Through the Mud and The Blood - Yashka

 Today, we invited Lisa over to have a go at Too Fat Lardies' Through the Mud and the Blood. M&B is a slightly older game, released back in 2009.  It was the precursor to Chain of Command, and it was interesting to see the evolution of the game mechanics.

The scenario we played was 'Yashka' from the Empire to Revolution scenario pack, as it is the first in a series of 4 scenarios featuring Maria 'Yashka' Bochkareva, who was later the commander of the first Women's Battalion of Death.  This scenario was pretty similar to the 'Training the Entente' games we'd done before with CoCking up Mud and Blood, as it featured a platoon of infantry (Russian this time) attacking a trench defended by a German machine gun team supported by a couple of squads of infantry.

Here is the initial table set up.  Germans are unseen in the trenches on the left, and the Russians come on blinds, represented by the Russian flags.  I like the idea of blinds, and want to try a bit more with them.  Blinds move faster than deployed troops, and cannot be fired on until they are spotted by the defenders.  This allows the forces to move around the board relatively quickly to allow forces to be moved up to where they actually enter action.  Blinds were dropped when the Lardies developed Chain of Command, replacing it with the patrol phase.  You can also see the line of barbed wire in front of the German trenches.

During the start of the game, the Russians checked to see the effect of their pregame bombardment on the German wire, resulting in a single 6" gap.  Taking advantage of the swift movement on blinds, the first Russian squad rushed for this gap, with Yashka Bochkareva encouraging her comrades!

The 'Urrahh!' card is drawn, and Yashka's squad rushes forward, but their charge falls short.  The Germans leap to the parapet and open fire!

The remaining Germans also deploy, and their concentrated fire brings the Russians to a halt.

The Russians try to reorganise but the German fire is unrelenting.

The Russians charge again...

And again!  But are repulsed again, and again.

Overall this was a good introduction to the rules.  There are a few changes I will make before the next game, but these will mostly be tweaks.  

Things to revise for next time include:

- Use a deck of cards in place of the handmade file cards!  The ones I used were not easy to shuffle.

- The extra initiative cards did not have much impact on the game as it played out.  However, next time I won't have a distinction between initiative level. Any card that comes up will be usable by any leader on that side.  This should keep play a bit simpler, and follows the way things are done in Sharpe Practice 2nd edition as well as Infamy, Infamy.

- M&B as written gave the (regular) Germans a +1 modifier when shooting at green Russian troops.  This was particularly brutal (Germans were hitting on a 2+!), so next time shooting will just be shooting.  

Next game will be a different event, a night battle between two patrols in no man's land.  It will have a different vibe from the attack on a dug in opponent, so will be interesting to see how that plays out.

WWI Russians

 Wargames Atlantic recently released a set of plastic Russian soldiers for World War I (with the option to stretch the timeline to include the Russo-Japanese War and then on through the Russian Civil War).  I resisted for a while, but eventually Arthur asked for some, so I naturally caved and bought the three-box multi-deal. And of course I then overdid it and placed an order with Siberia Miniatures for even more WWI Russkis.

I've now got roughly a platoon worth of Russian infantry, along with some basic supports.

The core of the force is infantry from Wargames Atlantic.

Officers and NCOs.

And the riflemen.

From Siberia Miniatures, a stretcher party with nurse and priest.

I hand painted a regimental colour.  Not quite historically accurate, and not completely satisfactory.  I may need to replace it with a printed version.

Based on this image I found on Wikipedia of a Pavlovski Guardsman from 1914, I found some extra heads with mitre hats to make my own versions.

My order with Siberia Miniatures included a selection of members of Maria Bochkareva's Women's Battalion of Death.  There's a great article on them (with photos!) here:  https://girlswithguns.org/maria-bochkareva-womens-battalions-death/

I did my best to paint the correct slogan on the flag, which was made easier as the words are lightly etched on the casting.

Here's a photo of the flag.

Here is Maria "Yashka" Bochkareva herself (not a great photo, I will get a better one soon).

This is how she looked in real life.https://klimbim2014.wordpress.com/2016/06/06/maria-bochkareva-%D0%BC%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%B8%D1%8F-%D0%B1%D0%BE%D1%87%D0%BA%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%B2%D0%B0-1917/

Indy Neidel made a nice little video about her on Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cndgoEd3fkk

These ladies are pretty hefty - they look quite intimidating next to the Wargames Atlantic infantry!

Support weapons include a field gun with an imperial navy crew.  I made up a couple extra loaders from the WA set.

The gun crew are magnetised so that they can be removed if necessary.

There's also Maxim gun with again, extra loaders from Wargames Atlantic.

No Russian army is complete without cavalry!

Officers

Lancers

And sabres.

As the Circassian Cossacks didn't adopt the new cavalry uniforms, these lads can come over from my 1880-ish army of Central Asia!

WaT at Bonsor

On Friday, we put on a What a Tanker game at the monthly Trumpeter gaming night at Bonsor.  The setting was Tunisia in 1943, and featured a diverse mix of mid-war tanks, plus a couple of early war ones as well (a Somua S-35 with the Free French, and a Renault R-35 in Italian service).  Players included Craig (who helped out with rules interpretation as well), Arthur's friend Oliver and his dad Tyler, and Arnaud, a visitor to the club from France.  Arnaud took the Somua :).

The basic setup was a village, with loads of walls that added penalties for acquiring and shooting.

Oliver's Panzer IV using walls to cover his approach.

Lulubelle takes to the field.

Tiger brews up a Sherman while Bert the Churchill maneuvers into position.

Somua and Sherman Corvette flank the two assault guns.

Multiway standoff as the Stug flanks the Somua, then gets flanked by Sgt Gunn's M3 Lee Lulubelle. 

Ultimately we had to call the game without a conclusion as we ran out of time.  The game ended up with some crazy happenings, as getting the dice combinations were not cooperative, and when someone could shoot they ended up missing!  Arthur's Tiger was not able to get the dice he needed so he decided to ram into the Churchill, and ended up taking even more damage than he inflicted.  It was a fun intro to the club for Tyler and Oliver, and to WaT for Arnaud.

Movie inspired miniatures

 Back to blogging after a busy spring.

JTFM has released an M3 Lee, which of course I purchased right away.  Unlike many of the other multi-gunned, multi-turreted tanks (like the Soviet T-35, for example), the M3 was relatively successful, especially for a stop-gap that was just intended to hold the line until the M4 Sherman could reach the front lines.  

My version here is inspired by Lulubelle, star of the 1943 Humphrey Bogart film Sahara, and the 1995 Jim Belushi made for TV remake. In the movie, Sgt Joe Gunn and his M3 tank Lulubelle gather a motley collection of survivors of the Battle of Tobruk and escape into the desert.  The main action involves Lulubelle and her passengers defending an oasis from a larger force of Deutches Afrika Korps light infantry.

I didn't copy the passengers exactly, so I am notably missing the Free French caporal Leroux, the askari Tambul, or their prisoners, the German pilot and the Italian soldier.  

All the crew and passengers are magnetised so they can be easily removed for when the tank is 'buttoned'.

I've also added another character to my White Sun of the Desert collection, this time Comrade Sukhov with a Lewis Gun.