Recruits Battle Report Part 2

                                           "Save food and defeat frightfulness!"

                                                                ~ War Effort Poster WWI

Sharing your toys is always great fun, and at Recruits I got to make lots of new friends and have them join in on some great Wooden Wars games.  Over the three days I ran two Wooden Wars scenarios and helped (meaning mostly just played in) one of the two Imaginations games using my new 54mm Woodens.  This post focuses on the first and largest of the Wooden Wars battles, an historic battle of the taking of  La Hay Bloque.

The battlefield

British officers, including two sisters (and a father)

French officers

The Battle and Officers 

Recruits brought out the best of players and a full house of both participants and camp followers. The officer cadre was top notch and a mix from all age groups.To my delight the game had three young gals commanding troops, along with one of the gals fathers. These young cadets proved themselves more than a match for the grognards, as we shall later see!

First fire- you can barely see the ball

Cavalry maneuvering on the left

The Battle Begins

 The battle commenced with a good French advance on the right of the battlefield, where, after some pounding by cannonade, they captured La Haye Bloque.

On the right a full on cavalry action took place, with the British first getting the upper hand, but then were counter charged and taken down. This ended up leaving the British right flank and guns fairly exposed.  The British then got the initiative and did great damage with their guns while the Grenadiers and line troops marched towards and over the walls to retake the La Haye Blocque.

Cavalry actions are always splintery!

A hard won victory of the town. Look at the body count!

Tides and Flanks are Turned 

Like you read in the histories ( but seldom actually get to do in minis games) the town was fought over, captured and recaptured 3 times before the British finally held it. One of the misfortunes of war for the French was that their own gun battery, meaning to take the British off the wall, instead hit their own guard unit from behind - Oh the Woodmanity!

Taking the flank

A desperate march to defend the flag

Desperately firing to stop the cav. His accuracy was akin to a storm troopers

Captain "M" deftly captures the enemies flag, getting her a medal and a win!

Victory to the French! 

As the British were busy taking La Haye Bloque, Captain M commanding the French cavalry asks me, " So to win, I just capture their flag?"  " Yep" says I. And off she goes. In an amazing display of focus and maneuver, she rode across the flank ( scaring British into squares) dodging fire and flank marches to grab the British armies (undefended) flag from under their noses. A beautiful victory worthy of the medal!

The young Cadet is awarded her medal by her father, an active US Army officer

WWI Memorial Museum

On the First day to MI , my friend and host Baron von J took me to the fantastic WWI museum in Kansas City. ( after having BBQ, of course!).  I was blown away by all the great artifacts of the great war, both in scale and in how everything still had a hand crafted quality about it. I mean come on- the French tank had wooden Bogies!  If I had any complaint it would be that they only had 3 planes. Sure one of them was a De Havilland pusher plane, but still...Maybe the old Harley made up for that though.

A view of KC from the roof of the memorial. I was told the trees on the left is Kansas.

Lots of artillery- of course

This French Tank has wooden Bogies!

The posters were one of my favorite things in the museum.

 I would be remiss by not mentioning the stellar staff at the museum- all veterans themselves, super helpful and dare I say, just enough of something that I can't quite put into words, that gave the entire museum that extra gravitas. This place is now in my mind and heart.