Cooee Cobber ~ Gallipoli Trench Raid

Our club has a new home and last night I attended our inaugural meeting and played a game of Through the Mud and the Blood, a WW1 game by the chaps from Lard Island. The game was set during the failed Allied landings at Gallipoli in 1915.

The scenario  had men of the Australian Light Horse mounting a night raid on the Turkish trenches in a bid to gain intelligence prior to a general attack. This is only the second WW1 game that I've ever played. They first was about 20 years ago in Sydney and also involved the Australian Light Horse and Johnny Turk. 

All of the figures and terrain were supplied by John S and all of the these pics were taken by him. My fellow ANZAC commander was Lorne and our fez wearing, full bodied coffee drinking opponents were Leith and Richard.

The following text is also by John & lifted directly from our club's Facebook page:

The ANZACs made three breaks in the wire and initially snuck forward on a moonlit night without the Ottomans spotting them.

Some sections were astute enough to be able to sketch out the defences without having to enter the labyrinth. Some sections made it to the trenches before the alarm was raised. The veteran ANZACs had the best of a sharp fight in the south but could not overpower a sentry in the north.

The ANZACs started taking a few casualties but the Vickers HMG bested their Ottoman opposition; driving the Turkish gunners away. This helped them get away with the scouting info. One section of ANZACs nearly got wiped out. These men were not helped by having a plan so doubly cunning that they did not even know it was a plan.

But overall the ANZAC casualties were light as the Ottoman reserve squads arrived just too late. Success to the ANZACs!

L - R Leith, Richard (a different John), Lorne and me without a head.

The terrain and figures were absolutely first class. All of the terrain was 3D printed by John (not the John pictured above). It was a great scenario and it was good to have played a WW1 game that didn't involve all of the mass death and destruction that one would normally associate with that conflict.

Thanks to John S and the other players for a great game in our new home.