Counter-revolution in Samarkand, Part I

In the early hours of a February morning in 1918, a train of scruffy soldiers pulls into a Bolshevik controlled station outside the ancient city of Samarkand.

This is scenario one, The Mutineers Attack!, from the excellent Red Dawn Rises! supplement for Setting the east Ablaze! rules.  It is certainly dramatic, judging by all the exclamations!

The scenarios in the book are great and inspired by Peter Hopkirk's equally excellent book on the Russian revolution in central Asia.

 

  

We used the third edition of the rules, by the only slightly less excellent Steve Langan, for this game.

 

This is what happened according to the official history.  

The sleepy guards are not expecting trouble but the soldiers disembark fully armed and ready to fight.

 

"MUTINY!" The Mensheviks have turned their former allies against the revolution and they are now fighting for the Whites!  
 

 

The small garrison of red guards run for the relative safety of the coal bunker. 

 

 

"Fire on the traitors, comrades!"

The Bolshevik gunners spring to their work and shells begin to land with pinpoint precision.

 

Chaos reigns in the mutineer ranks.  Their armoured car crashes off the ramp and immediately breaks down.

Some of them run and hide in the railway shed.

Others in the trees.

Captain Pernov pushes his men through a window into the hastily vacated station.

"More shells comrades.  Keep firing…Oh!" The Bolo field gun runs low on ammo. 

But all is not yet lost for the Reds, as their AA gun pours murderous fire into the station killing more of the mutineers.

 

What this defence needs is an inspiring and handsome proletarian hero. 

 

Fortunately, as the Red guards regroup in the coal bunker, they are joined by commissar Totzek after he heroically sneaked out the back of the hotel.  These dogged revolutionaries will be difficult to shift from behind those solid walls.

 

Wait! Stop! Where are you going?  Seduced by more Menshevik lies the guardsmen defect.

It’s okay thinks Totzek to himself, "I will persuade the mutineers over to me, with my deep understanding of class consciousness and dialectical materialism".  "Oh!  That didn’t go well."

 

"It'll be okay.  I’m sure nobody else heard me mess that up, and will therefore abandon me as a result. Oh!"  The Red AA gun also defects to the Whites.

 

Time to run for it.  [Ed: I don't have any pictures of the chase that followed, so you'll just have to imagine a cross between Dr Zhivago, Benny Hill, and the Keystone Cops, all to the soundtrack of Yakkerty Sax.]

Totzek makes it to the field gun and his last remaining comrades.  Who, fortunately, seem to have found some more ammunition.  Making every shell count they blast their former compatriots and send them running but Pernov rallies his men and begins the assault again.

The inept mutineers, driven on by Captain Pernov, struggle up the slope to storm the last Bolshevik redoubt but are thrown back by the stubborn defence.  Totzek empties his pistol into their ranks, killing another mutineer.

 

 

However, the numbers are overwhelming and our scene fades to black as poignant music plays and a battle damaged red flag waves gently in the breeze … 

 

... but what a twist!  The body of the commissar cannot be found! ...

One Hour Skirmish Wargames

We have recently played a couple of test games to try out One Hour Skirmish Wargames rules by John Lambshead.  They are simple skirmish rules in a somewhat old-school tradition but using some clever card-based mechanisms that give a fast a furious game.  I was previously put off by the lack of dice but after a couple of games I'm sold on this alternative.

John has just released a follow up Ancient and Medieval variant too, that obviously concentrates more on close combat.  We have so far tried one ancients game and one modern game.  We enjoyed both and will definitely be playing these rules again.

Here, some Roman legionaries have crossed the wall in a punishment raid against the northern Britons.  The Romans successfully burned the village but the fierce Celtic warriors made them pay in blood.
 

In our modern game we switch to the 1960s Congo War.  The mercenaries, pushing into the jungle, were ambushed by a platoon of Simbas.  The Mercs outgunned and outfought the Simbas but failed to push past the roadblock.   They were forced to withdraw with two dead and a damaged armour car.

The scenario-based games are a lot of fun and make for something different and challenging.

Square Bashing the RCW

For our latest Back of Beyond game we tried the Square Bashing rules from Peter Pig using our Russian Civil War armies.  

This is after the initial set up phase with movement beginning on the right as the Red Sailors advance. There is a quite involved set up where the type of battle is determined, the terrain and objectives are placed, and units can start off table.   Also see Storm of Steel's review and game reports for more on how they work.

The Reds quickly crossed the open steppe into the woods around the villages seizing several objectives.

The Grand Manor was undefended but a White Officer battalion held the village beyond with Cossacks in support.

 

 

The Red sailors rushed forward bravely but came face to face with a British supplied tank! 

The AFSR heavy guns proved much more effective than the Reds,  The Red cavalry, caught in the open, suffered particularly badly.

With reinforcements arriving from the rear the Whites quickly organised a counter attack and re-captured the crossroads and surrounding village.

Bruised, but not yet broken, the Red sailors regrouped for another charge with their own armour in support.

On the left the Red Guards took the grassy knoll and then successfully defended it against an assault by Drozdovsky officers, with Cossacks and an AC in support. Their heroic stand was a pivotal moment of the battle.

Meanwhile, in the centre, the rest of the Bolshevik infantry had held out under intense artillery fire for several turns.  Throwing back a desperate attack by the massed White infantry to secure the woodlands.

The Kronstadt boys’ second assault pushed the White tank out of the village and damaged it. This left them tantalizingly short of the Crossroads they had briefly held but netted them a useful 5 victory points at the end of the game.  

Finally, on the right flank, the remnants of the  Proletarian horse, with supporting field guns firing over open sights, managed to stand against a last ditch white cavalry charge.

After the tally it was a minor victory for the Bolsheviks and the Volunteer army fell back to lick their wounds.

More Simbas

I've finally got around to completing some more Simbas for my 1960s Congo armies.  These are mostly from Eureka's African wars range with a couple of RPG Gunners from TAG.

These figures are to represent the more directly Chinese or Soviet backed elements of the various MNC or PSA factions.  They were sculpted for the Rhodesian war by the talented Kosta Herko of the Flying Gorilla blog but will serve me well enough. 

These teams carry Chinese Type 56 grenade launchers, a copy of the Soviet RPG-2 for heavy support.

Last is an officer and RPG gunner to provide my other Simbas with some more leadership and anti-vehicle capability.

There are more of these figures available from Eureka with more modern AK variants and RPGs.  I might add at them some point later as the green clad units Mad Mike Hoare describes in Congo Mercenary.  I need to find a figure for the mysterious hooded leader too.

Congo Merc Vehicles Update

I've managed to get some paint on a few of my Congo Crisis mercenary column vehicles.  The variety is helping create the 'Ommegang' eclectic look.

This first one is a Willy's jeep painted as part of 5 Commando and armed with a .50 cal browning MG.

Next up is another .50 cal armed jeep, this time for one of the French/Belgian units, probably part of 6 Commando.

For a bit of armour the Mercenaries have one of the former Malayan Ferret armoured cars.

Last up, so far is the Swedish SKPF with twin browning .30 cal MGs.  I've added some gear to the back of the truck.  Most are nondescript green boxes, probably ammo.  However, I also added a quiver of spears.  This is a reference to a candid admission by Mike Hoare in Congo Mercenary, that some of his troops carried bundles of spears to posthumously issue to unarmed 'rebels'.

I still have some die-cast trucks to re-paint and a 3d printed M8 Greyhound on order, for some heavier armour.  So, hopefully more updates before long.

SKPF Update

I have made some progress to my Terrängbil m/42 KP infantry fighting vehicle today.  Here is what it's meant to look like. 

 

Not really any major changes, just adding a few details to the nose and re-modelling the turret a bit but I think it does look better. 

I still think I need to add some stowage, a canvas and maybe a few more details like a water pipe for the the guns.