From: Steven Bucey Subject: Messines, by Markham Designs Messines is another game from Markham Designs, the same guy who did Montcalm and Wolfe which he published not too long ago. Messines is about the battle near the city of that name in 1917. The following is an after action report of a play-test session between myself and David Carroll. Rob suggested that I post such in a blatent attempt at promotion :-) The German position was a salient which included Messines. The Allies, actually British Commonwealth forces, decided to try to literally blow a hole in the German line. For over a year Welsh miners dug tunnels under the German front line and packed the ends with explosives. The Germans knew something was up, so they pulled most of their forces back and left only a light screen in the main trenches. David Carroll and I played the short scenario on November 16. Here is how it went. David wanted to be the “first player,” so he took the Allies. We set up with secret mine placement. I scattered my line companies out along the first trench, then everything else more or less just behind the main line, except in the bulge where I fell back to the secondary trench. Dave then set up, concentrating his forces along the southern face of the salient along with all his armor assets. He opened the game with the Initial Bombardment, and at my suggestion, targeted all my artillery units. They really were his best targets, as none of my units were stacked. He managed to destroy all but one of my artillery units, which survived unscathed (but in a Partially Devastated hex). He stopped only for lack of shells, not unused gun tubes. (By the by, mine and intense artillery attacks can devastate the terrain in a hex). Then he then set off his mines. BOOM! It turned out he had concentrated his mines along the Northern and Southern flanks of the salient. In both places he tore up a lot of mud. Due to the secret placement, he missed a few of my line companies (he did get three, or maybe four), but a few remained to haunt him later. Also, to his chagrin, he disrupted more than a few of his own units. He had placed his units within his own trenches, so they were close and vulnerable, particularly as most mined hexes had two mines apiece! Nevertheless, he still had strong forces on both flanks and pushed forward, though perhaps not quite as hard as he should have. He used his remaining unused artillery, re-supplied, along with three airplanes, to plaster my remaining artillery unit. No counter-battery for me. On the plus side, all this shooting was moving the mud track very fast. So, it would be the only thing moving fast. On my side, I noticed a hole developing southeast of Messines, so during my first turn I started rushing reinforcements to that point. It seems I had deployed well everywhere but at that point, and David was taking advantage of it very well. There was really nothing for me to attack at any odds, so I mostly fell back to the second line where I could, except for some gallant volunteers who opted to hold the main line on the western face of the salient. Turn two saw more heavy fighting all along the line. David again flung his forces at the Northern and Southern flanks, and he was rewarded with minor success in the North and a breakthrough in the South, just southeast of Messines as I had feared. Artillery attacks had softened up the few units holding the line, and then the tanks busted it loose, squeezing between two pillbox positions nearly helpless to stop the rush. However, this concentration of effort weakened the line to the south (and I did warn him). With my turn two, the First Guards division fell upon the Allied right like a storm and blew the few allied units completely out of the main allied trench line. The lone reinforcing artillery unit even got some blood by bushwhacking a stack (???) of three allied artillery units. The whole line shifted north, and an attack against the lead allied unit in the Messines breakthrough taught it a lesson. By the start of turn three, the situation was clearly in doubt for the allies. The mud track was up near 9, aided by a turn two thunderstorm. The Messines breakthrough force was thus out of supply, though a supply truck was nearby, slugging through the devastated trenches. It had a slight chance of taking on the strong German unit in the southern hex of the city. A second spearhead was forcing its way east just east of Messines, and had a shot at entering the northern hex of the city during its second movement phase, though strong German units stood in its way. However, very little progress had been made elsewhere. The Northern line was holding well, while the far western portion of the salient line companies had delivered several checks to the allies, giving a good accounting of themselves. And there was the little matter of the vengeful 1G threatening to roll up the right flank, while fresh German reinforcements promised new things on the left flank. Checking the victory conditions, the Allies admitted defeat, as it was possible to obtain only two of the three conditions needed for victory. I have a new set of rules and plan another play-test as soon as I can get people to stop worrying about unimportant things such as school, trips, Christmas shopping, and other silly things. I mean, hey, don't they know that there is a war on here! Steve -- --------------------------------------- Always remember to pillage BEFORE you burn From: Robert Markham Subject: Re: Messines, by Markham Designs John Desch wrote: > > This sounds great, Steve. Would you give us the demograhics on the game? > How many counters, size of the map, complexity, etc. Thanks. > > John T. Desch > jtd4@cornell.edu > (607)255-2939 > (607)255-5058 (fax) > > John, Here are some specifics about the Messines game. Scale is 240 yards per hex and each unit is a battalion or regiment. There are also some German companies for the front trenches. There are two 13x19" maps with over 200 counters. There are two rules books - standard rules that are 5 pages and Messines rules that run another 4 pages. There are two scenarios - first day and campaign. Artillery is the centerpiece of the game with four different types of bombardment (saturation, standard, intermittant, and gas) possible. There are three types of guns - field, medium, and heavy with each best suited to certain roles. For Messines the addition of mines makes initial set up and play a real chess match. The key to victory is correct deployment and effective use of reserves. For the Allies, one of the key decisions is how much to bombard. It is very effective but it also destroys the drainage systems of the area and leads to a quagmire that with eliminated possiblites. For the German player, committment of reserves is the key. He has to guess correctly at the main points of attack by the British player before they have sufficently evolved to make the attack plan apparent. If anyone has questions about the game feel free to contact me, and thanks John for the interest. Rob Markham markham@cti.nai.net From: Doug Murphy Subject: Messines, by Markham Designs -Reply I'm also playtesting this game and since Steve went ahead, I'd thought to post results of our most recent game (with the new rules). My opponent took the Germans and I the British forces. We played the short scenario but followed the setup instructions which assigns each defending and attacking division to a particular sector of the trenchlines. It never occured to my opponent to set up in the secondary trenchline, while I inadvertently "telegraphed" my mine placement by placing my attacking units out of the 2-hex mine-effect range. I placed most of my mines around the salient of Messines itself and scattered a few up north. By the way, this is a two map game, but I cut the map and taped 'em together. Also reorganized the charts on one display. Back to the game...since he sets up first, mine placement let me blast the primary trenchlines and the units within. The mines worked as advertised, taking out nearly 2 entire divisions, complete with pillboxes, but devasting most of the ground (which would hamper the offensive by making tracing supply nearly impossible). Since most of the mined area was now a no-mans-land of partially and fully devastated hexes, I shifted focus a bit to attack at both edges of the salient, not really in a pincer move, but looking to roll up the flanks, since he didn't defend in depth (really not enough units to do so). With little else to shoot at, I used Initial Bombardment (which is really just a gigantic artillery barrage phase where you get to choose what flavor (heavy, medium or field) of arty you wish to use and for how long -- knowing you're burning up supply to fire) to target all of his arty units, killing some and disrupting others (the new rules make 'em harder to kill but "easier" to disrupt). I was lucky with weather and in producing no more "mud" by destroying the drainage system than I expected. More on this later. I shifted other units in a sort of conga line down my primary trench line to the two salient edges (one edge is messed up with a river/canal crossing the trenches so I was gummed up there but the other north of Messines, I broke cleanly through. Here is where some FtF psych got into play. As my units sought to pour through the "hole" in the north edge and contracted my "manned" trenchline (kind of like water pouring down a drain), my opponent was not affected by the carnage I'd caused his side and struck out in attacking my under-manned primary trenchline to the north & south. The 1 Guards came in right on time to the south, effectively sealing off that end of the salient by the canal, but blocked by the mined hexes from moving north (we argued a bit about rail movement -- could he move back off map via rail & in on the other side of Messines -- we decided no.) By now, a traffic jam of sorts limited my breakthrough north of Messines. I couldn't get supply trucks forward to enable me to expand LOS since I hadn't paid enough attention to their initial placement behind the lines. Now the mud index was also haunting me...and enough of his arty came back on-line to halt my spearheads. The situation now saw me having created a "reverse" salient covering Messines and the mined area of about 6 hexes...but it was a real killing ground for the remaining German arty, which I counterbatteried whenever I could. We ended the game at this point, not really sure what would've happened if we went on. The complete flexibility in planning arty is both disconcerting & a fun challenge to find the right "mix" -- neither side made much use of gas. Doug Murphy