'Tumbling dice' WW1 Russians were used throughout -- there are quite small 20mm figures and are fairly priced. The best thing about them is the variety of headgear and uniform types which allows to build quite an interesting army. The guns were from 'Bandera miniatures' and the Tashankas were from ' BW Models ' ( ex Miltra ), as sadly ' TD ' don't make these .
After Action Report
In brief, the situation was a Red column, escorting wagons laden with wounded and pack horses with supplies, retreating up a road and parallel rail line; their objective was to get to the opposite end of the table with as little casualties as possible.
The Reds set up in two columns, one on the road and one on the rail line, primarily because that way their columns could be shorter and get on the board faster. They knew that there were enemy following behind them and also hat their flanks were vunerable. The right hand column contained a good quality Red cavalry regiment, an armored car company of two armored cars (an Austin-Putilov and a Rolls Royce a/car ), and two battalions of infantry. They moved along the rail line. Seperated from them by a low hill mass was the road column. It contained a squadron of the good cavalry, a regiment of Cossacks, a Naval infantry battalion, two battalions of infantry, a battalion of artillery with two 76.2mm guns.
The Red columns were led by their cavalry, and had no flank security out at all. For some strange reason they decided the biggest danger was the possibility of light enemy forces in front of them, blocking their access to the two bridges.
The Whites were divided into three forces. One had four battalions of infantry, including a crack officer's battalion, which had to enter the south edge of the board, following the Reds, but their other two forces would enter on roads coming in from the sides, with their entry points and times to be determined by me, and told to them only. The Red and White commanders were not permitted to discuss tactics once they entered the board; no radios, unless they were in base to base contact.
The first White force to enter contained a militia cossack regiment, a Kuban cossack regiment, and a squadron of regular cavalry (high quality). They entered from the West, their entry screened from the Reds by a low ridge. The Reds neglected to put out any flank security, as I mentioned. A patrol from the Kuban regiment topped the rise, spotted the column only about 150 yards away, and was blown away by a volley from a Red infantry battalion on the road that spotted them. The Whites had a dismount available for the patrol, and there was a small copse of trees on the high ground, but neglected to use cover for their recon. The Whites deployed behind the ridge and hesitated for a turn, for reasons not clear to me, perhaps waiting for more friendlies to show up.
The Cossack forces then charged over the low ridge catching a substantial portion of the pack train and one of the wagons. The militia cossacks, who I hadn't expected much from, took a few casualties from the same infantry battalion, but overran the pack train and halted on the road (they could have gone on up the hill mass beyond). Meanwhile on a hill just North of this action, the Naval infantry battalion had turned around and was advancing through the small woods and over the open part of the hill. The armored car company was supporting them, having come over from the far side of the board.
I sharply pointed out to the Red players that this was out of line, that there hadn't been enough shooting to justify them maneuvering to support this side of the board yet, and they assured me this was a pre planned move. Knowing who they were I accepted this. I should have made both sides inform me before we started of any deviation from just moving on the roads they were on. Bad reffing.
The regular White cavalry charged the sailors, but were frustrated by the woods and by the armored cars, neither of which they could engage on horseback. Both sides took losses, but the cavalry subsequently failed their morale check, causing them to retreat ASAP.
Meanwhile, the Tartar Cossack Regiment wheeled around and charged the white Militia cossacks, driving them back over the low rise where they lined up in front of the regulars. The Red infantry on the road had meanwhile formed up facing the low ridge and respecting its firepower, the Kuban regiment hesitated some more. Eventually they made their way around the southern end of the ridge and where shot at by the rear guard of the Reds, neither side suffered much, and the Kuban regiment never accomplished anything.
The Tartar regiment made a grand charge over the ridge against the militia cossacks on the low ground, and both sides failed their morale checks, and proceeded to ride away from each other. The militia fled the board, the Tartar's returned to the road. Essentially this concluded the business on this side of the board, the Kuban cossacks eventually carefully worked their way around to the center and made a charge against one squadron of the Tartar regiment, but had no real effect. The armored cars were a power gamers dream for the Reds that could not be trumped without artillery, and that was elsewhere.
On the East, on turn three the Don Cossack brigade (four large squadrons) and an armored car made their appearence. It was inasupicious, they approached a village on the rail line and the Red battalion fired at them, hitting the lead squadron commander and one other stand. The squadron failed its morale check and fell back, Morale -1. This was the first of a series of bad morale checks for the Don boys. The poor commander, couldn't roll more than a 1 to save his life. Another squadron came up, was hit by fire, and fell back demoralized.
Meanwhile where was the Red cavalry? It had maneuvered across the river and was carefully deployed facing a stretch of open ground on the West edge of the board where they were absolutely sure more Whites were going to arrive from. Nope.
On turn 6 the White infantry showed up. Due to poor communications none of them arrived on the road where the real action was taking place, instead coming on up the rail line and from behind the Don Cossacks. The latter had by this time gotten the clue, and had maneuvered around the Red battalion in the village and went after the machinegun company, charging across the railroad bridge. They should have stayed at home. A few tracers around their heads and the lead squadron retreated in great haste. The whole game they had done nothing of significance. The White artillery which had been attached to the infantry (the Whites were under the impression that they couldn't attach it to their cavalry, and opened fire on the village. Not terribly effectively, they had plenty of ammo but 75mm guns aren't all that effective against units in houses. However, a White infantry regiment the village was stormed the village and destroyed the Red battalion that had defied the Don Cossacks.
That pretty much wrapped it up, the Reds had after their initial silly dispositions conducted a very competent fighting retreat, and the Whites had failed to find a way to effectively use their cavalry to prevent the escape.
The Whites lacked in machineguns, especially with their cavalry, and with only one armored car and their artillery coming in late, never had an effective way to engage the Red armored cars or deal with infantry in good cover. Rolling really terrible dice didn't help, nor the fact that the Reds were rolling very well all evening. The Whites had a limited number of dismounts available for their cavalry, (one squadron of militia cossacks actually dismounted, walked into spotting range of the armored cars, and were shot apart) .
The Reds should not have had two armored cars, one would have been more than enough. Two long folding tables side by side made up the battle field, a longer one would have given the White cavalry more terrain to maneuver across and a better chance for finding an open flank, not that they made full use of what was there, though. The Red artillery never engaged, nor did their high quality cavalry regiment. The game was pretty much resolved in about a dozen turns ; about 5 hours plus of playing time.
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© Copyright 2002 by Rolfe Hedges
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