I was delighted to accept an invitation to play a game with the Rejects> This would be the 2nd game at Posties Shed of War and while my knowledge of the Crimean war.....Charge of the light Brigade, Mary Secall, Charge of the Heavy Brigade, Florence Nightingale, et al was severely limited to the level of the average man in the street I was again made welcome and comfortable and made to feel at home and at ease. Postie droped pieces of paper on the dining table and I selected the closest one. Ray took the last one, the last one left. Ray had been saying before the game that he did not want to play the Turks. So as luck would have it Ray got the Turks. The Moral of the introduction is never ever say what you don't want as it improves the chances of selecting them!
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| My initial setup |
Arriving in the shed of war all the troops were already in place and we took our positions and Postie gave us a briefing. The Battle of Worunzov Road was set 2 days after the
Battle of the Chernaya (click the link to get the Wiki of the battle). The basic briefing is that the Russians were keen to put the defeat behind them and attacked the weak allies flank. Ray gives a better synopsis
HERE! I suggest you read it as it will make a lot of my waffle clearer. There was no pregame special rules or opportunity to discuss plans and tactics.
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| Rays Cavalry. |
I was the Russian 2nd in command opposite Rays Turkish force. Both Russian commanders Responded to the set up by moving everything as fast forward as we possibly could. 8 inches at 15mm figure scale is not at all bad. My Cossacks sprinted away on my left. Light irregular horse I needed them to scout and probably die finding Rays hidden reserves. They managed the first but avoided the second. Rays Cavalry charged them and they fled as far as it was possible for them to go without leaving the table well out of the way and then regrouped. Job done as far as I was concerned. This allowed me to move up my 2 units of Hussars ready to engage Rays Horse.
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| Opening moves |
The Turks and Sardinians started to use their artillery but to little effect and the whole Russian line moved forward yet again. I managed to move my artillery to the high ground and by the third turn had got them set up so they could fire over my troops heads and into the defending troops.
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| Russian artillery set up at last |
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| Cavalry pre Charge |
2 moves from contact. By that I mean of course one normal move and one charge the turn after. After the normal move I elected to fire the front ranks of the Russian columns despite the fact that I would need a 6 on a d6 to do any damage. If I played the game again I would probably hold my fire as predictably this had little or no effect on the defensive line. It did however make me feel like I was being aggressive and taking the battle forward. Ray held his fire, as he hoped that the first shot advantage would be worth just getting a single shot off. One good shot as opposed to two less powerful ones.
In these rules you have to write charges down before you carry them out. In this turn almost everything charged. There was a little discussion as I had my Cossacks charge into the rear of the Turkish cavalry who were also charging my hussars who were in turn charging the Turkish cavalry.
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| The Clash of Cavalry |
Thump! we all rolled dice and while I rolled High Ray did less well. I was able to win both cavalry battles, take both standards and kill or capture the Divisional commander.
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| Cavalry Battle Aftermath |
At this stage Rays cavalry were all gone and I still had 2 units of Hussars and 2 very small units of Cossacks. Evidently this is the best that the Russian cavalry have ever done in the shed of war according to Postie. I have no knowledge of this but must state I was very pleased with the result. I had expected to loose one if not both clashes but sometimes luck goes with you.
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| The infantry pre-charge |
When it came to the Infantry pretty much everything charged the thin line of defenders. Mostly it went my way as I was able to bring 2 units in column against each line unit defending so I did have the weight of numbers. As mentioned above Ray had decided to hold his fire till the last minute. While it was effective it was not strong enough to stop the attacks going in. The Turks, under Ray, did OK with one unit defending a hedge managing to push back the two Russian units who attacked and take their colours, one routing and one falling back.
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| And after the charge. |
I did have a Cossack unit which failed to motivate and thus failed a morale check. The following turn only due to bad dice Ray failed to inflict any damage so on the last turn of the game they would have managed to slip away.
At this stage though every division on the board was in need of a morale check due to routers. Everyone passed and we played one more turn. Nothing much changed in the overall battle and the allies conceded.
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| Last Turn |
Conclusion: There are a number of lessons to be learned.
Big hefty Russian units can soak up damage while small Turkish and Sardinian ones cannot.
All reserves from all sides should be brought on as soon as possible.
Light Artillery is not as effective as the firer would hope. And has a much shorter range that I would first expect.
There are of course a number of personal observations about the people as opposed to the rules (myself Included), that I will not share. nothing negative more concerned with play style and preferences. They are probably because the others knew what to expect from the rules while I was far less familure with them.
Overall a decisive Russian Victory. 26 points to 6.
That's it for today I hope this came out readable and coherent. There is no guarantees of that though. I shall post again on Thursday. Until then take care and have fun. All the Best Clint.
Post Script: I am a winner! Many thanks to Anne O'Leary for her blog giveaway and Yippee I won something!
That's todays very brief update. Just touching base really and as week 1 of Zombtober closes at least I can put something up which is relevant to the event. Even if only 1 figure. The painting table continues to be cluttered with a variety of projects in several scales and will no doubt be worse after SELWG> 
