Friday Night RCW Game

 Time for another RCW game at Julian's place, once again utilisng the "1914" rules from Great Escape Games. Rick, John and I were attacking with a Bolshevik force of 2 cavalry units and 8 infantry units, supported by two field guns, whilst Chris and Julian defended with 2 cavalry 2 field guns and 4 infantry units. We ended up with 28 activation tokens to 18 I think.

Rick commanded the cavalry on our left, I took the centre with three units of Red sailors and the field guns, whilst John spearheaded our attack with 5 infantry units on our right, countered by Chris with the infantry on the Whites left and centre, and Julian with the cavalry opposite Rick

Reds attacking from bottom to top - the aim was to capture the village

Right flank under Comrade John

Our gun battery

Cavalry and Sailors to the left. All the figures on our side are from my RCW collection - mainly Copplestone or Brigade Games but also a few Hinterland, Siberia Miniatures and Old Glory (cavalry)

The White troops are all supplied by Julian, again mainly the excellent Coppletone Back of Beyond figures

I don't know - looks cool though!

White infantry commanded by Chris occupy the woods opposite John's position

The forces of proletarian liberation prepare to advance

A dastardly attack by evil Cossack hordes is checked by heroic Bolshevik sailors

White infantry still concealed in the woods, with the exception of the HMG which was taking pot shots at John as he advanced across open ground

Hinterland (regrettably no longer in production) female sailors

John moves into close quarters with Chris' Whites 

The Sailorettes have made it to the edge of the village unscathed (In an earlier, unrecorded event, one of the units of male sailors got to the same point, but were wiped out by a combination of artillery and HMG fire)

Rick charges Julian's Tchanka - a successful attack that resulted in the demise of the HMG armed cart

John adds more units of Red infantry to the assault on the Whites left flank

Whilst Ricks cavalry charge infantry, including an HMG, head on - what could possibly go wrong?!

As it happens, not as much as you might expect - and the rear attack from Julian's second unit of White cavalry wasn't as devastating as it might have been, either - good news for us!

But the game was really being decided on the other flank, where John has maneuvered his four units into a great position to hammer the defending Whites (red markers indicate actions taken, not casualties or any other kind of disadvantage) 

The Bolshevik infantry pours rifle fire into the flank of the White line

"They are breaking, boys, they are breaking...!"

Technically this is only three units of Reds against two of Whites, but the Whites are pretty depleted by this stage

The action on our left flank (Rick and yours truly) was a bit more pedestrian, mainly thanks to atrocious dice rolling when firing. In particular, I had an MG firing at Julian's cavalry for about 4 or 5 actions, three D10 needing only 6 or better for a hit, and on four occasions, I got nothing at all!

The combined weight of the White infantry and cavalry gradually depleted Ricks cavalry, but it took them quite a while

By this time, it was about 2245 so we called it a night - a Red victory, we decided, thanks to the tenacity of the infantry on our right flank, commanded by John. I lost two of my three units of sailors (the females did not last long in their exposed position along the fence line, following their male colleagues to the side table of casualties!)

We Reds certainly did much better than any of us had expected at the start. There was a lot of open ground for us to get across and the Whites were in pretty good defensive positions. My only unit to survive (excluding the artillery) was the sailors who prudently advanced via the woods, the two who went hell for leather across the centre of the table were wiped out to a man (and woman). John, however, saved our bacon with his successful assault on the White infantry position in the woods.

Hope you enjoyed that and look out for a Great Big Bolshevik Parade coming to this blogsite very soon!