Stemming the Tide After Holowczin GNW Cavalry Action with BLBII

Another Great Northern War play test.

Chris has taken one of Barry Hiltons pre-prepared 4play games, doubled the forces so 3 of us can play and increased the table area. As its cavalry only who move fairly briskly we decided not to extend the movement rates.

The game is based on the end of the battle of Holowczin, the Swedish army has smashed the Russian army at the Dneiper river in the face of superior artillery, defences and difficult terrain and the Cavalry is now pushing onto the Russian artillery park defended by Russian Dragoons.

The Swedes have 6 squadrons of guard cavalry all Veteran, Elite Blade and 2 squadrons of Drabants Royal Guard who are all Guard, Blade. The Swedes all have decent commanders.

The Russians have 10 mounted squadrons and 2 dismounted in woods varying in quality from Veteran Elite to Green, the majority are drilled. They also have a light gun, initially masked by a cornfield. 

4 Squadrons of Russians guard a passage to the Swedish right, including two of Elite horse Grenadiers. 4 Guard the central passage with a gun is support and two units of dismounted dragoons set to rake any unit braving the centre, two more are position to support the centre or cover the Swedish left should I decide to try for the flank.  

My job is to have a Swedish squadron of more than half strength holding the barrel 6 inches from the Russian artillery park by move 8.

Move 1 Steve pushes 4 squadrons into the main gap and two more to cover the potential left flank move.

I get a full hand of orders, as the Swedes can have double orders I use them to form two squadrons left and move them to try for the left flank gap whilst pushing 4 more squadrons towards the centre.

Chris is looking at all the cavalry turning left and going for Steve and thinking thank goodness for that!

Steve fires the dismounted dragoons on my left as the cavalry come in range managing to inflict one casualty. The light gun also fires but at long range misses.

First casualties of the game and they can mount up quickly so I will need to be careful.

Next turn the other unit of dismounted Dragoons has a shot but fails to score a hit.

My two leading left flank squadrons are past the dismounted Dragoons and the gun, moving at 8 inches per turn we are making steady progress but having the ability to only move parts of the army each turn depending on the order allocation is breaking the formation up and leaving some units behind. 

The other four units of guard make varying degrees of steady progress leaving the two squadrons of Drabants behind as I dont have the activations to get them moving.

I get a decent order allocation and decide to sue one of the Swedes unique abilities and issue double orders to the front two units, to move then charge. Move is 8 inches charge is 10 inches plus a D6 so I could get anywhere up to 24 inches total movement.

My third unit of horse get a charge order and engage the Russians in the centre who counter charge.

Both units reach their targets and Melee ensues.

In the centre the Swedes inflict 50% casualties, they Russians inflict non but attrition means there is always at least one casualty for the winner.

A similar result on the left where the Russians take slightly more than 50% casualties.

The Russians pass their morale in the centre and both sides throw in reinforcements, the Swedes again have the advantage in dice and this time destroy the lead unit and force the supporting unit back. They have now though taken 50% casualties in the lead unit and will need to allow the rest of the force to finsih the job.

The Russians fall back and the Swedes pursue destroying the first Russian unit.

In the centre a unit of Swedes rolls a 10 on D10 and gets an uncontrolled charge at the dismounted dragoons, They have to turn more than 45 degrees so are unformed, Chris then gets a devastating close range volley inflciting 50% casualties, no surprise that despite surviving the firing they loose the melee and route back.

On the far right Chris advances his Dragoons and Elite Horse Grenadiers. He has set up in order to do an "All or nothing Charge" allowing, once in a game, a whole regiment to charge a unit rather than just a squadron and throwing everyones dice into the ensuing melee. 

My Swedes are winning in the centre, Steve has committed another squadron to try hold them but this one is again pushed back.

Having broken the first unit of Dragoons my flanking squadrons bounce onto the next one, charging unformed. They break the unit but have taken 50% casualties, on the upside the supporting unit is now in position to claim the game and is also formed up on the flank of the remaining untouched Russians.

Its all happening on the right flank now as my Swedes get an uncontrolled charge, the Russians all or nothing charge goes in and its 9 Russian dice against 5 Swedish, the Swedes are all but destroyed but the casualties to Russians still force them to retreat. On the extreme right with one Squadron eahc its an easier victory for the Swedes who follow up chasing the retreating Russians and shore up the right flank.

The Swedes push through but are held by the remaining Horse Grenadier Squadron. Drilled, Elite these are the bets the Russians have.

A really fun game this did reinforce just how much better the Swedes are and how much less fun the Russians are to play with for Chris and Steve.

We agreed next time to add Saxons to the Russians and hamstring the Swedes somewhat with Polish allies.

Thanks for stopping by.

Planning for Russian Civil War at Partizan II

It's my turn to put on the game at the Newark Partizan II show in November.

I was toying with Sikh Wars or Russian Civil War but I did Aliwal with the Boondock Sayntes in May so I am thinking something Russian Civil War related and do Sikh Wars next year.

That does still give me plenty of choice, my collection can cover Mongolia, Siberia, Southern Russia and now Poland, with lots of extra troops from chum Chris's Chinese army and Dave and Si's reds and whites. I even have an Anarchist army for Ukraine which is growing nicely.

I am particularly tempted by the Polish-Soviet War 1919-20. Its a period I am adding to at present and has some colourful units and interesting options.

My Whites and Poles are exceeding my Reds by some margin now. So I am thinking about games that are less defending against the Red Horde (Which is a lot of the Polish-Soviet War) and more meeting engagement or even defending Reds. So that's  a better fit for the beginning of this war when the Poles choose to attack the Reds who had formations building up in Ukraine and Belorussia but were not quite ready to launch their offensive. Politically it was a bad idea really as it made the Poles look like the aggressors, reducing the support they had from the Allies and neighbouring countries, Militarily it made loads of sense, although in the end probably didn't help them at all.

As the Polish lines of communication became stretched the Red army reserves including the first Cavalry army (Konarmia) mainly Cossacks who had fought for the whites or Imperial army previously , marched in to push the Poles back.

I think the fluid situation in Summer 1919 in Ukraine with both the Poles and Reds attacking and defending would make an interesting game for the show and visually different for visitors.

So assuming this is the game I am going with I need to consider where the gaps in my collection are and start painting to fill them.

I got a good start with the below today.

Up to press I have focused mainly on my Poles as they are a new army and good fun to paint. So that has meant that my Red army is a bit weaker in comparison.

As with our most recent game this can be partially remedied by expanding my Anarchists and having them fight alongside the Reds as they did on occasion historically. 

These guys are Anarchist Cavalry but at least a couple of them would fit very nicely into a Red Cavalry regiment, especially the Konarmia which contempory's described as looking more like a horde of bandits, some men without hats wearing Womens hats looted from houses along the way.

These 4 are STP miniatures, a Russian firm stocked by Empress Miniatures with a really lovely mix of figures. The two in the middle perfect to mix in with Reds, the other two probably better as Anarchists. If I am careful with which figures I base together many will be able to do double duty. 

These two are both Boer War figures, the civilian gear makes them good for Anarchist once the Foundry figure on the right had a head swap. Again probably not ideal for Red cavalry. I have maybe 32 to paint in total, hoping I can have half do double duty as Reds with the other half probably only being suitable for Anarchists or Partisans really.

At first glance a White Cossack officer might be out of place, however whole brigades of Red Cossacks changed side to fight for the Poles and my Cossacks are short of a leader figure.

Nice to have the option to field a regiment of Cossacks with Tchanka in the game.

I have a whole raft of Anarchist foot to paint, possibly enough for a brigade and a gun will come in handy, they were much more organised than we might think. The below picture has 4 models all from different manufacturers. 

Left to right Scheltrum this German figure perfect for those Ukranians who had been armed and uniformed by the occupying Germans and now fighting for the black flag, then an STP figure based on Nestor Makhno, I have at least 4 Makhno's so this guy will either command the gun or a company of foot. The gun is a Woodbine Turkish 75mm Krupps, again no doubt left behind by the occupying Germans when they pulled out and the last is a Civilian figure from Copplestone's Partisan pack, perfect for the Anarchists.

The biggest gap for Reds currently is Guns and MG's so the first filler for that is a Copplestone Red MG crew. At least another to follow and a couple of field guns.

A few more coming off the workbench, mix of manufacturers.

The sailors are Anarchist sailors, from Russia's Black Sea fleet in Crimea, they could equally be White or Red sailors. I hope to create enough for 2 companies to add to my two companies of Red sailors so I can either have them as a full battalion or keep them separate with the Anarchists as needed. All three of these are STP from Empress.

This guy is a Scheltrum civilian, I think from the Spartacist pack, a very dramatic pose, you cant see the carbine on his back, quite a few of them have this distinctive curved knife not sure what that is, perhaps a sailors knife?

And whilst I am not concentrating on the Poles, I do have my last battalion of Greater Poland Army missing a company so will try get 8 of these completed in between other stuff. Great War German Storm troopers with the grey green jacket and Polish collar tabs.

Particularly busy this weekend with a bunch more completed, this gets me well on the way to fillign in a lot of the gaps.

So we have a Red army officer who will be added to a few others to give me another couple of companies, 4 Anarchists or Partizans all from Copplestone and a couple of my favourite figures from this batch, then a gun leader, a Copplestone Chinese Gunner with a Scheltrum head which came out quite nice I think.

The Germans to get my last company of Great polish troops nearer to finished, a Great War storm trooper with two plastic Wargames Atlantic figures. 

Lastly the sailors, I have kept these fairly simple. The left hand figure is a Scheltrum German sailor who looks slightly different to the rest but will do. The leader in the middle is Artizan thrilling tales bits quite nicely, the others are all STP, I particularly like the running guy who I gave a khaki army gymnasterka to make him a bit more campaigny.

A few more anarchists, mixed manufacturers.

These riflemen are Copplestone first and second from left and Scheltrum on the right.

The two gunners finish my Krupps crew, left is a Spanish Civil War Empress gunner and then a Copplestone Back of beyond. The command figure is the Nestor Mahkno from Giants in miniature, a lovely sculpt.

The Cavalry are all Scheltrum and a particularly scruffy looking lot

This last figure is a realy nice Scheltrum "Konarmia" red cavalry man. He is particularly scruffy with his rifle wrapped in sacking and his trousers loose around shoes as he has no boots. These figures come with separate heads so I gave him the Budnovka cap, the head however is  company B head.

The horse is a Knuckle Duster Mexican mount, fits really well and I can use the Scheltrum horse to replace this when I get around to his original bandido rider adding some variety to both unts. 

And just to show I am actually getting somethings completed here is the Cossack officer and Red MG crew based up and game ready.

So a view of what is potentially planned for Octobers show game, hope you like it and maybe we will see you at the show?

Thanks for stopping by.