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Greetings!

'A gaping silken dragon,/Puffed by the wind, suffices us for God./We, not the City, are the Empire's soul:/A rotten tree lives only in its rind.'

Wednesday 5 December 2012

Portable...

... Cordery-Morschauser-RossMac. Yes, at last, a game was played. The opponents were both suffering from the sort of medical handicaps that have afflicted battlefield genuises since the beginning of time - blood clots on my part, and burns on my opponent's part. So it was a slow, small portable game, with no hard and fast objectives except destroy the enemy.

The forces in a tin:


Nasty Bolsheviks and doomed Whites, in 20mm. Little Englander playing under the Banner of St Andrew, his opponent under the blood soaked rag.

First move, and the Whites lose their field gun! What !? 


I ordered harder praying on the part of my Orthodox priests, and decided that I had better go for a quick dash down the road and get to grips with the Bolsheviks.


A column of White infantry rapidly closed with the Red front line, the aim being to stop the Bolshies' artillery before it could do any more damage. The mission was accomplished, and a stand of Red infantry fell as well, before the head of the White assault was severed.


Over on the right wing, things bogged down. The Bolsheviks occupied two squares of damaged buildings from which it proved impossible to winkle them out. The Whites lost two stands attempting to take the buildings, then settled back into the wooded squares, which protected them for the rest of the game.


The left wing continued to see heavy casualties on both sides, with the White machine gun doing much execution.


Eventually, we were stalemated, with the Reds holding the built up areas, and the Whites controlling the road with machine gun fire, while being protected on their right flank by the woodland.

A good, relatively quick game that gave us some thought. Troops under cover are difficult to dislodge; there is limited scope for manoeuvre; in this period there is, perhaps, a need to field heavier kit (field guns, mortars, MGs, armour) at the expense of infantry - that might open up the game more. Or not. We'll see.

8 comments:

  1. Nice little action! Who'd a thought not long ago that one would be able to do 20mm RCW out of the box?

    Were you using the latest version of Bob's PW?

    I wonder what sort of difference it would make having a mix of troop quality?

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    1. Indeed, I always had in mind large numbers for RCW, sweeping across terrain, rushing around on trains etc. But this way is just as much fun.

      No, it was one of Bob's sets from last year, think.

      Now that is a good idea - I could paint up a few stands as those officer only units for the Whites, or some Latvian or Finnish Bolshies, or, even better, several stands of 'run away at first opportunity' chaps. I'll try more armour first, and think about objectives more clearly.

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  2. Cool Russians! like the airfix field gun!

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    1. Cheers! Some of the Whites are 20mm metals from the early 1980s - Imperial Figures, I think they are. And the good old Great War RHA set - what a cheer went up when it was released forty years ago!

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  3. An enjoyable game by the piccies and battle report! Good to see a game being played.The portable stuff is jolly good fun,easily put away and set up not to mention tactically interesting.
    best wishes
    Alan

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    1. Absolutely - and all in a plastic shopping bag: tin box, couple of buildings, few trees, 'board' rolled up. Way to go!

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  4. Nice looking game. I did RCW a while back with some Airfix British paint conversions, and the new Zvezda WW1 Russians. I found it a veru fun period to mess around with. Where were the Cossacks though?! They are the most fun part.

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    1. Cheers, Ben. Yes, I'm a 'fun' type of wargamer m'self. I'm not grown up enough to think it's anything but a game.

      Cossacks? That would mean I'd have to paint horses - I HATE painting dam' horses. Mind you I have got some Cossacks in 28mm for RCW...

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