Tomorrow, weather permitting, John is coming up for a game as I still can't drive (grrrrr!). I have set up a game loosely based upon the "Attack on the camp" scenario from CS Grants scenario book. The Ruskies will be attacking a British camp straddling a river. The must not only capture it but also drive off the British for long enough to blow up or capture a large store of powder en route to Sebastopol.
On the table at the start are the British cavalry division. The Light brigade are on piquet duty dispersed on the table, and the Heavies are in the camp with supporting horse artillery. Available to the British player from turn 2 are the 1st and Light Divisions (four brigades, in total 13 btns of foot) and 4 batteries of artillery.
The Russians will have everything I have available, which is a fair bit. There are six regiments of cavalry (two each of Cossacks, hussars and Uhlans) with supporting horse artillery (2 x 8 gun batteries). The Cossacks are marauders in BP, but I've not given the other cavalry that characteristic as the performance of Russian cavalry was lacklustre to say the least so they will need to adhere to the standard command and control rules.
The Russian main body is made up of two brigades of infantry, each of eight battalions with a small detachment of the Corps rifle btn attached. Making the Russian brigades so large is a two-edged sword as they will take longer to break but will have significant command issues as the brigadiers will struggle to be within effective command range of all of their units. One of the Russian brigades includes a (poorer) Reserve regiment, otherwise the Russian line troops are quite tough. I've put the Russian artillery together as one command as there are four batteries each of 12 guns, so 8 models in all!
I am unsure how to rate the commanders. Probably give the Russian CinC a rating of 8 and the brigadiers 7. The British ought not to be much better but I think making everyone an 8 should work, although I will have to make Raglan no more than 7!
As it was a war with truly bumbling and inept commanders on both sides, I'd give all commanders the lowest ratings. I don't think anyone shone in the conflict.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the game and I hope the recuperation goes well.
Some of the British showed a bit of initiative but you're right. Trouble is, if I made them all the lowest grade (6) the game would last all week!
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