Rising Sun, Tumbling Bear #4 - Turn 3 The attack on Pyongyang - Part 2

A few weeks late, nice to get out of the desert for a while and the road to Pyongyang where a Russian force was attempting to hold back the Japanese attackers.

We tweaked Sharp Practice using John Savage's rule amendments for the later war period for the 1870's and the introduction of mass ranks of breach loaders.

The Russian force, I quite fancy some extra Russians to bolster this force.

The Japanese selected a number of spots on the table for an artillery barrage before the Russians deployed, the shells landed in the and around the village which was lightly held by the Russians which limited the casualties, although the HQ was hit by a shell which knocked the CinC unconscious.

The bulk of the Russian forces were on the far side of the village, the Russian commander having massed all their infantry in a solid block.

The Japanese entered the table at random, most on the far side of the table behind the wooded hill they moved swiftly to line the rise having first to contend with a Russian Cossack attack. The Russians were routed but the Japanese were savaged.

A protracted fire fight with smoke filling the battlefield, the Russian mass despite mounting shock were able to hold the line.

Back to the drawing board for the Japanese.

A fun encounter John's tweaks worked well, the ability to fire twice with the risk of rising smoke and low ammo made you really have to think about the choice between multiple rounds of fire or a more measured pace of aiming and firing.

The improved field craft for the Japanese gave them some advantages, but I need to increase the unit sizes slightly to give them a little more firepower on the table top.

Roll on Wargames Atlantic and their plastics in the coming months.

Rising Sun, Tumbling Bear #4 - Turn 3 The attack on Pyongyang.

After a 6 month hiatus we are back to the Russo-Japanese War....

With the successful defence of Cinampo the Japanese consolidate their position and set about fortifying the town Spending 3 of their 8 action points.

In the south Admiral Uryu heads to the home land to collect a further division for the campaign, I figured with land forces now in country and good progress being made in Korea a further landing in Manchuria would help the campaign.

General Oku marches north and captures Seoul without a fight, the city is filled with locals waving makeshift flags for the liberators.

Satisfied that Cinampo is well defended General Kuroki strikes north and heads for the strategically important city of Pyongyang, which is defended by Gen Glasko and 150 points of defenders.

Can the Japanese breach the defences???

General Oku 200 Points 

General Kuroki 210 Points 

Admrial Uryu 22 Fleet Points

Admiral Nabu 24 Fleet Points

Rising Sun, Tumbling Bear #3 - The Russians Counter Attack.

Before the turn is even underway the Russians attack Chinampo as an event card orders the Russians to attack the closest forces to Port Arthur.

Whilst the Japanese have the greater number of points 240 Points vs 180 Russians, they had only finite points in each command and the table was heavily weighted on the Russian side. So the Japanese opted for a number of fixed defences to keep the Russians at bay.

The large hill contained a number of emplacements with MG's and an artillery piece covering the road and bridge. A company of Infantry were held in reserve on the rear of the hillside.

In the dense wood on the right the Japanese lined the tree line unsure of where the attack would come.

The answer lay in the opening bombardment, heavy shells landed amongst the pine trees and the Japanese suffered multiple shock points. A trick learnt from the previous encounter.

The Russians came on in a mass column heading straight for the shock riddled defenders. Meanwhile Cossack cavalry rode forward looking to exploit any gap.

The Japanese fell back into the interior of the wood as the Russians came on, this frustrated the Russian commander who was busy lining up this Artillery for another salvo.

The Russians switched to plan B and stepped out rushing head long into the dense wood, catching a single session before they could properly form up.

It was a brutal fight, the Japanese threw in their remaining troops and whilst fewer in number the Japanese where able to inflict severer losses on the advancing Russians before they were pushed back their lines shattered. The larger Russian units were able to soak up more shock, but with few quality officers were unable to reduce the shock.

Meanwhile in the centre the Russian sailors and cavalry were finding it tough going. Machine Gun fire slowed their advance to a halt as they reached the paddy fields. The Cavalry were caught in the open as artillery smashed into their column.

The Japanese threw their reserves into the fight driving the back the Cossack cavalry and stragglers who had been forced out of the wood fight. The Russian attack was rapidly running out of steam and whilst the wood was clear of defenders force successes would be hard to acheive. 

As the Russians reorganised in the wood the the Japanese moved to their flank the Infantry and exploit a gap with Infantry and Cavalry threatening the Russian Guns or the heavily shocked attackers.

The counter attack petered out and the Japanese line held. 

Initiative to the Japanese as they pondered their next move and the push to clear the peninsula.

Japanese losses 30 points.

General Oku 200 Points 

General Kuroki 210 Points 

Admrial Uryu 22 Fleet Points

Admiral Nabu 24 Fleet Points

RJW Dismounted Cavalry.

As the campaign games start to pick up pace, it gives you that extra nudge to finish off extra's hiding in the cupboard of shame and the last of the spare Russian metal.

The Russian dismounted Cavalry will give me a further foot unit to field I will pick up their mounted equivalent ling term but given that cavalry charges were few and far between during the war these will be very useful.

With blue breaches and a canvas cap cover, they look far better based and on the table than when I started painting them without the army painter soft tone wash.

I was slow close to call this project complete, but with news of Atlantic Games potential offering and a hankering for Russians in White Tunics - perhaps not - Good Job there is no release date yet as there is plenty more to clear out yet.

Until next time.....

Rising Sun, Tumbling Bear #2 - The Second Battle for Usan

Back on Japanese soil and a draw of the second round of cards, gives the Japanese an extra fleet, perhaps the direct approach was not the best idea.

The fleets swung left the first under Admiral Urga making an unopposed landing at Pusan, whilst Admiral Nashiba sailed up the Western coast of the peninsula.

Another successful landing at Cinampo, things are looking up for the Japanese.

Having established a bridgehead at Pusan the Japanese tried again to seize Usan this time across the landward side but were once again confronted by a delaying force of Russians, Korea was meant to contain only a token Russian presence.

Wyvern club night and a roll of the dice using Platoon forward and the Japanese are ordered to take to the table and seize the Russian stores to win the encounter and capture the town of Usan on the map.

Russian Points 110 vs Japanese Points 120* 

*With the addition of Two Machine Guns drawn from the Japanese reinforcement pool.

The Japanese would be attacking left to right with the Russians deployed across the centre of the table, the Russian stores were held in the white walled compound,  but the Russian player was unaware of the importance of this location and only had orders to hold the line.

The Russian commander had thrown up earth works in the centre of the table a string of barb wire to slow the Japanese advance, many of the troops were conscripts but they only had to hold the line.

On the right flank and anchoring the position was a unit of militia taking up positions in the garden of a merchants house.

Whilst the field defences were a surprise to the Japanese commander, equally unnerving was the Japanese opening bombardment with off table artillery falling amongst the defenders.

The Japanese advance using combined tactics of firing and moving, constantly keeping the Russians on the back foot

With few good quality commanders to marshal their line the Russian formations began to fracture and fall back and whilst they were slowing the Japanese advance the conscripts were being driven from their defence positions. Meanwhile Japanese elements had bypassed the wire and were making there way through the crop fields on the left.

The Russian force morale was steadily falling as troops and officers were forced back, breaking point came when the isolated militia were set upon by Korean irregulars who in a bloody encounter drove the inexperienced Russians from the garden.

No Russian Offensive Actions this turn the Japanese command is made up of the following point values.

General Oku 180 Points @ Usan

General Kuroki 240 Points @ Cinampo

Admrial Uryu 22 Fleet Points 

Admiral Nabu 24 Fleet Points

On to Turn 3......

Rising Sun, Tumbling Bear #1 - The Battle for Usan.

Hot off the heels of the last post... synopsis of the Russo-Japanese War Campaign.

As the Commander of the Japanese Naval and Land Forces, you must gather your land and naval forces to capture a number of Key Russian Controlled Settlements before the Russian Baltic Fleet reaches Port Arthur or President Theodore Roosevelt signs the Portsmouth Peace Accord. 

The Game begins shortly after the Japanese surprise naval attack on the Russian warships docked in Port Arthur. The Russians are now building up their forces and gathering their fleets to kick the Japanese out of Manchuria and Korea. 

My plan is to convert the map encounters to Sharp Practice with each troop point being x10 points in Sharp Practice.

Turn one and rolling low I only ended up with two event cards none of which were more fleet capacity which I think I will need. So with 8 movement points I opted for a quick land hop over the Tsushima Strait landing at Ulsan.

Unfortunately my troop capacity was reduced by 2 units due to Admiral Urya's squadron encountering mines entering the harbour. General Oku  landed with 220 points at Usan, however the landing was not unopposed and a delaying action needed to be fought with the Russian Garrison where I could only field half my number. I cashed in my reinforcement card to give me an extra unit.

This opening battle would be tough 120 Russian Points vs 110 Japanese. But it was a risk worth taking. Win and seize the town of Usan – lose and be pushed back on to the transports and have no foothold in the Korean peninsula.

I rolled for random terrain which had a low rise dominating the Russian half of the table, the Japanese would need to move fast, rushing on in a light column on the left flank. Having decided on making the Japanese similar in class to Light Infantry giving them more movement and field craft, but countered by being in 6 figure units vs the Russian 10 it would be a class of doctrine.

The Russians with a delaying force opted for a number of mobile units, with Cossacks and Frontier Cavalry, supported by Artillery and a Machine Gun.

The cavalry moved fast pushing up the Japanese right flank, forcing the Japanese column to wheel to react to the aggressive move that was unexpected.

Massed ranks of Russian Infantry advance from the road and head for the rise as the Japanese are focused on the cavalry.

Russian shells land amongst the Japanese ranks and in a single turn knock unconscious both leaders.... What were the chances of that....

The Cossacks seize their chance and charge towards the Japanese line, falling desperately short they are beaten back with an excessive amounts of shock.

Meanwhile the Russian line cross the ridge, pouring fire into the Japanese troops below, a number of them in the flank which doubled their shock.

In a vein attempt to break the Russian morale the Japanese launched a bayonet attack up the rise forcing back a section of the attackers, but as a force the Japanese were spent and were forced to retire from the table.

So the opening encounter and the Japanese are sent packing and forced back onto the transports.

That was a learning curve for the Japanese, having opted for smaller more nibble units and not taking advantage of their cover bonus they were unable to bring their quality advantage to bear against the larger Russian units at close range. Coupled with the in ability to bring up their Machine Gun and Artillery they were under pressure from the Russians from round one.

End of Turn one Japanese Forces.

General Oku 200 Points 

General Kuroki 240 Points 

Admrial Uryu 22 Fleet Points

Time for a rethink..... in strategy and tactics.

Russo - Japanese War - Back down the rabbit hole.

See this is what happens when you embark on a project to clear up the lead pile, you end up adding more. 

Having had my eye on the armour clad officers from Empress Miniatures for the Silver Bayonet Japanese faction and finding several spare Japanese Infantry in the draw I figured I would take the opportunity to revisit the RJW Project and clear up the last of the bare metal.

Over the past weeks I have been looking at adapting Sharp Practice for encounters nearer the turn of the century and how to reflect the different Japanese and Russian doctrine of the period, the recent Sudan and Pony War tweaks could carry across to a far more modern war.

The biggest stumbling block seems to be the rate of fire, within Sharp Practice repeating rifles allow units to fire twice in a turn without the need to reload, with both sides armed with 5 shot magazine rifles that feels rather bloody, so I am going to stick with one firing round with the reload representing a dropping off of the fire as troops replace magazines, this adding in some ammo rules should strike the right place and allow the Machine Guns to be more potent firing 12 dice a round.

1

Reflecting on my painting rhythm over the past few years, I seemed to have been able to increase my figure count, previously I used to paint in batches of 6-8 but more recently this now tends to be 10-20 which allows me to complete a couple of sections over a few weeks and get far better results to put down on the table.... could this be a sign of age or simply the drive to finish aging projects once and for all?

The new reformatted Japanese Infantry 9 squads already to take the fight to the Russian Empire. 

Chatting on one of the RJW Facebook groups about campaign mechanisms it was suggested that Rising Sun, Tumbling Bear was worth a look. As a print and play game and coming in at $15 it looks like a great investment. A combination of map movement and paper table top battles and designed for solo play with the ability to convert encounters to table top battles.

Time to roll some dice.....