Some of the Rejects got together last Sunday for a 15mm Crimean War battle, the sides were picked out the hat, Dave and Clint got the Russians while John pulled out the Sardinians and I got the Turkish force!!
The Russian army has just been defeated at the Battle of Chernaya (16th August 1855) 2 days earlier, but the Russian Commander Prince Gorchakov has other ideas and has planned a flank attack on the Allies weakly guarded right flank which ia made up of Sardinian and Turkish units.
These troops were in reserve at the Battle of Chernaya and saw no action on the day, but they now find themselves as the only troops available to stop the Russian 4th Infantry Division plus supporting units from taking Balaclava, just a few miles away thus capturing a vital supply port for the Crimea.
The Game
The Russian army starts the game deployed ready to advance, Sardinian and Turkish forces have formed a weak defensive line, can they hold out or will the Russians gain a victory for Mother Russia.
The Battlefield
The Turks are bottom right, further up the road are the Sardinian force.
The Sardinain Lines
The Turkish Lines of defence.
The Sardinian's line the hill, while the Elite Bersaglieri move forward to skirmish
with the Russian columns.
Dave's Russian column's advance.
The 37th Don Cossacks
The Don Cossacks were split in two, I headed towards the closest unit to try
and push it away from my flank.
The Turks move up in line with their medium artillery.
While the Sardinian's move back on the hill.
The 1st Turkish Cavalry regt.
The Sardinian medium gun gives fire and misses. Never mind things can only get better?
Or can they??
Here they come....they moving very quickly??
The Bersaglieri can fire 15' while all the other troops on the table can only fire 9'
This proved our downfall, as we couldn't inflict enough casualties on the Russian's
before they got into melee.
The Turks move their hidden troops up the hill.
While the 2nd Turkish Cavalry also come out of hiding, they both move
towards the enemy Hussars.
God they close and we've only knocked a few figures off some of the
columns, both my and John's dice have been for want of a better word........ Hadleyish!!
John is taking heavy casualties on his left flank from a small unit of Russian skirmishers
the 8th Ladoga Jager regt.
The 2nd 1st Turkish Infantry.
The 13th Provisional Sardinian regt
The 11th Kiev Hussars.
The columns look a little menacing??
And they're in
There were 9 Russian charges in all, the Allies were slaughtered.
We only won 2 melee's and drew 2, the rest went the Russian's way. Once again
our dice roll were very Hadleyish, I'm sure we were using the same dice as that git Lee used
in his last two games!!
Our only two wins, and that was only because I was doing a Fran and hiding behind a bush!
The 1st Turkish Cavalry and the 12th Ingermannland Hussars charged each other.
I thought I stood a good chance here.......I was wrong, very wrong!!
Clint beat me 3-0, killed my attached Divisional leader and captured the Turkish flag!!
OMG!
The 2nd Turk Cavalry and the Kiev Hussars charged each other, and
also the small little Don Cossack unit, that had earlier retreated came
back and also charged the Turks in the rear, Oo er Missus!
We lost again Clint inflicted a staggering 8 casualties!!
Meanwhile John was faring a little better, somehow he managed a draw with the charge on his artillery??
But lost both of these melee's
The remnants of the Turkish Cavalry both rout!
I did however manage to capture two Russian standards with 1 unit at the same time!
Well done to the 1st 2nd regt!
I moved forward with my right flank to try a hold up the Russian advance.
John was getting thrashed over on the left flank, he lost a few more melee's and the
Russian's cut his army in half. in the left on the hill is a victorious Russian infantry regt.
Me and John then made a fatal schoolboy error, Dave charged the Bersaglieri at the back
of the hill, we chose to stand and fire , but we both forgot that if skirmishers
are contacted by any formed unit they disperse.....shit!
They were taken off table much to our disbelief and obvious noisy cheers and
jeers from the Russians, (well Dave anyway!!)
My heroic and now favourite unit of Turks the 1st 2nd win their and my second melee of the game,
but it was far too late for any cheer.
The Turkish Commander, looks on in bewilderment as the allied army
begins to disintegrate.
More Russian charges and more allied loses, Dave's troops smash John's two
infantry regt, who both rout.
We decided to call an end to the game there and then, admitting defeat. Postie added up the scores.
It was a massive 23-6 win for the Russians!!
Me and John both blamed PoorLee, even though he wasn't even in the shed,
he must have done something to the dice, or he was high on paint fumes while painting his porch and he had an out of body experience and came down to Gravesend and jinxed the pair of us!! Its bad enough when 1 player is throwing bad, but impossible if both team members are throwing like a pair of
TWATS!!
Oh well, when's the next game???
