Part 2 The Battle of MacKenzie Heights 1854 - A Crimean War Batrep

Fran called the first part "War and Peace"

I'll take that as a compliment that it wasn't supposed to be!

You can find BigLee's post about the game here, which agrees with my result or

you can go to the Russian Properganda minister Fran's blog for an absolute load of old bollox!

The Battle of MacKenzie Heights 1854 - A Fictional Crimean War Batrep p2

About time too! The British Cavalry finally turn up. The rest of Surj's command.

The 4th Dragoon Guards, the 5th Dragoon Guards and the 6th Dragoons all head

for the right flank and the Russian Hussars.

Because I think the 1st Dragoons may be in a little trouble. 

Meanwhile I had to order Surjit to divert a unit to the left flank, to help me out with

 the pesky Cossacks. So the 2nd Dragoon's (Scots Grey's) raced off.

The three Guard units manoeuvring in column.

The 42nd are pushed back after they fail there morale due to artillery fire.

A close up of the 93rd Highlanders

Charge!!!

The 1st Dragoons get swamped and loose the fight,

 but due to excellent die rolling by Surj, it's not as bad as it should have been.

They're pushed back towards the baseline losing just 3 casualties. 

The British left flank, the Cossacks have entered the woods, a bloody good move by Ian, who's now in charge of them. So I made a bold decision, I moved up the Coldstream guards who were still in column and showed Ian my flank. I had to force him out otherwise he'd cause me too many problems in my advance forward. 

Did I do the right thing??

showing there flank to the Cossacks. 

Surj also moved the Scots Grey's up towards the woods.

The British right, with Surj's cavalry racing over the hill.

The Thin Red Line continue to shoot up the hill, but the Russian pioneers finally finish

 this and other parts of their redoubts.

In the Russian turn, Ian moves to the edge of the wood, ready to charge next turn (gulp!)

The smaller Cossack unit, turned around and moved to the other edge of the wood to 

charge the British artillery.

The Russian Keiv Hussars charge forward the rest of their move after 

routing the British Dragoons. There was a bone of contention here, as John believed the 

Hussars didn't make it into contact, but Postie confirmed that they did, by 1mm!!!! 

John was not a happy boy!

The Russian's  Charge

  

Surj moved up the Scots Grey to support the Coldstream Guards.

While I formed a square behind the doomed artillery piece.

John throw tremendous dice and got 6 hits out of 7 dice on the Ingermanland

 Hussars in the top of the picture. While the poor artillery were wiped out. But it doesn't

 look good for the Hussars.

The British still continue to take casualties from the Russians on the Heights,

 who manage to just pass their morale.

 The Grenadier Guards form square.

The artillery are destroyed and the Cossacks follow up into the square

and all fell on the guards bayonets.

My gamble paid off, the Cossacks are gone, but it was damned close, I miss calculated the dice, in the melee, Ian had twice the dice I did, he threw 5 casualties from 14 dice while I got 4 from 5 dice. Making only 1 difference, I failed my morale and pushed back half a move.

BUT then I had to throw to save my colours!!!

I threw a D6 scoring a 2, Oh damn and blast!!!

All Ian had to do was beat the 2 and the colours would be in Russian hands, which of course would have meant disgrace for the Duke of Cambridge and me!! But the dice gods were in my favour, after a lot of praying from both sides Ian also threw a 2 and failed to take the colours, this earned him a punch in the arm from Fran!!

Time was getting on, Postie was knackered, and got a cuddle from Ian.

And that's where the game ended, The Russians decided they call it a day.

Ian now knew he couldn't stop the Highlander's and Guards advancing.

BigLee knew his Hussars were doomed.

And Fran had almost given up all hope due to the longer range of the British Rifled Musket.

Postie did work out the points for the game, which somehow gave the Russians

 a slight victory, but it was too late as they had already given up the game.

I was very pleased to get our first game of the year in, and it's always nice to get a win!!

You may have noticed on Fran's blog, he's claimed victory, somehow forgetting that his side

had already given up! 

Hope you enjoyed the read

Ray