Monday 30 September 2013

The Battle of Woronzov Road 1855 - A Crimean War Batrep



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???


82 comments:

  1. Good looking game, Ray. Too bad about the outcome.

    I am interested in the source of your Sardinian troops? I can't quite tell from the photos Who makes them?

    Thanks for the interesting BatRep.
    Jon

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    Replies
    1. All the figures on the table are from Mini-figs.

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  2. Nice pics and a great report Ray :)

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  3. Good looking game, Ray. Too bad about the outcome.

    I am interested in the source of your Sardinian troops? I can't quite tell from the photos Who makes them?

    Thanks for the interesting BatRep.
    Jon

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  4. Good report Ray, Crimean War was on my bucket list, but slipped off because I thought it'd not translate well to the table, but this proves me wrong. Might have a rethink.

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    Replies
    1. Its a great period, very much like Napoleonics.

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  5. Poor lee can't win even when he doesn't show up!
    Nice layout.

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  6. Hadleyish, heh. I like this word. It should be in the dictionary.

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    Replies
    1. I've already put it forward for the Oxford English Dictionary!

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  7. Oh my, you got slaughtered! And poor Lee taking the blame for it all. Despite the loss you turned it a great batrep!

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    Replies
    1. Slaughtered is the rightword, or smashed to pieces or destroyed or obliterated ,need I go on?

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  8. Sorry, Ray, but this time I gotta cheer against the Turks, they just did too much evil in my country throughout the centuries.... Love the horses figures :)

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  9. I wonder what Ray would say when he reads all about his "out of body" experience. :-)
    Nice game, thanks for sharing Ray!

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    Replies
    1. No probs Thanos, glad you enjoyed the read!

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  10. Good bat-rep and a good looking battle; it was as if Big Lee himseff was throwing the dice for you whilst Fran cheered you on.

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    Replies
    1. That was the problem, bloody BigLee and his rotten dice!!!

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  11. Great looking battle, Ray! It's not every day we get to see a Crimean mashup like this. Poor Johnny Turk!

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    Replies
    1. Poor Johhnny Turk indeed and Poor Sardines too!

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  12. Great pics and write-up Ray. Although, be honest, you'd bet bored wargaming if you started to win, wouldn't you?

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    Replies
    1. I am on a bit ofa losing streak at the moment a win would be nice????

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  13. Nice going, Ray. BTW: Are the tents scratch built paper ones? Thanks.

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    Replies
    1. No, they're neither, they are infact plastic ones. I liked the look of them as well, Postie doesn't know which company they came from, unfortunately, because I'd get some myself.

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    2. The tents look like rendera or amera ?
      http://www.amera.co.uk/product.php?range=m

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    3. Nope its not either of them, they too small for the Rendra ones and definitely aren't the Amera ones, I wonder who makes them??

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    4. Thanks, Gents. I'll try and make some paper-card ones, for my bivouacking Army National Guard!?

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  14. That's nice looking battle going on with some equally nice figs. Dean

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  15. Great AAR as always and a very nice set up!

    Christopher

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  16. Wonderful table and great report, as always Ray. (Yes, I'm pulling another all nighter. No, I haven't forgotten about that DVD).

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  17. Great game. Looking forward to the next.
    Best wishes.

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    Replies
    1. Cheers Gregory! Me too, although i hope I'm not the Turks for some time!!

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  18. Great to see your Bat rep before I write mine. It means I can get some of the details right. Also great to see the other side of the table and the fact that you can identify individual units. I have no such skills.

    We all made school boy errors, I can say that now you have opened that door. I probably made more than most. And I will concede your dice were not as favourable as they could have been. Sometimes that's just the way it goes.

    Thanks for the report and the view from the other side of the table. I'll do mine when I get back from the shops.

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    Replies
    1. You and Dave both played well and did exactly what you needed to do, glad you enjoyed the game and the win, and we'll hopefully see you again at Reject HQ soon.

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  19. Beautiful!! So glad to see Sardinian and Turkish forces on a table!
    Cheers,
    Phil.

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    Replies
    1. You don't see a lot of them on the tabletop Phil!

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  20. Excellent report Ray! Lovely photos too. I can also relate to your luck!

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    Replies
    1. Cheers Rodger, the dice Gods always play a big part in our hobby, its a bit annoying sometimes but Hey Ho!

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  21. Greate AAR Ray !!!

    best regards Michael

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  22. Oi! If the term "Hadleyish" catches on and becomes standard terminology I'll bloody kill you! LoL I can't make the game and I still manages to jinx the dice from 12 miles away! My curse must be worse than I thought!!

    Great BatRep, pity I missed the game because it looked like a good one.

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    Replies
    1. Your aura was with us, and I'm sure the name will catch on! he he!

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  23. Good AAR Ray. School boy errors!

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  24. Replies
    1. Good game, good result.....I like the new term Hadleyish!

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    2. Thanks chaps! The term does have a certain ring to it doesn't it??

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  25. Great report and that's a good looking table. I think you should have called for sanctions against the scenario designer.

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    Replies
    1. Don't know about sanctions? A quick kick in the shins would be preferable!!

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  26. It was a fun game, but it was a lot more fun for the Russians!

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  27. Great looking game again and nice AAR, Ray;)

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  28. Really good looking game, Ray. Very interesting AAR.

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  29. Now that's what a I call a game! Great job Ray.

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    Replies
    1. I thought you might like a bit of Victorian warfare Sir M!

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  30. You guys always have very impressive looking games.

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  31. When are you guys going to do another video recording of your gaming sessions?

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    Replies
    1. Good idea Whisk, we'll try and do one soon.

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    2. That would be cool. So funny, you guys are.

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  32. Holy poo, that's a whooping!

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  33. Glad you guys got together for a fun game day!

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  34. Nice game report! I see these dice must be the ones Big Lee uses. Postie obviously keeps them in a tin for special people :D

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    Replies
    1. You could be right Simon,after all I'm very special!!!

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  35. Fabulous battle report, Ray! Beautiful figures and scenery (I loved the mass of the units). What can you say, sometimes the Dice Gods are complete pri*cks. Let's hope the worm turns for you in the next game.

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    Replies
    1. I do hope so Curt, I need a win under my belt!!!

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  36. Fabulous battle report, Ray! Beautiful figures and scenery (I loved the mass of the units). What can you say, sometimes the Dice Gods are complete pri*cks. Let's hope the worm turns for you in the next game.

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  37. Excellent battle report, pictures and painted figures! Thanks for sharing!

    Greetings
    Peter

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