Crimea River Scenario from Black Powder

Jim's Brits v. Joe's Russians.

Nick attended fresh lagged from Paris for a short time.  Rich also made a cameo appearance.

We played the Crimea scenario from the Black Powder book on a 6x4 table with 15mm figs & half distances.  The Russians hold two hills with 4 guns in redoubts with 3 infantry brigades on the table & 2 cavalry brigades off table (can be brought on using normal command test anywhere on back edge or 12" up the sides).   The Brits had 3 infantry brigades, 2 cavalry brigades and 3 guns.  Victory conditions for the Brits were to take the batteries & avoid losing cavalry brigades, or by normal army morale test.

The Brits deployment from the left was light brigade, heavy brigade, grenadiers, line inf, scotts.  The Russians put 1 inf on their right 2 on the left.

The Brits commenced with an infantry advance.  The Russians sent  two battalions forward to occupy the hamlet & the field between the lines.  The Russian occupation of the hamlet held up the advance with the British brigade becoming bogged down in front of it.  But the Scots went round it into the copice to outflank the battery.  The Russians countered this by bringing cavalry on to cover the flank of the battery.

The Brits sent the heavy brigade to the right to support the Scotts.  They were met by Russian cavalry and fought a mutually destructive action.  But before the heavy brigade broke, one regiment charged the redoubt in flank and destroyed the guns (only to be shot up by the infanry beyond).

The grenadiers took forever to get round to advancing & were fortunate that the Russians in the field blundered & charged out of it to be dispatched.

On the far left, the light brigade was finally ordered forward after all the Russian cavalry reserves were committed.  But before they could get to grips with the enemy, the battle was decided on the other flank where the Scotts came out of the copice & broke the Russian cavalry protecting the battery.  This caused the Russians to fail army morale.

Once again Black Powder provided an ejoyable little battle.  The poor command rating of the generals on boths sides cause a lot of delay, but in the Crimea, such was to be expected. 

Pic 1:  The Russians advance their forlorn hopes as the Brits prepare to cross the river.
Pic 2:  The Russians hold onto the hamlet.  Remnants of the heavy & brigade & Russian cavalry are in the forground.  The Scotts are about to leave the wood & blast the Russian cavalry out of the way with Black Powder