The biggest WWI battle in Africa: Mahiwa (1917)

On Easter Monday, we returned to the fascinating sideshow that was East Africa in WWI, where von Lettow-Vorbeck's German Schutztruppe led vastly larger British Empire forces on a merry dance for the whole duration of the war.

This book has been on my shelves since I was about 15 - now at last I am wargaming it!

Anton has already given us two African WWI offerings: Tabora and Otavi. Those were mere appetizers for this week's game, the largest battle of the campaign: Mahiwa. I think many wargamers are familiar with Tanga, the 'Battle of the Bees', but few of us will know of the larger and bloodier engagement at Mahiwa - I certainly had not heard of it.

The gist is that British Empire forces were chasing much smaller German columns around what is now southern Tanzania; three Nigerian battalions bumped into a column under General Wahle; von Lettow saw an opportunity to inflict a serious defeat on this Nigerian force, did so, but this then developed into a more general battle as more British Empire forces arrived. Although the Germans inflicted 2,700 casualties for the loss of only 500 or so of their own, the German losses were irreplaceable, whereas the British were not. Nevertheless, von Lettow continued to cause mischief all across East Africa for more than a year thereafter.

How did our game go? Herewith a dozen or so annotated photos, followed by some reflections. (Actually, we played it one and a half times, with a few scenario modifications after the first full go.)

First, a treeless and troop-less panorama just to get you oriented. Top edge is north; 5'x4' table is about 6 miles x 5. Bush gives cover everywhere but without limiting LOS. The Nigerian brigade starts dug-in on the two hills north of the central marsh. Buildings are landmarks. Wahle's column deploys within 6" of Nyangao, on the east edge, ready to attack the Nigerians. Von Lettow's column arrives along the road via Mkwera, lower left corner. Mahiwa itself is at the southern end of the marsh. The other three British brigades will arrive from the east edge on Turns 3 and 5 (later amended to 3 and 4).

Trees and white objective counters added. There should be one on the top hill as well. Also, the Germans can earn one or two objectives for exiting one or two units off the SW corner at the end. The Nigerian-held hills are 'highwater mark' objectives - i.e., the Germans get a victory point just for taking them, they don't have to keep them. Germans needed 3 for a draw or 4 for a win (later amended this to 4 for a draw or 5 for a win).

Colonel Mann motivating his 1st & 2nd Nigerian battalions. Figures are Baccus 6mm Colonials from Mark's collection. (Before you complain about his unflocked bases, be glad that they will make it easier for you to follow the action in this game, as the Germans are on green ones!) Troop scale for this scenario is 125 men per base, so these British battalions have 600 men each.

Von Lettow-Vorbeck leads his column into Mkwera. Figures are Irregular 6mm Boers from Anton's collection - suitably scruffy for the Schutztruppe after three years without any supplies from home. They are skilled veterans by now, though, so they get the Skirmisher rating and are far superior to the mainly Raw and Fragile British forces. It's quality versus quantity - the Germans are outnumbered two to one in this battle.

Wahle's force deploys to assault the Nigerian positions. No subtle tactics from Anton here! The German units are 2-base companies of ~250 men. The base with the red fluff is a half-base MG unit representing 2 or 3 machine-guns.

Anton's force has crossed the river (top right) to advance into the teeth of the Nigerian fire. The northernmost Nigerian battalion has descended on Anton's flank. Three of his six companies have been wiped out on the first turn. Fortunately, Von Lettow's column is shaking out (lower left) and lending fire support, so two Nigerian battalions have also suffered serious casualties and are Spent (black fluff)

'The African Queen'! This is one of the 6" guns the Germans salvaged from the cruiser Koenigsberg (an episode that doesn't really have much to do with the classic movie, The African Queen, but I like to think it does).

Turn 3. (Looking east now.) Masses of Brits (actually mostly King's African Rifles or Indian troops) have appeared behind Anton, whose remaining two companies nevertheless fight a game delaying action on the hilltop road. Mark's Nigerians are mostly wiped out too. As von Lettow, I have started pushing a couple of companies left through the marsh to try to sneak onto the Nigerian hill, while most of my force screens the line of retreat back through Mahiwa and Mkwera.

Start of German Turn 5. The British line has advanced, but slowly, delayed by Anton's valiant rearguard as well as by the terrain. (We later deleted the minor stream branches on the right of this pic.)

On Turn 5, my lads have got into the marsh but they won't be advancing out of it - too many Lee-Enfields lined up in front of them. But at least we've diverted several British battalions away from pressing down the road.

That said, the last British brigade - including the cavalry and the best British battalion on the table (55th Rifles - they get flags and skirmishers!) - is doing its best to push through the middle.

Slow going for the British left on the southern flank.

But now the British right outflanks my left. Those two companies in the marsh are doomed. Will the Brits be able to seize the strategic height of Mremba Hill behind them? Fortunately, my reserve company bottom right will preempt the British advance and hold that objective.

And on the right, the British advance grinds to a halt, as two battalions suffer heavy casualties and are Spent (which is why the Germans are now Low on Ammo - brown fluff).

The first game therefore ended in a German victory. We agreed it was a little too hard for the British even to get a draw, so we made a few changes. Anton and I had time to push units around for another half a game, with different plans and scenario tweaks - not enough to absolutely confirm that the tweaks balance it properly, but enough to demonstrate that different plans are possible and the game can go very differently. Well worth playing again.

Reflections

Battlefield geometry. Anton really has an eye for the shape of a battle and the resulting structure of a scenario. In last week's report on Braga (1809), I commented on the virtues of games that 'use the whole pitch'. That very much applies to Mahiwa, where first the Nigerians are sandwiched, then Wahle's sandwichers become sandwichees. The 'highwater mark' objectives, plus the end-of-game retreat objectives, also stretch the action across the pitch. That complex geometry makes for lots of options and lots of decisions.

Multi-day battles - greater than the sum of the parts. Mahiwa was not a single-day, set-piece battle. It was a series of actions spread across 15-18 October 1917. By taking advantage of BBB's elastic scale and compressing all these into an 8-turn game, Anton has made a great scenario and managed to represent an important but neglected battle, whose component actions would not have been nearly as interesting if tackled individually.

Hurrah for the esoteric and obscure! Of course, we all want to fight Waterloo, or Gettysburg, or Borodino, or Koeniggraetz - surely no serious historical wargamer's gaming career would be complete without the likes of these on his CV - but it is also wonderful to game battles we've never heard of and know nothing about. There is the joy of discovery, the pleasure of learning, often spiced with unique or bizarre incidents or larger-than-life characters. And the tactical challenges are entirely fresh too (no more "of course he should never have attacked Hougoumont"). Thank you, Anton, for helping us to explore another hidden corner of history.

Beware the grape-scissors! Portuguese militia at Braga (1809)

The Peninsular War of 1807-1814 gets plenty of tabletop exposure. However, for obvious and understandable reasons, Peninsular wargames tend to focus on battles where British forces were involved. Occasionally we see a game that just has French vs Spanish. But for our game this week, Mark offered us a true rarity: the battle of Braga (1809), which pitted Soult's much-diminished French II Corps against a purely Portuguese force, predominantly made up of half-armed and quarter-trained - but occasionally ferocious - ordenanza levies.

It's an interesting match-up. Not only is it fairly extreme in terms of French quality versus Portuguese quantity, but the French have to attack a lightly fortified defensive position held by twice their numbers. It produced a really absorbing game, so much so that I only took five photos. I'll do my best to describe it from these.

The photo above is a close-up of the French assault on the village of Lanhozo, of which more later. Figures are Baccus 6mm from Mark's collection.

Here's the battlefield to get you oriented. The pic is taken a couple of turns into the action. The main Portuguese positions are on the two big ridges, Monte Adaufe (lower left) and Monte Vallongo (running diagonally from bottom centre to top right corner). These are steep hills. They are the Level 2 contour; Level 1 is denoted by the dark grey strips that create another steep slope all around the two ridges.

The two ridges are Objectives (white counters), held by whoever has most units on them at game end. There are three other Objectives, all villages: Lanhozo by the bridge at top centre, between the two halves of the French force; Carvalho d'Este, on the main road axis, by that giant hand; and Palmera, in the Portuguese rear, bottom left.

The French are divided into two wings. Heudelet's and Delaborde's divisions start on table, roughly between Lanhozo and Carvalho, facing the Portuguese left. Mermet's division arrives Turn 1 from the top right.

The Portuguese must deploy on the two ridges but have the option of deploying a unit in Lanhozo. We Portuguese players chose to do this to distract and delay the French advance. We also posted a 'speed bump' unit to do the same on the far top right tip of Monte Vallongo. The rest formed up in rough lines behind V-shaped redoubts. These were 'Rifle Pits' in BBB terms, just 1 level of cover.

A Portuguese ordonenza unit together with a friendly battery on Monte Vallongo. The ordonenza's poor armament is indicated by the scythe-men in the back rank. Very versatile figures, these - they've served as Tyrolean rebels, Hungarian national guards, Spanish guerrillas ... a good investment. We said it was not their scythes but their grape scissors that the French truly feared. They are rated Raw and Fragile with Ragged Volleys, but because they could be ferocious (they murdered the Portuguese C-in-C prior to the battle because they learned he didn't want to stand and fight, and some of them did give the French a serious scare at one point), we could reveal one of these units to be Aggressive instead during the battle - a potentially nasty surprise.

Apart from these, the Portuguese have one slightly better unit of properly organised militia (no Ragged Volleys penalty) and one actual decent unit, the British-trained Loyal Lusitanian Legion (Trained and with a Skirmisher). The LLL's commander, Baron von Eben, had to act as C-in-C following his predecessor's unfortunate demise.

The core of the Portuguese position on Monte Adaufe. Top left unit is Baron von Eben and the LLL - they merit flags!

Shot of one of the two critical Portuguese delaying actions, that by the scythemen on the tip of Monte Vallongo. Trying to advance swiftly, the French unit in column of march (top of pic) had exposed itself to a Portuguese charge. The ordonenza duly obliged, succeeding in killing a base and driving the French back Disrupted (yellow cube). To add to the French disarray, Mermet is knocked over to show that he is out of action for a turn, having been caught up in this embarassment.

The French did then chase these ordonenza off the hill so they could press on to clear the redoubts, but it continued to loiter and be a nuisance, so some of them had to turn around and beat it up. They failed to kill it off entirely, so at game end it was still lurking to contest their ownership of the ridge.

Similar story with the ordonenza in Lanhozo in the first pic. That French assault expelled them, but the French neglected to finish them off. Consequently, they rallied and reoccupied the village later, forcing the French to clear it a second time.

These two distractions slowed, disrupted and weakened both prongs of the French advance. On the Portuguese right, Crispin did eventually break enough of my units to claim the ridge, but only just, and he ran out of time to press on against our left.

Meanwhile, Phil did advance far enough to exchange volleys with Dave's force on Monte Adaufe but never got onto the ridge. Instead, Dave took advantage of Phil's force's minor disarray, advanced off the ridge and recaptured Carvalho.

The French needed three Objectives to draw and four to win. They couldn't quite hang on to the third, so it was a Portuguese victory.

Reflections

Using the whole pitch. Many battles (and hence wargames) are just a simple affair of two lines, coming down to whether one side or the other gives way on its left or its right. This is especially true of anything pre-Napoleonic (per my customary prejudiced dismissive view). Games become much more interesting when the geometry is more complex. In the case of Braga, all it took was those two little units posted well forward. Not only did they disrupt the French line and oblige the French to attack in different directions initially; by remaining as forces in being, they continued to do so all game. Having the action spread across the pitch like that, not just focused on one end of one line, made for a far wider range of possible tactical combinations and a much more challenging and thoroughly absorbing game.

The joys of active defence. Sometimes it is too easy for a defender to sit tight and just roll firing dice. (This is truer of later periods with better firepower, of course.) In this game, both Dave and I had plenty to do. In my case, as well as cunning maneuvers with my valiant forward outpost units, once Crispin's attack reached my redoubts I was then having to constantly maneuver to reconstruct my line as his superior quality drove me back. In Dave's case, he first maneuvered to deter an initial flank threat by Phil, then chose his moment to advance off Monte Adaufe in force for his victorious counterattack.

Every game needs its grape-scissors! Colourful troops make for colourful games. The Portuguese ordonenza may not have been the most glamorous or effective force but, by God, we will remember them!

Both sides of the hill: Beaune-la-Rolande (1870)

A seriously big battle is not necessarily the same thing as a seriously big game. After all, the whole point of BBB is to fit the biggest battles - Gettysburg, Solferino, Königgrätz and the like - onto a normal-sized table and into a single afternoon or evening session.

However, smaller battles still tend to produce smaller games. One particular advantage of these arises when they are small enough to swap sides and play the whole thing twice in a session from opposite viewpoints.

Such was the case last Monday, when Crispin rolled out his battlemat for Beaune-la-Rolande. This little skirmish involving fewer than 100,000 men was one of the first battles of the so-called 'republican phase' - the second half of the Franco-Prussian War, after Napoleon III was captured at Sedan. I remembered this being one of the first BBB scenarios Crispin wrote, but I was still taken aback when he said he created it ten years ago, in 2015. With four players (plus Dave W refereeing), we started setting up at 6:30, fought the battle twice, and were packed away by 9:30.

Here's a full photo-AAR of Game 1 in a dozen photos, then just a short verbal account of Game 2, then some Reflections.

This is what the battle was about: the town of Beaune-la-Rolande in the centre of the German defensive line, which the Germans had fortified heavily. (Figures are Pendraken 10mm from Dave's collection. Buildings handmade by Crispin. All terrain provided by Crispin.)

The French have two corps of their newly-formed Army of the Loire. Here we see General Crouzat with the six brigades of his 20th Corps. The unit with the flag is one of only two decently trained formations on the French side (composed mainly of zouaves). The rest are either régiments de marche (hastily organized from depot battalions; figures in red kepis and pantalons) or garde mobile (poorly armed and barely trained levies - régiments de poubelle? figures all in blue).

The troops of the Prussian X Korps are twice as good but there are half as many, so it's a fair fight. Here we see Stülpnagel with the two brigades of his 5th Division, in greatcoats against the November weather, backed up by Hartmann's 1st Cavalry Division. Note that each unit includes a base of green-jacketed Jäger, indicating that it has the Skirmisher attribute.

View of the whole bleak autumnal battlefield from the French side. Germans have deployed a brigade in Beaune-la-Rolande itself and two others on its left (upper right of pic), relying on 5th Div to arrive on the other wing. Green patches are villages, grey ones are towns. White counters indicate objectives. Beaune itself is worth two. The French need to take four to draw or five to win. Note that the Germans have adopted a forward position to contest Les Cotelles and Juranville (right centre of pic).

Close-up of the German centre and left, dug in with artillery support. Mark commanded this German wing.

I took Crouzat's 20th Corps on the French left. Crispin marched on with 18th Corps on the right. We agreed to attempt a double envelopment and win by isolating Beaune rather than storming it. Here's my left hook arriving on Turn 2. Red and yellow counters show my attempt at setting up a grand battery is already suffering from German counter-battery fire.

Better fortune on the right, where black 'Low Ammo' counters and vacated trenches show how effectively Bremond's 18th Corps has shaken out and blasted the German first line. Mark made a swift command decision to extract the survivors, concede the two forward villages, and fall back to hold Longcourt.

Back to me on the left wing. Next turn sees patient progress as my columns continue to march around the German right. Next stop; the objective village of Batilly, with La Pierre Percée just visible beyond it. No sign of German 5th Div yet.

Wide open spaces on our right wing as Crispin extends to envelop the German left, while the Germans reorganise their line. Our advance is slow because in this scenario (as in many FPW battles) the inexpert French army labours under the 'Passive' movement penalty.

On Turns 5 and 6, the action hots up on our left. The German cavalry has arrived and hastened across to reinforce Mark on the German left (out of shot right of pic). The two brigades of 5th Div have dashed forward to the town of Borville (grey patch) to try to retake La Pierre Percée from my zouaves (green village upper right). They've driven back one of my régiments de marche (yellow and blue indicates Disrupted and Spent) but are about to suffer an awful lot of incoming fire. Meanwhile, at top left, their newly-deployed gun line on the base line is taking flanking fire from some gardes mobiles.

Over on our right, the Germans have fallen back from Longcourt to rally around the central high ground above the Beaune bastion, relying on artillery to keep Crispin's French at bay. However, once Phil's counterattack at La Pierre Percée failed, Mark realised they needed to hold Longcourt or lose, so he pushed a brigade forward into it again. Crispin massed all he could and launched assaults from two directions on the last turn. Could victory be ours? Mark rolled his firing dice - and repelled both assaults. Foiled, we had to settle for a draw.

Situation at game end. Just three German infantry units remain: in the town of Borville (top left), in Beaune (centre) and clinging on against huge odds in Longcourt (upper right).

How the second game went

We swapped sides. Crispin and I also swapped wings. I took the German left, facing Mark, while Crispin commanded the German reinforcements on the right to fend off Phil.

We decided not to repeat the forward defence. Instead, we posted two brigades in and next to Longcourt, behind the reverse slope of the hills. However, we did mass 72 guns (3 artillery units) on the high ground on our extreme left, where they could pummel Mark's advance.

The French similarly decided to try a different plan, partly because of ours, but partly just for the sake of seeing how it worked out. They responded by sending only a couple of brigades (plus their small cavalry division) up their right-hand touchline, and a couple up the opposite side to face our reinforcements, while all the rest of their force converged to form a big arc focusing on Beaune-la-Rolande.

The French plan worked only in that their concentrated fire inflicted grievous casualties on the Beaune garrison. However, the French were unable to mount an assault to actually take the place. The German plan had worked better: our reverse slope force didn't need to fire a shot all battle; our Grossbatterie stalled the French right flank infiltration and then hurt their mass in the centre; then when 5th Division arrived it rolled up the lefthand end of the French arc around Beaune. The French only held one village at the end - an emphatic German win. 

Reflections

Two games in an evening = more than double the fun. There are those who like to savour a game over several sessions totalling 10, 15, 20 hours or more. I have happily acknowledged elsewhere that there is a particular pleasure to be had from the looong game. Nevertheless, the particular wargaming pleasure I mainly seek is that of making plans and high-level decisions and seeing how they work out. There are only so many such decisions to make in any given battle. If I can spend my 15 hours playing five games rather than one, that's a lot more big decisions, hence a lot more of that particular mental pleasure. This time we managed to fit two games into three hours and work through two alternative pairs of plans for the same battle. Not only did we have the direct pleasure from each game, there was also the pleasure of comparing the two - the whole was greater than the sum of the parts.

The other side of the hill. When I commanded the French left, I was very conscious of how brittle my army of Raw Fragile régiments de marche and garde mobile was: a single casualty would render a brigade Spent and largely combat-ineffective; those Krupp guns were very capable of inflicting such casualties; we had to cross a lot of open ground under their fire. The French task seemed very daunting (especially after failing at a similar task in a game of Coulmiers the week before). However, when I swapped my kepi for a pickelhaube, it didn't look any easier! Being outranged by twice our numbers of rifles wasn't a happy prospect, even with some entrenchments to hide in. Where to deploy was quite a tricky puzzle and we were fortunate it worked out so well. In short: it's a challenge for both sides, in very different ways - a tribute to Crispin's scenario design.

Fortifications in BBB. It seems too easy for an attacker to shoot defenders out of trenches. I'm not sure why it's taken me 10 years to reach this conclusion ... anyway, my thought is that a good house rule would be that units in fortifications can only be fired on a) by artillery, b) by units within 3", c) in Offensive Fire Phase if the target unit fired during the preceding Defensive Fire Phase, or d) in Defensive Fire Phase if the target unit declares it wants to fire in its Offensive Fire Phase. What do you think? (Maybe something for 2nd edition!) 😉.

The scenario is available from the BBB io group files here (you need to join the group to gain access).

My 2025 gamefest

I had a real treat earlier this month: a 10-day holiday in the US gaming it up with a great group of friends. Such a fantastic time, I'm going to record it briefly here, primarily for my own benefit, to look back on happily in years to come. If you enjoy it too, my gracious reader, all the better.

The trip kicked off with us visiting the Cold Wars wargames convention in Gettysburg:

Pretty busy and well attended, considering the con was planned relatively late. Some nice games on show and a chance to catch up with a few guys I'd not seen in a while.

We followed that up with a couple of hours touring some of the Gettysburg battlefield: Seminary Ridge, Little Round Top, the highwater mark. You can't beat walking the actual ground for understanding a battle.

Then it was back to SkirmishCampaigns HQ for a wonderful week+. Because we had the luxury of time, we paced ourselves sensibly. Most days we just played one high-quality game at a leisurely pace so we could appreciate it to the full. That would be followed by a civilised dinner (including Glenda's famous military history quiz one evening), then a drinks and a movie and more drinks (but not too many).

The roster of games played included:

- WWII: Peleliu. Pacific scenario by Rob, using the Arc of Fire 2 rules that he and Scott have been developing (with some input from me). We fought this twice (one Jap win, one US).

- AWI: Freeman's Farm. Scenario by Scott using his mods for battalion-scale BBB.

- AWI: Lexington & Concord. Scenario by Rob (adapted from CWG) using Scott's mods. We played this twice - both games were tied!

- AWI: Bunker Hill. Scenario by Rob. Fought this one three times, with a different British plan of attack each time and some tweaks along the way. One US victory, one draw, one British win.

- WWII air: "When Pigs Fly". Italians vs Brits over Egypt. Check Your Six! rules. Scenario from CB Stevens's Falcon of the Duce campaign scenario book.

- WWII: The Death of Wittmann. Scenario by Sean, written for Fireball Forward, adapted for AOF2. We played this three times with some tweaks. First time, the Brits sprang their ambush too early and got wiped out. Second time, the Germans walked clumsily into a better-timed ambush and got wiped out. Third time, Germans used sensible reconnaissance and were able to fight through for a win.

- ACW: The Seven Days. My BBB scenario. Initial Confederate attack was devastating, but Nick managed to rally the Union and hold the line.

20 or so photos of the action:

Rob's lovely layout for Peleliu.

Marines hit the beach at Peleliu. 15mm figures painted by Rob.

K Company takes on the Japanese first line of defence.

Magnificent centerpiece: the main Japanese bunker.

Luckily, the USMC has flamethrowers! (Unluckily, mine did virtually no damage all game.)

Amtraks come to grief, easy prey for 47mm.

Morgan's Rifles at Freeman's Farm.

The Freeman's Farm battlefield.

Intense fighting at Freeman's Farm. Scott's 28mm figures.

British grenadiers at Freeman's Farm.

Bunker Hill. Terrain by Rob.

American militia await the British assault. Rob's 28mm figures.

The British are coming!

My layout for the Seven Days. This represents something like 15 miles x 10. Malvern Hill top left corner; Chickahominy river running through the middle. Confederates start from the top edge, with Jackson arriving from the righthand edge.

The Death of Wittmann: successful British ambush.

Not this time! The Panzerkeil escapes off the north board edge. Troops and terrain by Sean.

The Seven Days: Union line behind Beaver Dam Creek, in front of Gaines Mill.

Tough Union line in front of Fair Oaks.

Confederates approach, undaunted. Scott's 15mm figures.

Union right is driven back (top right), so McClellan counterattacks in the center directly towards Richmond (top left).

Game end: The Union holds the line north of White Oak Creek. Artillery protects the Glendale objective.

Impossible for these few words and pictures to convey just what a brilliant trip this was. Must do it again!