First Friday Night Game in a While - Russo-Polish War, 1920 using "1914" Rules.

 For the first time in quite a while, the planets aligned, the Gods were busy elsewhere, and I managed to make it to old mate Julian's for a Friday night game at the end of the working week - yay!

As it turned out, I was the only one of the usual suspects able to attend. Actor buddy John is off in the S Island on set for a movie (true story). Rick, Mark and Nick were otherwise engaged and very unfortunately, our great mate Chris (59) is in hospital after having a heart attack on Tuesday morning and having a stent put into his heart a few hours later. 

For those who follow Marks 1866 and all that blog, Chris played on the Confederate side at the last game at Barrys place, so I have suggested the stress of having to attack a far superior Union force was the cause of his health challenges - too soon/poor taste......well, Chris laughed!

So, it was just the two of us, then. I brought along boxloads of Bolsheviks - too many as usual but I never know what I will need and its easier just to take everything. In the event, Julian had set up a scenario where the winner would be the force in possession of a vital railway hub at the end of the game. As the Bolsheviks were nominally attacking, he graciously allowed me slightly more troops, resulting in 28 command tokens to 22 on his side. In unit terms, he had three each of cavalry and infantry units, I had four, he had off board artillery and mine was on the table (the advantage of off board slowly became obvious - you can't shoot at them so they never stop shooting at you!

I have given a rough explanation of how Great Escape Games "1914" rules work previously, so I am not going to do so again. Personally, I quite like the mechanics and as we play more and more games, some of the subtleties come out that you had not realised in previous outings.

Anyway, here are the pics and brief report of the action.

Battlefield ready for the off - Bolsheviks at bottom, Poles at top. The railway station is in "the middle" (!) of the table near the Polish cavalry brigade :)

Four units of Budennys Kon Armiya, including one Tachanka - an HMG mounted on a horse drawn cart.

Bolshevik HQ and one infantry unit

The remaining three Red units, including sailors.

Julian has recently completed these rather nice Polish troops from the Russian company Siberia Miniatures.

He has become quite a dab hand in the use of speed paints....

each unit had a horse mounted MG attached.

The overall Polish commander (I didn't bother taking images of the infantry - they weren't Poles (still to be completed) so WWI Austrians were standing in.

Red lancers and the Tachanka refuse the Red right flank while a second cavalry unit dismounts and enters the adjacent woods.

Two of the three Polish cavalry units press forward in gallant light horse style!

The third Polish unit went into line in the open and suffered the consequences from Red artillery fire - a base gone, and the red markers indicate another is about to follow (4 hits = remove a base)

Counter battery fire from the Poles off-table support put a couple of hits on the Red gunners (yellow markers indicate how many actions they have been assigned in this turn)

The bulk of the Red infantry used the cover of the forest to advance to the outskirts of the small town, where they were opposed by two Polish infantry units.

Well, thanks to the helpful markers, I think we can all guess what is happening here! With the attendant Polish cavalry having been forced to withdraw, the lone MG is ridden down by the Bolshevik horde!

A view from the receiving end.

in the follow up, the Red cavalry charged again and hit the depleted Polish cavalry! Here, they have expended 4 actions and suffered two casualties but had by far the better of the close combat and the Poles eventually managed to disengage and FLEE!

View of the situation on the Red right - the cavalry charge is top centre and to the right, one Polish cavalry unit has dismounted and also entered the woods, while the last one waits patiently for a chance to charge the enemy....... 

Having driven off one Polish unit, the Red cavalry retires under threat of a counter charge from a second unit, plus harassing fire from the Poles supporting MG's.

On the left flank, the infantry continues to exchange fire.

The two remaining units of Red cavalry move around the contested woods. wherein, the dismounted cavalry fire fight resulted in casualties on the Poles, who were forced to retire.

We had three Special Event cards each, more or less randomly drawn, that could be used at any point. These were the two that I used at around this point in the game. The one above I used to initiate a charge against the depleted Poles in the wood, the one below I used to negate two hits Julian had caused on my cavalry with an MG - he ground his teeth in frustration, given how many times his MG's failed to do anything at all!

On the left flank, the 3:2 superiority of the Red infantry began to tell. The left most Polish infantry unit is severely depleted, as you can see.

Julian had unfortunate (for him) luck with his cavalry MG's. Leading up to this image, he fired on the first action automatically, and got no hits, then tried for a second activation, and rolled 1 (the only roll that could fail) then tried again and rolled 2 (which was now also a fail!). He then gave up, advanced his cavalry, fired 1 D6 from the saddle at my lancers, got no hit, activated to charge me - at which point I rolled to interrupt, needing a 4 - and succeeded! The above charge by the lancers is the result!

Once again, the melee went really well for the Reds! In these rules, the receiver may be able to interrupt and get off a shot BUT once in close combat, only the attacker rolls for hits - and for every two hits caused by the initial D10 rolls requiring 6+, you then roll a D6 to get an additional hit on 3+ - the result of one round of combat can be seen below!

On the other side of the table, the Red infantry had driven off their Polish opponents and now only the railway station remained in Polish hands. Julian called in an artillery barrage on my infantry unit in the open but because I was so close to his troops, a 1 or 2 risked a Blue on Blue, friendly fire incident, so, of course, here is his roll!

As it turned out, the 2 was only a hit if I was within 4", so the result of the barrage was one hit on each unit!

A view down the table at the end of the game. With Julian out of action tokens, I had three left to use up. The first failed to do anything, with the second, my MG killed off the last of the Poles defending the station... and with my third, requiring 4+ to succeed...... 

..... I managed to get my Red Guards into the railway station, thus achieving the aim of the mission with the final act of the game!

Despite the loss, Julian said he had really enjoyed this game and of course, winners are grinners, so it was all good with me! 1914 will definitely be up for another outing in the not-too-distant future, possibly when Julian has managed to get his Siberia Miniatures Polish infantry painted up.

Hope you found the images and description of the game interesting and if so, please let me know with a comment!