Posts
So after a bit of build up this weekend we played our Soviet Polish War game through.
Steve Shann provided the lovely terrain and the fabulous church, the rest of the gear was mine.
Our game sees the Poles advancing into Ukraine to disrupt Soviet concentrations ahead of a planned invasion of Poland. Meanwhile Ukranian Anarchists take advantage of the confusion.
As an aside I managed to finish the couple of figures I was working on the Saturday night before.
Whilst the game played really well, the show was exceptionally busy and the game had a lot of interest which was fabulous but did mean we only got to play 3 moves through.
Both Poles and Reds had 2 regiments of cavalry with five regiments of infantry and supporting armoured cars, planes and Tchanka's. Rich C and Steve had the Poles, Chris C and Rich L the Reds and Chris F the Anarchists.
Added to this the Poles had 2 companies with a broken down FT17 occupying one village whilst the reds had a company and an MG each in two small villages on table.
After the Poles and Reds had gone, sneaky anarchists issued from the forest, two battalions supported by two guns and 2 squadrons of cavalry.
The terrain in particular excited a lot of interest, all hand made by the clever Mr Steve Shann.
Both sides deployed on table then had their moves, Poles followed by Reds.
Both sides deployed all their cavalry on one flank which had the advantage of a visually stunning mass cavalry brawl on one side.
The Reds are less colourful but offset by all the red banners and scruffy uniforms.
A little upset was caused by the Anarchists appearing on the flank of both sides out of the Forest after they had both moved. Chris seemed to have decided that the Reds posed the lesser threat so he should pick on them whilst keeping the Poles busy with his guns.
There are a real mix of figures here, especially the Anarchists, that does suit me, I like lots of variety in my forces.
Th Reds push their best troops, the naval infantry, to their left flank where the Anarchists are just starting to push forward.
The forward Red militia company come under pressure immediately taking 2 casualties. Completely expected they were always something of a speed bump.
The cavalry bust up on the Red right flank is shaping up.
The massed squadrons of cavalry look great with the armoured cars and biplanes.
The Tchanka and artillery have caused a mess with the first unit of Polish Lancers who fall back.
The Poles close in on the Red Militia who are running out of time to leg it!
A big cavalry Melee may look out of place but there were many much larger cavalry only battles so this is entirely realistic....ish.
The Tchanka proved to be the Reds best friend in this battle reducing the ranks of the better quality Poles before they were able to make contact.
At this point the table is looking very busy and we have a lot of people wanting to talk to us so there is a pause in proceedings.
The Cavalry battle is coming to a crescendo, so again good to leave it a while as it looks great and pretty soon there will just be a lot of gaps where there used to be cavalry formations.
As both armies were right at the end of their supply lines I made it difficult for them to get a plane, I had them on table anyway as they looked great.
The Poles equally had no luck getting a plane. As these can be particularly devastating for cavalry its probably a good thing on this occasion.
Chris was grinning to himself as two battalions of Anarchists and two squadrons pounced on two unlucky companies of Sailors.
The Anarchist advance looks pretty impressive from above.
With the Militia under pressure the Reds manage to get an armoured car up to support which immediatly takes a hit but causes some casualties amongst the Poles..
Two squadrons of Red cavalry have cleared the way and prepare to push past the Polish horse to engage their foot.
At the opposite end of the table the Naval Infantry have to worry about Poles to their front and Anarchists on their flank, altogether facing 4 battalions with support on only one flank.
The cavalry on both sides are being thinned out, the rules are pretty quick and bloody when you get to hand to hand.
On the Red right the Anarchist cavalry hit a unit of Sailors in the open with predictable results and the company is destroyed.
The Anarchist foot close in on the MG and remaining company, it doesn't look good for the Red Navy.
We have run out of time for a further move but as the Reds finally rolled for a plane I let them see how it worked, As it happens they finished off pretty convincingly an already badly mauled Anarchist cavalry squadron!
Its nearly 4pm and we have only managed 3 moves but then the game was about the visitors and we seem to have captured a bit of interest.
For those of you who stopped to say hello thank you, for those of you who couldnt pry us away from other people talking (There was a que of interest at one point) sorry, we really did want to talk to everyone and it just didnt work out.
Thanks for stopping by,
