The League of Extraordinary Kriegspielers proudly present....Bukhara 1920!

[coggon]

Excellent.  Can't wait.  (hurry up )

[Ignatieff]

A look up the 12' x 6' table from the Bolshevik lines.  The game saw the previewing of some new terrain pieces by the Obi Wan Kenobi of war-games terrain, Gary Chalk, based on pics I took of Bukhara on my trips there in 2013 and 2014.

This pic shows the initial deployments by both armies.  Of note is the Bolshevik off table artillery, that we decided to put on table as the models (two by Mark Hargreaves, one of which was scratch built, and one by me) as the guns looked so good.  Of note also is the distinct absence of Bukharans, quite rightly predicting the Armageddon that would almost likely face any troops who put their noses in the open from all that mechanised metal.  The Bukharans had in actually fact opted for a bold forward defence and eschewed the attractive, though rather obvious city walls.  'Jihadi Ted' and a boiling mass of foot and mounted fanatics were hidden on the river bank behind the crops to the right of the picture, whilst the rock hard Bukharan Guards Brigade was holed up in the railway complex (including that graveyard of armies, the infamous coal bunker).

All cover was +1, except for said coal bunker, the tench lines (the one visible was occupied by the British spies, including the Gordons) the city walls, and the jail where Princess Bibi (Frunze's secret squeeze) was holed up, which were all +2.

[Ignatieff]

A close up of the Bolshevik off-table artillery positions.  The two giant German pieces are both by HLBS.  Mines is the older model to the left, the one Mark did on the right.  The new models are mostly resin, which although easier to handle, have lost some of their 'heft'.  They are also slightly different shapes now, which is odd. The 60pdr British naval gun is a beautiful scratch build pice by Mark, who also built and painted the HLBS artillery tractor.  I love the activity and detailing in this shot.

[FramFramson]

Oh my stars and little comets. Here we go!

[Ignatieff]

"it's too damned quiet I tell you Frunze!"

In actual fact there were two 24 man units of fanatics at Friday prayers behind the walls.  We had even downloaded a 'call to prayers' from iTunes, which if it had been more widely heard would have probably emptied the hall!  The Bukharan player could use the 'call to prayer' rule twice, which meant that any unit within 12" of the officiating Mullah added a +1 to their morale for four moves.  Not much you might think, but given that some of these guys were ferocious to begin with, meant that in attack they would be very hard to stop.

You can just see the prison where Princess Bibi was being kept on the bottom left of the second photo. Bukharan regulars lining the wall are Woodbine Turks painted as Afghan regulars (the nearest we have to the Bukharan equivalents)

[Ignatieff]

The Bolshevik advance begins.  The Reds put their best infantry on the right flank, and planned to bring their cavalry on on the left - when it eventually turned up.  The Reds also opted for spotted fire for their off-table artillery, which although it made it more difficult to land a hit (5,6) at least gave them the flex of picking targets as they emerged.....meanwhile Jihadi Ted watched and waited amongst the rustling wheat fields....

[Hammers]

Oooh, can anyone get the popcorn?!

[Ignatieff]

On the far right you can just see Jihadi Ted's wild cavalry charge unfolding.  He did what you are meant to do with fired up but generally useless irregulars.  Charge!  Even if, as you can see, that was into armoured cars, machine guns, crack Red infantry and supporting over open sights artillery fire.  There were a few anxious turns for the Reds, whose 'bottle' nearly cracked under the savagery of Jihadi Ted's* assaults. Ted's cavalry (all 38 of them), chopped large lumps out of many of the Red units before succumbing to the inevitable lead poisoning. The large smoke puffs are from the Red off-table guns which managed to drop two direct hits from the German 42cm guns onto the Bukharans.  Not a nice sight I can tell you....

n.b. unfortunately at the moment I've only 23 photos from my phone to share with you.  Once our Court Photographer, V.I.Blackwood, releases the full files I will add to the current montages.



* regular followers of The League may have worked out this is player character formerly known as 'Red Ted', who in a change of 'direction' worthy of Caitlan Jenner, eschewed the Red cause and became a fervent nationalist (of whatever cause was on offer), as a result of a bang on the head during the doomed Scottish Indy referendum of 2014.

[Marine0846]

Wonderful setup.
Mouth drops open.
Oh, my!!!
 

[Ignatieff]

The Reds, shaken by the ferocity and forward nature of the Bukharan attacks, decided it was time to bring all the toys on.  Plans, trains and auto horsed carts with machine guns (Tchankas to you and me).  The (very) expendable Tatar cavalry were sent on first to smoke out the Bukharan fire.

In addtion to raining down heavy death from the sky, The Bolo Gotha bomber (brilliantly built and painted by V.I.Blackwood) could also spot Bukharan positions (as well as draw unwelcome fire!).  The model was a 1970s Aurora kit bought off e-bay. As always with these monsters, the plastic struts are just not upto the job, so Iain replaced the central bracing with steel pins.  On the DH10 we have, we also used wooden cocktail sticks for the same purpose to good effect.  Pilots are Copplestone

The wonderful scratch built Red armoured train was bought off a good soul from these parts, and finished off by our very own Count Smirnoff. To the left of it was the Bolsheviks own propaganda tool - a mobile cinema showing endless agitprop cinereels.  Any troops within 4" of said celluloid spin doctor added +1 to their morale for four moves, other than the Tatars who were unable to fight for four moves due to pissing themselves laughing.

[Ignatieff]

A subtly hidden (how do you 'hide' an elephant???) Bukharan obsolete Krupps artillery piece opens up on the Tatar cavalry, scoring an immediate hit and forcing them to go to ground..whilst the Red Gotha has spotted the Bukharan Guards brigade dug into the railway complex (along with a very obsolete piece of artillery).  Heavy bombs are dropped, but miss, as the air is filled with small arms anti-aircraft fire.

Meanwhile the Red train, advancing at 18" a move, steams ever forward.  It was however at this point that an alert member of the Cheka (he needed a 6 and he threw a 6) noticed some suspicious packages around the railway tracks, some 14" ahead of where the train is.....

[Ignatieff]

Too late!  a train travelling at 18" will need three moves to stop (you move in 6" increments), and with charges expertly placed by 2nd Lt Roly Birkin R.E (they went off on anything but a one), the lead Red engine is derailed, killing the gun crew.  As he had managed to slow down a bit (and we wanted to have a bit more train fun), we gave him a 50/50 chance of not derailing the remaining engine and carriages.  'Red' Rudi Schneiber botched the lot apart from the last troop carriage.  An entire unit of Red Muslim infantry was destroyed, and just as things were looking bad for the Bukharans (the second photo shows the advance on that other flank, the smoke is from the lit cotton bails), a glimmer of hope emerged......

[Ignatieff]

The funniest moment of the day came when a unit of ferocious tribesmen, whipped up by the Emir's mullah, burst forth from the Ark (the name for the Bukharan citadel) in almost close order.  The Reds spotted them, called down the Krupps guns and landed a direct hit on a unit of 24 tribesmen.  It killed 17 of them, a record in The League for off-table killing.  Unfortunately however I was too busy laughing my head off to take a pic, though when the 'official' record is released I will show you what happened.  Here instead is a pic of the next unit emerging, somewhat more dispersed...





Meanwhile the Red Gotha continued its grim mission closer and closer to the Bukharan citadel.  One of the two modern Bukharan field pieces can just be made out on the city walls. This and its sister piece on a hill in from of the walls were being expertly directed by the Brigadier Linn, and were doing good execution on the Red armour coming across the rickety bridge to their front.  It was at this point that the Emir of Bukhara, not known for his romantic tendencies, put to death the Princess Bibi, claiming that she fell from a barred fourth floor window in the jail onto a passing battalion of regular infantry below.  Who just happened to have their bayonets fixed.

[Ignatieff]

closer and closer, the Bukharan artillery being the target of its two parabellums (the bombs were long gone by this time)......

[Sparrow]

Steve - it looks brilliant!