Completed Based 1919-20 Poles

Finished units coming fairly quickly now and I have more Poles.

First completed is this French 75mm field gun crewed by Poles in French Horizon Blue.

This is the third field gun for my force with 5 planned currently. The gun is Empress with a Woodbine gunner, a Battlehonours officer and 2 Spanish Civil War gunners I cant remember the manufacturer.

Helmets are Woodbine, the peaked cap is Studio Siberia and peakless cap is a clipped down redoubt ACW head.

My fourth battalion of Poles is a;sp complete. Greater Poland troops in ex Imperial German kit and Polish jackets and caps. 

All four of these are from the excellent Great War Range.

These guys all Renegade figures with  Studio Siberia head swap in the middle.

Again mainly Renegade with a couple of head swaps, the end figure on the right is Copplestone.

The Command figures here are Great War along with the figure with trench broom on the left hand base and there are a couple of Studio Siberia head swaps mixed in with these guys too. Rest are Renegade.

Finally, just to prove its not all about the inter war projects, here's a couple of 40mm Paris Municipal Guard I painted as well. More of these soon I am sure.

Both 40mm Perry's the right hand figures is a Spanish fusilier with the addition of a French Shako. This unit is planned to be fairly untidy and Campaigny.

Thanks for stopping by.

Fourth Sikh Wars playtest

In our last Sikh Wars game we used card activation which worked quite well, we decided to add in some slight modifications to game play and use the cards again.

I got quite caught up in the game and the rule amends so only took a few photos I am afraid. We also only played for about an hour and a half as we chatted about the rules and reminded ourselves of the basics.

It proved to be an interesting little game giving me some ideas to finalise the rules.

Steve takes the Sikhs with 4 brigades totalling 9 foot and 3 horse.

I have the Company troops 3 brigades totalling 8 foot and 2 horse, whilst Steve has slightly more than me the British quality should more than make up for it.

We each have 3 guns.

For initiative we each roll 2 D6 the difference is the number of cards we draw and the highest roll decides who goes first with their drawn cards, all cards are drawn until finished then the next player goes. 

There are cards that activate the Company troops and separate cards for British only so the British get extra opportunities to re-load and move making them more flexible and powerful. 

Steve wins by four but elects to let me go first, I get a reload which is of no use as I havent fired and I am out of range, an artillery move card which is great, followed by an artillery reload card so open fire inflicting a couple of casualties to start proceedings. Last card is British movement, each of my brigades has 2 British and 2 Indian battalions, the cavalry both being British or Queens regiments, the Queens troops all take a full move forward.

Troops get 3 actions which can be move, limber/un-limber change formation etc. The foot all move three actions in line at 4 inches each, the horse move two actions of 8 inches as they arrive in column (Line is 6 inches) and they then form line for their third action.

Steve is out next also with a re-load he cant use, followed by an uncontrolled advance card, this forces his tribal brigades to test to see if they can control their fiery warriors, on a  1 or 2 they will attack the nearest enemy.

The tribal foot are kept under control but the horse throw caution to the window and charge forward 3 full actions not quite reaching the leading British cavalry.

The Sikhs get movement cards but Steve is happy to hold his position and let me come to him.

Company movement and all my troops now move forward with the Indians moving forward to try fill the gaps between the British units and also form a small reserve behind them.

The artillery move card allows me to man handle forward to support the infantry.

The cards are originally designed for Seven Years War, if we are happy I will create some Sikh Wars specific ones on my own.

Cavalry Movement allows my Lancers to charge the Tribal horse. The Tribal horse must test to stand, one unit passes the other legs it, retiring one full move dis-ordered.

So whilst my Lancers charge the front two units of Tribal cavalry the melee must wait for a Combat resolution card. The player who pulls this first will get the charge bonus.

Fortunately I get the Combat resolution card first. We each get one D6 per base, I then get an extra three D6 for the difference in quality and another for my charge bonus, lastly I get a bonus for lance. The British then have 10 dice needing 6 for a casualty, the Sikhs have 5.  

Steve gets one casualty on the lancers, I score 3 on the tribal horse, thats an immediate break test for losing a base.

They are level two so have two dice needing a 5 or 6 to stand. However they loose one for loser of melee and another for 25% casualties. This would take them to zero but unit always get one dice, but need a 6 if they have fallen below 1. Steve rolls again for the response to failing morale and the unit is forced back two full moves (6 actions) and dis-ordered having rolled a 3.

My Lancers are pretty done in so rally behind the Light Dragoons who press forward and meet the next unit of irregular Sikh horse.

The main forces are still quite far away but a flurry of movement cards soon has us at close quarters.

I move into firing range and get a re-load card firing a volley, Steve fires his guns in return, I get another movement card for all my troops so fire a further volley, taking both guns down to virtually nothing and one battalion of Sikhs retires after failing a morale test. I use my move card to charge 4 units of foot, one doesnt quite reach, with the others I hit two battalions and the guns.

Steve uses his loaded infantry to volley me on the way in. 

When the melee resolution card comes out we get mixed results, the Sikh guns are overwhelmed and the gunners die to a man defending their guns. My next British unit does well against the Sikh foot but they stand as does the next unit against a native battalion. These units are locked until the netx melee resolution card. Steves Sikhs get a move card volley my end unit of British and then charge them. Another melee resolution card comes out and whilst the first melee is a British win the next two and narrow losses and the British fail their morale and fall back.  

Its still all to play for the Sikhs have had all of their cavalry and haf of their regular foot driven back or routed and lost all of their guns, the British meanwhile have had two battalions badly mauled and thrown back. Either side is able to win here but the British have the edge in both quality and numbers left on table, 

The game has been a great sucess and as soon as I get home I start looking at designing Sikh appropriate cards, few more games to finalise things but we are definately on the right track.

Stay tuned for more udates but in the meantime thanks for stopping by.

Partizan Game 1920 Assault on Urga

It has taken me a couple of weeks to get the game report from Partizan together thank s for bearing with me.

Today we put on our 1920 Assault on Urga game at my favourite Wargames show, Partizan in Newark.

Its my favourite show of the year for good reason with some fantastic games in a great venue.

Richard and Andy from Legendary Wargames provided their fabulous terrain for us to play and joined in the game. Cheers gents. Legendary Wargames – Wargaming Holidays in Yorkshire

Our Game has the Mad Baron Von Ungern Shternberg leading his Russian and Mongolian Forces in storming the Mongolia Capital Urga in a bid to defeat the Chinese and drive them out of Mongolia.

Our game is based on the Barons third and final, successful, attempt to storm Urga, now Ulaan Bator and capital of Mongolia.

The Barons Forces have 3 objectives. 1, Capture the City 2. Free the Bogda Khan Spiritual and Political leader of Mongolia 3. Destroy the Chinese army.

To achieve this our Russian commanders, Dave, Si and Rich Lawrence have the following forces,  order of battle built around our prefered rule set, Triumph of the Will by Too Fat Lardies.

Asiatic Cossack Division

Baron Ungern Von Schternberg

Divisional Assets

All Ground Assets must be attached to a regiment

Field Guns x 2

Heavy Guns x 1

Armoured Car

Fighter Plane on the roll of a 6

Cavalry Colonel Kazagrandi

1^st Siberian Cossack Regiment

3 x 8 Sotnias Drilled, Aggressive, Cossack

1 x Tchanka

2^nd Siberian Cossack Regiment

4 x 8 Sotnias Drilled, Aggressive, Cossack

1x Tchanka

Chahar Mongol Regiment

2 x 8 Sotnias Drilled, Aggressive, Cossack

Tribal Mongol Cavalry

3 x 8 Ortas Militia, Aggressive, Cossack

2 x 7 Ortas Militia, Aggressive, Cossack

Infantry Colonel Sepeilov

3 x Infantry Regiments

Each with 4 x companies of 8 Drilled

Attached MG platoon 1 x MG

1 x Officers Regiment

4 x companies of 9 Drilled Aggressive

Attached MG platoon 1 x MG

The Chinese forces are from the collection of Chris Charlton and have some really lovely figures. 

Commanded by Chris with Rich Harris and Andy  taking turns on the left flank whilst Chris Flowers and Steve took turns on the right., their forces would consist of the following:

Garrison of Urga

General  Chang Chin Hui

Garrison Assets, all ground assets must be attached to a regiment

3 x Field Guns

2 x Mortars

1 x 37mm Infantry gun

1 x Fixed position FT17

1 x Fighter plane on a  roll of a 6 then 5 if unsuccessful each turn until arriving then back to 6.

Cavalry Regiment

3 x Squadrons of 8 drilled

Russian Lancer Detatchment

1 x  Squadron of 8 Drilled, Lance, aggressive

1^st Special Assault Regiment

3 x Companies of 10 drilled Aggressive

1 x Citreon Kegresse

Dare to Die Regiment

3 x Companies of 10 Drilled Aggressive

Mg platoon 1 mg in truck

Russian Mercenary Regiment

3 x Companies of 8 Drilled Aggressive

MG Platoon 1 MG

1^st Chinese Line Regiment

4 x of 8 Companies Drilled

Mg platoon 1 mg

2 x Chinese second line regiments

Each 3 x Companies of 8 Militia

MG Platoon each of 1 MG

The Chinese had the advantage of trenches and more quantities of artillery shells. The Russians a slight edge in quality and quantity of troops, particularly the cavalry.

On the Chinese right flank the Mongol holy mountain, covered in forest is undefended, deemed impassable but also holy to the Mongols and Chinese nobody expects an attack from this flank, two companies of Cossack infantry have climbed the mountain and will attack the temple area to try free the Bogda Khan. 

This happened historically, although it was a company of Russian and Mongolian Officers, historically it turned the tide of the battle, it remained to be seen if it had any effect on our game.

In terms of figures, the majority are Copplestone castings from the fantastic Back of Beyond range. But there are plenty of other manufacturers.

Studio Siberia provided 3 Sotnias of Cossacks, whilst Empress provided another along with the dismounted Cossacks and the Russian Howitzer. A fair number of the Chinese are from Pulp figures by Bob Murch, particularly the civilians, and three of the Mongols are from the Fireforge medieval range.

None of the accounts of the fighting mention air power but the Chinese definately had an air force in Mongolia and whilst the Russians probably didnt they add a great deal to a game so we decided we couldn't miss them out.

Mongolian Tribal cavalry adds a really unusual element to this game, its likely the Baron had at least 5 regiments for this assault, we managed to get the equivalent of one and a half or so. They certainly add some flavour to the game and I plan to paint a few more.

The buildings are a mix, Urga had distinct Chinese, Russian, Commercial and Temple Quarters so I had two distinct areas with Chinese buildings in one and Russian in the other. Models are a mix of Chinese buildings scratch built by Oshiro and others commercially available from Hovels or 3d prints.

The Russians wasted no time in belting forward to storm the defences frontally, each force having a mix of foot and Horse. On the Russian left the forested area is impassable but two companies of Cossack Plastun infantry have climbed over the mountain to attempt the Citys flank and rescue the Bogda Khan. I have not included these on the orders of battle so they came as much as  Surprise to the Russian commanders as the Chinese.

On the right Si and Richard push their cavalry into the gap between the defences and straight at the Chinese cavalry, whilst their infantry marches at the entrenchments.

Pretty soon the advanced Chinese redoubt is enfiladed and in trouble with cavalry on both flanks and infantry advancing down its centre..

It does however act a sa funnel for the cavalry who bunch and take in enfilading fire from all sides.

Mixed in with the Mongolians are Si's led by his Mongol Princess, a nice addition.

The tank was emplaced and caused only moderate damage to the horsemen swirling around it.

Parking up outside the wire the Tchanka inflicted a few losses straight away on the defenders of the redoubt.

Down the mountainside two companies of Cossack foot advance on the temple, a nasty surprise for the Chinese but there are not a lot of these guys so they need to be nippy, in and out with not much of a firefight.

At this point we take a short shopping break the game is looking very good and we are well on schedule.

As we return Rich L pushes his Cossacks forward at the redoubt and the Chinese cavalry.

Unfortunately for Rich the defenders take out his Tchanka before it can add a great deal of value.

The Chinese cavalry are taking casualties but hang back, their best bet is to let the Cossacks come to them through the hail of defensive fire of the infantry.

Rich C in the Russian Quarter is pretty untouched so far with the Whites going for local superiority in the Chinese quarter and temple.

I love how medieval the Mongolians look, only the rifles slung on their backs give the timeline away.

We call another quick shopping and lunch break as the majority of the Russians are set for their final assaults into Urga.  The game is looking good and we are getting good feedback.

Back from lunch and we are pretty much straight to it, Dave's Russians pile into the trenches all along the Chinese quarter and start to make inroads despite strong resistance.

As Dave has the Officer regiment they are just that slight bit better and their quality starts to tell urged on by the Baron himself from behind..

The Russians begin to make headway right along the defence in the Chinese quarter and the Mongolian tribal cavalry add to the mayhem by breaking in on the flank of the Chinese.

The Cossacks arrive at the temple to find a reception committee.

It doesnt look like the foot Cossacks are going to take the temple but they have distracted Chinese forces that could have been used shoring up the defences elsewhere.

Chris's Chinese assault troops decide to storm out of their earthworks and take the fight to the advancing Russians. A brave but ultimately doomed exploit.

The Russians and their Mongolian allies are well into the Chinese quarter now and the Chinese defence starts to buckle and then break under the pressure.

Si's forces close with Rich H's Chinese in the Russian quarter, his cavalry have taken a hammering and his gun is out of ammo but the infantry are marching stoicley on to come to grips with the Chinese.

The Cossacks have closed with the temple to be met by small arms and MG fire from the defenders.

I did neglect to capture the final moments of the battle on camera I am afraid.

The Cossack foot were driven off badly mauled but this provided just enough distraction for mounted Cossacks to burst in the front gate and make off with the Bogda Khan, Dave had captured the trenches and first buildings in China town and the redoubt had fallen leaving only Russian town in Chinese hands. With the Russians on the ascendancy we call it a win for the Baron and pack up.

A cracking day, with lots of interest from visitors and the chance to speak to people. The game played remarkably well too.