Snails Pace

A very sparse month on the painting front, the advance so far.

A Krupp Protze for the Spanish Civil War Nationalists to tow their PAK36. A Rubicon kit with a driver from Empress Miniatures with a head swap.

Next the final six figures for the F.A.R.T.S. Again figures from Empress Miniatures, these will hopefully hit the table over at GHQ next month sometime?

Lastly three test figures for the British half of the Italian campaign project. Figures from AB the acme of WWII figures in 20mm.

Off to GHQ for some early Italian Wars action tomorrow, look out for a report of the action over on Dave's blog in the coming days.

Toodle Pip, until next time KBO

Back To The Back Of Beyond

 During a game via Zoom kindly hosted by Matt (Wargames In The Dungeon) I realised that OHQ had not seen a game set in Central Asia for a while, on checking it was in February 2016! Although the S.P.I.F.F had been in action in Rhanzlistan, (Clicky)

Whilst Comrade Robinski had been having mixed success in Rhanzlistan the Soviet enclave of Sher Li had only had a token military presence. Local Warlord Bic Li decided he would take the opportunity to take back control of the town. 

Local communists had however reported the warlords plans to the towns commandant and word was quickly sent for reinforcements, it turned out that Comrade Robinski and a small force was already in transit after his recent success in Rhanzlistan.

The Folk Of Sher-Li Go About Their Business

Meanwhile The Town Garrison Makes Merry

Just Outside Town Professor "Putt" Robinson Conducts A Dig

Bic Li's Troops Are On The March

Siberian Marksmen Guard the Approaches, Which Are Also Covered By A Maxim Gun In Town And A Field Gun On The Adjacent Hill

The Chinese Troops Advance On A Broad Front

Meanwhile Robinski's Cavalry Arrive

The action swiftly developed, well I say swiftly, Robinski's infantry very very tardy in their arrival, the cavalry seemed reluctant to obey even the simplest orders. As for the town garrison, well it appears the Maxim had not been maintained well, jamming on its second shot and continued to be jammed until attacked and destroyed by Chinese troops. The field gun was little better only the Siberian troops offering any real resistance until they were overwhelmed by numbers. I wished I had noted how many ones I rolled, if I had I am sure it would have been a record.

Soviet Infantry Arrive At Last

They Are Soon Charged And Put To Flight By Chinese Dare To Die Troops

Things were no better elsewhere on the field and the S.P.I.F.F were compelled to withdraw.

The Victorious Bic Li Enters Sher Li With His Troops

We used Black Powder rules counting all infantry and dismounted cavalry as unclear targets, any unit with an LMG was given an extra dice when firing, the Dare To Die troops had no long range fire and where given a Stamina of four, the Determined Charge and Ferocious Charge rules. The cavalry were allowed to mount or dismounted within the move, the Siberian troops were given the Marauders and Sharp Shooters rules. Only one move was allowed when passing an order test.

A grand game and probably my worst dice rolling of all time.

Until next time TTFN and KBO

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

Latest Murch Movember Masterpiece

Received and painted up Bob Murch' s latest Movember figure.
Painted as Captain James Archibald Huttless, adventurer, player in the Great Game and all round good egg.

Present and Painting

Here is my only gaming related present, a Matchbox Models of Yesteryear truck for my Back of Beyond Soviets from Dave.

Based and ready for weathering for service in Rhanzlistan

Finally some painting for my own First Carlist War project

British Auxillary Legion Rifle Contingent

Carlist Navarre Guides

Hope to get another post before year end.

TTFN

An Additional Blog

I have started a new blog to record the goings on in our fictional 1920's country of Rhanzlistan,

http://truetotheeast.blogspot.co.uk/

Here you find the true version of events from our occasional games set there, for a less than truthfull account of what transpires there you can of course visit the Imperialist propaganda blog

http://talesfromrhanzlistan.blogspot.co.uk/

A picture from todays game over at GHQ

TTFN

Salute to the Back of Beyond

Well Salute as been and gone for another year, souless and noisy as usual, but this is compensated for by some rather splendid games and displays and a veritable cornucopia of war gaming goodies to buy. It was great to finally meet up and chat to Sidney, whose rather wonderful blog has inspired and enthused me at various times, it was also good to watch the demo/participation game of the forthcoming WWII rules "Chain of Command" from the Too Fat Lardies stable, Richard and Nick did brilliantly to get themselves heard over the noise of the place, I feel these break new ground in a crowded market, definitely on my to buy list. Speaking of buying I picked up some Dark Age enclosures and another Spanish building from Grand Manner, some more bases from Warbases, an excellent book of scenarios for the First Carlist War "All Honour is Lost", another semi-damaged building from 4Ground and a piece of hedge from The Last Valley. I will not dwell on the show any longer there has already been plenty of photo's and narrative on the various fora and blogosphere, so off to the Back of Beyond.

Dave came over to OHQ recently to assume his guise as Comrade General Byklizki and capitalise on his recent victory over the forces of local warlord Wan Ung-Lo, and attack the strategic town of Sher-Li with a surprise dawn attack. He gathered his forces a little hurriedly, leaving his artillery behind, he also sent his cavalry on a flanking manoeuvre, he could also count on the air support of ace pilot Ivan Juztukov.



Sher-Li And Environs

The Chinese garrison at Sher-Li were very slow to become aware that they were about to be attacked, luckily for them the Red's advance was slower, the exception being the armoured car of Robynski which thundered down the road unsupported hoping to catch the garrison unawares, a bold move which he was later to regret.



Bylizski's Red Horde Slowly (very) Advance Upon Sher-Li 

The armoured car quickly engaged the then roused Chinese with a hail of machine gun fire but the Chinese troops protected by the buildings of Sher-Li suffered little from this, meanwhile troops from Ung-Lo's encampment moved up and also engaged the armoured car with fire, with no Red infantry near the Chinese were able to concentrate their fire and a lucky hit ignited the petrol tank. 



Bolshevik Armoured Car Makes An Impetuous Advance

And Pays The Price Whilst Belated Infantry Support Arrives 

The Red cavalry arrived but appear to have been unable to find a route through to attack Sher-Li from its weakly defended flank, to work their way around there now would mean weathering a storm of machine gun and artillery fire. Their commander saw an opportunity to turn the battle, the White Russian troops were tied up valiantly defending Sher-Li temple against a mass attack of Red infantry, leaving Wan Ung-Lo with only a small group of his assault troops. The Red cavalry launched an all or nothing charge, unfortunately they were unable to surprise their target and were decimated by close range sub-machine gun fire.

Red Cavalry Charge Towards Ung-Lo's Encampment

Meanwhile Ung-Lo And His Bodyguard Await To Exact Revenge For The Previous Encounter

Ace fighter pilot Ivan Juztukov also arrived late in day, blamed on the cloud apparently, but to Comrade Byklizski's dismay the bomb and staffing runs had little effect, rumour has it that the only effect of clouds were the effects of vodka clouding Ivans head.



Ivan Juztukov Makes One of Several Fruitless Straffing Runs

The Reds one success was the annihilation of Ung-Lo's White Russian troops who sold themselves dearly protecting the honour of Sher-Li temple.



Ung-Lo's White Russians Defend The Honour Of Sher-Li Temple 

Having now lost over 60% of his attacking force Comrade Byklizski called off the attack and retired from the field, leaving the jubilant Ung-Lo still in possession of the strategic town of Sher-Li.



Comrade Bykliziski Quits The Field With His Shattered Force

Mean While Ung-Lo Reviews His Victorious Troops

Another jolly good game using "Setting The East Ablaze" rules, available from Caliver Books.

TTFN