The Battle of Dorking 1871 (Reminiscences of a Volunteer)

[Luddite]

Cheers chaps.

It's easy to get inspired and to be inspiring with the Pendraken miniatures in the frame!

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

It's easy to get inspired and to be inspiring with the Pendraken miniatures in the frame!

THAT wont get any Freebies though......

[Leon]

THAT wont get any Freebies though......

Might be enough to get his order sent out a bit quicker though...!   

[Luddite]

And so to the third and final wek of the Battle of Dorking, and as the afternoon wanes and the rain gets heavier, things are looking bleak for the British.  The Prussians have broken through to the west of Dorking, but there are enough British left to plug the gap, with an entire fresh division still on Box Hill to the east.

And the action opens at the Prussian breach.  The forces there reorder themselves after the hard fighting up the North Downs ridge and turn on the exposed flanks of the British to the west.



The British batallions striggle to redeploy as the raw troops and inexperienced commanders panic at the advance of the professional Prussian soldiers along the crest of the ridge.  The British reinforcements are tied up dealing with the Prussian division that arriaved from Guildford earlier in the afternoon.



And after a few more hours, as the rain fell harder and the light of the day began to wane, the British line collapsed completely.





The British division double-timed off of Box Hill, flooding in columns round the north of Dorking.  If only they could form a defensive line here they may yet halt the exhausted Prussian troops.



Unfortunately a fresh Prussian line had filed into position to meet and stop the British cold.  The Brave British men who only a week or two before had been farmhands and clerks  couldn't match the sheer ferocity of the close fighting of the Prussians and the attempted reinforcement was halted and fell into disarray.



Meanwhile, in Dorking itself, Prussian artillery finally told and the British guns broke opening the way for the main Prussian infantry assault on the town itself.  The British Guard batallions stepped up to meet the dastardly Bosh in the alleyways of the south of the town and held their lines well...



...but the raw conscripts to the west gave way under sustained Prussian artillery and nfantry fire opening the way into the north of the town.  Even the Prussian reserve heavy cavalry came out for a bit of the show!



Dorking was overrun, the North Downs ridge was open and as night fell, the remaining British troops broke and fled north into London.  Nohing now stood between the Prussian invaders and the surrender of the British government...it was all over. 


And so our battle had the same outcome as George Chesney's short story!  Interestingly, none of the players had read the story beforehand, but the battle played out almost exactly as it was described by Chesney.  Their deployments, and battle plans were almost identical.  The only difference i saw was that in Chesney's story, the guards come out of Dorking whereas the players ensured they remained in the town.

It was an excellent battle, lots of fun, and a real challenge for both sides.

Next up...Operation Sealion.   

[nikharwood]

Cracking stuff Luddite - even if those dastardly Prussians overcame our lads!

[Luddite]

Cheers Nik.

Aye it was a hard battle for both sides.  the Prussians struggled early on, getting across the terrain in good enough order to force their way through the British line.  But once they did break through and restore their order, it became almost impossible for the British to recover.

As i said, the players had no forewarning or foreknowledge of the book, but they deployed and formed battle plans that were almost identical to how George Chesney describes things happening!

Maybe he played Kreigspiel!!   

The British were hamstrung by poor commanders, which wasn't too bad while their original positions held, but once they needed to redeploy, the confusion that reigned meant they just couldn't bring enough reserves in.

Also, being raw troops against the trained Prussians (using Baccus' Polemos rules), once the Prussians got into close quarters, the British simply couldn't stand...as it should be?!

Overall, i'm happy that the project came off as i'd planned.  Now to use the figures for other things...just receives the French army from Leon, so i'll be painting that up for a bit of Franco-Prussian War action, and that'll give me three full colonial forces for my VSF strand...now to sort out the Martian forces.   

[Steve J]

I must say a nice set up write ups Luddite . I'm a great fan of 'what if?' type conflicts as it's a good way of using troops you like that often didn't get to fight each other. Also good that they will form the core of your VSF forces. What will you use for the Martians?

[Luddite]

Well i've already got a core of 'beast man' type Martians (supported by Minotaurs and spiders).  These i've seen as spawn slaves of the 'cephalim overlords' (and their machines).

On my VSF Mars there are three main races;

1.  The beastmen

Figures used:  Fantasy beasment / minotaurs / spiders.

2.  The cephalim (in their decadent and failing ziggurat cities connected by ancient canals).  They are puser-intelligent and build the tripods and other machines, as well as using the beastmen as slave labour.

Figures used:  Unsure yet.  Possibly the Dungeon monsters rangs -DN6 Evil trapper, or DN11 Floating squid (Leon, any chance of HG Wells MArtian figures?   ).  Not sure what i'll do for the 'metal men' (robots and tripods yet.  I know Pendraken do Tripods but they're based on Jeff Wayne-era images and i want something closer to what HG Wells describes.  I may have to look at scratch-builds.

3.  'Red Men' Nomadic sand dwellers that roam the dying deserts and wastes looking for technology from the 'old times' (before Mars started to die).

Figures used:  I'm planning to use a mix of Afghan tribesmen from the 'Colonial 1890's North West Frontier' range, perhaps with some bits and bobs mixed in from other ranges.  Inotice there's a range of 'Giant Sand Worms', so i might include these in a bit of 'Fremen' type action.  Any chance of some pictures of these worms Leon?

The plan is to have Germany, France and Britain in a 'scramble fo Mars' colonial campaign, resisted by a coalition of the various Martian factions, forced to cooperate by the Earthman invasions.  Of course the cephalim have rockets with which to launch a counter invasion!  

[Leon]

I know Pendraken do Tripods but they're based on Jeff Wayne-era images and i want something closer to what HG Wells describes.  I may have to look at scratch-builds.

That's not what the 'Estate of HG Wells' thought...   

I notice there's a range of 'Giant Sand Worms', so i might include these in a bit of 'Fremen' type action.  Any chance of some pictures of these worms Leon?

There's a couple here which BlackEd entered in the Painting Comp:

[Pruneau]

Excellent write up all the way through, Luddite!  I enjoyed that a lot!  Not sure if the Prussians were already called the Bosch back then though 

[Luddite]

Not sure if the Prussians were already called the Bosch back then though 

Agreed.  Boche wasn't used until WWI.  Hun was around since about 1900 i think.  I suppose at the time it would have been 'Dutch'? 

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

Hun was around since about 1900 i think.   

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

Woops - finger trouble. Meant to say that the term Hun comes from 1914, George V I think, described the German army as a horde of ravening huns,m or somthing similar.

IanS

[Luddite]

Woops - finger trouble. Meant to say that the term Hun comes from 1914, George V I think, described the German army as a horde of ravening huns,m or somthing similar.

IanS

Really?

I thought it came from Kaiser Willhelm II's 'Hun' speech in 1900.

http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/sub_document.cfm?document_id=755  


@Leon

Cheers for the worm pic mate.  Lovely!

[brothercrow]

Well, a truly marvellous game - something unexpected...

I was British Commander in Chief for my sins...our brief was to hold the line, and to ensure that Dorking did not fall. We deployed across the width of the table, and secured Dorking itself with our elite Highland unit.

Unfortunately, our scouting wasn't what it should be, and we deployed a good chunk of our force to defend a river which turned out to be uncross-able. Our in-efficient command structure meant redeploying wasn't a viable option, a nightmare scenario....eventually our brave volunteers fell to the might of the Prussian Military Machine!

An excellent game overall, using the Polemos rules from Baccus. Rules are interesting, with a lot of really good ideas, though I can't help but think they are perhaps a little clunky in places - perhaps it's my age, but i don't really enjoy a mathematics when working out combat results!

That's only a minor point though, and an excellent game was had by all!

Tonight we're giving the GHQ Microarmour rules another bash after a successful first attempt - we're playing a rather large Battle of the Bulge scenario, using Pendraken figs of course....!!!!