Yesterday, a murderous little battle was fought in a remote Siberian village east of Tobolsk. The remnants of Admiral Kolchak's 1st Army was retreating to the line of the river Ishim and in a series of desperate encounters in freezing sleet the 3rd Red Army tried to stop them.
A company of CheKa managed to hold the nameless village in the face of the ferocious White assault but not before their commander was butchered by White Cadets. The losses inflicted on the Whites were crippling, one company of militia that ran at the first sound of gunfire was caught in the open by Red artillery and scarcely a man survived. White cavalry outflanked the Bolshevik's main position but were in turn surprised by a company of Red conscripts that stumbled on them in the half light. Horses proved no match for machine guns...
Great fun was had by all and thanks to Jeff for coming over to play a literal 'pick up' game using my homebrew RCW rules,"Komrade Commissar!', based on AK-47 Reloaded. The bad weather reduced visibility and shooting to 8 inches which made things very bloody - no sooner had your enemy got into sight than the fighting was hand to hand...
I didn't take any pictures but it was good to get back into gaming after a little break occasioned by a trip overseas.
Well perhaps not so much on the steppe but rather amongst the farms, woods and orchards of the district around Belgorod...
The above picture shows the Red armoured train 'Proletarian Hammer' about to roll across the table to pound the White troops in preparation for a Red cavalry thrust on one of the objectives in our game.
Also visible are some Red infantry, assembling at their start line in readiness to advance on the small hamlet (and objective) that can be seen in the right background. Unfortunately for them, a unit of White officer cadets are going to beat them to the objective.
The game ended in a Red marginal victory after they secured two of the three objectives and managed to destroy a White militia unit. The armoured train did dominate the battlefield, despite the best efforts of White aircraft and on and off table artillery. Nevertheless, it was a good game, with plenty of action until the high casualty rate on both sides led everyone to start to seek cover and dig in.
So the spearhead of Denikin's advance has been blunted. For now.
We used an adapted form of Peter Pig's AK47 Reloaded rules that I've christened 'Comrade Komissar!'.
'What does that say?', Boris Alinsky pointed to the writing daubed on the armour plate that protected the locomotive.
'"Proletarian Hammer" comrade.' the locomotive engineer's voice was barely a whisper...
'At least he can read', thought Alinsky.
'Yes comrade, "Proletarian Hammer", and tomorrow that's exactly what you're going to be you miserable little shit, you're going to drive this fucking train right into the middle of that bunch of cocksucking bourgeois born to rule pricks and blow them into the next world, not that any of us believe in a next world comrade, because this is the age of materialism...understand?'
'Er...yes comrade,' said the hapless the locomotive engineer, although clearly he didn't. 'Mother of God, this one is madder than any of them...', he thought, but then when when you're staring down the barrel of a Mauser 9 mm it doesn't pay to think too much does it?
Alinsky turned to the commander of his CheKa detachment, 'we're not fucking around tomorrow, speed and aggression will win this war, and I'm relying on you to ensure our comrades have plenty of socialist zeal.'
The CheKa officer nodded...
Colonel Anatoly Borisivich Stevany groaned inwardly, his adjutant had just told him that the officer cadet company attached to his command were grumbling, they believed that they could lead this force better than him.
'They're probably right' said Stevany, and poured himself a generous measure of cognac. 'Not much more of that left,' he thought, 'still life is short...and cheap.'
His adjutant, Major Levanich was a good officer, hard working and dedicated to the White cause. More importantly, his cousin ran the 14th Supply Depot, and had 'diverted' supplies of tinned food to Stevany's little army as the advanced along the railway line that led, eventually, to Moscow. Apart from the officer cadets, the men were happy - they had vodka and full bellies. Levanich was happy because they had plenty of rifle ammunition.
Stevany considered his postion. Since the Kornilovsky Division had run amock and burned three villages in this area the whole oblast had risen against the White army. The peasants were no lovers of the Bolsheviks but now they hated the Whites more. The advance had slowed down to the pace of a donkey.
His cavalry were out scouting. A report came in late last night that Red troops were moving south to meet them. Stevany's detachment was right in their path. There would be a battle. Men would desert, guns would not work because too many shells were duds, men would die.
'It's going to a long war,' said Stevany to no one in particular, and drank his cognac.
By request of my regular opponent we're planning a game of 'Comrade Kommissar!', my Russian Civil War adaptation of AK47 Reloaded this week If I can finish my Peter Pig Railway Station and Water Tower we may feature an armoured train...
