The Battle of Astrakhan (part 3) - A diversion from the Balkans

Continuing the battle played by email with 54mm toy soldiers using the "Big Wars" rules devised by Stuart Asquith and Jack Alexander.

For those who prefer the game of Imagi-Nations this started out as a conflict between the Sublime Porte of the Levant and The Balkan League, sadly due to my general lack of imagination we soon reverted to the historical scenario of the somewhat RussoTurkish intrigues and incursions of the late 1800's.

The Turks have set up a command post on the hill in the shelter of the ruins.

The Turks being concentrated to the west have begun a general advance of their entire line, their infantry command the heights, artillery cover the central plain between the river and the hills while their cavalry sweep into the valley.

The Turkish cavalry thunder across the valley between the Ancient Temple and Windmill Hill unaware of what they may face ahead of them.....or the Cuirassiers rounding the hill to fall on their right flank.

The Russian right wing is painfully thin, two regiments of infantry and two of cavalry facing an assualt by nearly three times their number......but they don't know this! 

The Turkish light horse career on in their wild charge.

Overview of the  field at moves 3 and 4.

The umpires view, shared with you dear reader but denied to the two players who can only see what is visible from the position of their commander at table top level.  The result of this is that their ability to judge distances on the table, the effect of terrain on movement and the actual position of some of their troops starts to become impaired.

The impressive advance of the Turkish line, the mountain artillery deploy.

The Russian right ambles forward in the lee of the hill unaware of the full force of the assault about to break upon them.

The Turkish artillery tries a ranging shot and finds it falls far short.

The Russian battery on the left replies and finds it's mark comfortably.

The second Russian battery in the centre on the line finds the range of the Turkish light horse with ease.

Commander of the Turkish forces, a Swiss emigre, Wolfgang Feyler with his Prussian advisors and the "Diplomatic Mission" Colonel Sharpe of the British Political Agency and Master Sergeant Harper of the United States Cavalry, with the "Diplomatic Bag".

The Caucasian Cossacks leave the village and prepare to swim their horses across the river to rejoin the main body.

Having discovered that the village is unoccupied and there appear to be no enemy troops opposite their left wing the Russians rapidly recall their troops back to the centre while the gathering threat on their right builds ominously.  Is this a knee jerk reaction?  Is the action on the right a feint to draw off Russian troops from the left so that Turks concealed off table can swoop in and occupy the village?  Who knows? ...it's a risk.

The Russians pour back over the bridge to rejoin the main body in the centre, the one small bridge proves to be a major problem causing a bottleneck as the men jostle with on another to get across.

The old bridge creaks and threatens to colapse under the pounding of hobnailed boots as the Russian conscripts are driven on by the blows and curses of their officrs. 

Desperately trying to buy time the Russian artillery on the left continues the counter battery work to deflect attention from the troops hurrying to get back to the main body. 

The Russian central battery continues to play on the Turkish cavalry charge trying to blunt the effect they will have when they hit the lightly held right wing. 

Tomorrow - which way will the combat turn?

The Battle of Astrakhan (Part 4) - 54mm wargame with toy soldiers

Continuing the battle played by email with 54mm toy soldiers using the "Big Wars" rules devised by Stuart Asquith and Jack Alexander.

This was the first time we three, players and umpire, had used these rules so this was very much a learning experience for us as well as a bit of fun.

The Russian cavalry move to the top of the hill to meet the attack of the Turkish horse, the Montenegrin infantry and Rifles move up in support

Checked momentarily by the appearance of enemy lancers lining the crest of the hill ahead of them the Turkish light horse are unaware of the Cuirassiers emerging from behind the hill to attack them in the flank..........

......... but as the Cuirassiers round the hill they move within range of the Turkish guns and pay a terrible price.

Meanwhile the transfer of forces from the Russian left to the centre continues

The Russian infantry begins to reform in the centre

The Russian Command group in the left foreground are lead forward by the Emigre General Hagen von Tronek (in blue) and the Tsar's cousin, Grand Duke Michael (in black).  It was considered politically unacceptable for a mercenary officer to have command of the defence so the Grand Duke is nominally in command while his subordinate von Tronek is actually the effective Commander.  When victory is announced the Grand Duke will be rewarded by his cousin and hailed by a grateful nation. However should things go wrong von Tronek will take responsibility, his adjutant will hand him a loaded pistol and he will be invited to "do the right thing - pour encourager les autres".

The infantry of both sides halt on opposite hills to watch the outcome of the cavalry melee taking place in the valley below them.

The Cuirassiers, ranks thinned by the pounding from enemy guns, find themselves outnumbered two to one but give good account of themselves.  Elsewhere on the field the Turkish cavalry find they are no match for the Lancers .........

....... they break and are pursued back through their own lines.

The Turkish infantry takes up a strong position occupying the line of hills and halts.

As the Cossacks begin to cross the river they stray into the sights of the ever vigilant Turkish gunners........

.......... who open up a sustained fire on them.

The Cossacks suffer heavy casualties but they deflect the attention of the enemy gunners from the vulnerable infantry formations concentrated around the bridge.

The Russian artillery replied, keeping up a steady but ineffective counter battery fire at long range, it soon became clear this was pointless and they ceased fire to conserve ammunition.   

The Russians reform in the centre and the threat of their overwhelming local concentration becomes apparent.

Umpires Note

To explain the mechanics of the game: at the start of a move the players would give me their orders for each unit - move, fire etc.  I would physically move the units on the table then send each player 3 or 4 photos of their new dispositions, then  would send them a second email with 3 or 4 photos of what they could see of the other players positions from table top level.  To maintain fairness they would both receive the same number of pictures each move.  I would then dice for any firing, then for any melee and send them a couple of pics showing the outcome of the combat.

Initially I gave them details of the number of casualties on both sides but then it occurred to me that in the real world a commander wouldn't get that level of information, he wouldn't get continuous detailed updates of unit effectiveness while the battle was going on he would mostly judge by what he could see, so I started t give them general descriptions of what the commander would be aware of such as "devastating volley tears holes in your lines" and then leave them to make out what they could from the pics.

As both sides move simultaneously the melee modifiers, in the action above, for cavalry charging cancelled each other out but the +1 for the lancers proved devastating, as you might expect it to. 

The artillery are required to dice for a hit then dice for effect every shot, this made the counter battery fire at long range quite ineffective (a throw of 2 sixes), on reflection I decided this was a good thing.  In Little Wars, Wells warns against allowing the game to be dominated by the guns and degenerating into a duel between artillery (I find this often happens when I play LW). The double D6 throw prevents this, after all it's supposed to be a Colonial scenario not the Great War Western Front.  The guns did their best work when enemy formations blundered into range.  The best way to handle them would be to gallop up close to an enemy formation fire a salvo then limber up and ride hell for leather back to the safety of friendly forces!

Our original target had been to play one move each day, the game finally ran to thirteen moves and the pics above are now at move six.  After allowing for various issues it actually took us about four weeks to play and I think it perhaps began to sag a little in the middle but soon picked up when the main combat commenced.  I think this number of moves might be fine if you are playing live across the table in one sitting but it's too long for play by mail with long intervals in between moves.  I think this is perhaps down to infantry moving only 6 inches, when I play Little Wars on the same table infantry move 12 inches and a game is usually done in 6 or 7 moves which is probably more manageable for mail games.  On the other hand the shorter move makes things a bit more interesting when the two sides get to grips so I might consider infantry moving 12 inches for say the first three moves then reverting to 6 inches.

Would this system work with smaller sized figures? I don't see why not, but the larger scale probably makes it easier to follow unit movements bearing in mind that a major element in the game is uncertainty, lack of information and even misinformation.  In my case the question is accademic because I only have 54mm toy soldiers.

The Battle of Astrakhan (part 5)

Continuing the battle played by email with 54mm toy soldiers using the "Big Wars" rules devised by Stuart Asquith and Jack Alexander.

The Russian infantry column masses for an assault in the centre.

The Turkish line holds steady........

........... as the attack of massed Russian infantry gains momentum.

The Russian guns soften the enemy line in support of the main assault........

.........but the Turkish guns reply...........

.........with deadly effect.

The Russian column veers to the right to avoid the marshy ground around the bend in the river.

On the Russian right the cavalry have reformed and prepare to charge across the valley to support the infantry attack

The Turkish infantry moves forward.

While the Russian column takes a punishing fire from the Turkish line.

The Russian column finally reaches it's goal.........

............but as the cavalry charge uphill to distract the enemy attention..............

...........they receive a withering volley which wipes them out

The Caucasian Rifles and Montenegrins advance but become disordered moving through broken ground.

On the hill the Russian staff watch in horror as the cavalry are blown away............

............but then a cheer goes up on the left as the infantry final charge home...........

........and overrun the Turkish guns.

The Battle of Astrakhan (the end)

Continuing the battle played by email with 54mm toy soldiers using the "Big Wars" rules devised by Stuart Asquith and Jack Alexander, this is part 6 of 6 instalments so if you have just joined us dear reader you may wish to start reading at Part 1.

Click on the pictures to enlarge, click again and they're even bigger!

Players notify their orders by email, the moves are then carried out on the tabletop by the umpire and the results are returned to the players by email photos.

After suffering under a punishing hail of fire, the Russian sledgehammer has broken through the Turkish line......

.............fights off a savage counterattack...........

...........and clears the hill at the point of the bayonet.

The entire Turkish line advances on the thinly held Russian right wing. A Line Regiment and the Albanians have been marched in oblique order to shield the guns and the Command from the new threat.........

..........while the Montenegrins and Rifles stand fast.

Another melee breaks out in the centre

The guns maintain their fire on the enemy line but it has little effect.

The Turkish attack presses forward oblivious to the desultory Russian bombardment.

The Montenegrins and Rifles dress their lines and steady themselves to deliver a volley.

The Turkish advance is set to envelope the Russian line on both flanks.

The Turkish Staff discuss their options with the Prussian advisers.

Each unit of 10 infantry has an officer and a standard bearer, the players get a very limited view of the battlefield from the photos they are sent and also do not know the size or composition of the forces that oppose them.  The standards are quite visible in the photos and aid the players to keep track of where friendly forces are and assess the size of opposing formations.  When removing casualties during the game I have retained the standard bearers on the basis that if they were hit another man in the unit would pick up and run with the flag, thus continuing to aid the players with unit identification.

 The only rule for morale in  Big Wars is that when a "unit falls to one figure under half their original strength they must retire"  I didn't think of it a the time of the game but going forward I plan to use the officer figure as a unit casualty marker - in the example above, when 5 of the rank and file have been removed, the 6th casualty will be the officer, a unit with no officer will thus retire.  If there should be a 7th casualty inflicted it will be the standard and the remaining men will then break and rout

Also going forward I would like the Staff to have a more active role than eye candy so may allow them to rally retiring units and combine them to make reformed composite regiments. 

The Turkish line charges home on all sides.........

.............they take a fearful salvo from the Russian guns on the heights...........

.........and a salvo from the steadfast Montenegrins and Rifles..........

........but they charge home and fall on the enemy with the bayonet

The overall view shows the Russians attempting to role up the Turkish line while desperate melees continue in the centre and on the left.  Meanwhile the Turkish staff take the opportunity to slip past on the road to Astrakhan with the gold.

Finally, the Montenegrins and Rifles have been overwhelmed by superior numbers.  The remaining Turkish infantry form up to fight a rearguard action and follow their officers on the road to Astrakhan.

THE END

Umpire's note.

The introduction scenario would have made a good Campaign and even now could be continued, with the loss of so many troops and their artillery the Turks may not have the strength to take Astrakhan but they still have the gold so could recruit tribesmen from the Khiva Khanate or attempt a seaborne evacuation by the naval flotilla originally intended for the joint attack on the port.

In reviewing the actions it was interesting to follow the effects achieved by local concentration of force on the battlefield, first by the Russian infantry in the centre then the Turks on their left, in both cases their assaults took a fair amount of punishment but overwhelming numbers won through and annihilated the opposition.

The terrain and obstacle modifiers are very simple - troops move at half their normal distance in all cases, for the players with a limited view of what is happening this can make things difficult to judge.  On several occasions troops emerging through woods were so disrupted that they needed to halt and reform their lines before advancing further.  The difficulty for the Russian units in the village on the left wing moving back to the centre across the bottleneck of a single narrow wooden bridge could easily have spelled disaster.

The final charge of the Russian cavalry against the Turkish infantry on the hill before the ruins was very much a "thin red line" moment and was a good illustration of the outcome one might expect when cavalry face a volley from a solid formed up rifle line.

Although the artillery didn't have a significant impact on the game, due to the dice modifiers, I could see that they would have a devastating effect on cavalry in a Charge of the Light Brigade scenario (compared to their effect against and infantry charge) due to the combination of the cavalry lower unit strength and the rule requiring units with 50% casualties to retire. 

A good fast flowing game, simple rules ideal for playing by email or solo, intended for Colonial campaigns they are equally suitable for larger conflicts........I think I may try Crimean next or Russo Japanese or whatever.