The Battle of Wa-Fanggou Aug 1904 - A Russo-Japanese War Batrep

 

The Rejects got together for our first Russo-Japanese game since 2014, surely it can't have been that long????Well the last one I played in according to my blog anyway!

OOB
Russian - Dan, Surj & Chris

1st Siberian Army Corps – LG – Baron Sakelberg

1st East Siberian Rifle Division – LG Gergross

1st Brigade – MG Rutowski
1st Inf regt 3 Battalions
2nd Inf regt 3 Battalions
2 Artillery Batteries

2nd Brigade – MG Maximovich
3rd Inf regt 3 Battalions
4th Inf regt 3 Battalions
Machine Gun section -1 Gun
2 Artillery Batteries

Cavalry Brigade
Primorsky Dragoon regt
4th Ural Cossack rgt

4 Companies Frontier Guard Infantry

From 10th Army Corps
31st European Infantry Division LG Mau
1st Brigade MG Tshishevich
121st Infantry regt 4 Battalions
122nd Infantry regt 4 Battalions
Maching Gun Section 1 Gun
2 Artillery Batteries

Attached Observation Battalion section wagon and crew

Japanese Ray, Steve & Lee

2nd Army General Aku

 
4th Division LG Ogawa

7th Brigade MG Nishijima
8th Inf regt 3 Battalions, 1 Machine Gun 2 Artillery Batteries
37th Inf regt 3 Battalions, 1 Machine Gun 2

19th Brigade LG Ando
9th Inf regt 3 Battalions, 1 Machine Gun 2 Artillery Batteries
38th Inf regt 3 Battalions, 1 Machine Gun
4th Cavalry regt

2nd Army
3rd Division LG Oshima

5th Brigade MG Yamaguchi
6th Inf regt 3 Battalions, 1 Machine Gun 2 Artillery Batteries
33rd Inf regt 3 Battalions, 1 Machine Gun

 

Postie has done us up like a kipper again, were our first thoughts on the game when we saw the table and those thoughts carried on for most of the morning. 

To win  the game we had to take the 3 hills in front off each of our small commands, which was an impossible task.

Above you can see our 3 commands Lee at the top, me in the middle and Steve at the bottom, our left.

Facing 3 hills, Steve was facing Chris, I was facing Dan, on the entrenched hill, while Lee was facing Surj.

??? He wants me to attack that, with 6 units, ok most of Dan's troops are behind the hill, if we can move fast and win the first move and fire we might just do it??

Steve had the easiest job..........again Chris' Russians were mainly behind the hill.

Lee was facing Surj's hill, which was Mission Impossible, as Surj had 8 units of superior European Russians, although at the start of the game, we didn't know that.

Hmmm?

We decided that I would help support Steve's main attack on the hill on the left, I would attack the gap between the 2 hills and Lee would play a holding roll and try to nullify Surj's troops.

Some of my Japanese troops and a machine gun, I painted these up for Postie in 2011/12, during the Analogue Painting Challenge, i n the year I won!

Before the game started both sides had to throw a dice, the Russians won and BANG, 2 units of Cavalry appeared on our left flank, that's gonna make it a little harder!!!

Another kick in the nuts, Postie then gave the Russians 4 lengths of barbed wire, they could place them wherever they wanted on their side of the table.

Well that's our plan stuffed, Chis placed 2 lengths were I was going to attack, between the 2 hills. Surg placed his in the gap between his hill and one in front of his hill.

We decided we had a choice, give it a go or go home and help the Mrs with the chores at home.....

The first turn we lost the initiative, which meant they move and fire before us, any casualties caused do not fire back in their turn. It just gets better and better!

Lee's command after moving forward, you can see, Surj has already started spreading his troops out.

Same goes for Dan and Chris.

I moved my machine gun up behind my infantry, I don't want to give the Russians an easy target, before I even get to shoot.

Our  artillery started to pound their artillery, which was a lot better than ours.

Chris moved down the hill, which meant he could fire from both the bottom and top of the hill.

As my second rank was 4 inches behind the first I could fire over their heads up to the hill.

But we all went prone afer each move to make us harder to hit, but that meant losing 2 inches movement on the next turn as we had to stand.

Lee's doing a sterling job on our right, there's no need to move forward anymore.

Getting close to the hills, but we're taking very heavy casualties.

Not sure I fancy a train trip on that track!

Not sure we're gonna do this?

My two machine guns were doing a great job.

As were Dan's Siberian's, they were so hard to hit, in a trench in open order, we lost 4 our of 8 dice shooting at them, 

I'm not sure my lead unit on the left will stand? Its lost over 75% of its men. But the Japanese were stubborn and they hung on.

Surj had positioned his troops, so nearly all of them could give fire.

The Russian morale wasn't as good as the Japanese, and this began to take a toll on the Ruskies, as some of their troops failed tests and moved back.

The thin blue line!

Chris was either rash or unlucky with the Russian cavalry, lucky for us, we also got some cavalry on to stem the Russians.

Steve's 4th Cavalry can be seen bottom right.

Steve soon made mincemeat of the Russian Dragoons, blasting them with his machine guns.

The enemy

Chris, Dan and Surj.

It had taken him a while to get it into position, but Chris finally unlimbered his machine gun, by the tree next to the hill.

Can I make it up the hill, before I'm destroyed?

Yes i do!!! 

It wasn't a charge, but I'm on the hill.

Steve decided to stay down the hill, and use his artillery, machine guns and artillery to do the work for him.

And it was working too!

What was left of Chris' Dragoons can be seen legging it towards the table edge top left.

Chris managed to get a few more troops up n the hill himself.

Surj finally realised that Lee wasn't going to attack him and started to push his troops towards Lee.

But it was too late. The Russian command through in the towel, they realised that Chris was going to lose his hill next turn, which was the start of us rolling up their flank.

There was nothing Chris could do about it?

The Rejects at play!

Conclusion

We, the Japanese were extremely worried at the start of the game, we were doing the attacking and we were outnumbered by troops either dug in or in great defendable terrain. But we didn't count on the extreme Japanese morale, you basically had to throe snake eyes to fail. While the larger Siberian force always had a minus  1 to their dice rolls.

After they conceded, Postie then told us that we only needed to take one of their hills, nit the 3 he told us at the beginning, the git!!!

So a good win for the Japanese, and a very fun game, that taxed all of our brains!!! Well done to all involved, even Postie!

AHPC15 - Retreat from Moscow, 1st Portuguese regt

Yep! More Retreat from Moscow figures, and more French allies too. This time we're heading to south western Europe, to Portugal. In Ney's Third Army were two regiments of Portuguese, the 1st and 2nd regiments. This is my version of the 1st. who were in Brigadier Gengoult's brigade along with the 24th Light Infantry.

The Portuguese Legion were formed from Portuguese nationals in 1808, with a strength of 6 Infantry and 2 Cavalry regts. They were re-organized in 1811 into 3 Infantry and 1 Cavalry regt. The Legion lost so many me in Russia that they were disbanded in 1813. 

Once again no  company (that I've found anyway) sell the Portuguese Legion in greatcoats. Perry minis make 1 figure in pack FN171, so that's out. So I came up with the idea of buying some plastic Victrix Waterloo Brits wearing a Belgic shako and cutting and filing those down to kinda match what they wore. Its not a bad match if I say so myself. The next problem I came across was the heads were a little small to match the Foundry figures I was going to decapitate.......so Warlord French is was, but they still didn't fit because the heads had no collar. So once again, my trusty pack of Green Stuff came out, to make some scarves and collars. 

The Warlord figures are a little smaller than the Perry's, so I squirted some No More Nails from a tube onto each base, then gently pressed the figure onto the base, its hardly noticeable.

So onto the points, its a nice and easy one.......8 figures at 5 pts each makes 40 points, maybe a few extra for the conversion work, if Teemu's feeling generous??

Teemu was feeling generous and gave me an extra 2 points, giving me 42pts and a total of 1030, which as he reminded me was past my target of 1000 points!!

AHPC 15 - Retreat from Moscow - L'escadron sacré 101 pts

The Sacred Squadron (French L'escadron sacré) was an ad hoc cavalry unit which served briefly in the French Grande Armée during the final stage of the Emperor Napoleon's retreat from Moscow in 1812. It was remarkable in that it consisted - out of military necessity - entirely of officers, with those below the rank of colonel serving as troopers.

The Sacred Squadron was formed on 23 November 1812, by the Bobr River (perhaps at Borisoff, in modern Belarus) to serve as Napoleon's bodyguard. It was disbanded on 10 December 1812, in Kowno (modern Kaunas, Lithuania). It therefore served during the crossing of the Berezina (26-29 November), and continued to exist for a few days after Napoleon's departure for Paris on 5 December.

Its existence is recorded in the 29th Bulletin of the Grande Armée, by which Napoleon hinted to the French people for the first time the scale of the disaster which had befallen the Grande Armée:

"Our cavalry was dismounted to such a degree, that it was necessary to collect the officers who had still a horse remaining, in order to form four companies of 150 men each. The Generals there performed the functions of captains, and the colonels of subalterns. This sacred squadron, commanded by General Grouchy, and under the orders of the King of Naples (Murat), did not lose sight of the Emperor in all these movements."

No written order establishing the unit has been found; it is possible that it was set up orally. No official record of those who served in it has survived; considering the circumstances, it is possible that none was ever made, or that the records of Marshal Berthier (Napoleon's Chief of Staff) were lost during the retreat. Other sources give lower numbers than Napoleon's 600: Chandler says 500.

In addition to its commander Général de division Grouchy, the following are said to have served with the Sacred Squadron:

Général de division de La Tour-Maubourg
Général de brigade de La Grange 
Colonel Rambourgt 
Colonel de Fernig 
Lieutenant-colonel de Castellane
Lieutenant-colonel de Lascours 
Chef d'escadron  de Gramont 
Chef d'escadron  de Potier 
Capitaine Aimé Benoît Delamalle
Lieutenant Le Bon Desmottes 
Lieutenant Claude-Xavier-Louis-François Martin
Lieutenant Saint-Geniès 
Sous-lieutenant Korte 

My 2 Commanders, both are from Front Rank miniatures. On my brand new Warbases sabot bases.

These 4 are all Casting Room Miniatures and all have had green stuff cloaks and a scarf to hold his bicorne on.

Four more figures from Front Rank, there was no need to add anything on these, I could have added a cape for the Guard figure, but didn't want to spoil his uniform.

So there we have it, Napoleon's Sacred Squadron, or 10 Mounted Commanders, if you don't want the Sacred Squadron in a game..

Points are easy, 10 figures at 10 points each, 100 pts, maybe Teemu would like to add some extra for the the cloaked commanders.

Teemu very generously gave me 1 extra bonus point, giving me 101 pts pushing me up into the top 10, in 10th place, for the first and probably only time this Challenge, on 988 points. Only 12 away from my target of 1000.