Tarawera Wargaming Trip Game Four - Crimea

 

First up, a few shots showing the setting of our week away – John’s lovely holiday home on the shore of Lake Tarawera - compare the first image (the dull weather we had most of the week) with the second last image of virtually the same view on Sunday, the day we wrapped up…TYPICAL! No complaints though, we would not have cared if it poured with rain the whole time we were there – its just great to get away from the day to day BS and spend an extended time with like minded friends and thousands of toy soldiers!

 

Game Four – Crimean War – Scenario by Mark

AAR four, the game played on Sat 30 Oct, has already been covered on Marks blog 1866 and All That, so I will not go into great detail here, but will simply present the images I recorded.

The game was somewhat of a dead loss for me – I started off in totally the wrong place and basically spent the entire game marching in column from one end of the table to the other at 300 or 450mm per turn (depending on my activation roll and whether I got a time and a half move result…)

The Russians came on in two huge infantry forces, screened by cavalry and massed guns, and had a local superiority of 2:1 in the area of their assault. Despite this Julian did a good job with a few Turks against overwhelmingly superior numbers of Russians commanded by Rick, and John and Barry held back the Slavic horde for several hours as Paul managed to reposition his troops to intervene in support. Julian also commanded the British cavalry and eventually saw off the Russians, although that just left them exposed to Chris’s gun line and in the last two or three rounds they suffered accordingly.

To win, the Russians had to get 6 good order units off the British side of the table, which they succeeded in doing, but at great cost, so possibly a Pyrrhic victory, as Mark already mentioned in his report.

Many of these pictures are very dark, I am not quite sure why, as all the games were played in the same place with the same lighting etc, so apologies for the poor quality of some of them….

 

 

 

1. Dawn rises over the field, with a small Turkish force deployed in a fortified bastion on Home Ridge

2.  From the mist covered river, the tramp of Russian boots has been heard for several hours

3. The Russian columns trudge forwards….

4. …. As the Turks Stand To.

5. The British arrive spread along the entire length of Home Ridge – the Light Division at the extreme left of the line

6.  To the right of the Light Division, the British cavalry brigades deploy in the flat, open ground. Here are the Heavy Brigade

7.  The Russian hordes plod on remorselessly

8. Ricks Division closes in on the Turkish redoubt, the massed Russian guns having silenced the outnumbered Turks

9. The Light Division begins its long march to redeploy to the right – here passing around the Heavy Cavalry Brigade position

10. Slightly blurry view of the Russian assault on the redoubt

11. The Turks put up a staunch defence

12. The Light Division marching to the sound of the guns!

13. The Light Cavalry Brigade spurs forwards to meet the enemy cavalry

14. More Cossacks appear on the flank of the Heavy Cavalry Brigade

15. Our guest who designed most of the figures on the table, bar my Light Division, who are by Ebor

16. The first cavalry clash as the Light Brigade melee with regular Russian Dragoons

17. The Light Division continue their march, their flank protected by their cavalry colleagues

18. The second wave of Russian columns, commanded by Chris, advance in support of Ricks assault

19 & 20. The heroic Turks are gradually forced back in their unequal struggle with the Russian hordes

21.  Heavy Dragoons versus Russian Cossacks

22. The Light Brigade take the ascendancy in their struggle with the Russian cavalry

23. The large Russian batteries pummel the British lines with round shot

24. The Russian columns continue to flow over the Allied redoubt

25. Confused ebb and flow of the cavalry battle

26. The Russians near the British defensive line to the rear of the Turkish redoubt

27. “Thin Red Lines” await the Russian columns

28. And the Light Division marches on and on….

29. The Russians are nearly there – the edge of the table is basically the bottom of this picture

30. The Light Brigade are forced to retire by the Russian cavalry….

31. …but reorganise and turn to continue the fray

32 & 33. The titanic struggle between column and line continues

34. The British cavalry have won the struggle to dominate the valley to the Russians right

35. But Rick’s Russians have punched a hole in the line between Barry and Johns commands

36. Far too late, the French reinforcements arrive, in the wrong place! We had an option to have these arrive on move 3 (at which ;point most of the Russians were not on the table) or after lunch – by which time they were really too late, as it turned out

37. The requisite six good order Russian battalions, very close to leaving the British table edge

38. To the right of the previous shot, Chris’s Russian columns have also finally prevailed over John and Pauls British lines. My Light Division had arrived just in time to witness the Russian victory….. sigh!

A great scenario created by Mark, who also provided almost all of the figures and scenery. The map above explains how the battle went – as can be seen, the British attempted to cover all possible approach routes (and the Russians could have come on opposite my initial position) and this was the main reason for our failures in my opinion. Another example of how a faulty initial disposition can almost predetermine the outcome – as happens often in real life battles of course!