Editors Note: If the tank and the airplane are the most vivid images of WW2 combat, surely the trench and barbed wire claim the honor for the Great War. The Landships! rules, with their emphasis on weapons technology, treat all trenches alike, but this is an oversimplification. Just as there were many kinds of armored fighting vehicles, there were many different kinds of trenches and terrain conditions present at the battlefields. The rules below expand Landships! to take these factors into account. Be forewarned, most of these favor the defense, and make breakthroughts into the green fields beyond even tougher. When the war started, most High Commands though entrenching would be a local and temporary expedient. However, by 1915. belts of trenches stretched from Switzerland to the North Sea. Trench warfare, with its particular demands on the battlefield had set in. Only after hundreds of thousands of casualties did both accept there would be no quick return to open warfare. There are now three Trench types in Landships!; hasty, preprared and communications trenches. Each has distinct characteristics which are given below. A hasty trench line is just what it sounds like, a rush job providing some small benefit to the units inside it. In reality a hasty trench may take the form of a shallow, irregular trench line connecting the existing shell holes. Typically they are no more than waist deep and are parallel to the enemy front. Most trenches in 1914 and early 1915 are best simulated as hasty trenches. Hasty trenches also simulate "command" trenches and breastworks such as both sides were forced to build in Flanders, where the water table was too high to dig the really deep ones. A prepared trench line is the "classic" picture of trench warfare. Prepared trench lines are up to 10 feet deep and up to 6 feet across and run parallel to the enemy front. Prepared trenches have fire steps to the front (the parapet) facing the enemy. permitting fire out while minimizing the target area presented. The back wall (the parados) of the trench is built up as well to minimize backlighting of the soldier's heads and give some protection from artillery bursts to the rear. Most sides constructed rectangular fire-bays (jutting out) and traverses Outting in), and never in a straight line. You can see this idea by studying the trenches printed on the map. This approach lessened the effects of enfilade fire and artillery bursts. The French preferred a true zig-zag pattern for their trenches. Inside the trench, each side constructed dugouts for maximurn protection from heavy barrages and as living quarters for the troops. Dugouts always were placed to the front of the trench (nearer the enemy) to keep a stray shell from entering. Communications trenches are constructed perpendicular to the enemy front and connect the front trench lines with the rear. These tend to be 10 feet or more deep too, and provide maximum cover to anyone inside. Communications trenches are not equipped with fire steps and so can't be used to fire out of. New Trench Rules Units in hasty trenches receive a + 1 DRM vs. indirect Barrage Attacks. Units in prepared or communications trenches receive a +2 DRM vs. all indirect Bari-age Attacks (this becomes a +3 if playing with Optional Rule 16.24. Units in hasty trenches receive a +1 DRM vs. SAFA attacks from any direction and may freely conduct SAFA attacks in any direction.Units in communications trenches are totally immune to SAFA attacks from any direction but also may not conduct SAFA attacks out in any direction. Units in preprared trenches are invulnerable to SAFA attacks from their rear. The defenders receive a +2 vs. SAFA attacks if the enemy fire is coming from the front. Units may only fire out from prepared trenches to their front (the direction of the enemy front). Units in prepared and communications trenches may not conduct SAFA attacks into adjacent hexes connected to other prepared or communications trenches. Units must engage in Close Assault Combat instead to clear such hexes. This rule does not apply, of course, to units outside the trenches, nor does it stop them from firing in. Also, units in Hasty trenches may conduct SAFA attacks against enemy units in adjacent hasty trench hexes. Vehicles with poor trench crossing capabilities do not suffer the penalty when crossing hasty or communications trenches. Barbed Wire Barbed wire made its first appearance during the American Civil War. While the war of mobility planned for 1914 assumed it would not be needed, once static conditions set in, demand for wire exploded. All sides rapidly became expert in using it as an obstacle to delay and channel enemy attacks. Wire could be strung just far enough away from friendly trenches to keep enemy grenades out, or deeper in no-mans-land to hamstring assaults. Wire could be cut by HE shells, and the strongest defensive positions usually had the wire hidden out of sight by enemy FOs. There were four basic patterns of wire obstacles. High wire patterns were around 6 feet high and 20 feet deep. Units could not hope to penetrate them without lucky artillery hits or tanks clearing paths. Low wire patterns were designed to slow up an attack. Perhaps two feet high and twelve feet deep, these belts could be penetrated by infantry but at a cost of prolonged exposure to enemy fire. Concertina wire is the "classic" coiled barbed wire fence (it's pictured on the counter). It usually was found in conjunction with high or low wire patterns but could be quickly strung up on its own if time were pressing. Spider wire was single strands of barbed wire strung up about two feet off the ground in a random pattern. While not a sheer obstacle per se, again it served to delay the attacker. New Wire Rules The wire counters and rules in Landships! simulate low wire obstacles. High wire obstacles are denoted by stacking two wire counters on top of each other. Infantry and MG platoons and crews may not move through high wire obstacles at all. Instead a tank must eliminate the wire or it must be cut by an artillery barrage attack (roll separately for each counter). Continue using the existing wire rules in Landships! to simulate low wire obsatacles. Scenario 19.25 "Men Without Hats" The year 1915 found the British aching to take the offensive and bring the war to a close. Their first effort was directed at the German lines in front of Neuve Chapelle in March 1915. The German front consisted of a single line of trenches. Seven hundred to a thousand yards to the rear were solitairy strongpoints, armed with machine guns, about a thousand yards apart. No communications trenches connected the two lines. After a (comparatively) heavy preliminary bombardment, the town was seized fairly easily, but command delays allowed a fatal pause. Thew Germans took advantage of this to contruct a new line to the rear. Two days later the British renewed the attack, attempting to seize Aubers Ridge, further east of the town and the key to the whole position. Men of the 2nd Rifle Brigade, (most without helmets at this time) went "over the top". Maps Used: The left half of Map 1 and the right half of Map 5 are used. Fold the two maps in half and butt the 25xx hexrow of Map 1 together with the 55xx hexrow of Map 5. Turn Limit: 12 Turns British (1st Player) Set up first Select any 22 infantry platoons and four MG platoons from the blue mix (it's OK to use all the good ones, the British Army was still pretty high quality at this time). Set these up in the York trenchline on Map 1. No hex may have more than one platoon in it until all have at least one. Germans (2nd Player) Set up second Select any 12 infantry platoons and two MG platoons from the grey mix and set them up in the stream hexes on Map 1 (see the Special Rules below). A reserve force of 6 infantry and one MG platoon (chosen randomly) may be set up anywhere on the hill around Beaumont on Map 5. Six Wire counters may be placed anywhere next to the stream as well. Special Rules The stream on Map 1 is considered to be a hasty trench line instead. All printed trench hexes are hasty trenches as well. Due to weight and tactical doctrine, neither side's MG platoons may move voluntarily unless forced to by combat results. The German reserve force may not move or fire until it is fired on or at least one British unit eneters Map 5 (including half hexes). Victory Conditions It's a British Major Victory if they are the sole occupants of Beaumont on Map 5. British Minor Victory if at least one platoon gets up on the hill around Beaumont. German Minor Victory if no British unit makes it on to Map 5, and a Major Victory if no British unit enters a stream hex on Map 1 by the end of the game. Aftermath The British artillery support was spotty and ineffectual. The two battalions making up the 2nd Rifle Brigade were decimated. Despite their losses, the British High Command chose to interpret the overall battle as one of "almost" and simply reconfirmed their tactical doctrine was up to speed. On the other side, the quick loss of the Neuve Chapelle shocked the Germans, revealing their current trench doctrine was inadequate. They promptly began strengthening their own front line, increasing the depth of the barbed wire, and constructing a second line, connected by deep communications trenches. All this paid handsome dividends when the British attacked again in the same fashion that Autumn, at a place called Loos.... Back to Art of War Issue # 22 Table of Contents Back to Art of War List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1995 by Clash of Arms Games. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com