The Fall of Lemberg, Galicia 1914 - Part 2

Welcome to Part 2 and I am pleased to report a marginal victory for the Russian forces.

I needed to hold the bridges at Lemberg and whilst the counter attack was not repelled we did manage to fight the Austro-Hungarian/German forces to a stand still as the clock struck 4.00pm.

10.00am 

With limited resources consisting of.

Commanding Officer - (status IV),Second in Command - (status III), 1 Cavalry unit, 4 10 Man Sections, 1 HMG, 1 Artillery piece.

I await the counter attack, it's strength is unknown and with two bridges to defend I will be hard pressed to hold them back without a little luck, I spread my infantry units amongst the buildings over looking both bridges, keeping them hidden from view.

The 1st Wave of  Austro-Hungarian/German forces enter the table advancing swiftly down the road, the extra movement afforded to the blinds gives them sight of both bridges within the first few minutes, no Russians were to be seen...

10.30

I can wait no longer every turn I remain hidden allows the Germans to get closer to their objectives the bridges at Lemberg, I unmask my Artillery piece with only limited ammo, I need to make every round count.

The first shells strikes home, with only one unit visable the artillery round sends them diving for cover and the rising shock slows their advance.

The opening salvo flushes out yet more Germans, the crafty German general has flooded the wood with Jagers who advance on the Russian lines, this is going to be a long day in the field.

Blimey just look at this lot, 3 sections and a HMG and little in the way to stop them.

I unmask the last of my defenders at the Northern Bridge, commanded by a Status III bigman they begin to pour fire into the enless tide of Germans, One section and an Artillery piece against the whole German army....

At the eastern bridge the defenders wait for any possible signs of movement.

11.34
The second wave of attackers pour on to the table, by now the Germans have reached the farm house over looking the eastern bridge, still protected by blind movement, I can't be sure of it's strength or make up.
 

The Austro-Hungarian forces unmask in the farm house court yard, sending several volleys into the Russian defenders, Major Yuri Moreski takes a bullet to the throat and is seriously wounded, my Bigman IV is taken out of the fight and his unit goes to ground pinned by the advancing Austrians.

The German 2nd wave is unmasked and pushes forward under shell fire from the defenders in the town.

Meanwhile the Jagers reach the edge of the wood before the HMG can set up a well placed shell kills several of the crew, I can't help being a little smug, although the valiant defenders are now facing odds over over 7:1.

12.30

Pressure on my troops at the Northern bridge forces me to shift additional infantry to support the troops at the bridge, whilst the fire from the eastern bridge is causing some shock it is very clear where the main assault is coming in.

We break for lunch, both of us a little nervous as the clock ticks down.

1.00pm

The Germans press on artillery and rifle fire slow their advance but the independent sections leap frog one another as they are urged on by their CO on the white charger.

Meanwhile in the court yard shock and casualties mount also hindered by a number of low ammo markers, but they are succeeding in pinning my troops to their defences stopping me supporting the northern bridge.

A German sections breaks formation and rushes for the bridge, only to be stopped in its tracks by close range artillery and rifle fire. They won't try that again without support.

Casaulties begin to mount on the wall as the Germans begin to bring more rifle to bear, Jagers line the wood edge and regular infantry march in line abreast towards the bridge.

The German onslaught in all it's glory, but the clock is ticking and only 2 hours remain to win the day.

Relief at last, 12 turns have passed and Russian reinforcements begin to trickle through, time to turn the screw on the Austro-Hungarian invaders. 

Russian sailors lead the vanguard heading for the bridge to take the fight to the Austro-Hungarians.

Scuppered again, the cheeky blighter has countered my bold advance with a unit of lancers, I knew they were in the box, but with only 1 or 2 blinds on the table had hoped they were elsewhere, but with two units of sailors pushing over the bridge and suporting infantry they should be easy to take out if the cards land in the right order...

2.47pm
Shock mounts in the German lines but the officers drive the on.
 

3.21

My card draws first, using one action I expand my frontage to give me extra figures in the fight that we both know is coming, the remaining action is used to fire on the Uhlans but it only inflicts minimal shock on the nasty spikey lancers.

3.42

The lancers charge home, their attack dice double that of my two sections who are forced back in disorder, so much for my hammer blow on the weaker left flank. The lancers have suffered a mere two casaulties for my five.

4.00pm
Game over. The Austro-Hungarian forces have failed in their attempt to force the bridges at Lemberg, but have sufficent forces interdicting the bridges to stop any Russian counter attack.

A great days gaming where the balance swung from one side to another over several hours, the Germans had the greater volume of troops but could not bring their numbers to bear, the Rusians had to balance the need to defend with holding back troops in case reinforcements did not show. 

Back to work tomorrow..... 

WW1 Russians Musketeer Miniatures

And so the last post of the year....
This is the last of the Russian Foot Infantry for The Russo-Japanese Project unless of course Markus over at Tsuba Miniatures produces extras next year, being a sucker as I am for shiny new models.

These are from Musketeers WW1 Range but fit in quite nicely with the Tsuba RJW infantry and provide a little more variety to the Russians.

I particular like the officer with the loud hailer urging his troops on, now he must be a Status II Big Man, I now have 10 Russian Sections more than enough for most regular games of Mud & Blood.

Now just the Artillery and Cavalry to follow.

Happy New Year all !!!!

Operation Market Larden - A Day of Lard at Wyvern Wargamers.

Saturday saw the first formal out of the RJW Project at our club event Operation Market Larden, the plan was to have an open day devoted to Richard clarke's excellent Too Fat Lardies rules, the day did not disappoint, over 40 gamers, with 8 different games on offer including the forthcoming Chain of Command hosted by the man himself.

The day had a different feel to some of our previous events such as the Annual Saga event, the attendee's were very much more the "fun" gamer rather than some of the competition players who generally turn out for other events... I expected nothing less given the nature of Rich's rules... 

We have some learn's in terms of the next Lard Day, the Chain of Command rules were hugely popular, so we need to think about how this is balanced out next time.

I was able to put on Two Mud & Blood games during the day hosting two chaps who had made the trip up from from Bristol Steve & Craig. Great to meet fellow gamers who have the same approach to the hobby as we do. Thanks for coming along guys.

Steve's Blog can be found here. Wargaming Addict.

One of our guy's had done an excellent job of scratch building a complete section of trench and some great barrage markers for his WW1 project, but they were perfect for this encouter and an absolute pleasure to fight over.

On to the Action.
Game One.

The Action is set around the Battle of Murken 1905, the very end of the Russian line, the trenches are not extensive, the troops on both sides thinly spread as the main fighting is happening several miles to the West, but someone has to keep the opposition pinned.

Orders are for the Japanese to break into the Trench System in around 2 hours real time.

 The table view from the South, two lines of trenches with wire to their front.

View from the North with high Millet masking the flank and a compound securing the line.

 

The Blinds are deployed and both sides roll away looking to spot their prey.

The Japanese are spotted and rush forward, having committed 75% of their forces to a strong left hook flanking the Russian positions.

The Russian's line trenches looking to pour fire into the advancing Japanese, figures largely from the excellent Tsuba Miniatures.

The Russian's had checked the Japanese advance placing the bulk of their force to the left of the trench system and supported by a HMG to bolster their defences.

Yet more Russian's fill the rear trench works.

 

 The Japanese press on, but begin to pick up Shock points as the they press the Russian left. A section deploys in the Millet field pinning the Russian's in their trenches.

The Tree line serves to slow the Japanese attack and despite a number of valiant charges they are unable to break into the Russian lines.

A marginal victory to the Russians.

Game Two

A very different affair the Russian's concerned about the left flank had strengthen it substantially, but were caught cold and coupled with a poor run of cards which restricted their movement were unable to bring their numbers to bear before the Japanese broke into the trenches.

Russian Infantry line the forward trenches.

 

Once again the Japanese sweep forward, using the additional "Banzi" card which provides them with a bonus move to close with the trench line before the Russians can bring sufficient fire down on them to slow the advance.

The Russian's attempt to rush forward additional forces to cut off this attack, but Friction and Hesitant Troop Cards make the advance a slow process. Reinforcements from Copplestone Castings Back of Beyond Figure range.

 

The Russian lines split in two.

Japanese in the trenches.

Charging down the trench line they catch the Russian defenders cold who rout form their position as the Japanese have over 4x the attack dice of the defenders.

Having hardly caught their breath and hindered by 6 points of shock they are charged by Chinese Honghuzi Bandits who force them to flee to the rear of the trench system, unable to recover for the rest of the game.

Forced to counter attack their own trench, the Russian's suffer the same fate as the Japanese in the first encounter.

Victory to the Japanese.

A cracking couple of games, unfortunately I fear they have only served to add to the painting backlog as I now have a list of "extra's" needed for the next encounter....

Too Fat Lardies - Shock Markers

Next weekend sees the first outing for the Russo - Japanese project a mere 5 months since the first purchase. I assumed that the Russians will be facing a barrage of Shock points so set about creating some more fancy Shock Markers. Is this is a Japanese bias???

One of the main mechanisms within most of the TooFatLardies rules sets is shock points, the impact of morale and how this affects the performance of the combat units, units accumulate "shock" points as a result of being under fire and engaging in Hand to Hand, up to a limit when it loses cohesion and they become ineffective and then run for cover "loose their bottle".

The rule system allows for Officers and NCOs (the Big Men) to act and prevent units from accumulating too many shock points, by spending actions or initiative points to restore the morale of the fighting units or playing a certain card that might reduce this number.

Players have to record Shock points against each section which usually involves placing a dice or counter behind the unit, however these can be knocked or picked up and used in the game, so I thought I would use some of the casualty figures to hold the dice and record the shock points and generally tidy up the table top.

Circular bases from Warbases with Dice and holders from Minibits. 

 

As shock increases and decreases as the game continues, I anticipate that each unit is likely to require at least 2 bases, so I wanted to add variety to each unit under fire, figures from Musketeer, Tsuba and even Foundry's Zulu Range.

WW1 Signals units from Musketeer, these mix in really well for the Russo Japanese War, whilst not technically a casualty, I thought it would represent a unit under pressure requiring resupply or calling in Artillery fire.

The latest casualty pack from Tsuba Miniatures, perfect for Mud & Blood.

My greatest concern now is which side to play next week :-)