Bungling our way to Sevastopol

[Plynkes]

Funny how things turn out, sometimes. That no-good nephew of mine, who only a few short years ago was filling his Christmas list with such baffling requests as "Necron Codex", "Termagaunt" and "Hive Tyrant", now buys Wargames Illustrated rather than White Dwarf, often tells me about his plastic Perry ACW figures, enquires whether there are any figures available for gaming the Korean War, and is currently trying to decide whether his next project should be 6mm SYW or 15mm Franco-Prussian War. So despite all Chronoglide's Sci-Fi propaganda (he had us playing Battletech of all things this week), looks like young Sickers is coming down on the side of historicals. Hurrah!

Inspired by the PC game Empire Total War (to which he has an addiction almost approaching the level where it requires an intervention), and all the glossy pics in my newly-acquired copy of Black Powder he has been expressing an interest in wargaming in the Horse and Musket era. So I thought I'd better show him what it was all about. To that end I searched around in the attic for my ancient 15mm Crimean War figures, got them out and dusted them down.




Guess they don't look too bad, considering the distinct lack of effort I put into painting back in them days.


Also found my old battered copy of Fields of Honor, which was my game of choice back in the 90s. Good for any Victorian war, would it still be fun all these years later?

Got out enough figures for a decent-sized game, and pinching the idea of doing a "not quite the Alma" from the Black Powder book, decided to do some river crossing and redoubt assaulting. The French and Turks were left out, as I would have needed lots more Russians and couldn't find enough, and besides, the game would have become to big and unwieldy for the time we had. So it was the British sector of a bigger battle that was nearly the Alma. Yeah, that'll do.

At the last minute we decided to use the written orders system that comes with the game. Wasn't sure it was a good idea to begin with, as it complicates the game somewhat (never bothered with it much in the old days) but it seemed entirely appropriate to make command and control more troublesome if we were doing the Crimea. We drew the line at using the personality rules though (they can give your subordinates realistically human foibles, and they don't always do what you want when you want, and sometimes they disregard your orders entirely, and make up their own). Though it would have been well-suited to the Crimea it might have been a bit much for a first game, and besides, we could probably make quite enough of a mess of things without any help.

Time for us to put on our cocked hats and muck up our orders entirely. Can't beat a bit of Crimean bungling, and if you want incompetent, blundering generalship, Reg and me are your men!


(some of these photos have this ghostly moon-glow, it's simply because I forgot to reset the white balance on the camera after taking some photos in another room with different light conditions - my first bit of Crimean bungling!)

Reggie wanted to be the Russians, so he took command of his two redoubts (Greater and Lesser) and put his cavalry in between them.


I put the Guards, Highlanders and Light Division on the left. They would attack the Greater Redoubt.


On the right line infantry and the cavalry. They would take on the Lesser Redoubt.


First across the river, the Light Bobs led the way. Immediately they came under fire from the Russian heavy guns in the Greater Redoubt. But the cannon balls bounced harmlessly in between the men, spread out as they were in their skirmish formation.


Then came the rest of the army.

Even in 15mm , I was always too lazy to paint enough figures to really do this kind of thing justice, to make it the kind of spectacle it deserves to be. That's probably one of the reasons I moved into 28mm skirmish (I also enjoy painting 28s much more). So you'll just have to imagine that it's thousands of men, rather than an episode of Sharpe, okay?

Now it was time for the blundering to begin in earnest...


Obviously distracted by something far more important, Lord Raglan had been negligent in his deployment. His left and right were taken care of, they were to attack the redoubts. In the centre... um... not much. Just the general's staff and the odd battery of artillery, and pointing right at them: the massed ranks of the entire Russian cavalry force! In my complacency I had counted on my opponent to be cautious, yet he had spotted my mistake.


(The Russian Cavalry waiting patiently for their orders, and apparently about to be eaten by some hitherto undiscovered species of megafauna.)
But my opponent had blundered too. He had positioned his general and staff on his extreme left flank. Not only were they entirely exposed to any flanking moves on my part, but they were a bloody long way from the rest of his army. Realising his chance to pounce on my weak centre, he sent word ordering all his cavalry to advance. But they were miles away! Would the courier with the orders get there in time before the British could rectify the situation, and if they didn't would the orders countermanding those orders get there in time to stop them? Blimey, being a general is bleeding complicated when you have to do it like this!


The courier ran like the wind, and breathlessly gave the cavalry commander his orders. So forward they went, Hussars, Uhlans and Cossacks. Then the charge was sounded! Always sensible sorts, the Cossacks declined to join in, but the rest of them charged hell-for-leather!


Nothing could stop them, they were about to punch a massive Russian-cavalry-division-sized hole in my line. There was no way my pathetic little 9pdr battery with its measly three attack dice could stand up to this. Nonetheless, waiting until the last moment, they loaded up with canister shot and let rip...


To be continued...

[fastolfrus]

Jolly good show chaps !

Looking forward to episode two... how will our hero get out of this terrible scrape ?


What make are the 15mms - they look perfectly presentable, and I'm toying with an insane plan to try for Balaklava at the school club sometime....

[Plynkes]

When the smoke cleared: A miracle. A tangle of human limbs and horseflesh, and beyond it a division of cavalry fleeing for their lives. The Hussars just kept going, hell bent on a change of career. The Uhlans were polite enough not to leave the table, but refused to play any more - they had decided they would prefer to watch from now on.

Dyl, you jammy, jammy bleeder. Shaking their little fists at the whole concept of probability, those D6s came up trumps.


Reg was now convinced that his "artillery curse" was scientific fact (whenever he has arty in a game it is worse than useless, whenever he is shot at by it, it dashes him to bits). There was no way this should have happened, but it had. Artillery curse? No, God just happens to be an Englishman, it would seem.


The view from the hill. Not good, redcoats advancing with menace, and fleeing cavalry.


Raglan, rather than doing the job they pay him to do, which is commanding the army, was by this time fussing and interfering in the business of his subordinates. Here he is directing the fire of a nearby battery, a job they are perfectly capable of doing by themselves (actually it proved useful, allowing me to ignore the targeting priority rules, and so help persuade the routing cavalry not to come back).


Meanwhile the attack was going in on the Lesser Redoubt...


And the British cavalry had been ordered to support the attack by moving around to the unprotected Russian left flank.


Things were looking a little tricky for the Russians in this sector.


Especially as Lord Lucan and his cavalry were now poised to charge into the unprotected left flank of the redoubt.


But at the Greater Redoubt things were much less clear-cut. The Russian 18 and 24 pounders still stood between the British and victory. Masses of attack dice and canister shot once at close range made them a much more fearful proposition than the guns that had so devastated the Russian cavalry. And the Guards and Highlanders had orders to assault them head on (don't look at me like that, it's what they pay 'em for, ain't it?).

But it never came to that. The Light Division was now in range of the enemy infantry on the hill, and started to send minie balls in their direction. Armed with only old-fashioned smoothbores, the Russians could not reply at that range, and either didn't have the orders or inclination to come down off the hill and put it to the bayonet. Their casualties started to mount, and before he knew where he was, the Russian general was having to pass a test of his nerve or be forced to withdraw his army from the field. He passed the test, but simply having to make it convinced him that the day was lost. He ordered the withdrawal, and abandoned the redoubts and their guns to the jubilant British.


Croquet lawns, village greens, Victoria was my queen!

Victoria! Victoria!

Victoria, Victoria!

Now I didn't altogether agree with his assessment. While things looked hopeless on the left, as I said, I think they could well have repelled my impending attack on the Greater Redoubt, and I needed to take both for a complete victory. So he could have restricted me to a minor victory by denying me on his right. But his will to fight had gone. Mumbling something about "wanting to spare the lives of his men", with his dreams of cavalry glory lying broken in the dust, and his left flank in danger of rapid collapse, he was convinced he was dished.

In retrospect the miracle of the battery was the real turning point. 9 out of 10 times they would have swept my gunners away, captured Lord Raglan, punched a hole through my centre and then played Merry Hell in my rear (!), causing the attack to stutter or perhaps collapse entirely. There would have been havoc, and it may well have been me that was dished. History turns on such small things.


The Russians lost 1188 men killed, wounded or missing.
A further 528 had fled the field or had no fight left in them.

British losses were much lower.
330 men killed, wounded or missing.

The Light Division suffered the most (particularly the Rifles), as the great guns on the hill had been playing ninepins exclusively with them for the whole afternoon.




The game was a blast, and young 'un seemed to really enjoy his first horse and musket bash, despite the result. I had forgotten how much I like this kind of game, and in the end we were both glad we had opted to use the written orders by courier rules. It definitely adds something that I think this period needs if you are to get the most from it. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend using such a system in any games of this type. Beforehand you think it will be a pain in the arse, but it is actually buckets of fun, miles better than every unit instantly and always doing what you want it to.


The fact that the officers and couriers move at a random rate means you never quite know how long the orders will take to get there, or if their orders will be out of date by the time they arrive. Great for flavour of Crimean bungling. Reg's order to the cavalry arrived with due haste, only to send them to their doom (perhaps better if it had not). On the other hand, when the British cavalry were sent off on their flank march, they left their artillery on a knoll bombarding the enemy. Due to an oversight by Lord Lucan (yeah, let's blame him - couldn't have been my fault) they had not been told what to shoot at, so had to fire in accordance with the target priority rules. This meant they spent the day pounding uselessly with counter-battery fire at the enemy guns in the lesser redoubt, and at that range they were virtually impervious to my fire.

Lucan did try to remedy this by sending a courier back to tell the twits to shoot at the enemy infantry instead, as they were a much juicier target. But to my frustration the dawdling twat took his own sweet time getting there. Perhaps he had to keep stopping to ask directions, or called in at a wayside in to quench his thirst, and then fell asleep.


Whatever the reason, by the time the orders arrived, the battle was over. Great fun!




End. (No animals were harmed in the making of this battle report)

[Plynkes]

What make are the 15mms - they look perfectly presentable, and I'm toying with an insane plan to try for Balaklava at the school club sometime....

Good question. The words "19th Century Miniatures" and "Rank and File" are buzzing around my head somewhere. Not sure if these are/were the same company or what. It was ages and ages ago that I painted these. Some time in the 90s, hard to remember details. The above applies to the majority, but there are also a few Dixon Indian Mutiny figures, and some Irregular Miniatures individual figures in there somewhere too.

[DFlynSqrl]

Great report Plynkes.  A fun read as always.  I've always like the look of the massed troops in the Horse and Musket style games.  Just never had the motivation to paint that many troops myself.

[Calimero]

Great report indeed. Lots of fun too!

[Gluteus Maximus]

Excellent game report, as usual. It's always a treat reading them.


I like the use of screen-captures - wish I knew how to do them 

[Plynkes]

No fancy screen capture software or anything. I just press the Print Screen key, open a graphics program and "paste". Easy.

[dodge]

Liked that a lot 

particularly liked the river, how did you make that? or did you buy it ?

dodge

[rob_alderman]

Excellent!

Truly excellent!

Do make sure he knows that not all wargames need to be historical to be good though. Imagination is key, plus the chicks dig it. 

[Gluteus Maximus]

No fancy screen capture software or anything. I just press the Print Screen key, open a graphics program and "paste". Easy.

I've often wondered what "prt sc" meant 
Thanks!

[Ray Rivers]

Excellent thrashing of your nephew!   

Hope he comes back for more.

Very nice report.  Great photos and wit.

The "big battle game" is why for most of my life I was totally committed to 15mm.   

[answer_is_42]

Dashed good report sir! I've been considering the Crimea for quite some time. you've convinced me. All I need now is the time, money etc...

Inspired by the PC game Empire Total War (to which he has an addiction almost approaching the level where it requires an intervention)

Bah! load of rubbish! What's he doing playing that? Tell him to go away and buy Paradox Interactive’s Victoria. That'll put him off playing such games for a rather long time. Or keep him addicted for even longer...

[Plynkes]

particularly liked the river, how did you make that? or did you buy it ?

Make terrain? Me? That's a laugh. The very idea. Considering myself to be something of a toff these days, I had my Punjabi manservant procure a river for me. It's imported. All the way from Germany.

http://www.gelaendestuecke.de/

It's supposed to be for 28mm (my usual thing), but apart from the gigantic grass I don't think you really notice.

[Hammers]

Make terrain? Me? That's a laugh. The very idea.

Now,now. Don't diminish yourself. We've seen you make both termite hills and elephant dung.