Back To The Back Of Beyond

It has been quite awhile since the collection was used in anger, the Soviets do however get used in our occasional forays into Rhanzlistan, here and here. The collection was dusted off for a photo shoot for the Nov2015 #337  issue of WI but has not surfaced since, so an outing was certainly due, rather than using our usual go to set "Setting The East Ablaze" we thought we would give Bolt Action a run out.

The Soviet Force consisted of the following

Two squads of ten infantry with rifles, inexperienced

One squad of ten "elite" infantry nine with rifles, one with a Lewis gun, regular

One squad of  ten riflemen with rifles, veteran

Two Maxim machine gun teams, regular

One field gun, light howitzer, regular

One cavalry troop of ten men with carbines, regular

Officer commanding, Comrade General Byklisski and two aides, all mounted.

The Chinese Warlord Force consisted of the following

Two squads of ten infantry with rifles, inexperienced

One squad of White Russian mercenaries, ten men with rifles, regular

One squad of "Dare to Die" soldiers, six with pistols and four with SMG's, regular tough fighters

One medium machine gun team, regular

One field gun, light howitzer, regular

One medium Mortar and spotter, regular

One cavalry troop of ten men with carbines, regular

Officer commanding, Li Ping, mounted and two advisers on foot.

We played three turns before stopping for lunch, up to then honours were fairly even, although the Soviets were in a better position to continue the struggle, the Chinese gad hemmed themselves in somewhat.

In a bold move the Soviets had advanced and positioned themselves on the hill, seen in the top right of the above picture. Turn four really needed to see the Chinese getting some order dice out first to make the Soviets suffer for their audacious move. Lady luck shines on the Chinese! or does she? first five order dice out are Chinese ones! The net result? one pin on the cavalry, I ask you, there is no justice in the Back Of Beyond it seems. All the Chinese could do now was await the Soviet retaliation, the game was a foregone conclusion after that, we did not need to throw to see if there would be an extra turn. The pictures below will illustrate the debacle.

The Red Horde Advance

Riflemen Cover The Wooded Flank

The Chinese Await The Red Horde

Soviet Cavalry Boldly Take The High Ground

Overview Of The Field Of Battle After Turn Four

Li Ping Discusses His Position With His Advisers

Turn Six, Where Have They All Gone

Li Ping Knows Where He Is Going, And Its Not Forward, It May Not Be Looking Over His Shoulder That Is Making His Neck Hurt In Due Course One Feels

Another splendid few hours of gaming before going back to the paint table, speaking of which, I have the following for myself in progress at the moment
Four foot figures for my post Roman Britain project
Four cavalry figures for my First Carlist War project, the horses are done
Eight early World War One Germans for the joint project with Dave
A captured  MkIV for my late war Germans.
Next weeks game is over at GHQ, a AWI game using Black Powder rules I think.

TTFN