Caporetto-ish

I have long wanted to try the "Machine Age" rules in Neil Thomas's One Hour Wargames. It also seemed to me that the "Late Arrivals" scenario in the same book could act as a generic place holder for an opening bout in a Caporetto-like wargames campaign - the combined German / Austro-Hungarian breakthrough of the Italian front lines in late 1917. 

Note, I consider the units to be companies with the resulting force a battalion plus a little extra.

The rules themselves required some modification - there was no cavalry in use in the theater in 1917 that I'm aware of, except as dismounted infantry, so I made any cavalry rolled into assault troops. I gave them the increased movement range as the Zouaves have in his American Civil War rules. I also gave them a +2 in close combat and they could ignore defensive cover in close combat. 

Close combat? 

Oh, I added that, too. Since units have a front-arc (unlike in the WWII rules), using his basic close combat mechanism works. However, I modified it to allow units to abandon close combat. This is to reflect the fact that troops would routinely give up their trenches, rather than fight to the end or surrender, unless they were caught completely flat-footed.

Finally, I used the opening barrage option Neil Thomas suggests.

Because my figures are mounted with a 3" frontage, I scaled all measurements in the rules accordingly, so for example, a 6" move was now 3". In retrospect, that wasn't quite right given the table size was 24" square, and the intent wasn't that the 3" base width mapped to the 6" width, but more like a 4.5"-ish width.

Speaking of the table, I tried something I've been thinking about a lot - a 2D surface to give a boardgame like look to the proceedings, inspired in part by Shambattle.

Two infantry companies hold a trench near the foot of the mountains.

An Austrian battalion led by two companies of stormtroopers advances on the hapless Italians.

Flank attacks in close combat due double damage, so they turn to face their attacker...

And end up being assaulted on their flank anyway - and eliminated shortly after.

Things went a little better on the Italian left. However, with no reinforcements on the way until turn 5, the infantry abandoned the trench line. 

The Austro-Hungarians keep moving beyond the trench, but Italian reinforcements are making their way to the front. 

An Italian infantry company with an abundance of machine guns arrives in the village.

The Italian field gun battery gets off a few rounds. I rule that once field guns fire, they stay where they are - I think i'ts odd they can move as fast as infantry.

I also rule they get -2 in close combat, because the crews didn't sign up for this kind of fighting.

Surprisingly, the field gun battery holds its own and occupies the Austro-Hungarians on the Italian left, keeping some of the pressure of the Italians in the village.

More reinforcements arrive and immediately join the fray. The tides are turning.

The company in the village is routed. The Austro-Hungarians enter, but so do the Italians.

The Italians win the battle for the village on turn 15. 

At the end of the game, both sides had two units remaining. I suspect if the game continued, the odds were high that the field gun battery would fall, allowing the Austro-Hungarians to turn their attention to the village.

My rules modifications seemed to work and without making the stormtroopers overly powerful. 

By not allowing fire into close combat, it made close combat worthwhile even for regular infantry as they could prevent the enemy from engaging all targets in ranged combat. And if the enemy chose to retreat, they would still be in range - giving an aggressive attacker opportunity to do further damage.

Giving assault troops the small advantages to reflect their training and higher morale (it was pretty low all across the Italian front on both sides generally) kept me pushing them into close combat. I had toyed with a -2 for ranged combat to drive the point home, but I'm not sure that's necessary.

I'm not sure about the field guns not being allowed to move any further once they fire, but I kind of like it. I'll have to think on that a bit.

Obviously, one game is not enough to be sure the changes don't break things, but I feel confident enough that I plan to measure out and paint up a few more maps/boards based on scenarios in the book and then play out a campaign.