Kosciuszko Uprising game at Cold Wars

[Pictors Studio]

We played a game tonight here at Cold Wars.  I had spots for four people and four people played.  There were about 1050 infantry on the table and a dozen guns with about 50 crew between them.  Plus a very small smattering of cavalry. With commanders added in there were probably about 1125 figures on the table.

We used Black Powder for the rules and did the Battle of Praga which was a section of Warsaw that was attacked by the Russians.  The Russians were trying to break through the Poles to capture either of two bridges crossing the river into Warsaw proper.

They didn't quite pull it off.



The Poles had four Brigades.  Two militia brigades with three battalions of militia each.  Then two regular brigades one with three units of regulars and two guns, one with four units of regulars and three guns.



The Russians had three infantry brigades, each with three battalions of infantry and a gun and then a cavalry/artillery brigade with four guns and one unit of dragoons and a small unit of lancers. 

The Russians went first and advanced on the Poles pretty much across the board.  The Poles kept their regulars in their defensive works and tried to bring up the militia with mixed results.  The ones on their right advanced.  The ones on the left blundered and went back to the bridge, presumably to dangle their feet in the water before advancing.


That would be the first of two blunders they would make in the first three turns of the game.

The Russians hit piecemeal.  Their first brigade came up and exchanged fire with the Poles on the Polish left, coming out worse in the exchange.  Then the second brigade came up to bail them out and got similarly hammered.  Then they tried to charge.





That was kind of a disaster. 





The other Russian brigade moved up and engaged the redoubt in the center with more success, partially because the horse artillery came up in support and really pounded away at them.



Eventually though the Russians got worn down by the Polish defenders but a sally by the Poles to capture the guns was beat off with losses.

Eventually the Poles on the left were worn down by the two Brigade Russian assault and one of their units routed while another was forced back leaving only one battalion in the works supporting the two guns.



The militia were supporting them until a brilliantly timed cavalry charge swept them away.





The Poles took their revenge by turning in their works and firing, point blank, into the flank of the cavalry sweeping them from the field in a storm of flames and lead.



But then the Russian infantry plowed into the Poles from the now exposed rear and swept them away in their turn.

This left the way open to the bridges. 

The Russians made a break for them with the one battalion of infantry left out of the first two Brigades. 

Fortunately for the people of Warsaw a battalion of enthusiastic militia charged after them and caught them on the road in the flank and wiped them out. 

The Russians withdrew at that point to plan their next assault on the city. 

More pictures:


http://imgur.com/0QKaU0Y,hMGk4In,QM55Y3C,uUfIDwZ,ja3t0fC,t8LvSiP,9fj2koB,oFD1t92,qyPWIVV,3B4bjig,5jHwFKj#0

http://imgur.com/qD9ZkbC,3I3PHNR,4w2UjZj,m5LinpM,32nuU0e,9KNXPur,srqgOn9,M38ndkB,RdW1ZGg,kGfxJJN,88f6CJY,HhXAY5V,3PAd2SL,7btIJeI#13

http://imgur.com/Ziadk98,Y8ym4xv,Lz4CGHu,mroerOu#3

[juergen c. olk]

Great job,nice to see gaming of this conflict.

[von Lucky]

Nice sets of photos, thanks for sharing. Not an often seen conflict (and I had no idea of the man that was named for the Mt Kosciuszko here in Australia).

[Pictors Studio]

It is a fun period.  The hopelessness of the cause doesn't really make the battles that the Poles won any less exciting and they certainly pulled a few off.

It was a real nail biter at the end.  The Russians could probably have used a few more troops but they kept the Polish right in place pretty well without them. 

[Kadzik]

Nice sets of photos, thanks for sharing. Not an often seen conflict (and I had no idea of the man that was named for the Mt Kosciuszko here in Australia).

Polish adventurer Strzelecki discovered this mountain in 1840 and named it after general.


I'm very suprised that someone outside Poland played a battle in this period. Kościuszko's uprising is a fantastic conflict to play with variety of troops and colorful personalities. I found wars right before napoleonic, with lots of smaller battles, are the most interesting ones.

[Pictors Studio]

I think a lot of wars "around" the Napoleonic period on both sides are very fun to game in general. 

With Kosciuszko Uprising a lot of the battles are smaller and can be played with a pretty high ration of troops to figures.  I will probably do Raclawice in 1:10 or bigger, when I have all of the troop types available. 

At 1:10 we would have only about as many figures on the table as we did in this game.

I read about the period in a Military History magazine from the late 90s.  It sparked my interest and I have wanted to game it since.