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