Start of game from Russian positions
I've considered various ways such as single battle using a 12' table, a 2 game campaign where the Japanese player decides on which flank the 3rd army appears, the several game campaign covering the different phases of the battle and the single battle on my dining room table which is about 5' long and 3.5' wide
Naturally I went for the easiest one, the single battle on my dining room table.
Rough map of the battlefield
The terrain was very basic. I included the highlands to the east because they played a significant part in the battle so steep slopes and classed as difficult terrain. However I excluded the Han river because it was frozen during the battle. Mukden was 2 villages and the single Objective was the northern road exit from Mukden. The frontline comprised Rifle Pits that were just over 3" apart. This meant that troops couldn't sit in their trenches and fire-fight
The east and west roads are purely to mark the route of Japanese 3rd Army so there is no road bonus for them.
All of the OOBs give the number of battalions, squadrons & batteries but, other than total numbers, I haven't found a manpower OOB. So using the unit OOBs I divided the number of battalions by 8 and rounded up.
Japanese OOB
C-in-C FM Oyama Anywhere south of front line
4 A Vet SM General Reserve
First Army South of front line, South-east of Mukden
Gen Kuroki
4 A Vet SM Guards Div
5 A Vet SM 2th & 12th Inf Divs
Second Army South of front line, South-west of Mukden
Gen Oku
4 A Vet SM 5th & 8th Inf Divs
4 A Vet SM 4th Inf Div & 8th Kobi
Third Army Either on Road SW of Mukden or on Road SE of Mukden
Gen Nogi
4 A Vet SM 9th inf Div & Cavalry Corps
3 A Vet SM 1st & 7th Inf Divs
Fourth Army South of front line, south of Mukden
Gen Nozu
4 A Vet SM 6th & 10th Inf Divs
3 A Vet SM Okubo's Detachment
Fifth Army South-east hills
Gen Kawamura
5 A Vet SM 11th Inf Div
10 units of 40 Infantry & 6 Generals @ 6500 Troops per base
Russian OOB
Second Army North of Front Line, west of Mukden
4 P Trnd SM Tapornin’s Detachment
3 P Trnd SM Vasiliev's Detachment
3 P Trnd SM Rifle Corps
3 P Trnd SM VIII Army Corps
2 P Trnd SM X Army Corps
3 P Trnd SM Golembatov's Detachment
Third Army North of Front Line, south of Mukden
3 P Trnd SM V Siberian Army Corps
2 P Trnd SM XVII Army Corps
2 P Trnd SM VI Siberian Army Corps
2 P Trnd SM General Reserve, Third Army
First Army North of Front Line, east of Mukden
4 P Trnd SM I Army Corps
3 P Trnd SM IV Siberian Army Corps
3 P Trnd SM II Siberian Army Corps
3 P Trnd SM 3rd ESR Div,III Siberian Army Corps
3 P Trnd SM 72nd Inf Div, III Siberian Army Corps
4 P Trnd SM Rennenkampf's Detachment
Reserve In Mukden 3 P Trnd SM I Siberian Army Corps
17 units of 50 Infantry @ 6500 Troops per base
Due to the large scale I decided that all troops would be armed with SM giving a 3" range. I ignored artillery as, again due to the scale, it just didn't feel right.
The Japanese 3rd Army which was sent to outflank Mukden was represented by 2 counters, one real & one dummy, which simultaneously appear on both the south-east and south-west roads. They move exactly like other units but are always considered in command. The real 3rd Army is revealed when a Russian unit is within 6" of it as the start of a Japanese turn.
The Russian army was not allowed to advance beyond their front line as this felt in keeping with General Kuropatkin's defensive mindset.
Turn 3: the Japanese 3rd Army arrives on Russian left flank.
In the centre the Japanese have broken through the frontline but the Russians have thrown in their Reserves to bolster the line
Turn 4: Russian 1st Army appears to have the left flank covered
On the right flank Russian 2nd Army has immense difficulty manoeuvring
Turn 5: A general Japanese assault along the whole front succeeds on the Russian left flank but holds elsewhere
The observant reader will no doubt have noticed that several Russian units have not reacted to events close-by. This is mainly due to the Russian player's inability to roll anything higher than 5 on the Movement chart for several turns.
Turn 8: The Russians are on the back foot now. Although Russian 2nd Army has finally moved units from the right flank to the centre, the Japanese 2nd Army is advancing against the right flank. On the left flank 2 of the Russian units are Spent and won't last long. In the Centre Japanese 3rd Army units have entered Mukden
Turn 9: A rear-guard action by the last 3 units of the Russian army won't hold the Japanese for long. However the Japanese units are scattered far and wide and won't be able to mount an effective pursuit.
The Russian army had basically ceased to exist so I conceded the game at this point knowing that the Japanese would capture the objective in their next turn.
Game Observations
General I was pleased with the first attempt at this scenario.
I thought that the OOB worked well with the Russians acting historically due to their Passive attribute and also having smaller units which vanished once they started taking casualties. The Japanese army with the 6 Generals meant that they rarely failed to move.
There are a couple of changes that I would make. Firstly give the Russians a second line of Rifle Pits so that they could fall back on them. Secondly I would move everything 6" towards the Japanese base line to give more room for IJA 3rd Army's outflank. Finally I would remove the east & west roads and just have the counters advance down the east and west edge of the table.
Thanks for Shaun for playing the Japanese
The figures were all from Pendraken's old 10mm RJW range
