Saturday, August 15, 2015

Peter Laing Crimean Wargame

     The last couple of days I have been going through my Peter Laing figures. Among my first figures were Crimean War British Guards, which had been converted into 1700's British grenadiers. I converted them back to Crimean Guards ( whether successfully is another matter). I wanted to use them in a game. I found myself just not keen on any of my usual Peter Laing soldiers. I was about to give up when I took out some home cast Peter Laing Crimean Russian infantry in spiked helmets. I was never really happy with these casting and so never used them. I found I had painted enough for 7 units.  My attempts at casting Russian artillerymen was a failure, and what Peter Laing Russian cavalry I have are in no shape to be used. I was about to give up on the game completely, when I figured why not just a quick infantry battle. I could use the Battle of Inkerman from the Crimean War as inspiration.

I randomly set up terrain on the Heroscape board, then rolled to decide which side the forces would enter on.
The Russian are at the top, the British on the bottom. The British have 6 Guard units and one regular unit, which is on their right flank.

As the forces close, the Russian general realizes that his right flank is seriously outnumbered.

The British quickly push back the Russians right flank.

The Russian general sends 2 units to reinforce  his right flank.


The Russians hits the rightmost unit and wipes it out.

The British regulars start climbing the hill with the goal of trying to tie  up the leftmost Russian units.

The Russians, known for closing with the bayonet, closes on the Guards.

The British regulars attempt to distract the Russian left fails;one unit just marches under their guns to join the battle on the Russian right. The British attempt to form a new defensive line fails under the relentless Russian assault.

The Russians overrun two more Guards unit,and start assaulting up the hill towards the regulars.

The British regulars charge down the hill and push back the Russians. The Guard unit on the center hill manages to eliminate the Russian unit attacking them. At this point in the game the British have lost 3 units. To lose one more will spell defeat. The Russians have only lost one. By eliminating that unit, the Guards' honor has been saved.

The British general decides to save what's left of his command.

One big disadvantage of my current setup is that I see the field from one side only, which I think gives the force on that side an advantage. I want to work on my gaming table where I could see from both sides of the field.

2 comments:

  1. Interesting comment about the sides. When playing solo I try to sit at the side of the battlefield so I'm not behind one army - in both senses of the word :)

    My gaming area has poor lighting, so my issue is setting up the game to make best use of it for photos.

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  2. The space I'm currently using limits how I can set up the game. I am thinking of rearranging the set up so I could either sit at the side of the field as you mention, or more ideally have the table so I could go to the side of the table moving. In my earliest posts I played my games on the dining table so I could do just that.

    The table I'm using is right under a window. I was hoping the natural light would be enough for taking photos. It wasn't: I use my wife's camera with the flash. I sprayed the Heroscape terrain with clear rubber to reduce glare from the flash.

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