Scouts Out: German Uhlans almost take the day!

Myself and Gabriel got together at the abyss for our monthly Scouts Out game.

Gabriel always does a great description of the game so I will post it here.

The oberstleutnant's favourite pigeon "Prinz" was wounded and fell in no-mans land carrying an important message. German and Newfoundland forces each prepared a nimble squad of hand picked men to reach the avian objective before the enemy or trench rats can get to it. The Newfoundland regiment opted for skill choosing to send many of their best veterans while the Germans opted for speed choosing to employ some of their few remaining cavalry with the men available on hand. The result was a very close game which at many points could have swung either way. Early NFLD advances were thwarted by some well timed german cavalry charges but ultimately Commonwealth marksmanship won the day, successfully shooting the Hun off the objective in the vital moment of the game.

Scouts Out-Sniper Hunt

 

Last week my Blue Puttees made it to the gaming table in a game of Scouts Out. I fielded 10 men against Gabriel's Germans. We played a Sniper Hunt scenario, with the Newfoundlanders being tasked with hunting out and killing 3 German Snipers. 

It was a bit of a tough scenario, I was able to take out 1 of the 2 snipers (victory condition) before my men withdrew. Here is Gabriel's summary of the game. 

The ruined cathedral separating no-man's-land land between the Commonwealth and the German trenches is reportedly infested with German snipers. Without sufficient artillery support or men for a full on assault of the German lines HQ decided a smaller more nimble force consisting of the newly arrived Newfoundland regiment might be just the right thing for the job of dislodging the sniper menace. The Germans quickly muster their own scouting party to provide support to their comrades. The resulting skirmish was quite bloody with 60% losses on both sides and one of three German snipers killed. While the Newfies ultimately withdrew, the German snipers were pushed back far enough that they could no longer harass their lines

Some Photos

Hmm...Lost Again

The Blue Puttees

 

I recently started to play WWI skirmish games, and like most wargamers I like to bring my own troops to the table. Luckily the game Scouts Out requires few figures so it was going to be pretty easy to accomplish. Wargames Atlantic has put out a very nice plastic set so I went ahead and purchased the British Army box. 

After some thought, I decided to bring them on the table as the Blue Puttees, about whom I will say more after the photos. 

I followed the Sonic Sledgehammer Studio Painting Scheme, which was useful for not only painting but also assembly. I am quite pleased how they came out.

The Blue Puttees

The Royal Newfoundland Regiment trace their origins to the Royal Newfoundland Regiment of Foot formed in 1795 during the War of the First Coalition from several militias that had existed in the colony from about 1704.During the War of the 2nd Coalition there was a name change to Royal Newfoundland Regiment of Foot, they were deployed to the Citadel in Quebec City in 1808. At the outbreak of the War of 1812 they were deployed in multiple detachments to the Great Lakes where they were engaged in many important battles. The unit was disbanded in 1816. 

At the start of the Great War, a new regiment was formed in the Dominion of Newfoundland, an independent country at the time. By 1915 over 1000 men had joined the battalion. A lack of khaki cloth at the time resulted in the first battalion going overseas with puttees of blue cloth, thus the name. 

They first fought in the Gallipoli campaign before being sent to the Western Front in 1916 where they fought in the Battle of the Somme. On July 1st of that year the whole battalion was sent over the top to cross No Mans Land. Seven hundred and eighty men and officers crested the hill and within 15 minutes the battalion was essentially decimated with a 90% loss of men, only 68 making roll call the next day. 

Men of Newfoundland responded to the call of their King and by October of that year they were back at full strength. For their service to King and Country the Regiment was given the honorific Royal, the only regiment given this honour in WWI. 

The Newfoundland Regiment continued to serve King and Country in WWII as an Artillery Regiment and when Newfoundland ceased to become an independent country in 1949 and joined Canada the Royal Newfoundland Regiment became a reserve unit in the Canadian Army. Elements of both battalions have since served overseas most recently in Afghanistan and are now serving in the Canadian Artic as part of the Artic Response Company Group.

Scouts Out: Rescue Operation

Myself and Gabriel got together for our 2nd game of Scouts Out!, a WWI skirmish game. We had a lot of fun with it the last time so I was happy to have second go. Gabriel provided all the figures and the central terrain, we found the rest on the shelves at the abyss. 

We decided to play the rescue scenario, a French officer is marooned in the ruins of a villa in No Man's Land and the Brits (me) have to rescue him before the Germans (Gabriel) capture him. We played on a 4x4' terrain with the Frenchman in the middle and the forces lined up on the edges. 

Forces

Germans

NCO

LMG

Flamethrower

Sniper

4 Grunts

Brits

NCO

LMG

Pointman

Sniper

4 Grunts

Game

I got into position pretty quickly and was able to contact the French Officer and start to escort him to the British edge. I thought things were going well and wondered why the Germans were holding back but they cleverly moved quickly to both flanks (they have a bonus movement rate) and before I knew it my force was wiped out and the Officer was captured.

It was quite a fun game with very simple mechanics but with a variable initiative. 

Scouts Out!

 

Last weekend, I was introduced to a WWI infantry game. I am not looking to get into a new era or start playing a new ruleset, but this looked like a very simple skirmish game which required very few figures (squad level). I always felt that WWI would not offer the best tactical game experience because of the nature of trench warfare. Gabriel, one of our club members, is quite interested in WWI and has done a beautiful job on painting some 28mm figures so I was encouraged to give it a go. I found a pdf of the rulebook which was quite inexpensive and had a quick read through...the rules seemed quite simple. I was not really expecting much but why not give it a go.

Gabriel had 3 sets of figures painted, Germans, French and Brits. They were all nicely painted but the French were quite impressive. I believe most of his figures are from the Scouts Out! digital range, very nice sculpts. We set up a 6 figure aside game and selected one of the scenarios from the rulebook. As the title of the ruleset suggests the scenarios are all of a scouting nature thus are quite tactical in nature. There is really no Command and Control mechanism but each army has some basic National Characteristics, Leaders having the ability to offer adjacent figures a re-roll and each figure's weapon having different characteristics. 

As you can see the figures are very nice, it took us about an hour to play the game and this was the first run through for both of us. I have to say it was quite a bit of fun and I would certainly play again. I might even paint a small number of figures to represent Newfoundland's Blue Puttees.