Friday Night Games - Battles for the Berezena Crossings, Part 3

Russians advance on their right wing to engage the French

The final week of the epic 3 week game saw John & Dave continue on as the French whilst Mat, Mike W, Mike N, Steve & Mat commanded the huge Russian force.

French left wing is compromised as they retire towards the bridge

Mat's command on the Russian left continued to batter the French in that sector, who also dealt as good as they received. However on the French left the tide had truly turned and over the course of the night the whole French left wing gradually collapsed under the weight of Russian onslaught.

Russians attack and break the French squares

Ultimately all French units to the left of the bridge were destroyed or broken, leading to the preparations for a pre-emptive flight of the right wing. Whilst the French had fought valiantly, they were defeated with significant losses.

French right from their side of the table

Close-up of small actions on the French right

One of the Russian columns marching on the French left

What's left of the French left, from the Russian PoV.

The French right, from their side, central position

More Russians closing

The French left collapses towards the river bridge, the game nears its end

Final shot of the French right, Guards positioned to defend
against Russians crossing the bridge (bottom right)

Friday Night Games - Battles for the Berezena Crossings, Part 2

French left flank closed down and in Square to counter
threat of Russian sweeping advance

After a two week hiatus Rupert's game resumed, July 3rd, the missed weeks were due to lack of player availability and extremely hot weather here in the UK.

Close-up of the squares

Mat was away on holiday but Mike N. replaced him and performed admirably on the Russian left. For the French, Grahame was able to join us and was given their extreme left as his command, which turned out to be a bit of a poisoned challenge.

Steve's troops advance in the Russian Centre against French positions

On the French right, John continued to hold off increasingly intense Russian attacks whilst taking the number of exiting French units to an impressive 13.

Russian Cossack Cavalry redeploying through advancing Russian columns. 

However, Russian interdiction on the escape route and bridge enabled them to claim two turns of points.

The 'Big Bash' on the Russian left, with French positions being hard pressed

Meanwhile Steve, in the Russian centre continued to hard press Dave & Grahame's units, eliminating a number of these as the French lines contracted and retired.

More Russians arriving

Mike W, commanding Wittgenstein's Corps if 3 Divisions continued it's outflanking manoeuvres and also provided addition support to Steve in the centre as all the Corps' divisions finally entered the table by the end of week 2.

More play next week!

French positions on their left being whittled down,
whist Russian numbers continue to grow

Yet more Russians arriving

And more....

The Russian left

Friday Night Games - Battles for the Berezena Crossings

Friday 12th June saw us back at Rupert's gaff to play a game that he was to umpire set in the Napoleonic Wars, as usual this was part of the Russian Campaign, a rich source of scenarios that Rupert is working through!

Figures were from John's, Mike N, Dave and others and the game used Shako rules and was umpired by Rupert. John, & Dave took the side of the French (Mike N. being out on a pub crawl!)  whilst Mat, Mike W & Steve played the Russians.

French from Mike N's command (driven by Dave on the night) crossing one of the Berezena Bridges.

Steve's Cavalry engaging Dave's counter-parts on the Russian right flank, behind can be seen Infantry form Dave's command in square.

Mike N & Dave's French commands

More cavalry action on the Russian right, at the end of the first week the French cavalry had been driven off by Steve & Mike W's horse.

French cavalry from Dave's command

The tabletop from the perspective of the French right wing

A lot of fighting on the French right as Mat's Corps engaged with John's forces in that area

Close-up of some French Artillery

More action from the French right wing

A lot of hard fighting on week one, predominantly on the French right but with other engagements om the French left, where Mike W's cavalry have turned the French flank. All to play for in Week Two!

Friday Night Games - WW2 Eastern Front, 1945

Friday 12th & 19th August has seen us playing the next in Mark's sequential set of linked scenarios as Russian Forces fight their way towards Berlin on the Eastern Front in 1945. The photos below are from week #2 of the game, and as ever these will do most of the 'talking' in this post.

Rules by Mark, figures by Mark, Mike N & John.

Germans were being played by Dave, Ollie (sub for John who was on holiday for week2) & Mike N, whilst the Russians were being played by Steve, Rupert, Nigel, Phil & Mike W (sub for Mat who was unable to attend Week 2).

The Russians, under Steve, are forcing an attack along the length of the board and Wee 2 starts with a general Russian advance, pushing German Volkssturm forces back almost at will, with little of no meaningful resistance on the right flank.

Russian advance on eth right flank, lead by tanks as they approach
Volkssturm positions behind the hedgeline.

Close-up of the Volkssturm positions

On the left flank, under Rupert & Mike W,  the going is a little more difficult with wood s and barricades across the railway line slowing up the advance. Additionally an embedded tank turret caused some consternation, as did a Volkssturm Panzerfaust team that took out the lead Russian tank, before they were themselves destroyed.

Rupert's Infantry & Mike W's tanks advance
on the Russian Left, through woods.

Switch to a squadron of low flying Stormoviks, screaming in low over the battlefield laden with rockets to attack two houses and a known German AA Position. The lead section was driven off by newly revealed German AA resources, saving one of eth houses. The second section unleashed all eight rockets on it's target house only to find four shots overshot by a wide margin, two more flew long and to the fight and one dropped short, leaving only one on target.

The Stormoviks arrive on the table

The railway track on the left flank,
with destroyed Russian Tank in view

Initial Russian disappointment turned to celebrations when it became apparent that the four long shot had missed the house but landed square in a hidden German HQ, destroying the transport and admin staff. Just as the German CnC was dusting himself off and thanking his lucky stars that he'd survived another rocket came skidding over the house to land directly on his position and wiping him out

The final Stormovik delivered a wide ranging scatter of rockets on the AA position missing with most but then eliminating the target.

Later on the right as the Russians continued to advance they began to encounter elements of a Hitler Youth formation was again roughly handled by the Soviets.

Russian T34 Mine clearing tank on eth Russian right

Western half of the board, with the two houses attacked by the Stormoviks,
both remained untouched although a hidden German HQ unit behind the blue
building (front right)was destroyed.

Off table German Supply Units

Start positions for Mike W's tanks Week #2.

T34 Tanks of the Russian right, rolling forwards.

Valentine tanks lumber forwards to the right of the Russian Centre

Russian Central start off positions,
a heavily defended river

Behind the Russian Centre,
a self-propelled artillery unit 

Back on the Russian Left, a destroyed house from which a
Volkssturm Panzerfaust unit took out a Russian light tank.

A cool Russian Command Vehicle

Final shot, from the Russian left,
watching the Right Flank attack press forwards

Battle of Gorodeczna, 1812

Background

By late summer, Napoleon's Grande Army stand poised to capture Smolensk, deep in central Russia. However, to the south of Napoleon's advance,the Russian 3rd Army of the West took to the offensive and on 27th July, General Tormassov defeated Reynier's Saxon Corps.

Tabletop,with Allied base line to right

With the right wing of his advance now threatened, Napoleon had no choice but to order Prince Schwarzenberg's Austrian Corps to unite with Reynier and his Saxons to counter-attack the Russian Advance.

Just prior to the battle of Gorodeczna was a cavalry skirmish near Tychin. The Russian 'Vladimir Dragoons', 'Loubny Hussars' and some Cossacks were driven back by General Frolich's Cavalry Brigade.

Scenario Map

Frolich's cavalry consisted of 'Kaiser (Emperor's Own) Hussars' and 'Hessen-Homburg Hussars' and was considered the best light cavalry brigade in the Austrian Army. These hussars located the Russian camp despite being screened by General Chaplitz's force (Pavlograd Hussars, Alexandria Hussars, three infantry battalions and 24 guns).

Frolich immediately informed his superiors about the situation and Prince Schwarzenberg send him some infantry reinforcements to exploit what he had found.

Russian Jaeger Regiment

The Austrians were eager to avenge the defeat at Kobrin and resumed their advance. They met Tormasov's army near Gorodeczna. It is estimated that there were 13,000 Saxons and 25,000 Austrians facing Tormasov's 18,000 Russians.

The Game

Staged on March 9th & 16th  by John, using his huge collection of Austrians & Russians, supplemented by Mikey N's new Saxon Napoleonics and fought over an 8' x 6' table.

Russian Cavalry Regiment

Shako were selected as the rule set for the game and it was  scheduled to run from 11:00am to 16:00pm (15 game turns). In actual fact we managed to run through 10 game turns in the first week so John extended the game duration to 20 game turns to ensure two balanced weeks of game play....

The scenario has a couple of specific rules,notably that some commanders are classed as 'Charismatic' and can change orders immediately (like the French), everyone else suffers a turn's delay.

Additionally all Russian players get an additional '+1' on command rolls Russians deploy first,Austrians arrive at umpire's discretion and entry points are pre-planned.

As noted by John this is one of the few Napoleonic battles where there were actually no French troops involved.

Early stages of game in play

Victory Points are assigned to each side,with the Russians getting 1 VP per Allied unit destroyed and the Allies getting 1 VP per unit exited off the Russian base line.

Terrain & Weather: Marshy areas and the river are only crossable by infantry at half speed,other troop types may only cross by bridges. Woods are as per Shako rules. Weather is warm and clear.