Battle for Goscieradow

This is a test run of the scenario being developed for the Great War Spearhead II Scenario book that will encompass the Austrian-Hungarian Empires struggles against Serbia and Russian in August 1914.

This battle takes place in Galicia (present day Poland), and is centered on the meeting engagement between the Austrian 5th Infantry Division along with the 46th Landwehr Division against the Russian 18th Infantry division, in and around the villages of Goscieradow, Goscieradow-Kolonia and Marnopole.

In my opening post I put up some photos of the initial layout of the battle field and starting forces.

When one uses Great War Spearhead II it is important to understand how orders are used as well as Command Zone and order arrows. When a player gives an order to his troops he/she must assign an order (Attack, Defend, Reserve, Timed) and then draw an arrow. The arrow head, and line if on attack, is important because the HQ of the unit must a) follow the arrow line that points to where they are going and b) must end up at the end of the arrow. The Command Zone allows a Regimental commander to use a span of control of the regiment out to 12 inches from the HQ base. The flexibility of the Regiment Commander is in their ability to move their companies as required in that Command Zone bubble while following the orders they are give. If on defend orders you cannot move your companies until you sight the enemy. Artillery only uses Forward Observers (FO's) if they are "brigaded" on table. Off board artillery is called in by any fighting stand. This should give some idea of the basis to move on with.

The Table:
This area is covered by huge tracts of forest that is a problem for sighting and movement of wagons, guns, vehicles but less so for infantry and cavalry. Thus the rule for the battle is that infantry and cavalry can move full speed, artillery etc move at 1/2 speed. Also, there was under brush but not so dense as to be considered pristine or virgin, but enough to break up melee to a degree so any melee attacks will be at a -1 modifier against the attacker.

The Commanders:
To protect the innocent we will call the Austrian "Franz" and the Russian "Igor".

Both commanders have roughly the same orders at start, they are both moving towards contact with enemy forces, but they have no idea where the enemy actually is. The Russian 18th Division is the lead element of their Corps and are pushing out to gain contact with the Austrians. They had no idea that they were about to encounter 2/3rds of an Austrian Corps.

Igor started the game with 3 Regiments of his 4 on the table. One regiment is located in Goscieradow itself. These troops were in a static position to start as they were maintaining a presence on the main roads just in case. The other two regiments were moving through the large forest between Goscieradow and Marnopole. These two regiments both were to be on attack orders as they were moving south to try and stop Austrian forces. Igor decided to leave his 1st Regiment in a defensive stance in Goscieradow waiting for his 4th Regiment to enter the table once he had an idea of the situation. He left the 4th Regiment in Reserve and had the 2nd and 3rd Regiments advance on the attack straight ahead to the edge of the high ground approximately 12 to 16 inches to their front. Igor was ready to go and had only one question "can I dig in?" I told him no there was no digging in, but that the road on both sides of the village of Goscieradow was lined with hedge that gave a +1 to his defense against direct fire.

Franz was looking at his forces, 5th div had 4 regiments while the 46th LW had 5. He also had at his disposal a regiment of 15cm howtizers. Franz had 2 regiments on table at start from each divison. The 5th deployed on each side of Goscieradow-Kolonia their two starting regiments and the divisions howitzer regiment (104mm). The 46th deployed on the low ground almost directing to the south of the Russian 2nd and 3rd regiments. Franz chose to move at full speed on attack orders for both divisions with the 1sst Regt of the 5th moving to west of Goscieradow and the 2nd into the village itself. The follow on Regiments were timed to enter on turn 3 and he chose to move both of these into position with the 3rd just south of Goscieradow and the 4th to the east of the village. His 46th had 3 regiments to enter the game on timed orders, 2 on turn 3 and 1 on turn 5. His orders for all the first four was to move to the edge of the forest along their front. The 5th Regiment was to occupy Marnopole.

So we were set.

Dice were rolled and the Austrians won the initiative and took it!
Moving as quickly as possible, Franz pushed out his regiments using terrain if available but moving at full speed.

Austrian 1st Regt, 5th Div, moves past Goscieradow-Kolonia, they are at the edge of the field limiting the ability of the Russians to site them due to cover. You can see Goscieradow in the distance.

Austrian 2nd Regt, 5th Div, moves towards Goscieradow, due to the heights in front they could see little and so used the Divisional Cavalry to act as reconnaissance.

Austrian 1st Regt, 46th LW, dense forest limits sighting to 4inches, cavalry pushed out but still no contact! Although a keen eye can spot the Russian regiment in the back ground :)

Russian 3rd Regt, 18th Div moving through the forest but they were just beyond sighting range to be able to open fire.

Russian 2nd Regt, 18th Div have the height and its gonna be ugly for the Austrians I think.

Thinking the woods would slow his guns, Igor moves his artillery that is supporting 2nd Regt around the forest over the fields to try and save time and get into action faster - we will see.

1st Regt, 18th Div, lined up and around Goscieradow. Sitting behind the hedges confident in knowing they have a good reserve.

First turn revealed the enemy in the woods, but no action. Next turn would start the real fighting. Comments from Igor - "does he get more troops?" and "what the hell are those?" as he looked at the 104mm howitzer regiment. Comments from Franz "why am I always attacking up hill!"

Turn 2

As contact is made across the line the commanders look along the table length with thoughts ranging from Ivans "my guns can fire this turn right?" to Franz comment  of "those hills are gonna be the death of me". The Austrians won the initiative and started to sweep forward trying to engage the Russians as soon as possible.

Austrian 1st Regt, 5th Div, great shot of them advancing towards the Russians.

Here is the 1st and Goscieradow in the distance, the cavalry patrol has spotted the Russians.

2nd Regt, 5th Division is alerted by the Cavalry patrol and move to better firing positions.

1st of the 46th LW crash into the Russians on the heights.

2nd of the 46th also gains the Russian line.

Good shot that gives view of the Austrian contact!

Ivan did little to react, he asked when he can change the orders of 1st Regt in Goscieradow and I told him at the end of the combat and morale phase. He asked if his guns could open up and I said not if they moved, he nodded and then scribbled to me - can I brigade them if they are within 1inch of each other. I gave him a tick mark to indicate he could. His disposition was little changed and we started with the shooting, moving to hand to hand after all shooting was done.

Russian 2nd Regt pivots in place to bring more weapons to bear on the Austrian 2nd of the 5th.

The third battery is obscured but all three batteries are deployed within 1 inch and have deployed a FO.

Firing done, hand to hand done and whats this! The Austrian 2nd of the 46th swept away the Russians. The shooting had done its job but when the Russians went to finish with the bayonet the  Czech and Poles soldiering for Austria, they lost the fights!

Not so well was the result for the 1st of the 46th, shot up as they came into contact, the Russians finished the fights in a deadly way destroying the better part of a 4 companies and both cavalry squadrons.

Light contact was made between the flank elements of Russian 2nd Regt and the 2nd Regt of 5th division for the Austrians. In an initial exchange of fire the Austrians came off slightly better but the fight was young. No hand to hand here as the units were not close enough to close. Next turn could prove difficult for the Russian 2nd Regt.

A shot from the rear of 1st Regt, 5th Div. You can see the explosion marker where Russian artillery opened fire and destroyed the cavalry squadron operating as a reconnaissance screen. No other contact was possible.

The Austrians managed to unlimber their 104mm howitzer regiment and had the FO deploy into Goscieradow-Kolonia.

Igor tried to change orders for the 1st Regt, but failed, he intended to launch them into the 1st of the 5th, maybe the Regimental commander ignored the order knowing the Austrians were about to launch into him regardless! Igor toyed with the Reserve Regiment but he said he would wait until next turn to see what happens.

Franz looked at his line, he had failed to remove any disorders which left his 1st Regt 46th rather weak but didn't have much he could do at this point and he also knew that next turn he would have 2 Regts coming on the table to support the attack!

Turn 3