Also the Allies learning about combined arms as shown at Le Hamel

I know the British and Commonwealth troops took their highest casualties in 1918, right up to the chiming of 11 o'clock. The French, however, lost 250,000 in the first few weeks in 1914 as they tried to refight the FPW in reverse, i.e. attack. The Germans however had better machine guns than those of 1870 and seemed to have a much better understanding of how to use them.

Quote from: Dour Puritan on 10 June 2013, 03:44:13 PM
I know the British and Commonwealth troops took their highest casualties in 1918, right up to the chiming of 11 o'clock. The French, however, lost 250,000 in the first few weeks in 1914 as they tried to refight the FPW in reverse, i.e. attack. The Germans however had better machine guns than those of 1870 and seemed to have a much better understanding of how to use them.

This is quite correct.  It may be that the national experience - ie high British Empire losses in 1918 - has coloured our history. The BEF in 1914 was a modest force whilst in 1918 Britian had a much larger army and on the offensive.

The real prophet of WW1 was Kitchener.  He predicted a long bloody struggle whilst the general mood was that modern industrial nations could not sustain such a drain on their interlinked economies.

For those interested, there is a feature in the July edition (363) of Miniature Wargames (with Battlegames) using Pendraken WWI figures and models.
It covers a wargame recreating the British attack on the Messines ridge in June 1917. There are some interesting ideas including terrain, events and command and control, especially with respect to artillery.

Quote from: Albie Bach on 28 June 2013, 02:32:33 PM
For those interested, there is a feature in the July edition (363) of Miniature Wargames (with Battlegames) using Pendraken WWI figures and models.
It covers a wargame recreating the British attack on the Messines ridge in June 1917. There are some interesting ideas including terrain, events and command and control, especially with respect to artillery.