Oriskany’s Final Days of the Great War – Australians + British tanks vs. Germans at Hamel

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About the Project

As some of you may know, the 100th Anniversary of the last days of the Great War are now upon us.

Digging around through some research, I found that the 36th Ulster Rifles were deeply involved in some of the very last battles (having been reformed after grievous losses in the 1916 Battles of Flanders and 1917 Passchendaele, the 1918 helping absorb the shock of the German "Georgette" Kaiserschlacht Offensive).

These include the Battle of Courtrai, during the follow-though of Second Army's push through the Fifth Battle of Ypres, and the first British and Belgian Army advances back into Belgium right before the Armistice.

So, to build on the work done earlier this year in the development of the "1918 Edition" of Barry Doyle's "Valor & Victory" squad-based infantry combat system, I decided to build up some units for the Royal Irish Rifles, Royal Irish Fusiliers, and Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, battalions of which made up the final OOB of the 36th Ulster Division during these closing days of World War I.

The project outlines some of the work done to create these units in Valor & Victory and get them on the game board, and you might recognize some of the officers leading these platoons into combat!

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Part One - Starting the Rifle Section Counter Build

Oct 18 2018

Tutoring 7

Skill 7

Idea 7

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Time to build these units in PS 14. First some quick research just so I can include some “historically approximate” unit identification in the units, approximate so they don’t become too specialized and I can only use the counters in a small number of games and scenarios.

First, find the badge for the Royal Ulster Rifles. Hard-core historians will note that most of these regiments were actually disbanded in February / March 1918, when 36th Ulster was reorganized after their terrible losses of Flanders / Passchendaele 1916-1917. Some were sent back to reserve brigades in Britain. Others were folded into the remaining battalions.

Complete the badge, using some simple Photoshop.

Here's the existing Commonwealth template counter for a full rifle squad (here set up for Australians). I'm not a fan of the front figure, I'm going to change it out.

Found a new figure that will work better for the front figure.

Start work on the new counter template. Remove the first figure. Put in some of the new markings and unit combat data. Note I'm keeping these Ulstermen as "elite" because ... well ... just because. Meanwhile, preparing the new kneeling figure to import into the composite counter.