Return to the Russian Civil War

It has been a while since I had the RCW on the table but it makes the ideal setup for an entertaining battle with George coming to the dungeon this week. He has already posted the battle here http://musingswargameslife.blogspot.com/  so I won’t repeat stuff unnecessarily. As a one off battle I wanted to give some challenges and options in the scenario whilst keeping it fairly simple.

Somewhere in southern Russian ……..circa 1920

The basic scenario is an assault to capture two of the three objectives, the two bridges and the cross roads. The Reds are dug in and the Whites with a more mobile force will attack from the left. The river is only crossable beyond the wooden bridge. I deliberately made the two halves of the table different to give the attacker choices around where and how to attack. Would they surge across the open ground or use the cover around the village ?

The Reds are mainly infantry based but have two machine guns and a light howitzer.

Half of their force is set up at the start, the attackers had an effective pre assault barrage distributing a number of pins on the defenders which then needed to be rallied off

The Whites have a french Nieuport biplane which can harry the enemy with machine gun fire

….and a Whippet and cavalry !

The White infantry choose to assault the village supported by the Austin armoured car

So the reds throw much of their infantry into the defence in that area

Separate units are sent to hold the bridges

The Reds push forward their Howitzer but it proves very ineffective and is badly placed, the biplane continues to pin down the defenders

The reds put up a stout defence of the village, forcing at least one of the units to pull back, they will no doubt be harshly treated after the battle !

And despite early loses hold onto the wooden bridge

Eventually though the combination of the Whippet and the cavalry push the defenders away from the stone bridge.

Some tough fighting in the village including a couple of hand to hand combats, here the remnants of the sailor unit form the Baltic fleet are wiped out in the trees

But the stone bridge is lost, with nothing to hold back the cavalry

The Reds are still holding the wooden bridge where they are holding their own

But ‘Whites’ are starting to outflank them from the left

….and the village is lost, with the Officers Corps clearing out the buildings.

So a win for the Whites this time, the scenario worked pretty well and felt balanced. The answer to the whippet is the Howitzer but it was set up in the wrong place. The battle of course makes me think about the figures I have in the lead pile for this collection 🤔 and getting some more cavalry done.

On a separate note whilst I paint the next Napoleonics I made these little terrain additions for Sicily. To match in with my walls and giving me some options for gateways etc.

That’s all for now, thanks for popping by

Matt 😀

The 83rd Regiment of Foot

Just a brief shot of my next completed unit for the peninsular war.

These are Warlord figures again but this time with the full 6 man metal command to give some variety, back on 40x40 bases but I think the next regiment will move to the six men per base seen in the last Portuguese regiment. I have spent quite a lot of time this week making the next two light infantry regiments using Victrix flank company figures, they have been more of a faff than I had expected but are now on the way. The completed 83rd means I now have enough for a good British brigade so I am thinking we may get them into battle soonish. Although not this week as two other battles are planned.

Perhaps not so dramatic but one of the local nature reserves Cliburn Moss close to where we live, home to a wide abundance of bird life, you can just see the Pennines in the distance.

Thanks for checking in, hopefully setting up a RCW battle for tomorrow

Matt

Battle of Graus 1063 ?

After a series of WW2 battles I thought we would change things up a bit this week with a Reconquista battle. The battle of Graus took place between the states of Aragon and Zaragoza/Castile around 1063 apparently some source place the battle around 1069. Very little (almost nothing) seems to be known about the battle which means you can make it up.

What is known is the King of Aragon Ramiro I had invaded Zaragoza and was facing a force under the command of the Emir Al-Muktadir with supporting troops from Castile under Prince Sancho ‘the strong’. Given the very limited historical information perhaps the only reason the battle is known is because it is thought the Emir had employed the mercenary El Cid.

In our version of the battle which takes place outside the town of Graus itself, Al-Muktadir and his Castilian supporters have drawn up whilst the Aragon forces under the King are on the attack. The king has employed some Muslim mercenaries who have the potential to swop sides. The townsfolk of Graus have come out to defend their fields. El Cid with a small contingent of cavalry reinforcements has a randomised arrival time and location. Will he arrive in time to save the day ?

The Zaragozian forces mainly lighter spearmen and archers in two ranks

The Christian Knights on their right wing

The King in the centre with the bulk of his heavy infantry

A shot from the town, the levy townsfolk can be seen in their field protecting their goats

Mercenary Muslim forces on the Aragon left, if they waiver they run the risk of deserting to the other side  !

The bulk of the Aragonese force

Would you believe it, in almost the first action of the game the mercenary mounted crossbowmen move forward, fail their morale check when they take a single wound and desert to the enemy 😂😂😂 we laughed a lot here the only disappointing thing was the rest of the mercenaries then charged the deserting scum in the rear and wiped them out !

A general advance by the heavy Christian cavalry

Al-Muktadir sends in his heavy camel troops to block the Christian cavalry 

The Castilians face off the mercenaries

A swirling melee in the centre begins

Zaragosan Jinetes against heavy Christian knights 🙁

Sancho the strong is keeping the mercenaries at bay

A lucky roll on the reinforcements arrival and the Cid arrives, but a poor roll on the location brings him on close to Graus itself when he is needed on the left 

Advancing Castilians feeling more confident now that they know they have El Cid at their rear

The centre is now a mass of spear troops in melee 

The archers are having a limited effect

….and then the Christian cavalry breaks through !

Some fighting breaks out amongst the rocks

The locals determined to protect their goats throw stone, sticks and poo at the mercenaries keeping them away !

The Zaragosan left flank is turned as well

The centre is strongly contested by both sides

Christian cavalry break through in the centre….

It is touch and go, in the distance El Cid can be seen galloping between the rocky outcrops 

The king charges in to try and slay Al-Muktadir in single combat

Sancho the strong is driving the mercenaries back but his assault is faltering

…….and just as the battle is lost the Cid arrives to save the day.

At this point we finished the battle, on the Zaragosan left flank the spearmen had held the flank and sent the Christian heavy cavalry fleeing. On the right flank things were fairly equal and although the mercenaries have been pushed right back they have more reserves so we called it at best a draw. In the centre is was really too close to call so we had to play one more deciding combat round here. The various commanders failed to kill each other, the key combat was between the spearmen, the Aragonese failed to break the Muslims and with the Muslims getting the next turn El Cid would be charging into their rear. This would have left a single Aragonese spearmen unit in the centre but this was already heavily wounded so we called the battle for the Emir Al-Muktadir, Zaragoza and Castile taking the day. Hoorah !

As you can tell a close battle which nicely broke up into three quite distinct battles, very entertaining. By surprise we had produced a historical outcome, and that single wound on the King would be costly as historically he died a few months later potentially from a wound at the battle.

These Dark age/Al Andalus battles are so colourful and fun to play. It has of course got me thinking about what troops I have in the lead pile. I’m feeling I need more cavalry, Heavy knights and some more Jinetes types so we might see those getting into the queue amongst the current Napoleonics.

Thanks as always for checking in, no outdoor photos I have been out cycling but it always seems to be raining at the moment 

Matt