Friday Night Russian Civil War.....

 Fortunately there were no last minute, Covid inspired changes of plan, and John, Chris and I were able to rock up to Julian's place yesterday evening and engage in some RCW fisticuffs, using the Perfect Captain "Red Actions" ruleset - which I last use probably two years ago. A bonus for me was that I have painted about half my current RCW collection since the figures last hit the table, so I was able to supply all the troops for our Bolshevik side of the table.

The scenario involved the defence of a railhead by one side - Julian gave me the choice of attacking or defending and I chose the latter. John joined me on the Peoples side, whilst Julian and Chris commanded the Running Dogs of Capitalist Repression!

It was a LONG game and was not really at a conclusion when we called time at just after 11pm, although the Whites definitely had the upper hand .... albeit they took a long time to make much progress at all, which is partly a consequence of the rules and the result of firing in particular- its pretty hard to cause actual casualties ie a base removal, but relatively easy to do enough damage to add terror markers or cause units to retire a move, which we did to Chris for three quarters of the game, while Julian took a circuitous flanking route through the lush green forest, listening to the birdsong and smelling the beautiful aroma of the spring flowers on the air!

John and I had three "platoons" each - four base units including one base with an LMG (which counts as two when firing), plus one "special" - I had the newly minted Copplestone artillery piece and John had an HMG crew.

To attack, Chris and Julian each had one extra infantry unit and a special - Chris a Model T mounted HMG and Julian a Krupp field gun.

Lets see some pics!

Initial set up, the Reds were defending the railhead on the left

Chris's force - Julian has also utilised a number of Matchbox vehicles in his collection - I like the way he has added a seated officer consulting a map!

Julian's force, including the Krupp field gun and a Crossley towing vehicle

The Bolshevik field gun entrenched on the high ground and supported by John's HMG

A Heroine of the Soviet Union attempts to inspire the Bolshevik forces

A female Cheka agent looks down on the rail head - are there any backsliders or revisionist traitors in the ranks?

Our three unit cards - all troops bar the sailors were classed as Red Regulars. The fire/melee numbers indicate the multiplier used per base - EG a 4 base unit would fire as 20. You add/subtract factors and then roll 2 D6 and consult a results chart - generally to "kill" ie remove a base, needs an 11 or 12 but its easier to cause terror or retire results. The charge, fear, serious and rally numbers are various morale tests - you have to roll the number shown or less on 2 D6. The bottom three are pretty obvious - evasive is basically moving stealthily, in open order etc and makes the unit a harder target, but slows it down a bit. Being American rules, movement and firing ranges are in good ol' inches!

John's HMG crewed by staunch Bolshevik women (in fact they are supposed to be Poles from the Siberia Miniatures range, but who is counting?!) pepper the White field gun with bullets, causing them a terror (cant fire till its removed)

Chris starts his advance on the White right wing

A female unit, led by Caterina the Chekist, entrenched in front of the railhead

The artillery only have 8 shots per game, so it pays to use them wisely. First fire with the Bolshevik gun rolled a double 6 - a direct hit - and up went the vehicle mounted HMG!

White infantrymen advance past their burning HMG support

Meanwhile, the girls at the railhead wait

Chris concentrates three White units to advance on the hill where my gun was located

As Julian finally appears from the woods on the extreme left flank

A column of Red infantry advance determinedly to confront the threat from Julian

As the majority of the Bolshevik force pulls back off the high ground to concentrate on a close defence of the railhead

The Bolshevik field gun still has six of its eight shots left

Chris's Whites have pushed the field gun off the hill, while Julian's gun had taken out John HMG - booo!

Chris cleverly formed his three units into an angled advance, allowing him to concentrate all their firepower on the ladies in the entrenched position, who could only reply with one third of the fire they were receiving - not good....

The Red Sailors in the adjacent building had this LMG to support them

A Terror Marker has been inflicted on the female platoon

But against the odds, the Reds managed to drive back the White advance - its relatively easy to cause Terror or Retire results in the firing table

Another Bolshevik unit moves to bolster the defence 

But the Whites just keep on keeping on

One last view of the tenacious female unit holding the corner of the defensive line...

Before the combination of infantry and artillery fire power caused them to abandon their trenches and retreat, sweeping the incensed Cheka officer before them!

The Red field gun, meanwhile, had inflicted two "kill" results on one of Chris's units, by rolling a 12 on one turn and an 11 on the next - a pretty rare event in these rules, where artillery seem remarkedly ineffective when firing at lines of troops in the open.

The game really could have gone on another hour I think but its likely the Whites would have prevailed in the end, although with these rules, not a foregone conclusion by any means. To decide, I offered to test the retreating female unit - they had a rally of 7 and a +1 officer (Caterina the Chekist) so had to roll 8 or less to succeed - and we would call it a draw - they rolled a 9 - BUGGER!

Notwithstanding the result, it was great to have a game with the RCW collection again - and the new field gun did not succumb to the curse of the newly painted, doing sterling work with direct hits in three of the four rounds of firing - a feat requiring a roll of 10-12 for the vehicle and 11-12 for the infantry - good work the gunners!

Now, as I have a couple of trips to catch up on - here are some images from day two in Rotorua a couple of weeks ago- 23 January.

Rotorua has quite a lot of this quaint Edwardian colonial architecture. This was only about 8am on a Sunday morning, so not much traffic about!

Walk one was down a very quiet, remote road a few km outside Rotorua

The path allowed limited views of a crater lake formed by relatively recent volcanic activity....

....as well as an actual lake

Intersection mid bush

Our route back to the car

Walk number two was only a couple of km each way to a small waterfall

Two views of Lake Okataina

Final walk of the day - we have done this one before but our planned third walk was a bit of a wash out so we decided to revisit Okere Falls before heading back home.

Steps down to caves adjacent to the falls, where the women and children of the local Maori tribe hid when other tribes raided their area. The steps were built in the Twenties to give visitors access to the caves - the Maori women used ropes down the cliff to access them!

That's it for tonight - four mounted Border Reivers have been completed but I will post them in a couple of days. Take care everyone!