It is hot . . . damned hot. Hotter than Auntie Trudii`s paprika soup. Hotter than the water Kapitan Brandt got into over the Archduke's governess. Yes, you are in the desert. You fully expected, Lt Von Flaschmann, that in your disgrace you would be invited to Join a penal unit on the Isonzo Front. Well that is what was intended, but a combination of typing errors and bribery got you posted instead to the KuK SeeJager Kompagnie du Levant; a small detachment of assorted naval criminals and no hopers shipped out to Palestine to assist our gallant Turkish allies in their efforts against the British, Australians and Arabs. Thus you find yourself, in a sweltering little mud fort, somewhere in Palestine, guarding a railway bridge over a dried up river. You are in command of about 50 Austrians, Croats and Hingarians and are running low on both ammunition, and schnapps when suddenly, nothing happens, it just gets hotter ....... In now honoured tradition, you want to get away from it all, preferably somewhere cooler and where they serve coffee that you can drink, not use to repair holes in your boots. Every few days, something may happen, equally it might not. Part 1 - Somewhere in Palestine 1,2 Nothing happens, on a further 1,2 one of your Hungarian marines goes crazy with the heat - reduce your unit by 1 man. 3 You have put to out a patrol to guard the rail line from the arabs. Send out a 10 man section and roll a d6 after 2 days. On a 1,2 they all come back, on 3,4,5 they come back less d6 men, on 6 they don't come back at all.... 4 The arabs try to blow up the bridge. Roll a d6; on a 1, the first thing you know about it is a loud explosion, you no longer have a firewood shortage. On a 2,3 your sentry is alert and you can try to drive them off with mg fire. On a 4,5,6 the arab idea of a sneak attack is to gallop in like mad shooting from their horses, each turn the fight lasts, they can try and blow the bridge on a 6. 5 Cranked up with religious fervour and British ammunition the arabs decide to attack the fort (see below). 6 The Kuk prides itself, it always gets it`s orders through . . . . 1,2 They believe that there is "a possibility that local bedouin may have been suborned by the British. This may tlireaten the Berlin-Bagdhad rail-line. Demonstrate in strength to impress the bedouin in short, put out a strong patrol along the rail-line (as above but send 20 men, rolling for each 10 men unit). 3,4 You are overflown by a German spotter plane which drops a message and a bottle of schnapps. A local village id the focus of a gathering of arabs, you must attack it and disperse them. It is two days away. Roll twice per day: 1,2,3 Nothing 4,5 Arabs spotted on the horizon (+1 next roll) 6 Attack by arabs If you attack the village or are attacked en route, fight it out as per defending the fort; if they break, you take the village or beat them off; if you break, it is time for a fighting withdrawal across the desert - roll twice a day at +2 and fight them off again until overun . . . . 5 The Turkish garrison of a vital coastal fort has been withdrawn to the Dardanelles, you are ordered to replace them. 6 Blow up the bridge and retreat to the coast.. Australian columns have made this sector untenable. Part II, Somewhere on the Levantine Coast. You hold a collection of derelict Ottoman buildings surrounded by some trenches, bunkers and a few bits of barbed wire. You also have a small gun boat and a field gun. The rail line still heads north; more importantly, it is cooler! 1 Nothing, much happens 2 The Royal Navy shows up one fine morning and shells you. Lose d6 casualties and roll for the gun (5,6 it is blown up) and the Gunboat (1,2 no damage, 3,4,5 damaged, 6 sunk) 3 There are rumours that the British are landing guns to the Arabs, send out a patrol in a gunboat. On a 1 or 2 it comes back a few days later, nothing having happened, on a 3,4 it meets some arab dhows, d6 in number 1,2,3 hostile (see below), 4,5,6 they sail off sharpish - report them as disguised British vessels and hope for a medal; on a 6 the gunboat meets the RN In-shore Flotilla and a swift but glorious end. 4 The RAF spoils a lovely afternoon by strafing. the fort, lose d6 casualties, the gun is knocked out on a 6; if you roll a 56 you display insane bravery leading an MG crew as they shoot down a plane. 5 The fort is attacked. On a 1,2 Arabs, 3,4 Arabs and some stokes mortars 5 Aussie Light Horse , 6 Aussie Light Horse & A/Cs - see below 6 Special Events 1 You are rescued from oblivion and assigned to Istanbul. You have an easy life of it, liasing with a Turkish Marine Battalion, until HQ remember that you have spent months guarding a rail way line. You must know about trains ! You and your troops are posted to Prague to form the Kuk Panzer Locomotif Kompagnie - training consists of shovelling coal an awful lot 2 A typing error promotes you to Hauptmann in a Galician Polish Jager Regiment. You are posted to the Galician Front. Uh oh, no woolly socks. 3,4 A telegraph message is received as follows. . . "heaving tacks in your sector. Old tills, relive oven, denier anemone real facsimile". St Radowski's morse was always bad. You realise the message was "Heavy attack expected in your sector; hold until relieved or overun. Deny enemy rail facilities" when an Australian Cavalry Brigade appears one morning. 5, 6 The appearance of columns of troops begging it northwards suggests all is far from well; as shells start hitting the fort you decide that you had better use your troops as a mobile reserve - piling into the gunboat you head north up the coast. Roll as per patrol above to see if you meet any Dhows, if you survive, you make landfall in Istanbul. After a short enquiry, the Naval attache decides that you abandoned your command and posts you to the Danubian Flotilla! Short sharp rules for short sharp battles: Defending the fort. Keep a total of the number of troops you have. They fire in squads of 5; each squad roll a d6 (-3 if only 3 men strong); if it has an mg, roll 2d6 (or allocate 2 men per mg as crew) - this is the number of casualties inflicted on the enemy. It is halved against dismounted Aussie troopers who go to ground; doubled against arabs charging. Your gun needs 5 crew and hits on a 5,6, +1 per turn firing against a stationary target (eg village, gun etc), a hit scores 2d6 losses. Each turn test for casualties on your gallant band: All Arabs Dismounted Aus. A/C or Mortars in open 5,6 (6 if mtd) 4,5,6 3,4,5,6 cover 6 6 5,6 A/c`s or mortars inflict 1-3 losses, small arms 1 loss. Artillery hits on a 6 and causes d6 losses. Allocate losses randomly to your squads. If you wish, draw up a map of the position and mark out the location of squads. Thus you should inflcit more losses, but you have fewer men to start with. At the end of each action roll 2d6 per mg, on a gouble it is useless (jammed/overheated/out of ammo). The enemy may attack in a number of styles: Arabs - 1,2,3 mad charge; 4,5,6 dismounted skirmishing and shooting. Ausies - 1,2,3,4,5 dismount and fire, 6 Charge! Each turn roll d100 - if you roll less than the casualties inflicted, the enemy break off the action. The Aussies have +15% on the roll. Charging enemies reach your position in 4 turns. If you do not break them first. Arabs against the mud fort get d6 mn over the walls per turn - these are deducted from the casualty total; as they run amok with swords and have to be finished off with the bayonet, detracting from the men firing over the walls. Against trenches, both arabs and aussies ride over the top straight into melee. To resolve a melee, fight out another turns shooting, if the enemy break, you have seen them off; if not, they overrun you. You can be heroic and stand in the middle of the compound shooting men out of the saddle with abroomhandle Mauser; if you do, add an extra 2d6 to the casualty total, but on a double 2 you are wounded and disheartened, the lads give up. On a double 6 you are wounded but can still encourgae the lads to fight on and you earn a medal and a promotion (your witness is Fahrenjunker von Apern-Essling who, being too small to notice survives easily). Gunboat vs Dhows Roll for casualties as per normal; when rolling against the total of casualties, a result of less than 20% of the total sinks the dhow, if they just merely fail, the dhow pulls away. The gunboat`s 2pdr rolls d6, 6 sinks a dhow outright, 5,6 adds 3d6 hits, otherwise misses. Dhows cannot sink the gunboat, but they still score casualties, d6 per dhow, 1,2,3 none, 4,5 = 1, 6 = 2 hits. If you meet the RN, it is all up unless you roll a 5,6 - in which case you escape under cover of night. If captured you are lucky; your fame goes before you (daring pilot, hero of the Danube Flotilla etc.) so you are a celebrity and get exchanged for a port raddled British General. With haste you then get transferred to the Galician Front in charge of Transylvanian Engineers. Related Von Flaschmann: Part I Von Flaschmann: Part II Von Flaschmann: Part III Von Flaschmann: Part IV Von Flaschmann: Part V Very Simple Gunboat Rules Back to The Gauntlet No. 13 Table of Contents Back to The Gauntlet List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 1998 by Craig Martelle Publications 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