| August 1914:
Scenario Preview, Part Two
By Mike Bennighof, Ph.D.
January 2025
 We call the series Infantry Attacks, nicking Erwin Rommel’s famous title, but on the battlefields of the First World War, artillery decided the outcome. New technology developed just before the turn of the century (the hydraulic shock absorber) allowed lightweight field guns to accompany the infantry and spew forth shells almost as fast as a bolt-action rifle.
Infantry Attacks: August 1914 reflects that battlefield reality on the game table. Infantry has to take and hold ground, but artillery dominates the action in the game’s 40 scenarios.
A German infantry division in 1914 had 48 infantry companies, supported by 54 77mm field guns (plus howitzers, but they usually don’t show up on the game board). A German battery had six guns at full strength while a Russian battery had eight; in Infantry Attacks a field gun battery usually represents four guns (so that their strengths reflect the qualities of the weapons rather than the number of them). So a German division would have about one four-gun battery for slightly less than every four companies. That’s of course not a strict ratio in every scenario, but it does give a useful marker for what constitutes a lot and what’s a little.
 Players in August 1914 find themsleves directing the same number of field guns as their historical counterparts, and if they use them well, to the same effect.
Let’s have a look at the second chapter. You can see the others here:
Chapter Two
The Battle of Gumbinnen
Following the action at Stalluponen, the Russian First Army resumed its advance and on the 19th took a rest day to allow its communications and supply columns to catch up with the front-line forces. With little idea of Russian dispositions, Prittwitz overcame his panic of the previous few days and decided on a counter-attack. He had left I Corps in a forward position around Gumbinnen, possibly concerned that its commander, Hermann von Francois, would refuse orders to retreat. When the Russians approached and then halted, Prittwitz ordered an attack. I Corps would lead off, with XVII Corps, I Reserve Corps and the independent 3rd Reserve Division joining in as they arrived on the battlefield.
The Russian III Corps in the center had considerable success against the German XVII Corps, but by late afternoon on the 20th Francois and his I Corps seemed on the verge of turning the right flank of the Russian XX Corps opposite them. The Russians had taken heavy casualties, though the Germans were not aware of their extent, and might not have been able to continue the fight for another day. But that didn’t matter - Prittwitz had received word that the Russian Second Army, advancing from the south, had crossed the border into East Prussia in considerable strength. Fearing envelopment by the two Russian armies, Prittwitz decided on a strategic withdrawal behind the Vistula River, leaving all of Prussia in Russian hands.
In the hours that followed Prittwitz changed his mind and decided to fight, shifting the weight of his army to attack the advancing Second Army and leaving his cavalry to watch the First Army. But by then it was too late; in a frantic telephone call he had told Supreme Headquarters of his intention to abandon East Prussia and much of West Prussia as well. Chief of the General Staff Helmuth von Moltke fired both Prittwitz and his chief of staff, Maj. Gen. Georg von Waldersee, replacing them with Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff.
Scenario Seven
Falk's Flank
20 August 1914
 With the Russian First Army on the march again, the Germans planned to strike it and stop its advance so they could turn their attention to the Russian Second Army approaching from the south. Francois convinced the army command to try a maneuver more fitting for a peacetime exercise than an actual battlefield. Falk's 2nd Infantry Division would make a night march behind the 1st Division to hit the Russians on their exposed right flank with a dawn attack.
Conclusion
Despite repeated halts for false reports of Russian activity, Falk somehow got his division into position by their 4 a.m. start time, only to halt for half an hour due to heavy fog. The troops went forward when the mists lifted, still screened by the last moments of nighttime darkness. They caught the Russians totally unprepared, with many of them still in their bedrolls. Yet the Russians recovered quickly, particularly their artillery, and soon the Germans had a serious fight on their hands. By noon the town of Uszballen finally fell to them after fierce hand-to-hand fighting.
Notes
Now we’re getting into some big scenarios with lots of units on each side. In August 1914 no one is digging trench system yet, so there’s a lot of maneuver going on though at a fairly sedate pace (those infantry companies are not very fast). The Germans have to take ground in order to win, and with the Russians already in place that’s going to make it a bloody affair.
Scenario Eight
Flying Colors
20 August 1914
 While Falk's 2nd Division made its looping maneuver to strike the Russian flank, Conta's 1st Division had the task of pinning the Russians in place with a frontal assault. Unusually for the first weeks of the Great War, the Russian 28th Division had taken care to prepare for the German attack. To encourage the men to advance against the fortified Russian line, Conta ordered his regiments forward with the flags uncased and bands playing.
Conclusion
The Russian division put up stout resistance, but the Germans pressed forward despite heavy casualties, particularly among their officers. When the village of Brakupönen fell the fight went out of the Russians and 28th Division began to fall apart, leaving 5,000 prisoners behind. When the German infantry began its pursuit, their artillery took a hand, blasting their comrades with the most accurate barrage of the campaign to date. Broken by their own artillery, the German division fled the field as well.
Notes
Cleaner artillery rules make for cleaner scenarios, too. In the first edition this scenario had convoluted rules intended to model the German artillery fire that fell on German units, letting the Russian player plot it. Here the Germans just have to move closer to Russian units, even if it brings them into their own artillery’s field of fire (which is what happened in the actual event; the artillery fired where it was supposed to, the infantry charged where it should not have).
Scenario Nine
Prussian Infantry Does Not Entrench!
20 August 1914
 August von Mackensen's XVII Corps managed to disorder itself on the approach march toward the battlefield, and went into action against the Russian III Corps expecting to find the Russians already falling back from the great successes reported by I Corps to the north. Instead, the Lithuanian regulars had dug in directly across the Germans' path. Mackensen flung his troops forward without bothering to conduct reconnaissance.
Conclusion
Ignoring their pre-war doctrine that called for careful scouting and artillery preparation before launching an attack, the Germans simply charged forward behind sword-waving officers. The Russians held their positions, invisible to the attackers until the last moment, and inflicted heavy casualties on the Germans particularly among junior officers. “Dig in the way the Russians did!” snapped Lt. Gen. Konstanz von Heineccius when told of the carnage. Given the order, a captain from the 5th Grenadiers replied, “Prussian infantry does not entrench!” By mid-afternoon the division was in full flight, despite the desperate attempts of their officers.
Notes
Another big scenario; the Germans have a decided edge in numbers but the Russians have impressive firepower and the Prussian infantry is going to wish it could entrench.
Scenario Ten
Citizen Soldiers
20 August 1914
 On the southern end of the German line, Otto von Below's I Reserve Corps had flung out its cavalry to conduct the reconnaissance that Mackensen neglected. Finding no Russians, the corps turned to the northeast to strike what they assumed to be the enemy left flank. German pilots spotted the Russian IV Corps, but too late to warn Below that his reservist cavalry had completely missed 30,000 Russians moving quickly into a flank attack of their own.
Conclusion
The reservists recoiled at the Russian attack, and their cavalry belatedly tried to fend off the oncoming enemy with little effect. The artillery didn't offer much help either, but surprisingly the Germans rallied from their initial shock and began to push forward. By mid-afternoon they had recovered all the lost ground and stopped the Russians from breaking through on their mission to turn the flank of the German XVII Corps.
Notes
It’s not a good day for the reservists; the Russians have stolen a march and come upon the Germans in column strung out along a long stretch of road. The Germans have to stop the Russians from marching through them, and also from annihilating them. Neither of those is going to be easy.
Scenario Eleven
Garrison Duty
20 August 1914
 Intended to man the fortresses of East Prussia and Posen in the event of war, the Landwehr of Germany's eastern provinces found themselves instead marching into the front lines to face the Russian Army's regulars. Men in their 30's and 40's, thrown together in hastily-organized units under officers cast off from active units, the Landwehr troops grasped their black-powder rifles and went forward with little artillery support and no machine guns.
Conclusion
While most Russian division commanders had put all of their forces in the front line - providing stout but vulnerable lines of defense - Lt. Gen. Pavel Ilich Bulgakov had held back the bulk of his strength. When two German divisions struck his lines, he had a strong reserve to meet their attacks. On his northern flank, he had little need for reinforcements: his front-line regiment easily held off the middle-aged Landwehr.
Notes
The Russians are outnumbered, but they have more field guns than the Germans and the Landwehr would rather have stayed home. It’s just a small scenario, and it highlights how the Germans threw everyone except the game wardens and traffic cops at the invaders (though the Landwehr probably included plenty of both).
And that’s Chapter Two.
You can order August 1914 right here.
Infantry Attacks Package
August 1914
Fall of Empires
Franz Josef’s Armies
Winter’s Battle
Black Mountain
Retail Price: $266.95
Package Price: $215
Gold Club Price: $172
Experience the Infantry Attacks Package right here.
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Mike Bennighof is president of Avalanche Press and holds a doctorate in history from Emory University. A Fulbright Scholar and NASA Journalist in Space finalist, he has published a great many books, games and articles on historical subjects; people are saying that some of them are actually good.
He lives in Birmingham, Alabama with his wife and three children. He misses his lizard-hunting Iron Dog, Leopold.
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