International Naval Wargames Day - Yellow Sea, 1905

 

Our group gathered at a friend's house on Saturday, 6 August, for a naval wargame.  We used my 1:2400 scale Russian and Japanese Panzerschiffe ships on a Cigar Box battle mat with David Manley's "White Bear, Red Sun" rules.

The action was a "what if" scenario between the Russian Pacific Fleet based in Port Arthur and the Japanese Combined Fleet.

The orders of battle were:

Russian Pacific Fleet:

     1st Battle Division -- Petropavlovsk (B) [fleet flag], Poltava (B), Sebastopol (B), Tsesarevich (B)

     2nd Battle Division -- Peresvyet (B) [flag], Pobyeda (B), Oslyabya (B), Petvizan (B)

     Long-Distance Scout Division -- Bayan (AC) [flag], Diana (PC), Pallada (PC), Aurora (PC)

Japanese Combined Fleet:

     1st Division, Sub-Group A -- Mikasa (B) [fleet flag], Asahi (B), Fuji (B), Yashima (B)

     1st Division, Sub-Group B -- Shikishima (B) [flag], Hatsuse (B), Niishin (AC), Kasuga (AC)

     2nd Division -- Izumo (AC) [flag], Azuma (AC), Asama (AC), Yakumo (AC), Tokiwa (AC), Iwate (AC)

The rules have four levels of damage:  

     Damaged (black puff) -1 to firing for rest of game; cannot be repaired

     Silenced (orange or yellow puff) no firing and -1 when fired upon; can be repaired back to 'Damaged'

     Crippled (red puff), no firing or moving and -2 when fired upon; can be repaired back to 'Silenced'

     Sunk 

All six commands started out in line ahead formation and sailed toward the enemy.  We join the action in progress (I forgot to start taking pictures until several turns into game.).  "North" is to the top of all the pictures.  Please click on a picture for a  larger image.

Russian ships on the left and Japanese ships on right.  Top - Russian 1st Battle Division versus Japanese 2nd Division (armored cruisers); center - Russian 2nd Battle Division versus Japanese Division 1-A; bottom - Russian Long-Range Scouting Division versus Japanese Division 1-B.

Japanese 1-B and 1-A Divisions begin to engage the Russian Long-Range Scouting (LRS) Division and the 2nd Battle Division.

With the Bayan silenced (orange puff), the rest of the cruisers try to shield him from the Japanese 1-B Division.  In the background, the two battleship divisions engage each other closely with the Mikasa also being silenced.  The dice indicate Action Points allocated to repair damage to ships.

At the northern end of the action, the Japanese 2nd Division navigates around the rear of the Russian 1st Battle Division.  The two lead Japanese cruisers are damaged, but the Russian battleships are proving tough nuts to crack.

Back down south, the Russian cruisers run from the Japanese battleships and armored cruisers of Division 1-B.  Their "pop guns" are of little use against the armor of the larger Japanese ships.  At the top, the Japanese Division 1-A turns away to help their smaller armored cruiser cousins, leaving one battleship crippled and dead in the water (red puff).  She was later repaired and rejoined the fray.

Seeing the Japanese disengage, the Russian 2nd Division turns its guns onto the Japanese Division 1-B.  Both sides begin to score hits (black puffs).  The Russian cruisers try to cross the Japanese T to see if they can do better with their pop guns; they couoldn't.

Back up north the trail Japanese armored cruiser Yakumo is hit many times and begins to sink.

As the Japanese cruisers on Division 2 draw away, the Russian 1st Division battleships unexpectedly cross the T of the Japanese Division 1-A battleships, inflicting more damage to the lead Japanese battleship (orange puff) and the two trail ones (black puffs).  But they have a battleship that has fallen out of the line (orange puff)

Under fire from the Japanese battleships and armored cruisers, the Russian protected cruiser Aurora is crippled (red puff).  His comrades dodge around him while the Russian 2nd Battle Division doesn't have much success against the Japanese ships.

Continuing to blast the Russians, the Japanese are successful in sinking the poor Aurora.  Well, looks like some other ship will have to start the revolution.  The Russian battleships have turned away.  Their admiral must have had second thoughts about engaging the Japanese.

To the north, the flaming wreck of the Japanese armored cruiser Yakumo still lights up the scene as her fellow cruisers turn toward the Russian battleships whose T has been crossed by the Japanese Division 1-A battleships.  The trailing Russian battleship is crippled (red puff) and suffers a critical hit setting him on fire!  But two of the Japanese battleships are silenced (orange puffs) and can't contribute to punishing the Russians.

The Russian battleship's fires were extinguished but his damage was so heavy that he is still crippled (red puff).  His fellows pull away to regroup, leaving the Japanese battleships and cruisers to sail by each other as cheers erupt from both divisions.

Back down south the Russian cruisers frantically try to escape from the guns of the Japanese Division 1-B battleships and armored cruisers.  The Russian 2nd Battle Division tries to decide whether to pass ahead of or down the starboard side of the cruisers.

Back up north, pummeled by Japanese battleships and armored cruisers, the Russian battleship Tseserevich explodes from a critical hit on his magazines.

Finally the Russian battleships get the range and pummel the Japanese armored cruiser Niishin, sending her to the bottom.

This ended the battle as darkness began to fall allowing the Russian ships to escape back to Port Arthur.  The Japanese sank a Russian battleship and a protected cruiser while loosing two armored cruisers of their own. 

Everyone had a good time and my pre-dreadnoughts saw action for the first time in over four years.

Russian Artillery for "The Great Game"

This was my only completed painting for the month of December 2021, it being a very busy month what with Christmas and my church related tasks.

When I ordered my Russian infantry from Askari Miniatures, I also ordered two guns with crews, one a 9-lb field gun and the other a Russian manufactured Gatling gun (Gorlov gun).  I only got the crews and the 9-lbr completed as I messed up the assembly of the Gorlov gun and still have to figure out how to correct my error.

The 9-lbr was a heavy gun with a 107mm bore.  The carriage was iron which was very robust allowing the gun to be transported over rough terrain.

I painted the gunners in their loose-fitting white blouses with red pants.  Their green kepis are upgraded with white canvas Havelocks for sun protection along the southern border.

The Askari Miniatures Russian field gun crew comes with five figures but I only needed four for the rules I use (both "The Sword and the Flame" and "The Men Who Would Be Kings."  But this allowed me to move the fifth figure over to the Gorlov gun crew which only came with three figures.

The Gorlov gun crew has been painted with white canvas trousers.  The white Havelock completely covers the kepi.  My error with assembling the gun was to glue the elevation screw on before I tried fitting the barrel.  Now it is too short and the barrel has a very high angle, almost like it is an antiaircraft gun.  It will be an interesting exercise in clipping the elevation screw, drilling the pin out, and remounting it with a new, longer pin.  We'll see how that goes.

I also began painting some British infantry to be used as opponents of my Russians.  Hopefully I can get some of them finished in January.

The Яussians Are Coming! The Яussians Are Coming!

 And yes, I do know that the Cyrillic R is actually a P, but I couldn't resist using the old movie title.

Over the past several months, I've been experimenting with a new set of rules -- "The Men Would Would Be Kings" from Osprey Publishing.  I got 'hooked' on them thanks to Neil of Toy Soldiers and Dining Room Battles blog and his 'Anglo-Russian War' thread, of which this post sets the stage.

I've been a long time Victorian colonial gamer using the late Larry Brom's venerable "The Sword and the Flame Rules."  But I've always wanted to do a smaller group of battles around a common theme.  So I decided to partially copy Neil's set-up.  In my imaginary conflict, the action takes place in the tri-border Russia-Persia (Iran)-Afghanistan area.

My first new unit of this theme was originally owned and painted by the late Dr. Mark "Doc Ord" Stevens.  I bought it from his widow after he died from ALS back in 2018.  They are a group of Old Glory Russians from their Boxer Rebellion line.  I've done some repainting to back date the uniforms somewhat.  They will be used as a border guard unit of two 12-figure platoons.  

Please click on images for larger pictures.

Border Guards 1st Platoon

Border Guards 2nd Platoon

"The Men Who Would Be Kings" rules use 12 figures for each regular or irregular infantry unit and 16 figures for a tribal infantry unit.  Cavalry are either 8 or 10 figures and guns of any type are manned by 4 figures.

The next unit I painted, this time from the bare metal, is from Askari Miniatures' Russian Colonial line.  These figures are dressed in the field uniform popular with Russian units all along the southern arc of the expanding Russian Empire.  It consisted of a loose white canvas smock, white canvas trousers, and a Havelock fitted to the kepi.  This "Slavic" style uniform was worn from the early 1870s through WW2.

8th Siberian Rifles, 1st Platoon,
led by the General Skobelev figure

8th Siberian Rifles, 2nd Platoon

After reorganizing and repainting the Old Glory Russians I obtained from Mark's estate, I had two figures remaining.  Since their soft caps looked like some of the ones worn by the figures I've used for a 'Back of Beyond' White Russian unit, I repainted them to match and added them to that unit.

The two "new" additions are flanking one of the original figures.

And the entire White Russian unit.

But there is more!  I still have two more "Siberian rifle" platoons to paint as well as a gun with crew and a Gatling gun with crew.  Plus there are four more figures on order to add to the White Russian unit.

And I have two British and three Indian infantry platoons and one British and one Indian machinegun team to paint.  More later!

More Russians

As promised, although a little delayed, are some more Napoleonic Russians.  These are all Miniature Figurines figures.  They form part of my Russian contingent "Corps Winzingerode" of the Allied Army of the North.

The 1st Battalion, Musketeer Regiment Tula, Division Detachment Harpe

The 3rd Battalion, Musketeer Regiment Tula, Division Detachment Harpe

During my selected period, 1813, the Russian infantry (musketeer) regiments had three battalions of which only the 1st and 3rd were considered active field units.  The 2nd battalion was a depot battalion.  During the 1812 campaign and following on into 1813 and 1814, the grenadier/schutzen company was withdrawn and combined with the companies of two other depot battalions to form three-company combined grenadier battalions.  Also during the 1812 campaign, some of the grenadier-less depot battalions were pressed into field service as three-company battalions.

Heavy Artillery Battery #21, 21st Infantry Division

Armed with 12-lb guns and 20-pound licornes, the heavy battery provided the big punch to the Russian infantry divisions and corps.

This will be the last Napoleonic figures I paint for a while.  Our gaming group will be having a "Franco-German" (AKA "Franco-Prussian") War theme in 2020 for the 150th anniversary of the war that established the 2nd German Reich.  Our first battle will be on the Monday Martin Luther King holiday as our friend Tim C. joins us from North Carolina for our annual MLK Carnage and Glory game.

Russians, Saxons, and French, O My!

Just completed some more 25mm units for my Napoleonic forces.

First up we have the 1st Battalion, Pavlov Grenadier Regiment, of the army of the Czar.  Due to its heroism in 1807, it was authorized to retain the miter helmet (and did so until WW1).  In April 1813, the Pavlovs were given guard status and transferred to the Imperial Guard and renamed "Pavlovski".  According to most valid data, in the 1813 period only the grenadier company wore the taller grenadier miter while the three fusilier companies in each battalion wore the shorter fusilier style miter.  But since Hinton Hunt and Der Kriegspieler did not make a fusilier miter back in the 1970s when I acquired the figures, all of them are in the taller miter helmet.  The flag is from the Warflag site and is the 1803 pattern for the regiments of the St. Petersburg district.  I believe that during my time frame (1813) they were still using this flag and not the new issue guard flags.

This battalion will be the senior guard battalion in my small guards brigade, along with the 3rd Battalion (of vintage Scruby figures) and the Finnlanski Jager Battalion (of vintage Der Kriegspieler figures).  The 2nd Battalion will be completed at a later date once I get enough Hinton Hunt/Der Kriegspieler figures.

Second is the Saxon foot battery #3 which will support my small 6-battalion Saxon division.  This battery has Miniature Figurine gunners and Scruby/Historifigs guns.  The battery had four 6-lb guns and two field howitzers.

Since the Scruby/Historifigs 6-lb guns are slightly under "scale" I've used their 8-lb models which, to me, look good.

Third is a regiment of the French guard cavalry - the Guard Scout Lancers or Eclaireur-lancier de la Garde Imperiale.  Although this cavalry component of the French Guard wasn't raised until late 1813 and into early 1814, I've had three of the stands since the mid 1970s.  Recently I acquired two more figures and was able to finally complete the regiment.  This is the first guard cavalry unit I have in my French forces, but it may not be the last.

The three stands with pennants on the lances are the original figures, being early Miniature Figurines with horse furniture sculpted on the riders.  The other stand with the officer are late Miniature Figurines with the horse furniture sculpted on the horse.  Since they are bigger than the early ones, I've added a "booster" base onto the older ones to get them up to the same height.

More Napoleonics in future posts, including a leger battalion from the Kingdom of Northern Italy and a Russian musketeer regiment in overcoats.

The Rest of the Baltic Fleet

The pictures of the rest of the Baltic Fleet have been posted on ColCampbell's Shipyard.  Please drop by for a look.

3rd Battle Division, 3rd Pacific Squadron

With all my Russo-Japanese War ships now complete, I can return finally to some 18th Century Imagi-nation wargame preparations with two mounted officers and three gun crews before launching into a 56-figure Britannian (AKA British) infantry battalion followed  by a 72-figure Gallian (AKA French) battalion.

More Russian Ships

More Russian ships from the Russo-Japanese War have been posted to Col Campbell's Shipyard blog.

Please stop by to see the:

Independent Cruiser Squadron

Early Reinforcements

Russian Pacific Squadron

Pictures of the Russian Pacific Squadron's 14 battleships and cruisers has been posted to ColCampbell's Shipyard.  Please stop by and have a look.

The 1st Battle Division

July 2008 Painting, Part 2

Well, here are the pictures of some of the figures I painted during the month of July.

First, we have the royal family of the Margraviate of Carpania. The Markgraf, Friedrich Hapnich, is seated in the center. It seems his gout is acting up and he can't stand for long periods. His faithful wife, the Margravine Ruth, and her African body servant stand to the Markgraf's left. To the Markgraf's right is his African body servant ready with a goblet of medicinal brandy for the Markgraf's gout. While on the far left of the picture is General Kuhster, the Markgraf's Minister for War. They stand in front of the Royal Pavillion ready to review the troops of the Margraviate. These figures are from the Old Glory pack - "Fat Governor and Creepy Assistants" in their Pirate range.

Then there is the ruling family of the Duchy of Courland. The Duke, Yakov Alexandrovitch Pavlov, stands in the middle, flanked by his wife, Duchess Jamie and her pet spaniel, and his Minister of War, General Count Pavel Ivanovitch Alexandrovski. The Duke and the General are Old Glory figures from the Governor pack while the Duchess is one of the Old Glory Army pirate figures.

Joining the Carpanian army is the first of two companies of the Jager Corps Staffeldünkel. These valiant hunters were recruited from the forest preserves of the Markgraf and will be excellent fighters in the kleine krieg portions of the Markgraf's battles. They are also Old Glory figures - Hessian jagers from the American Revolution line.

And finally, I applied the terrain effects to the bases of all the artillery pieces and gunners I currently have painted and mounted. Seven Carpanian guns with 31 crewmen and six Courland guns with 11 crewmen (more are needed) were prepared.

This example is the Carpanian 12-lbr with Crusader Prussian gunners.

The Courland artillery is also represented by a 12-lbr but with Front Rank artillery figures, including their gunnery officer wearing his cloak and two of their excellent artillery fusiliers.

Coming later will be a picture of the Courland Pandur Regiment Tamnii Narod.

February Painting Totals

No pictures yet, but I completed the following figures in February:

26 Carpanian (AKA Prussian) musketeers of the Battalion Teutonica (Old Glory)
2 Carpanian mounted officers - one will be Baron Trask of Eisenmuhlen and the other is an aide-de-camp to GL von Stuppe (both RSM).
24 Courland (AKA Russian) grenadiers of the Battalion Severinski (Foundry)
4 gunners, 4 bombardiers, and 3 artillery fusiliers (Foundry) for Courland
1 Licorne howitzer (Newline) for Courland

For a total of 61 foot, 2 mounted, and 1 gun.

These were fewer than I had hoped to paint, but after all February is a shorter month.

My First "BIG" Battalion

I've mounted my first "big" battalion of 24 Sash & Saber Russian infantry. They are mounted on 3/4" Litko bases (with self-stick metal sub-bases) and then onto magnetic movement bases. The individual bases still need to be terrained, but that will come over the coming days.













The mounted officer is a Front Rank Prussian who was "pressed" into service as a Russian.











In my imagi-nations, this battalion will be part of the army of the Duchy of Courland.














I also tried the "dip" method with these figures. The picture shows a newly painted musketeer (mounted on the nail) and a similar figure after being dipped. The MinWax stain adds a bit of definition to my average painting job and makes the miniature look a little better.







Another battalion of Russians, errr Courlanders, awaits individual bases and then it is on to my Prussians, ummm army of the Duchy of Carpania.