The Somme 1

Here we have both the scenario map from the Great War Spearhead (GWSH) 2 rule book depicting  the Thiepval area, and the modern day Google map covering roughly the same area.

It's always interesting to me how many people throw down a mat, cloth or terrain boards that are predominately green. Of course I have no idea just how field boundaries altered post war, or for that matter what crops were grown at the time.

I'd wager that the crops haven't altered much. What ever grew here pre-war probably was similar to what is grown on those same fields today. 

The area around Thiepval wood, west of the modern day hamlet of Thiepval would appear to have been renewed and replanted with obvious pathways. The map from the GWSH book certainly appears to show a much smaller area of woodland. How accurate this is only further research will tell. 

What would appear to be accurate is that as you move east from Hamel, the ground falls away to a valley where the River Ancre flows before rising again as you move further east through Thiepval towards Mouquet Farm.

I have found a great online resource for trench maps that cover this area, going as far to have the names of the trench lines and where the communication lines ran. 

Saint Pierre Divion, to the very northern edge of the GWSH map isn't clearly evident on the Google map but is there. It is a very small hamlet of just a few buildings. Again, evident on the drawn map but not the Google map is the Schwaben Feste, or Schwaben Redoubt. It is properly located along a lane running north west from the Route de Grandcourt, further on past the copse of trees at that junction.

I have yet to locate the Zollern or Stuff Redoubts sitting on the German third line of trenches that run north from Mouquet Farm.

My intention for the game next year is to have the table be as accurate as I possibly can get it whilst remaining playable as a wargame. A considerable order for trenches is being prepared for submission to Timecast along with some of their other useful latex scenery pieces.

I have some time on Thursday and Friday to at last take a look at the figures I purchased at Phalanx from Baccus. I may even put some paint on them. I stocked up on some Nut Brown and Peat Brown inks from Hobbycraft. This stuff is often called magic in a jar for 6mm painters. I have used it before and it certainly works!

Okay, hopefully more updates later in the week.

More soon...