Algeria 1837 using Bloody Big Battles test game #1

My Algeria 1830s-40s project is nearing completion so we gave the armies a run out to see if the rules, unit ratings and terrain worked.  The scenario covered a French expedition to subdue the Arab and Kabyle tribes of the Tell Atlas.

Kabyle mountaineers

The Terrain

Looking north from the ountains

A Kabyle settlement

The table was setup with a French outpost at the northern end of a plain. There are a couple of Arab encampments on the plain. The southern end is mountainous where the Kabyle have several settlements.

The French force

Allied Arab cavalry lead the columns out of the Fort 

#	Unit	Bases	Type	Skimishers	Morale	Trait	Weapon
	Command	2	Ldr
2	Foreign Regt Btn	5	Inf	1S	Trn	Devastating volley	SM
2	Bat' d'Af	5	Inf	1S	Vet	Devastating volley, Aggressive	SM
2	Line Infantry	6	Inf		Trn	Devastating volley	SM
1	Zouave Btn	5	Inf	5S	Vet	Woodsman, Aggressive	SM
1	Turco Btn	4	Inf	4S	Vet	Woodsman, Aggressive	SM
1	Chasseurs d'Afrique	4	Cav		Trn	Ragged volley, Aggressive	SM
1	Spahis	4	Cav		Trn	Ragged volley	SM
1	Allied Arab Cavalry	6	Cav		Raw	Ragged volley	SM
1	Mountain Arty Regt	3	Art				SA

The Algerian force

Arab cavalry threaten the rear of the french force

#	Unit	Bases	Type	Skimishers	Morale	Trait	Weapon
	Command	2	Ldr
2	Kaid's Guard	5	Cav		Vet	Ragged volley	SM
9	Arab Cavalry	6	Cav		Trn	Ragged volley	SM
5	Arab Infantry	4	Inf	4S	Trn	Ragged volley	SM
7	Kabyles	4	Inf	4S	Raw	Woodsman, Aggressive	SM

The Woodsman trait is Can evade as cavalry vs non Woodsman unit and Ignore difficult terrain

At this period the French Foreign Legion was a collection of battalions lumped together by nationality, eg Polish, Italian, Swiss etc, and wasn't as good a fighting force as it would later become.

The best troops in the French African army were the Zouaves and the Bat' d'Af, the Battalions of Light Infantry of Africa, made up of men with prison records who still had to do their military service or soldiers with serious disciplinary problems.

The Algerian forces were more than a match for the French inflicting several defeats on the invaders. The Arabs generally fought from horseback and were often as well armed as the French. The Kabyle, given the terrain, usually fought on foot and were excellent at skirmishing.

Setup

The French start in Fort Louis, The Kabyle and the Arab infantry start with 2 units at each settlement. From turn 2 a D6 worth of Arab cavalry units arrive on the eastern and western edges. they can move but cannot charge on their inital turn.

The Game

The French objective was to capture the 5 encampments, 2 on the plain and 3 in the mountains. The Algerians had to stop them.

 Kabyle encampment in the foothills

 Arab encampment on the plain

 The French expedition leaves Fort Louis - I have no idea why the are marching backwards

The French are almost in reach of the encampments on the plains but with cavalry to their flanks and rear inevitably form a "square"

The Kabyle leave their mountain camps to engage the French

 Rodge made these terrain pieces for his 28mm North West Frontier

They are excellent ground  for 10mm mountaineers

 On the western flank the French form line against Arab attacks

However Arab cavalry start working around their flank

Kabyle skirmishers force the French to halt. 

The French western flank hold against Arab charges and Kabyle musketry

 On the eastern flank the allied Arab cavalry get pushed back into the square after attacking the encampment 

 In turn the Arabs launch an attack against the Foreign Regiment  

 The Arab Kaid watches as his troops engage the Foreign Regiment  again

 The repeated assaults force the Foreign Regiment to retreat leaving a huge gap in the flank 

 The allied Arab cavalry charges to the rescue whilst the Zouaves form a square

 Arab cavalry oblige the Zouaves by charging them

 After 2 rounds of drawn combat, each side loses a base, the broken square repels the cavalry 

The western flank at the end - both sides at a stand-off

The eastern flank at the end - the Arabs have the upper hand

A victory to the Arab and Kabyle forces as the French failed to get a single encampment. The French eastern flank looked very dodgy  although they probably had enough firepower to hang on.

We will give this another run out with the mountains along the long edge to se if the French can even get a foot in the foothills

The French were outnumbered 2:1 in bases but do have the advantage of Devastating Volley (Shift Right) ,Target is Cavalry (Shift Right) and Skirmishers (Shift Right) so when they DO roll decent dice it is quite effective.

I made a couple of changes to the standard Bloody Big Battles rules. 

• For the Woodsman trait see above. 
• Smooth bore musket range was increased from 3" to 6" inches 
• A unit in square is treated as being in a town for melee 

Otherwise the rules worked well, as always, with cavalry being very dangerous with their 18" move and 2 changes of direction..

Thanks to Mark, Rodge & Shaun for playing. Rodge's mountains are cracking terrain pieces.

The Arab cavalry are mainly Littlewars Miniatures from Lancashire Games with some Pendraken and Old Glory.

Everything else is Pendraken Miniatures

The tents and the fort are by dreamholme Scenics

Te-li-Ssu 1904 RJW using Blood Big Battles

The battle of Te-li-Ssu was fought on 14–15 June 1904 during the Russo-Japanese War. This scenario was originally written for the Age of Valor ruleset and I've converted it, very roughly, for Bloody Big Battles.

Japanese 3rd Division assaults the Russian left flank

The main changes from the original scenario are

• reduced size of table from 8x5 feet to 6x4 feet
• reducing the number of infantry and cavalry bases by about 50%
• reducing the Japanese artillery by 75%
• reduce the number of turns from 15 to 12

The reasons being the available table, stands of troops and time.

Looking west across the battlefield

The streams are fordable by infantry and cavalry and the hills are steep. The ground level is difficult going for movement as it is cut down kaoliang.

Japanese Forces

	Bases	Type	Traits	Morale	Weapon
3d Div	1	Ldr
6th Regt	4	Inf	S,A	Trn	RR
35th Regt	4	Inf	S,A	Trn	RR
18th Regt	4	Inf	S,A	Trn	RR
24th Regt	4	Inf	S,A	Trn	RR
Div Art	2	Art		Trn	BLA
4th Div	1	Ldr
8th Regt	4	Inf	S,A	Trn	RR
37th Regt	4	Inf	S,A	Trn	RR
9th Regt	4	Inf	S,A	Trn	RR
38th Regt	4	Inf	S,A	Trn	RR
Div Art	2	Art		Trn	BLA
5th Div	1	Ldr
11th Regt	4	Inf	S,A	Trn	RR
41st Regt	4	Inf	S,A	Trn	RR
21st Regt	4	Inf	S,A	Trn	RR
42nd Regt	4	Inf	S,A	Trn	RR
Div Art	2	Art		Trn	BLA
1st Cavalry
Regular	4	Cav		Raw	RR
Divisional	4	Cav		Raw	RR
Army Art	3	Art		Trn	BLA

Russian Forces

	Bases	Type	Traits	Morale	Weapon
1st Div
1st ESRR	5	Inf		Raw	RR
2d ESRR	5	Inf		Raw	RR
3d ESRR	5	Inf		Raw	RR
4th ESRR	5	Inf		Raw	RR
Div Art	2	Art		Trnd	BLA
9th Div
33d ESRR	5	Inf		Raw	RR
34th ESRR	5	Inf		Raw	RR
35th ESRR	5	Inf		Raw	RR
36th ESRR	5	Inf		Raw	RR
div Art	2	Art		Trnd	BLA
35th Div
Tobolsk	5	Inf		Trnd	RR
Marshansk	5	Inf		Trnd	RR
Zaraisk	5	Inf		Trnd	RR
Div Art	2	Art		Trnd	BLA
Cavalry
Cossacks #1	3	Cav	S	Raw	RR
Cossacks #2	3	Cav	S	Raw	RR
Samsonov #1	3	Cav	S	Trnd	RR
Samsonov #2	3	Cav	S	Trnd	RR
Art	1	Art		Trnd	BLA

The Japanese plan of attack was for the 4th & 5th Divisions to roll up the Russian right flank whilst 3rd Division demonstrates against the Russian left flank.

(A word on the Smiley faces - Yellow is Disrupted, Green is Low on ammo and Red is Spent)

The "Unlucky" 4th Division advances towards the entrenched Russian Cavalry

 The initial assault is halted with both sides taking casualties

The Japanese 5th Division assaults the junction of the Russian cavalry and the 9th ESRD

5th Division storms the trenches ...

..reforms on the hill... 

... and stands it's ground whilst attacked from front and rear

 Meanwhile the Russians quickly form a new defensive line on their flank from the remaining cavalry, part of the 35th Division and 2 batteries.

 As Japanese 5th Division is hammered by the Russian line, the 4th Division reforms and joins the attack

4th Division takes over the attack from 5th Division,which presses on for Telissu, but fails to capture the the Russian guns

 A new Russian defensive line halts 4th Division's attack 

 5th Division's advance on Telissu is halted by another Russian gun line covering the approach to Telissu and it disintegrates.

The Russian right flank at the end of the game - a standoff

Meanwhile on the Russian left flank, the Japanese 3rd Division is busily demonstrating away

 Until it gets fed up with demonstrating and decides to have a go

 As it advances against the 1st ESR Division it is supported by it's artillery 

 The entire left flank of the Russian line collapses under the onslaught

and on the penultimate turn it storms Telissu

So a victory for the Japanese at the last possible moment and from an unexpected direction. 

Admittedly most of the Russian force had disappeared as it was Raw and it was only the 35th Division plus artillery that was hanging on. The entire Japanese 5th Division was out of action but the 4th had recovered it's strength due to high-rolls on the Movement table.

A very good scenario which I hope did justice to the original. The original scenario is available on ScribD but they wanted me to enter my card details so I could download it. Fortunately I found an old copy in my backups

As usual I do have one complaint. This is a common wargaming one - the table-edge of the world. I've noticed it especially in the RJW battles where the Sedan-fixated Japanese generals are always attempting to outflank the Russians. I will have to have a think about how to handle this.

Thanks to Dave, Mike, Rodge and Shaun for playing 

The figures were all from Pendraken's 10mm ranges