Chrisrchurch Battlegroup

Some pictures from a group of fellow enthusiasts... 

David Clarkson, his son Simon and friends introduced me to CD. I had recently left service and met them quite by chance. We had a lot of good times and historical discussions, Mr C had the most amazing library :)

This is a WW1 games being played out at the Battlegroup using the trench system that David Russell and me have spent a bit of time on over the years

Using a slightly modified version of CD Over the Top rules

Good times, great company. Thanks for sharing Dave.

Trench Setup

Bit of a layout from Dave for you all...

Great War games don't usually have too many roads to help with map scale, so most layouts start with villages (or what's left of them) hills or redoubts, anything that can help with the placement of scenery relative to how is was on the day, or as near to it as possible

CD allows for a maximum of x1 communication trench per module

The heights = to 50-75 yards in actual elevation 

Layouts like this are not that common as usually both sides have a continuous front line; one like this would normally be a bit more scenario specific 

Buildings can represent a small farm to a village or reasonably large town depending on how they are placed

The obligatory wire 

x1 line of wire is fairly standard but it can be found up to x4 deep; which without armour usually makes for pretty hard work on any attacking infantry

Still, if you're defending you can never have enough :)

In set piece games gaps are usually cleared in the wire in front of the infantry jump off points

In CD, tanks breakdown on a D6 roll of 1 or 2 anytime they move off-road, which is reduced to just a 1 in games set in 1918, owing to the improved design of the beasties

Between our two sets (of trenches) me and Dave could easily do some of the largest battles of the Great War - well, the first couple of days of them anyway :)

Trench Detailing

 Next installment from master-trench-scenery-maker-extraordinaire Dave Russell

Dave often makes small jigs to help with mass production, oh... and his children sometimes too :)

Adding minor details to the trench walls

As always figures used here and there to test scale

Liberal use of PVA glue, which works really well with the Crazy Clay

Two 30 man infantry platoons in roughly a 100 yard stretch of trench, CD does break down here a little at times as the maximum view along a trench is 2"or 100 yards, though sensible house rules usually negate this problem well enough

Nice little details like this give the trench system a bit more of a realistic appearance 

I think these doors may have been liberated from the Pegasus Russian Farm House set?

Coloured, textured and manned

Dave's trench setup is way more detailed than mine, and about twice the size. You can see a picture of my full layout here http://20thcenturywargames.blogspot.com.au/2009/10/demo-game-actual.html

Hope these couple of posts have inspired any WW1 wargamers to have a crack at some trenches of their own. They can be a little difficult to create but they really do change the level of detail and variety to can achieve with your games. If you look through the 'Games'label on this site you will find a few more examples of our games and the trenches we use