The Russian Civil War and Foch

 

How pleasing it is to find a shared interest with a fellow enthusiast. In my search for info’ on the Russian Civil War I find myself on Neil’s blog. Scotty's Wargaming: RCW.  Time well spent.

I have had a few units of Peter Pig figures for the RCW lying about for a few years. Other projects shoved them aside until now.

I came across an excellent extension to Dan Mersey’s TMWWBK. It was written by Pierre AYMERIC and covers WW1. Infantry, cavalry, grenades, rifle grenades, armoured cars/tanks and everything else. Artillery you would expect, flamethrowers were unexpected. 

Pierre calls his game “Foch” after the famous French General.  It is very good.

I set to thinking. I could see Foch lends itself very well to RCW and, indeed, Back of Beyond. Minifigs below, note the Staff officer.

I'm making a few adjustments to accommodate Tchanka use and RCW tactics. Also to mostly reduce the lethality of rifle fire. "Poor Shots" as the original says. I was interested to see that "chains" were still about from, at least, Napoleonic times. Basically two infantry regiments dynamically supporting each other. 

A couple of new formations are needed too. The basic infantry tactic can be accommodated by the existing Skirmish rule. Advance half speed and fire at reduced effect. Whites below as they have shoulder boards.

Tchanka teams could just park up and offer fire support. They could also dash up to HMG range and deal out death, quick sharp. Then they would head for a flank to repeat the exercise. 

An early and a later Peter Pig Tchanka below.  The early one is ever so slightly smaller. Check out those horses-it's not just perspective. I have 4 of these. I thought that too many but seemingly not.

Meantime cavalry rode in to exploit the confusion. Deadly, unless everyone got shot on the way in. All the same dramatic gaming. You can see it in the minds eye. Red cavalry above.

I'm pleased to tell you almost all the figures and vehicles, artillery etc needed were sitting in a box. Expenditure has happily been minimal.

Elsewhere on the battlefield were Armoured Cars and sometimes Tanks. Foch deems both to be impervious to gunfire. Iron Ivan thinks Armoured Cars were not safe from Heavy Machine Gun fire. Setting the World Ablaze concurs. I’m going with the not safe option for Armoured Cars I think.

A learning curve for me then, as it is pretty much a new period. In reserve I have Iron Ivan’s Price of Glory. Tried and tested.  

I thought to do an Event Table as I did for my Spanish Civil War Game. Then thought not. Further research changed my mind again. There will be an Event Table, of 6 possibilities so far. The Spanish one began as 6 but rose to 12. It works a treat.

For Activation I often like Cards. Not in this case we will dice as in TMWWBK. Where next on this? Units and stat's I think.

All the forgoing brought to mind my maternal Grandfather's experiences of the Western Front 1914-18. He was around for some interesting stuff, historically speaking and told me about it. For him as a personal experience it was Hell on Earth, he told me about that too.  Stories I might tell here. He had a colourful turn of phrase and excellent recall. "We are fighting for a monkey on a horse." He remembered saying.  Was that at a parade at Amiens ? Anyhow it stuck.

On this page you see what I have done so far.  More as it comes. Next week we are back in England or more probably Scotland. Yes, War of Three Kingdoms.

Montrose's Regular Scots Regiments

 

Farqueson's Highland Regiment. Note this is conventionally  armed with pike and shot. Securing the Highland pikemen is a bit of a challenge. Met in this case by turning to Gripping Beast who now sell Lurkio Miniatures. You will notice the Lurkio pike men have a targe. I'm living with that, as clearly they have not yet engaged. Targes can be slung on the back.

All of the Centre Stand figures saving the standard bearer are from Lurkio. He is an old FK15 from way back when. The remainder are from Essex. There are some conversions. Flags from Project Auldearn.

Moneymore's Regiment comprised of men in Highland and Lowland dress. Once again a Pike and Shot unit. The plaid wearing pikemen are my conversions from Essex Italian Wars Light Pikemen. For the rest a mixture of Essex and QRF. Flags are from Project Auldearn.

Above the Strathbogie Regiment, the best known of the three we see here. Raised in the Clan Gordon lands it provided good service to Montrose. Once again the flags are from Project Auldearn.

Sometimes McKenzie of Seaforth's Regiment could be found with the Royalists. It is on my to do list. I printed their flag today. I went for a neutral saltire sans slogans to allow for changing sides.

To finish with our Scots regulars we can conclude with Montrose's Cavalry.

Above, the Gordon Horse. I would like a second squadron for this unit. Visiting Caliver Books, the home of Matchlock, I was delighted to buy another 6 of them.

Above the Ogilvy Horse.  Here I have used an Essex Scots trooper alongside the Matchlock horsemen. Not too bad at all. 

Montrose had a small Life Guard unit and I have the right flag for them. I'm tempted to do it-one stand only.

I'm not sure what we are having next week. I'd like to present Montrose's Irish Regulars all at once. They aren't finished yet. 

It might be Highland Clan units. A handy place to remind myself, and perhaps you Dear Reader, that the Clans won at Kilsyth while their own Regulars stood guard.

Overall progress on this project hit a bump in the road. I needed standard bearers for another & Scots units. My usual source is the QRF FK Range. They reside at Little Corporal these days. Little Corporal is highly problematic to deal with. My last order took 6 month to arrive. So that is out.

A shame as I'd also like more of their dismounted Scots Dragoons too. I do have enough to do another unit that would do for either side at a push.

Luckily for me Martin at Peter Pig does an open handed pack of Scots Lowland Pike and a pack of open handed Irish Pike. The Irish are wearing trews and are perfect for a Highland unit. The Lowlanders can have a green stuff sash and will fit right in. Astute Readers will note that is my Highland pike men problem sorted too.

The project marches on. 

There we leave it amid the skirl of the pipes and the thunder of hooves.

Shortly I will be able to show you my World War 2 Chinese and Japanese. A  new and unexpected interest.

Scots Covenanter Regiments of Foot- Victory Without Quarter

 

Lord Balfour of Burley's Regiment. What a memorable flag. Figures from Essex and QRF. Flags from Project Auldearn.  Balfour’s were frequently engaged. They took very heavy casualties at Aberdeen. A second newly raised Balfour Regiment may have been at Dunbar.

The Aberdeen Regiment with colours withdrawn for the immediate onset. Pikemen are advanced.  The arms of Aberdeen fly over the centre stand. The red and white saltires are my own notion. Flags from the internet. Figures mainly from Essex.

Red coats for Campbell of Lawers Regiment. If I recall right these coats were English issue from the time the Cromwellians and the Covenanters were on the same side in Ireland.  An experienced regiment that had seen much hard fighting there. Figures mainly from Essex and flags from Project Auldearn.

The Earl of Sutherlands Regiment of Foot. The figures are from Essex and QRF. The flags, they are fine, from Project Auldearn. Sir John Hurry, below, keeps an eye on things.

A good start I think. There are more to come. Initially I had thought to do 3 Campbell Regiments. Clan Campbell could turn out about 20,000 men. By comparison in times past the Armstrong Lord of Glenockie commanded 3,000 Lances. Clan peoples of significance, with a discrete legal and social structure.

Anyhow, I have revised my plan. I intend Campbell's Lowland Regiment and Campbell's (Pike and Shot) Highland Regiment. In addition I will do McKenzie of Seaforth's (Pike and Shot) Highland Regiment.

The (Pike and Shot) Highland Regiments are a bit of a challenge in 15mm. What with the absence of Highland pike men in that scale. Some ingenuity is required. Conversions in fact. I have already done this for the Royalist Montrose Highland (Pike and Shot) regiments that we will see next week.

I am minded to add the Earl of Lothian's Regiment of foot too. Availability of figures permitting.

If that all transpires I will have 8 Regiments of Covenanter Foot which I think will do nicely for Victory without quarter.

To this I will add two units of Dragoons. One done above and another to come.

Victory Without Quarter - Back to England

Recall we had 11 Regiments of English Foot to do. Today we have the 5th and 6th done. Above the green regiment. All Matchlock with flags from Ian KH at "This 28mm Life" blog. Thank you Ian KH.  

Parliamentary General Lord Manchester had a Green Regiment. Conversely the flag above might indicate a Royalist allegiance. Let's have a closer look.

Shall we try another Green Regiment? Why not. 

It occurs to me that in the heat of the game one Green Regiment's card might be mistaken for another. The wrong unit might act. How's that for the fog of war and the chaos of battle? Not the two above though, the flags are sufficiently different.

Next, the Blue Regiment. Both sides had Blue Regiments. In fact I already have a Blue Regiment of Essex figures that once rebased will join the throng.

How are we doing with the English Cavalry? Not bad at all. Mystery flags once again. I'm having no success in tracking the artist.

Here is Sir Richard Astley's Regiment of Horse at full strength, 2 squadrons.

Lord Carnarvon's Regiment of Horse. In intend to add a second squadron.

A unit of Essex figures.  The simple red standard with its red and white border was used by the regiments of both Francis Thomson and George Thomson. They fought for Parliament. . A real break I didn't want to be clipping and drilling cast on flags. 

Happy days.

Scots Regiments of Horse-Victory Without Quarter

 

Last week we considered mission creep. This week we see it. Lord Leven's Regiment of Horse in two squadrons.  From Essex, in miniature that is.

The original first squadron here. Flags on this page by Wargames Designs.

Sir John Brown's Regiment of Horse, first squadron. Full strength below. Figures from Essex.

Next Irvine's Lancers, Borderers who turned out for Montrose. The Border Clans had been pretty much destroyed by James 1st of England, 6th of Scotland. Their society was still in a state of flux during the Civil Wars. Note, your left to right Peter Pig, FK15 and Naismith.

The Gordon Horse next. From Matchlock. I might give them a second squadron. I think Matchlock got the look right.

Ogilvy's Horse. A single squadron for these lads I think. Second from the left an Essex figure. Matchlock for the rest.

QRF Lancers below. These are small figures that might do as youths in a wider mix.

I was interested to read that in the fighting before Dunbar the Scots Lancers gave Cromwell's Ironside Cavalry a hard time of it. We must look at lances again sometime.

QRF Dragoons. I very much like these figures. I have enough to do another unit.  You may think I should have cut the guidon to a swallow tail shape. I did wonder, but the white is patterned and so part of the flag.

Next two command figures, Brigadiers in fact. 

The first is FK15's Sir John Hurry. Sir John got about in the War of Three Kingdoms Fighting for Royalists and Covenanters. It is a nice little figure and I nearly made him the centre of a General's stand.

Another Commander from the same stable. Stylish and evocative alas I have no idea who he is supposed to be.

One of the lads on LAF enquired if a Scottish Supplement was available for Victory Without Quarter? Not to my knowledge but we can have a go at producing one in the interim.

We will be south of Berwick again next week

Victory Without Quarter Mission Creep

 

There are words for it. “Mission Creep” for the military and “Project Drift” for civic ventures. That tells us it is something humans do. So it is no surprise to find that I’m painting Scots units when I intended to major in English ones.

It could be worse. I have five English Regiments of Foot done and three squadrons of Horse. Also I have done a One Man and His Dog by way of command. 

Here he is.

 

He (Rupert of the Palatinate) is a Frei Korps 15mm miniature bought just before the Deluge. Next White Coats with red flags, yellow flags and white flags.

All Matchlock 15mm, or nearly so.

Note each company (base if you like, stand even) has its own flag. I feel this is period feel stuff and I like the look of it. 

Apparently standard practice was colours front on encountering the enemy for the first time. Then colours to the rear before the fighting began. I need to credit the fellow gamer and blogger who made these fine flags. Investigation will follow.

Let’s horse around starting with Cuirassiers with a black flag.

 

Next red flag horse. It is too small to see but the flag ridicules a notorious cuckold on the opposing side.

The blue flag boys have a nice white heraldic device. They are also getting a second squadron.

All the Horse are Matchlock 15mm.

A moments pause for the Dead. These are important as a tracking device in Victory Without Quarter. Many more of these to come.

Caledonia here we come. First the Strathbogie Regiment. The flags are from the magnificent Project Auldearn.

Some Highlanders from QRF as was. The great thing about Highlanders is by substituting flags they can represent any Clan Host. Below we see QRF, original FK15 and Peter Pig. Mix and match.

 

Now the latest Cards. Sealant has yet to be applied. I'm waiting until I have the set.

I am enjoying this project a great deal. Bigly in fact. I’m enjoying it bigly and you cannot say better than that.