Crimea River: Black Powder in 2mm: a refight of the scenario from the rulebook

 

For my inaugural run-out of Black Powder I thought I would use my newly-painted 2mm Crimean War armies (Irregular Miniatures) & refight the Crimea River scenario - essentially a British assault across the river Alba up the slopes on the other side to attack Russian gun emplacements.

 

British forces consist of three infantry brigades, a light cavalry brigade and a heavy cavalry brigade with some foot & horse artillery. The Russians begin the game with three infantry brigades and artillery emplaced in two redoucts; they have two cavalry brigades in reserve (needing a command roll to arrive).

 

I played this one solo - on the dining room table, on a poker-cloth - measuring about 3' x 2'; all units are based on 40mm x 20mm stands & represent a battalion. I also adjusted measurements: I divided the inch measurements given in the rulebook by 3 and used that number in centimetres - eg Rifled Musket range of 24" became 8cms.

 

White dice = hits; Red dice = disordered; Blue dice = shaken.

 

Objectives:

British: take the guns! Taking one redoubt = minor victory; taking both = major victory. Cavalry losses (broken brigades) would count against captured redoubts.

Russian: hold the ground - and deny the British any capture of the guns.

 

Deployment:

The Russians are deployed in support of the emplaced guns: one brigade supporting the large redoubt on their right flank; the other two brigades in column between the two hills on which the redoubts are placed.

The British begin with the infantry brigades already across the Alba - the First Brigade thrown out on the left flank; the Second (Scottish) and Third (Guards) Brigades to the right - with the cavalry brigades to their rear. 

 

Russian lines (L) with British advance across the Alba (R)

 

The redoubt on the Russian right flank

 

Russian infantry

 

British Guards & Scottish brigades

 

 

 

British right flank - cavalry brigades yet to cross the Alba

 

Turn 1:

The British began the action - with the Scottish brigade performing a double-move, accompanied by the swift Light Cavalry and the (slower) Heavy Cavalry moving across the Alba to its left, looking to support the First Brigade which began to move slowly forward. The Guards Brigade stalled while they adjusted their bearskins.

 

 

In response, with no reserve cavalry arriving, the Russian central infantry Brigades reformed into line and anchored its right flank onto the copse.

 

 

Turn 2:

This turn the Guards moved up to the farm while the Scots advanced steadily towards the redoubt to their front; the supporting Light Cavalry received a misdirected order (blunder) and moved forward recklessly. On the left flank both the Heavy Cavalry and the First Brigade benefited from maximum movement and made good progress towards the guns.

 

The Russian cavalry again failed to show up and the infantry failed any movement this turn as well. The artillery had some choice targets though & opened up on the Scots Brigade causing them to become disordered. 

 

 

Turn 3:

The opening artillery shots caused both the Guards and the Scots to stall- but spurred the Light Cavalry on into the charge; they took fire on the charge into contact which caused them to become disordered - the ensuing melee was a whirl of hit-and-retire, with one sweeping advance which failed to press its advantage. Over on the British left, both infantry and cavalry failed to move. 

 

 

 

The Russian response was to open fire with their infantry - causing the destruction of a unit of Dragoons and disordering the Hussars. 

 

Turn 4:

The Guards advanced through the farm with the Scots moving steadily ahead to their left. The Light Cavalry charged again, this time destroying a Russian infantry battalion before retiring. On the left the infantry and Heavy Cavalry brigades both continued their steady advance towards the redoubt. The Russians, with still no cavalry reserve making an appearance, fired their guns into the Scots disordering them. 

 

 

 

 

Turn 5:

The Guards failed to move while the Scots continued their advance - albeit slowly. The Light Cavalry charged once more - but this time a battalion each of Dragoons and Hussars were cut down by closing fire; the charge did destroy another Russian infantry battalion though. The Scots Brigade opened fire (including its artillery) onto the Russian lines to good effect. The Heavy Cavalry stalled while the First Brigade advanced and opened fire. 

 

The Russian cavalry arrived and swept onto the battlefield. Perhaps confused by the roar of hooves to its rear, the Russian infantry in the battlefield centre blundered and moved to its right. The Russian cavalry advanced - Cossacks to the centre and the Dragoons towards the British Heavy Cavalry threatening on the right flank. The Russian infantry charged downhill and destroyed one battalion of British infantry with the benefit of the supporting cavalry. 

 

Turn 6:

On the British right flank a decent advance from the Guards was accompanied by a charge from the Scots who managed, through a storming melee at the redoubt, to capture the Russian guns. The remaining Light Cavalry charged into combats which proved indecisive and retired, only to be counter-charged in turn by the Russians, who ran them down mercilessly. In a foolhardy sweeping advance, though, the Russian over-confidence proved their undoing and they too were wiped out. On the left, the Hussars 'bounced' off the resolute Russian infantry and were destroyed. The remainder Russian forces began to manoeuvre back towards the second redoubt; infantry charges into the flank of the British battalions saw them destroyed as the cavalry swept around the hill. At this, Raglan decided that enough was enough and called for the withdrawal of the British forces back across the Alba. 

 

 

Debrief:

All in all, an enjoyable solo game fought to this conclusion in about 2 hours. I'm happy with the adjustments I made to distances - the rulebook suggestion for smaller scales to simply change inches for centimetres didn't feel right on such a small table; if I had been fighting this on my games table (6' x 4') I would have followed the rulebook suggestion.

 

Good stuff - I'm not certain (being such a long-time fan of WM / WMA / BKC / CWC / FWC) that I like the movement roll - not quite enough command uncertainty...but I'll stick with it for the moment & play a few more games.