ASL Comp: GWASL II – Blasted Woods: French Great War

BOIS DES CAURES, VERDUN, FRANCE, 21 February 1916: Lieutenant Colonel Émile Driant foresaw a German assault on Verdun, and made himself unpopular in military circles with his gloomy forecasts. He was a prophet of his own doom. Driant’s two battalions of Chasseurs-a-pied, the elite of 72nd Division, held two miles of wooded hills directly in the path of the main German onslaught. On 21 February, Driant’s infantry were awoken by the greatest barrage ever heard. Every caliber from field gun to the terrible 210mm crashed down, lifted long enough for the stunned Frenchmen to rise to the surface, then began all over again. By midday, 80,000 heavy shells had fallen in an area of barely half a square mile. Trees were blasted to matchwood; platoon-sized bunkers had simply vanished; many Frenchmen were buried alive not once but repeatedly. Nevertheless, as the German assault teams advanced to infiltrate the French lines, almost half of Driant’s men had survived. Isolated, unsupported, blown out of their own fortifications, the Chasseurs fought on. This expansion contains special rules (Attack à Outrance...), geo boards and counters for the French (inc. AFVs). Scenarios: The French Spirit – The Alsace border town of Altkirch, France, August 7th 1914 Pilckem Ridge – Pilckem, Belgium, April 22nd 1915 Window of Opportunity – Bois Des Caures, France, February 22nd 1916 Blasted Woods – Bois Des Caures, Verdun, France, February 21st 1916 Dead Man Hill - Bois Des Caures, Verdun, France, March 8th 1916 Baptism – The hamlet of La Ville Aux Bois, France, April 16th 1917 Flag Signal: Advance! – St-Pierre-Aigle, France, May 31st 1918 Schneiders at Soissons – Soissons, France, July 18th 1918