Thoughts on [LW] WW1 Russians for CoC

[H.M.Stanley]

Not to be outdone by friends Scrivs and t'other James & their German and French projects, i have decided to temporarily  redeploy my RCW/BoB Russians to the Eastern Front.

I have bought the Lardies Mud & Blood supplement for an overview and am waiting on a copy of the WW1CoC rules.

From what i can gather so far, the Russians could be loosely based on the British composition [EDIT: having now seen the WW1/COC article i now think that the US list is a better representation] with, i think, the following alterations:

1. Slightly larger 11 man sectons incl an NCO;
2. No LMGs!;
3. Mobile HMGs (move and fire?);
4. Fewer and less able Command (no Adjutant unless with Assault/Shock troops);
5. Separate Bomber section;
6. Poor marksmanship;
7. Relatively low morale except for Assault/Shock
8. Rifle Grenadiers would be available;
9. Gas would be less effective than normal;
10. Doctrinal use of the Bayonet. Lift the Urrahh! rule from the Lardies Eastern Front supplement  i.e Pinned units may remove their pinned markers and charge & ignore shock markers for movement but not in combat;
11. Assault/Shock troops are not armed differently to Regular troops. Both have better morale but only the Assault troops would be better trained;
12. Rolling bombardment on the attack. Not always well coordinated, risk of friendly fire

[H.M.Stanley]

I thing that that will do for now, thought ladies and gentlemen please?

[Ahistorian]

I think counting them as Green/Aggressive would do nicely to simulate poor morale, foolish bullets & wise bayonets.

[H.M.Stanley]

I think counting them as Green/Aggressive would do nicely to simulate poor morale, foolish bullets & wise bayonets.

Thanks Matt. That sounds on the money for most troops. I had meant to incl Aggressive and forgot.

There is an argument for making the Siberians, who fought well, Regular rather than Green and the Razvedchiki Elite.

Probably Command Dice 4 if Green or Regulars and 5 if Elite

[Ahistorian]

Makes sense to me. There's a "CoCulator" on the TFL forums for building your own lists, but I don't know if the calculations are the same for the WWI version. If we assume they are, maybe you could join in the next game. There were a couple of Russian divisions on the Western front too, and it might undercut Scrivs' massive numerical superiority 

[Atheling]

Thanks Matt. That sounds on the money for most troops. I had meant to incl Aggressive and forgot.

There is an argument for making the Siberians, who fought well, Regular rather than Green and the Razvedchiki Elite.

Probably Command Dice 4 if Green or Regulars and 5 if Elite

Will you be using the Musketeer/Footlsore Ranges James?

Darrell.

[H.M.Stanley]

Hi Darrell.  Mine are mostly Old Glory with some Brigade Games and Copplestone.

I'm ahead of the game for a change

Best, James

[Atheling]

Hi Darrell.  Mine are mostly Old Glory with some Brigade Games and Copplestone.

I'm ahead of the game for a change

Best, James

I'm always behind 

Actually, what am I laughing at? There is some truth in that statement!! 

Darrell.

[H.M.Stanley]

Makes sense to me. There's a "CoCulator" on the TFL forums for building your own lists, but I don't know if the calculations are the same for the WWI version. If we assume they are, maybe you could join in the next game. There were a couple of Russian divisions on the Western front too, and it might undercut Scrivs' massive numerical superiority 

Undercut Scrivs' "massive numerical superiority"? I could swamp him with waves of Russian infantry

[scrivs]

You don't want to know what OI painted this past week then

[Wirelizard]

I've been running extremely generic forces so far in our CoC-powered Russian Civil War experiments, but your thoughts on providing more flavour for Russian forces in CoC match up and are better developed than mine, so I think I'll be doing some large-scale borrowing from them for my own Russian forces.

I hadn't heard of the "Urrah!" rule for close assaults/Shock/etc, that's a good one.

Still thinking of ways to provide some minor flavour differences between Reds & Whites, as well...

[H.M.Stanley]

Paul - even you can't paint  that quickly. Ahh, now I know why you're running scared from a game this Thurs. Desperately painting HMGS and artillery are we?

Fire lizard - I'll get back to you.

Best,

James

[H.M.Stanley]

Ok, my first rough draft of a Russian LW list, bearing in mind that I haven't a copy of the CoC/WW1 rules:

All troops, unless otherwise stated, are Green.All infantry are Aggressive.
Command Dice 4/Command Dice 5 if Razvedchiki are taken
Force Morale: Minus [X]?

Special Rules: "Urrahh" and Rolling Bombardment

Platoon HQ
Lieutenant and 3 Runners, Rifle armed.

Squad 1
Squad Leader and 10 Riflemen

Squad 2
Squad Leader and 10 Riflemen

Squad 3
Squad Leader and 10 Riflemen

List 1
[0 -1] 8 x Grenade Launchers (incl 2 x crew)
Officers's Whistle [effect TBC]
[0 - 1] Squad Leader and 10 Riflemen
Add 3 x Bombers to each Squad

List 2
[0 - 2] HMG Section, Corporal with 5 man crew
[0 -2] 1 x 7 Bombers
[0 - 2] Squad Leader, with 10 Shock Troops with Rifles (incl 3 men/women with Grenades) [effect of being Volunteers?]
Gas [effect to be confirmed]
Rolling Bombardment [effect to be confirmed]
[0 - 1] Platoon Sargent (only if Regular or Shock troops are present)

List 3
[0 - 4] Squad Leader and 10 Riflemen
[0 - 2] Off-table HMG teams
[0 - 2] Squad Leader, with 8 Assault/Siberian Riflemen (incl 3 men with Grenades) (Regulars)

List 4
[0 - 2] Officer Volunteers - Squad Leader and 8 Riflemen (incl 3 x Bombers) (Veterans) (may only be taken if Shock troops are present)

List 5
[0 -1] Razvedchiki - Sargent and 8 Riflemen (incl 3 x Bombers) (Veterans) [Scouts]

[H.M.Stanley]

I've been running extremely generic forces so far in our CoC-powered Russian Civil War experiments, but your thoughts on providing more flavour for Russian forces in CoC match up and are better developed than mine, so I think I'll be doing some large-scale borrowing from them for my own Russian forces.

I hadn't heard of the "Urrah!" rule for close assaults/Shock/etc, that's a good one.

Still thinking of ways to provide some minor flavour differences between Reds & Whites, as well...

Hi. I suggest some further large scale borrowing from Chris Peers' excellent articles in WI on the BoB Bolshevik and Whites

PM with your email address if you can't track them down and I'll  send them to you.

Best,  James

[H.M.Stanley]

Having now seen the 2014 Xmas Special, I'm going to adopt the US Green list for the Russians and carve out the LMGS ... more later