First Game of 2019 - Russian Civil War using "Red Actions!"

Last night, Chris, Nick and I attended Julian's residence for our first get together this year. I finally got to use most of the RCW figures I painted about a year ago (I think - may be longer!) as Julian had finished off enough of his White force to make up a reasonable opposition

The rules we chose to try for this period were "Red Actions!", a free download from "The Perfect Captain" website.

These rules have a number of unusual features, including cards giving all the stats of different troop types, and some of the nomenclature is unusual - a morale test is called a "Fear" test in some circumstances or a "Serious" test in others etc. Movement is also unusual in that the sides dice each turn for initiative and then move one unit each, back and forth, until one side or other has used an action for every unit in their force, then the side with more units gets to move the remaining ones all together without the other side being able to react.

Julian had set up a test scenario of around three units of White infantry, each with a supporting HMG, two cavalry units and a field gun, defending a village surrounded by forest, whilst the Bolshevik attackers had six infantry units, with three HMG, three cavalry units, two mortars and an armoured car. Each side had one on call aircraft that could appear on a 5 o6, then stay over the table for the next three turns, then leave and not return.

The game took a LONG time as we were just learning the rules and I think we got a few things wrong, but they seemed to work ok and we are looking forward to giving these rules and figures another outing soon!

Here are some images of the action:

 The Red centre - Austin armoured car, naval infantry, HMG and conscript infantry

 The foremost of the defending White infantry supported by an HMG

 Some of the Red unit cards showing all their stats

 Two of Nicks White infantry units redeploying to their right to counter the Red advance

 The threat Nick's men were moving to oppose

 Red Naval infantry firing from the edge of the wood at the White unit in the first image above - these sailors are females from Hinterland.

 The White aircraft came on first, strafing both one of Chris's Red cavalry units and my armoured car.

 The third and final attack by the White air force - more "Terror" markers for the Red cavalry!

 One of Julian's White cavalry units charged home against Chris's conscripts defending a wood and won the combat, pushing the infantry back

 The Red air force intervenes - strafing the victorious cavalry, causing them to lose a base AND rout off towards the village!

 Nick withdraws his one unit of White infantry in the face of two Red units supported by cavalry and an HMG

 The Red plane makes a second strafing run against Julian's infantry

 General view of the centre of the table - the Red Naval infantry advanced out of the woods but instantly took lots of hits and were forced to pull back again!

Close up view of the Red cavalry - they are Old Glory WW1 Russians - most of the other figures are Copplestone or Brigade Games Back of Beyond/RCW.

Final view of the Red advance on the left flank.

By this stage we had been at the table for nearly five hours - with 45 minutes for dinner - so decided to call a halt. Neither side had a clear advantage - the Reds had lost the armoured car to a direct hit by the White field gun and also lost an HMG. The Whites had a couple of units down a base and still had one more round of airpower that may have removed their field gun - so if we had carried on, the extra numbers the Reds had may have taken the day, but the Whites were better quality, so it was no sure fire thing.

A fun game and quirky, interesting rule set with some unusual twists - EG close combat, both sides calculate their "Fighting Value" by multiplying the Attack value on the card by the number of bases, then you calculate the ratio of the attacker to defender EG 30 points to 20 points would be 3:2. then you roll 2D6 and read off a results chart. A low roll generally favours the weaker side, which can be attacker or defender obviously and a higher roll favours the stronger side.

Look forward to getting these troops on the table again soon!