Petrograd Nights

 Russell wanted to test his Russian Revolution game before COW, and as it was an excuse to break out some silly hats, how could we resist.... Committee Games aren't generally very photogenic, but here is some delectable eye candy:

Sorry about that. I don't often get a chance to wear my Budvinovka. The assembled multitudes (well, five of us) represented various Russian factions - Tsarists, Liberals etc. I got the Bolsheviks! The general aim was to form some sort of government and vote through a programme of various policies while at the same time garnering popular support in the form of 'roubles' which could be used for various things.

The various political shenanigans could also spill out into the streets. This worked particularly well if things weren't going well for your side in the negotiations for the Provisional Government.

Tim had made this magnificent scale reproduction of the square outside the Petrograd Palace, and 54mm models representing the various factions lined the sides.

Here is my Bolshevik rabble rouser. He looks suspiciously like a young Garibaldi. Ahem.

Social Revolutionaries (Russell). He looks like he means business.

This headcase is one of the Tsarists (John B).

The first round of the political negotiations didn't go well and the Social Revolutionaries called a strike. This led to a degree of agitation in the square. The cards determined the activation sequence and the actions the factions could take. Whoever was left standing in the square after four rounds gained  popular support, unfortunately the forces of reaction got there the fastest with the mostest.

The active factions fought a round of combat each turn. The Bolsheviks got quite a bloody nose. Casualties ended up in the hospital. 

We then reverted to some more negotiating and voting. Winning votes also got you popular support. As a tactical measure the revolutionaries agreed to all sorts of awful stuff with the reactionaries to bank some roubles. 

Time for another strike, a Bolshevik one this time! Each faction was only allowed one strike per game, and only if they had the least political support.

The revolutionaries pooled their roubles and bid against the reactionaries for the support of these fine chaps - a brigade of naval infantry from the Kronstadt garrison.

The Bolsheviks and Revolutionaries came out to march with them whole the reactionaries cowered in their barracks. Hurrah, a successful strike! We blew an awful lot of capital to get those guys, which would have ramifications later.

Back to the negotiations. The Tsarists and Conservatives really pushed their luck and proposed a really regressive programme. Between them they now outvoted both the Revolutionaries and the Centrists.

Time for a Revolution!!

 

The Bosheviks, Socialists and Liberals hit the streets with out brave Naval Infantry. If we could sweep the Tsarists and Conservatives from the streets, we would sieze the reins of power. It was just like Dr Zhivago. We outnumbered them 28 to 16 so the odds were looking good.

There was a bidding frenzy for the second brigade of Naval Infantry. Both sides poured all their political capital into getting the support of the sailors. Sadly we'd blown just a bit too much on the 1st Naval Brigade, and we were pipped by the reactionaries by six points. If only.... the odds were now 28 to 24. Not so good.

Everyone piled into the square for a huge fight.

Round after round of bloody combat saw the faction boxes emptied of figures (those are the Mensheviks lurking in the corner).

The hospital (above) was packed to bursting with casualties. When the smoke cleared and the living were counting, the reactionaries were still in play albeit with just one figure left each, so the Revolution had failed and the Tsar clung on to power. It was sooo close though. Maybe next time.

That went really well. As with any playtest session there was a bit of back and forth and clarification of the some of the processes, but we all go the hang of it in the end. It was a great game, and I'm sure it will go down a storm at COW.

Baltic Bolsheviks

John brought a revised version of his Neil Thomas style RCW rules down to try at the club. This scenario featured a White army operating in the Baltic states trying to break through to Petrograd,opposed by a horde of Bolsheviks, under the somewhat tenuous command of one Joseph Stalin. Myself and Tim C took the forces of regressive authoritarianism, whilst Tim G and Jerry took the progressive forces of socialism.

Our chaps come bravely plodding on.  Most of the White infantry were poor quality, apart from a special 'tank shock' battalion and a company of dodgy looking Swedes. Keen eyed readers will notice that the Whites have some tanks. IRL these were provided by a helpful British government, along with crews and logistic support.

Hordes of Reds lurking amongst the woods, villages and swamps. In the far distance are some ex-Imperial palaces. The Reds are all dug in, but fortunately only have a single artillery battery with which to worry the tanks.

Our chaps walk into a hail of lead. While the tanks were largely immune, their effects were principally moral and they had very little actual firepower as they represented tiny numbers of vehicles. Our mission was to get some infantry off the far edge, so the tanks had to shepherd them forwards. Tanks cannot enter broken terrain except on a road, hence them having to manouvre around all the terrain.

One of our Regiments advances through the marshes. The enemy fire is quite impressive!

The Whites finally got the hang of infantry-tank cooperation and managed to push quite a big hole in the Red lines. Our green infantry kept running away and hiding ,and by now the ranks were looking a bit thin. After many shots, the Red artillery actually managed to hit a tank unit.

It was all too little, too late, and over on the left a tank unit, accompanied by the remains of the 'tank shock' battalion managed to rout the final line of defenders and push on to glory in the very last turn. Historically the tanks aided a White breakthrough, but eventually the Whites were stopped and forced to retreat by overwhelming numbers and the tanks were withdrawn by train.

This was an excellent little game, the mechanisms worked very well (particularly the tank rules) and we managed to get through 12 turns and to a final result in an hour and a half.

Latvia 1919

John has been working on some RCW rules which started life as a variant of 'Restless Revolutionaries' (which we rather played to death, back in the day) but was more inspired by our more recent outings with Neil Thomas.  Bases are companies/squadrons/batteries and units are battalions. The ground scale is a little mysterious, but rifle range is 12" and MGs 18", so similar to AK47.

For this particular outing, what used to be the Imperial German 8th Armee in the Baltic States has been sponsored by the Allies to halt the inevitable march of Socialism in Latvia. At this stage most of the actual Latvians are in the Red Army, while the 'free Latvian' forces are almost entirely Germans, including some Freikorps types. Lovely!

Tim G and Jerry took the wicked Bolsheviks, whilst myself and Tim C took the even more wicked Freikorps. Our mission being to push a regiment off the far table edge.

My own command was the army vanguard: a battalion of Stormtroops, a cavalry regiment, battery of machineguns and a platoon or Erhardt armoured cars on their very first tabletop outing. All toys are Johsn 15mm WW1 and RCW collection. Here are my chaps vanguarding away up the left flank.

Meanwhile the Red Army, commanded by these two sinister (and somewhat blurry) types, unimaginatively lined up their entire force from one side of the table to the other and marched slowly forwards. Comrade Commander Tims directives had to be agreed by Comrade Commissar Jerry.

The German Army adopted all sorts of exciting formations whilst the Red Army stuck to its lines. Keen eyed readers may notice an absence of German troops east of the railway line.

After a brief exchange of small arms fire (evidenced by the little white crosses) I decided to try out the close combat rules by conducting a frontal charge with my cavalry against an enemy infantry battalion. These proved to be extremely bloody, the infantry were wiped out and my cavalry took heavy losses.

Sadly the Reds had also noticed the absence of troops on our right flank and duly marched off the table clinching victory, despite the Erhardt and remains of my cavalry moving to intercept. Our utter defeat was even more embarrasing as the overall combat value of the German force was almost twice that of the Reds, and we just completely bungled it.

 This was great fun and the only real issues seemed to be the somewhat anomalous close combat results. The morale rules in particular worked very well and produce a nice ebb and flow. John has drafted some amendments to the close combat rules to fit in better with period experience, and I'll look forwards to trying them out.

Unusually the Erhardt survived its first battle unscathed, so a victory of sorts?