A kick in the Urals

In the summer of 1919, somewhere in the foothills of the Ural mountains, the Reds and Whites clash over a small farmstead.  

This was a quick game to refresh ourselves with the Fistful of Lead: Bigger Battles rules.  We kept things very simple to re-learn the rules and try to get the game finished in the evening despite our rusty remembrances.

The scenario was an engagement battle to seize a farm before nightfall. The game would last 8+ turns using the mechanism from scenario 4 in the Bigger Battles rulebook. 

The Reds advanced from the West.  They had a commander on foot, 5 companies of ten regular riflemen, and a machine gun team.  Three companies had a Lewis gun, which we counted as an Assault Rifle.

The Whites met them from the East.  They had a mounted commander, four companies of ten regular riflemen, a machine gun team, and a light field gun.  All their rifle companies had a Lewis gun.  No units on either side had any other traits.

 

I won't do a blow by blow account but essentially the Red Army rushed the farm and the White Guards advanced more cautiously under covering fire.  

There was a furious and bloody firefight followed by some fierce close combat around the farm.  Commissar Trevsky and several of the Bolo companies  ran away regrouped to the rear.  While the Whites were generally left battered but still in the fight.  

We played the rules, to the best of our understanding, as written.  Commanders are very useful, providing a bonus to rallies and allowing re-rolls when attached to a charging unit.  There is a risk to them but with three wounds it is not a massive one, unless the whole unit is destroyed.  Both commanders were hit in the game but did not die. 

The game ended after 9 turns with the Whites' enveloping attack having winkled the Reds out of the large barn but the courtyard and house were still held by the Bolsheviks.

 

The rules certainly give a lot of drama and action.  The cards add plenty of chaos and some difficult game choices.  The fighting is very bloody but we did have all regular units.  Probably we should be using far more Green units and other negative traits.  Green troops use a d8 instead of d10, stripping them of the 9+ double wound results, which would tone things down a fair bit.  Elite units can conversely use a d12, which would potentially allow small numbers of White Officers to see off hordes of Red Conscripts.

I think the only house-rule we used was to increase the MG teams from 3 dice to 6 when shooting.  3 dice for the three figures of an MG team is no better than riflemen would get and seemed anemic, especially given they must spend a turn breaking down and a turn setting up if they move.  The Reds brought their MG up to the house, from where they got in one good round of shooting that inflicted 5 wounds and several shock on a White company advancing in the open.  The White MG was set up on the edge of a wooded ridge and dominated the fields north of the farm preventing a red company from attacking across the open ground.  They also pinned some reds in the courtyard and saw off a fleeing Bolo company late in the game.  They would certainly have been a prime target if the Reds had any artillery or air support.  None of that seemed unreasonable. 

I think we'll play these again soon. 

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! ...

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.

White Propaganda Posters

These are some propaganda posters I have collected for the Russian Civil War period.  I'll start with the Russian Whites.

More to follow...