench system on the Western front.
Behind the trench system on the shore there were artillery batteries and huge naval artillery pieces, the latter to target ships and landing craft. One of the artillery batteries was called “Tirpitz”.
The harbour protection group “Blankenberge” had 28cm howitzers to their disposal. Those are really big. The gun on the picture is from Oostende, presumably protecting the port.
The Marine Corps Flanders was the infantry force manning the defences. They pushed back British invasions, but not only this. They also fought defending the front against British attacks on the Somme in July 1916, and some more elsewhere. It was formed in 1914. Their leader was Admiral Ludwig von Schröder, nick-named the Lion of Flanders.
It consisted of three Marine Disions, each made up of several infantry brigades and including field batteries. Some special platoons were also part of the divisions, like for instance mortar batteries, telephone groups, pioneer companies. They were also, later in the war, trained in the newly-developed infantry tactics.
From 1914 to 1915 their attire was typical Marine, later on they wore the field grey uniforms and had the 1916 helmet. Before they had had Marine caps or kepis, making them look like ordinary sailors. Some of the men were experienced soldiers from the German colonial wars, some were from the sea Bataillons Wilhelmshaven and Kiel.
So, if you want to try something different for your WW I wargames, you could simulate a British invasion on the Belgian coast. It has a historical background and will be fun to play, and it may also be fun to figure out how the British have brought their troops to the shore and the effects of air power in that kind of landing.
I hope you enjoyed this. C U.
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