Battle of the Pomeranian Bridge (1890)

 

Scenario

The German Empire, in this light steampunk scenario, had by 1890 consolidated its control over central Europe.  The Russian Empire justifiably fears German aggression and decides to strike first by weakening the German position in Pomerania.  Russian units will move northward from Poland.  This is a sneak attack and so the German Airships will be unable to reinforce before the action has begun. Sky Marines will be dropped in as reinforcements during rounds 1, 2 and 5.  In addition, the German boffins have developed portable machine guns and the Kaiser’s High Command distributed them to heavy infantry units on the eastern front.  The Russians have no special steampunk technology of their own.  However, The British developed short-range mortars which they are generously allowing the Russians to test.

Mission Objectives

The Russian army (south) seeks to take and hold the bridge as a primary objective.  The German army seeks to prevent the Russians from holding the bridge.  The map shown below is patterned after one shown in One Hour Wargames (Thomas 2014).  The map and order of battle are taken from Scenario 5: Bridgehead.

Victory for the Germans is to control the bridge.  Victory for the Russians is there being no German units within 12 inches of the bridge on the north bank.

Battle Plan

The Russians will batter the Germans with an artillery barrage when the battery arrives.  Their artillery will target the German artillery on the hill.  All infantry units will begin moving toward the bridge when they arrive.  The Russian army is closer to the bridge than the Germans, so they will reach it first. The cavalry holds back. Infantry units will cross the bridge and defend the units still crossing.  All units will engage the German units with small arms fire, seeking flanking opportunities. After the German army takes several hits they are expected to retreat.  Russian army units will then advance into German territory.  The cavalry will seek to flank the infantry.

The Germans will advance three infantry units toward the bridge.  One will attack frontally and the other two will execute left and right flanking maneuvers, remaining out of range of Russian units still on the south bank of the river. 

The German artillery will be placed on the hill.  The battery will target the Russian artillery.  1^st infantry moves to support the artillery on the hill.  Those two units will defend the hill and provide reinforcements to the forces at the bridge. The cavalry unit holds back.

Order of Battle

Symbols shown on the units are as follows: X=infantry, /=cavalry, and a circle=artillery.  Black signifies German and White signifies Russian. Units were not chosen randomly.  (See table below.)

The Russian force is composed of four infantry battalions (one heavy), a cavalry company and an artillery battery.  The defending German force consists of three infantry battalions, one heavy infantry battalion, one cavalry company, and one artillery battery.

 

Russian Brigade.   Col Dimitri Parsky	German Brigade.  Gen Alexender von Kluck
1st Infantry battalion	1st Infantry battalion
2nd Infantry battalion	2nd Infantry battalion
3rd Infantry battalion	3rd Infantry battalion
4th Infantry battalion (Heavy)	4th Infantry battalion (Heavy)
1st Cavalry	1st Cavalry
1st Artillery	1st Artillery

 

Rules

The rules are taken from One Hour Wargames by Neil Thomas (2014).

The hill provides cover (divide by 2).

Infantry hits (D6).

Heavy infantry hits (D6+2).

Flank attack hits (D6 x 2).

Cavalry dismount to shoot.  Hits (D6-2).

Artillery hits (D6).

There is no hand to hand combat.

Shooting is in a 45-degree arc forward.

Movement is 6 inches except cavalry, who can move 12 inches.

One side moves some units and shoots with other units.  Then, the other side finishes the turn.

You cannot move and shoot in the same turn.

 

Battle Report

Following the scenario as suggested by Thomas, the sequence of deployment was as follows:

One Russian unit was deployed north of the river within 6” of the bridge.

Turn 1.  2 German units deployed using special rules (D6 1-2=point A, 3-4=point B, 5-6=point C). Points A, B and C are north of the bridge.  Point A is on the west, point B is north and point C is on the east. 

Turn 2.  Russians deployed one unit at point D.

Turn 3.  Germans deployed 2 units using the special rules.

              Russians deployed one unit at point D.

Turn 4.  Russians deployed one unit at point D.

Turn 5.  Germans deployed 2 units using special rules.

              Russians deployed one unit at point D.

Turn 6.  Russians deployed one unit at point D.

The picture below shows how the battlefield looked after all the units were deployed.  The German battle plan called for deployment of the artillery unit on the hill.  However, the artillery battery appeared from the west, so deployment to the hill was not practical.  This turned out not to be a disadvantage for the Germans.  The Russians, on the other hand, were hampered by slow deployment across the bridge.  In short, the battle plans were obsolete almost immediately.

 

The Russians were able to hold for a while, but 1^st infantry was taking too many hits and was destroyed in round 6 (see picture below).  The Russian cavalry were now exposed to fire from two directions.  The good news was that the late arrivals were able to face off against the German units to the west of the road.

The German 1^st infantry also was destroyed in round 6.  

 

The Russian 2^nd infantry was destroyed in round 7.  The Russian artillery was destroyed in round 8. At this point, it appears that the Russian cavalry should have disengaged and tried to flank the German 2^nd infantry.  Instead, they continued to fire at it; it was destroyed in round 9 along with the German 3^rd infantry.  Miraculously, the Russian cavalry survived until round 10.  The Russians lost the 3^rd infantry in round 9. The remaining two Russian units (the cavalry and 3^rd infantry) were scattered in round 10.

 

 

 

 

After-Action Report

This scenario worked well.  It turned out to be a straight pitched-battle but I believe that was partly due to the strange luck in random deployment of German forces and partly due to poor tactical decisions made by the Russian leader during the heat of battle. 

The battle lasted 44 minutes.  Some of that time was devoted to recording hits and movements. Also, I had to think carefully for special deployment, but hopefully during replay this will be less distracting.  Even though I have been using One Hour Wargames rules exclusively for a long time, I confess this is the first time I have played one of Thomas’ scenarios because they looked a bit mundane to me. To my delight, I found playing this scenario to be richly rewarding.  I will definitely play the scenarios as written more often.

This is the first game in which I used the flat unit markers.  The reader will have to judge whether the action was as apparent in the photos as it would have been had miniature figures been used, but I found that it was easier to distinguish the unit types with the flat markers.  They are a lot cheaper than figures; just make them in a word processing program and print them out.  Or make them by hand.  Not being embarrassed about my sloppy paint jobs on figures is a plus. The idea for using markers like this came from the many articles published by Scott Hahn in Lone Warrior, but mine are a lot simpler than his.  See Hahn (2014) for an example of his work.

For this game I used a battle log sheet to record deployment, movements, attacks, hits, total hits, and when units were destroyed.  I would show a picture of the log pages but my scribbles would not be helpful.  The columns were round, attacking unit, defending unit, hits, total hits, and movement.  Recording the game consumed three pages in a steno notepad. 

 

References

Featherstone, Donald and Curry, John (2013).  Donald Featherstone’s Solo-Wargaming.  Kindle edition.  First published by Kayle and Ward, London, 1973.

Hahn, Chris (2014).  The Governor’s Gamble AAR.  Published in Game Reports, Lone Warrior. https://lonewarriorswa.com/the-governors-gamble-aar

 

Thomas, Neal (2014). One-Hour Wargames: Practical Tabletop Battles for those with Limited Time and Space. Kindle Edition.  Pen & Sword.