Darkest Day: one year on

 

Maidan demonstration, Kyiv 2014

 

Exactly one year ago today Russian forces invaded Ukraine. Of course I sprang into 'action', and wrote a blog post, entitled  The Darkest Day. There didn't seem much else to be done, and to be honest, at the time the outcome seemed inevitable, that outcome being the rapid conquest and subjugation of Ukraine, and its elimination as an independent nation. Quite surprisingly, that blog post became my 'most read' ever ( with the exception of  one other post that had been previously  'nobbled' by a bot attack ).  I had expressed myself pretty strongly, and I wondered if I would attract hostile reactions, even attacks, on the blog - I'm glad to say that didn't happen, and there were many supportive comments.   I've just been re-reading the post, and I stand by everything I said. 

Pro-democracy protestor Yevhen Shulga, 2014

 

Of course there was a very unexpected outcome: the Russian invasion failed. Ukraine's defence forces fought bravely and successfully, and  gave Putin a massive shock; Western nations have rallied in Ukraine's support and provided arms and equipment to Ukraine.   Despite many thousands of casualties both military and civilian, despite thousands of war crimes inflicted by the Russia's deliberate targeting of the civilians they claim to be 'liberating',  Ukraine fights on, has had victories, and has regained territory. The cost has been terrible, but I entirely understand Ukraine's willingness to pay that cost and keep fighting, and  I think we in the West need to support our governments in supporting Ukraine. Freedom is at stake; Putin now says he is fighting a war against the West, so perhaps we have little choice.

Battle damage to Ukrainian homes, 2022

 

As before, I am not going to get into nerdy discussions of the fighting and whether they should have done X, Y or Z - there are too many armchair generals already, I'm sure. But there is  of course much  worthwhile analysis available - I would highlight the Royal United Services Institute, which for example has a summary today entitled The War In Ukraine One Year On . I've also been recently recommended a 'Substack' blog ,  Comment is Freed, a joint effort by  political commentatior Sam Freedman  and his father, the military historian  Lawrence Freedman, whose recent piece The Storm Before The Calm  makes interesting reading.   Regarding the effect on those of us not directly involved in the fighting, political journalist Andrew Marr recently wrote a chilling ( but realistic, I'm afraid ) piece which should give us all plenty to consider :  The war in Ukraine will go on for years – and so will its consequences for Britain.  Also Steve Rosenberg, the BBC's man in Moscow has been consistently interesting ( and sobering for those who might think the Russian population will not support Putin ), his latest piece about How Putin's fate is tied to Russia's war raises some scary possibilities  ( civil war in a nuclear-armed power? ). 

burial of victims of Russian occupation, Bucha 2022

Yesterday I paid a visit to London's Imperial War Museum, which had advertised an exhibition of pictures by photo-journalist Anastasia Taylor-Lind. covering the period since the 2014 Ukraine revolution and Russian takeover of  Crimea,  to the current war. I used my phone to capture some of those pictures, which I include in this blog post.  They are very impressive, but I have to say the exhibition was underwhelming - there was just one small room, and perhaps no more than 20 pictures. I thought the subject deserved a much bigger effort than that - and I note that the main exhibition space in the museum is currently filled by an exhibit about computer games.  I'm not sure if this is a deliberate reflection of the priorities of the IWM management.  However, I was glad to see the exhibition and spend a little time thinking about the situation. I guess this post is also part of that train of thought. 

 

Yevhen Shulga, now Ukrainian soldier, 2022

I'll get back to hobby stuff next time; meanwhile I think it's worth a pause to reflect. Keep well, everyone. 

Portable Pike & Shot: Controlling the River

 Last time, I set up the forces and table for a trial game of The Portable Pike and Shot Wargame rules variant by Alan Saunders. I have now played the game, and can report how it went - quite well, actually! 

Herr General Blau's Imperialists approached from the South ( nearest camera ), and the French under General Le Rouge from the North, both intending  to seize control of two bridges across the river.  Both sides started off-table, and I decided to make their deployments quite random - I divided the table into 3 sections left/centre/right for each army, and rolled a 'D6' dice for each unit - roll 1 or 2 to enter on the left, 3 or 4 centre, 5 or 6 right - but no more than 3 units could arrive in each section.  The dice decreed that the Imperialists deployed all three of their infantry regiments on their left, with their cavalry and dragoons on the right and artillery in the centre,  while the French had two infantry regiments and their cavalry on their right, dragoons in the centre and the remaining foot regiment and artillery on their left.  So, both sides had sent strong forces to take the Western bridge, with fewer units going for the Eastern bridge, but with slight variations in the makeup of those sub-groups.  Hmm..how did the dice know that there was no bridge in the centre?

The rules decree an initiative die roll each turn, with the winning player going first and usually getting to activate more units. So initiative is quite important, and it must be said that the dice gods were on General Blau's side - the Imperialists won the initiatve on the first four turns, and in seven of the ten turns in all! Quite an advantage. By turn 2, both sides cavalry had crossed the river at their respective bridges ( French at West bridge, Imperialists at East bridge ), and 'contact' was made as the French horse charged into oncoming Imperial foot, specifically the Roter Mantel (thanks, Google translation) regiment. Close combat under these rules has a slightly amended system to Bob Cordery's original Portable Wargame - each side rolls a dice (with modifiers, e.g. for cavalry charging, or foot with pikes)  'to hit', and the highest modified score  gets to inflict damage first if hits have been achieved.  Both sides could suffer hits, of course. This seemed to work fairly well, avoiding multiple rounds of 'no effect' combat. In the first fight, the Imperial redcoats took a hit and suffered a loss of 1SP - first blood to the French.   At East bridge, the French Regiment Vert opened fire at the Imperial cuirassiers - with no effect.   

Turn 2 : Horse vs Foot at both bridges

 

On Turn 3, the Imperial foot at West Bridge tried to push back the French cavalry, but everything went wrong for them - the cavalry kept rolling sixes!  Roter Mantel regiment was forced to retreat, and the cavalry pursued (it's mandatory for horse to follow-up if close combat opposition retreats), crashing into regiment  Blauer Mantel, beating them and forcing them to lose 1SP rather than retreat and be pursued again! So much for the Imperial counter-attack.  Finally the 'Blaus' steadied things on their own activation, with a volley of musketry forcing the rampant cavalry to retreat back to the bridge.   That didn't stop the horsemen, though - in the French turn, they charged again! But the dice were not with them this time, and they 'bounced off'. They had thoroughly unnerved the Imperial infantry, and  bought time for French infantry to come up to West Bridge.  At East Bridge, the  French regiment Vert, facing enemy cavalry and dragoons, wisely took to the cover of wood, while their own dragoons moved up in support.

The clash at West Bridge continued the following turn, and the French cavalry's luck held under fire from Imperial muskets and newly-arrived cannon ( artillery are not very effective unless firing at close range - 2 hexes or less ), then charging yet again and taking anoother SP from Blauer Mantel regiment. In the centre, Imperial cavalry gave a nasty shock to the French dragoons ( which count as foot in combat, but of course have no pikes )  - 1 SP loss. At the end of Turn 4,  losses were French 1SP, Imperials 4SP, mainly due to those rampaging French cavalry!  Going well for the French, but the Imperialists had East Bridge, and three regiments of foot must eventually see off one cavalry?

Grinding on at West Bridge: Cavalry clash in the centre

 

Turn 5 - finally General Le Rouge won the initiative, and used it well. He pulled his cavalry unit back from the bridge and personally led it to the centre, promptly crashing into the Imperial cavalry, pushing them back and following-up. At West bridge,  regiment Rouge charged in, but were stopped by Imperial Blauer Mantel, losing 1 SP.  On the Imperial turn that fight continued, both sides losing 1 SP rather than retreat, both determined not to fall back from the bridge - desperate stuff. The Imperial Horse continued to be pushed back by their French opponents, and were now back to East Bridge.

And so things continued for another two turns, with a grinding fight between infantry regiments at West Bridge - French regiment Rouge reduced to 1SP and falling back, replaced by their regiment Bleu comrades, and neither side giving ground, Meanwhile the opposing cavalry duked it out in the centre. Losses mounted fast - by end of Turn 7,  losses were 7 SPs each ( both sides having  'Break Point'  at 11 SP ).

Infantry fight at West Bridge..

   

..and Cavalry fight in the centre

 

Turn 8 brought a twist - the initiative die roll was tied,  and in these rules that means a 'Random Event'. A couple of die rolls determined that this would affect the French, and the result was the other player picks one of the affected player's units and performs an action with it, including engaging in combat. It will still only shoot at or charge enemy units, but the decision to do so is in the hands of the player making the move.  So, one French unit would 'go rogue' for a turn;  I chose to make foot Regiment Bleu retreat a full move from West Bridge. Presumably the desperate fight had temporarily broken its morale.. Of course this 'opened up' West Bridge, and the Imperials promply won the re-roll for initiative and poured their infantry over the bridge, attacking the weakened  regiment Rouge - and destroying it!  The only consolation for the French was that in the continuing cavalry fight, the Imperial horse were reduced to only one remaining  SP, and their hold on East Bridge looked very shakey.  

Turn 8: 'Random Event' gives Imperials the bridge 

 

Next turn the Imperial infantry ( regiments Roter Mantel and Gruner Mantel ) kept pushing their lone French opponent (regiment Bleu) even further from West Bridge - bad news for General Le Rouge. However, in the East he threw everything at the Imperial cavalry -  his Regiment Vert charging out of the woods to support his cavalry - and finally broke them! Thus East Bridge taken by the French, to balance events to the West. At end of Turn 9 losses were  French 9 SP and Imperials 10SP -  only 2SP and 1SP from break points, who would crack first? 

Turn 10 was the end - and General Le Rouge's dice won the initiative, allowing him and his cavalry  to gallop over East Bridge, then swing West to threaten the Imperials at the other bridge from behind. Over in the West, Regiment Bleu steadied their muskets and delivered a volley at  Gruner Mantel regiment - and took 1 SP from them. Not much effect on a relatively fresh unit, but crucially it meant the Imperialists reached their 'Break Point' of 11 SP losses.  As such, on their turn they must take a 'Break Test' - a D6 roll, with modifiers relating to possession of objectives ( even, with both sides holding one bridge ) and proportion of units lost. The modifiers looked good at 'Plus 2' with a modified 4 or more required - but Herr General Blau  rolled a one!  His weary men's morale had clearly collapsed as the French Cavalry ran amok behind them - his army was deemed Broken, and victory went to the French!  Losses at the end - French 9SP, Imperial 11SP. 

Turn 10 - French Cavalry rampant (lower right) 

 

I really enjoyed this game, and I think the rules went pretty well.  I particularly liked the way the distinction between shooting and close combat is handled - with units adacent to each other able to simply shoot, but shooting having somewhat less effect, and close combat is the way to force a decisive result and to take ground. The scenario obviously tended to funnel the action into two 'bottlenecks' at the bridges, but that added to the tension as both sides contested those bridges determinedly, unwilling to retreat. Equally I thought the 'Random Event' added a nice bit of friction, and with only one such event coming up, it didn't overly randomise the game. The 'Break Point' rule seemed good too, as reaching Break Point does not mean automatic defeat - with good die-rolling, an army past its Break Point can keep fighting.  Not so for Herr General Blau, however! 

I hope you've enjoyed my account of the game, I certainly enjoyed playing the it, and will certainly  come back to these rules. Many thanks to Alan Saunders for them,  and to  Bob Cordery for publishing them in The Portable Pike & Shot Wargame. 

Next time - well, I have a few ideas, and not yet sure which one to pursue. Meanwhile I've also  enjoyed no less than two remote games in  the American War of Independence period ( Loose Files and American Scramble )  run by the excellent Nundanket - many thanks to him and the other players.  Until next time, keep well everyone.