Rising Sun, Tumbling Bear #1 - The Battle for Usan.

Hot off the heels of the last post... synopsis of the Russo-Japanese War Campaign.

As the Commander of the Japanese Naval and Land Forces, you must gather your land and naval forces to capture a number of Key Russian Controlled Settlements before the Russian Baltic Fleet reaches Port Arthur or President Theodore Roosevelt signs the Portsmouth Peace Accord. 

The Game begins shortly after the Japanese surprise naval attack on the Russian warships docked in Port Arthur. The Russians are now building up their forces and gathering their fleets to kick the Japanese out of Manchuria and Korea. 

My plan is to convert the map encounters to Sharp Practice with each troop point being x10 points in Sharp Practice.

Turn one and rolling low I only ended up with two event cards none of which were more fleet capacity which I think I will need. So with 8 movement points I opted for a quick land hop over the Tsushima Strait landing at Ulsan.

Unfortunately my troop capacity was reduced by 2 units due to Admiral Urya's squadron encountering mines entering the harbour. General Oku  landed with 220 points at Usan, however the landing was not unopposed and a delaying action needed to be fought with the Russian Garrison where I could only field half my number. I cashed in my reinforcement card to give me an extra unit.

This opening battle would be tough 120 Russian Points vs 110 Japanese. But it was a risk worth taking. Win and seize the town of Usan – lose and be pushed back on to the transports and have no foothold in the Korean peninsula.

I rolled for random terrain which had a low rise dominating the Russian half of the table, the Japanese would need to move fast, rushing on in a light column on the left flank. Having decided on making the Japanese similar in class to Light Infantry giving them more movement and field craft, but countered by being in 6 figure units vs the Russian 10 it would be a class of doctrine.

The Russians with a delaying force opted for a number of mobile units, with Cossacks and Frontier Cavalry, supported by Artillery and a Machine Gun.

The cavalry moved fast pushing up the Japanese right flank, forcing the Japanese column to wheel to react to the aggressive move that was unexpected.

Massed ranks of Russian Infantry advance from the road and head for the rise as the Japanese are focused on the cavalry.

Russian shells land amongst the Japanese ranks and in a single turn knock unconscious both leaders.... What were the chances of that....

The Cossacks seize their chance and charge towards the Japanese line, falling desperately short they are beaten back with an excessive amounts of shock.

Meanwhile the Russian line cross the ridge, pouring fire into the Japanese troops below, a number of them in the flank which doubled their shock.

In a vein attempt to break the Russian morale the Japanese launched a bayonet attack up the rise forcing back a section of the attackers, but as a force the Japanese were spent and were forced to retire from the table.

So the opening encounter and the Japanese are sent packing and forced back onto the transports.

That was a learning curve for the Japanese, having opted for smaller more nibble units and not taking advantage of their cover bonus they were unable to bring their quality advantage to bear against the larger Russian units at close range. Coupled with the in ability to bring up their Machine Gun and Artillery they were under pressure from the Russians from round one.

End of Turn one Japanese Forces.

General Oku 200 Points 

General Kuroki 240 Points 

Admrial Uryu 22 Fleet Points

Time for a rethink..... in strategy and tactics.

Russo - Japanese War - Back down the rabbit hole.

See this is what happens when you embark on a project to clear up the lead pile, you end up adding more. 

Having had my eye on the armour clad officers from Empress Miniatures for the Silver Bayonet Japanese faction and finding several spare Japanese Infantry in the draw I figured I would take the opportunity to revisit the RJW Project and clear up the last of the bare metal.

Over the past weeks I have been looking at adapting Sharp Practice for encounters nearer the turn of the century and how to reflect the different Japanese and Russian doctrine of the period, the recent Sudan and Pony War tweaks could carry across to a far more modern war.

The biggest stumbling block seems to be the rate of fire, within Sharp Practice repeating rifles allow units to fire twice in a turn without the need to reload, with both sides armed with 5 shot magazine rifles that feels rather bloody, so I am going to stick with one firing round with the reload representing a dropping off of the fire as troops replace magazines, this adding in some ammo rules should strike the right place and allow the Machine Guns to be more potent firing 12 dice a round.

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Reflecting on my painting rhythm over the past few years, I seemed to have been able to increase my figure count, previously I used to paint in batches of 6-8 but more recently this now tends to be 10-20 which allows me to complete a couple of sections over a few weeks and get far better results to put down on the table.... could this be a sign of age or simply the drive to finish aging projects once and for all?

The new reformatted Japanese Infantry 9 squads already to take the fight to the Russian Empire. 

Chatting on one of the RJW Facebook groups about campaign mechanisms it was suggested that Rising Sun, Tumbling Bear was worth a look. As a print and play game and coming in at $15 it looks like a great investment. A combination of map movement and paper table top battles and designed for solo play with the ability to convert encounters to table top battles.

Time to roll some dice.....

Silver Bayonet - Japanese Faction

A dip into the lead pile and next up a couple of extra's from Northstar and Empress to create a Japanese faction for the Silver Bayonet. The Russo-Japanese forces proper have not been out of the box for a while so this will be a tentative step back into Manchuria.

Not the best photo but left to right - Infantryman, Officer, Occultist, 2 Swordsmen and 3 more Infantrymen.

Two Swordsmen/Officers from Empress Miniatures these are1904 officers wearing tradition Samurai armour perfect for adventuring in Manchuria and confronting evil.

I spotted these on the Northstar site and these looked just the part for the Japanese faction as a Soothsayer and his apprentice.

Attack on the Camp - Kings of Bronze #6

The final outing in the linked campaign see's Overseer Huharmati's encamped on the way back to the Hittite homeland, when they are attacked by an Egyptian force.

In this encounter an actual human in charge of the Hittite defenders, with the Egyptian forces entering on two random table edges and the content of each blind unknown. 

The Hittite command have to escort the camel train from the centre of the table, but can only set off once they have amassed 20 task points (1d6 per turn on the commanders activation.)

The Hittite deployment, Overseer Huharmati had no idea where the raiders would come from so covered all 4 sides of the camp selecting forces similar to those from previous encounters. The Egyptian blinds matched the force make up with a +1 for each force type. 

The Egyptians rolled and they appeared on the centre and top left flank of the camp. Surprisingly the Hittite's pushed out on all sides to meet the threat. The only control I had was what flavour to pick when a blind came out, I opted for light troops at the outset saving the heavier forces for the far flank once I knew which direction the Hittites might take.

A good run of blinds and some high rolls revealed a number of blocks of spear units, it looked like the southern door would be shut firm.

Meanwhile at the northern end, I had less luck. The heavier blinds were failing to turn up which meant the fast moving chariot forces was fewer and lighter than I had hoped. Coupled with that the Hittite Spear Block was advancing on the recently deployed archer unit.

The archers let off a round but they were unable to stop the advancing spears who forced them back and off the table.

Another blind and this time an archer formation, which firers a cloud of arrows into the defenders of the camp, the Egyptian medium chariot had broken through the defenders line, but the camp was cluttered and the mass archer formations would be tough to beat especially as they had closed ranks. The Egyptian command chariot ploughed into the spear formation, but was unable to break the line and was bounced back.

The camels were free and packed and were heading north.

As the Egyptian chariots reorganised Overseer Huharmati ordered his own archers to target the chariots on the far side of the camp, with excessive shock they would be of limited threat to the camel train.

The main Egyptian spear blocks were finally entering the fight, but the camp was empty and the Hittites were safely heading North.

Victory to the Hittites....

That was fun set of linked games, despite the overwhelming victory for the Hittites every game had a number of key moments that could have swung the games.

Playing through over a number of weeks have me the appropriate nudge to get some of the old lead cleared and on the table even in this game the new chariot failed to make the table.

Now for a new campaign and some more extra's from the lead pile....

Hittite & New Kingdom Egyptian Chariots.

Running a series of linked games has driven me to complete the last of the bare metal for the Kings of Bronze Project - The adaption of Infamy Infamy by the Two Fat Lardies to the Bronze Age.

The last couple of pieces are extra chariots for the Hittites and NKE's from Warlord games, picked up in one of their annual sales, on face value in bare metal I much prefer the Foundry one's over Warlord, they feel that little bit more sturdy, but once painted and based they look fine and mix well together.

The Hittite addition is another Medium Chariot, although how you are expected to cram another crewman in here is beyond me.

Heavy throwing spear vs bow makes for us interesting contests and adapted uses within engagements.

I figured the final New Kingdom Chariot will be a medium chariot, with bronze barding on the horse and matching protection for the archer.

Then finally mounted Egyptian scouts. I found reference to these in the Warhammer Ancient Battles campaign book, these Foundry figures had been hanging around since the beginning of the Covid years... They will make an interesting scout unit, they might need another pack but for now I am calling these done.

Project complete......

Ok I say complete but looking at the storage boxes now and there is room for another foot unit and a single skirmish unit. so perhaps we might see for more Sea People or some Libyans who knows in the future but for now the draw is empty of any additional spare metal.

Next up the final linked game for this campaign session with an attack on the Hittite camp.

The long round north - Kings of Bronze #5

Yet another solo outing for Overseer Huharmati's and his Hittite raiding party.

After a string of successes Huharnati was heading north with his loot, when he was set upon by an Egyptian force looking to recapture the stolen booty. I picked what I thought was a reasonable escort force and provided the NYE's with +1 for each scale of troops, Lights, Regulars and Heavy. 

Dicing for where each blind would be coming on and the make up of each unit, Egyptians started to flood the table heading straight for the ramshackle village. Far too many 8,9, and 10's were rolled.

Decisions, decisions..... I planned on pinning the raiders in the village leaving the column to push on via the left flank. The javelin skirmishers rushed forwards to engage with the first of the Egyptian archers.

A column of mixed archers and spears marched through the village as light chariots skirted the right hand side of the village. The cards feel badly as the Hittites failed to get moving.

With the luck of the chips the Egyptian's were able to deploy fully in front of the village and loosed a volley of arrows, which peppered the Hittite formations. To counter this I was forced to bring up the heavy chariot as many of the Hittites forces were still unable to move.

The Heavy Chariot smashed into the unarmoured archers.... whilst the Hittite spear block was forced to line out as Egyptian light chariots rushed forwards.

The heavy chariot smashed into the unarmoured archers who turned and fled losing over half their number.

Meanwhile the chariots had crept just a little to close to the Hittite spears, I pushed them forwards catching the chariots cold and driving them backwards. 

Having regrouped from the routing of the archers, I sent the heavy chariot into the main body looking to disrupt them from their harassing fire.

Disaster strikes..... the archers are no match for the heavily armoured battle wagon however the only casualty is the leader of the chariot struck down in a lucky shot.

Broken Egyptians flood backwards through the village. The Chariot had once again done its work but shock was beginning to mount on the now leaderless chariot.

On the right the Egyptian spear block march forwards clashing spears with the main Hittite spear block, breaking their formation and sending them backwards without any losses of their own.

As the Hittites reformed they are hit by the light chariots. Light chariots are not the best in close combat, but against a weakened unit they can make an impact. I am starting to think it might be time to pull back the pack camels as the force morale starts to creep downwards for the Hittites.

With the Hittite ranks broken and being outnumbered 2:1 the Egyptians pressed on through the rough ground, things were looking nasty for the Hittites but miraculously the New Kingdom attackers were beaten back. It was now a race to the bottom with both sides force morale now only one poor result from breaking point.

Overseer Huharmati's jumped on the chariot and raced forwards catching an element of the shattered spear unit in the flank.

The spear unit broke and ran, the risk had paid off and the Egyptian force morale fell below zero. Just as they were about to strike a final blow. The Egyptian forces retired from the table.

After game thoughts....

Well that was a near run thing, I am still working out some of the kinks in the chariot rules around movement and firing which now seem a little more balanced around turning circles. Allowing the chariots to evade if attacked in the flank or rear seems reasonable which also leaves them vulnerable if caught facing forwards.

I did consider making light chariots a skirmish unit with no ability to close with formed bodies, their weakened combat power seemed ok if engaged in combat,

The heavy chariot is great against unarmoured troops their lack of saving throws was the difference in each combat result, which often tipped the balance.

Another one for the Hittites but only close, next up an attack on Huharnati's camp.