Russo-Japanese War Game

On Sunday we played a Russo-Japanese War game. Set in 1904 in northern Korea, near the Yalu River, a Japanese force of three infantry divisions (two line and one guard) were attacking a Russian Siberian Infantry Division defending a crossroad town that was vital to the communications of the region. A second, larger Eastern Russian Infantry Division, was marching to their aid, but needed to pass through a gap and cross a river to get to them.

The Russians could deploy 600mm of trenches anywhere on the table up to the halfway mark. They chose to place it directly in front of the town and occupied it with two machine guns and two jager battalions. The remainder of the force, nine Siberian battalions and four field batteries were deployed either side of the trench.

The game I anticipated was that the Japanese would attack the the main Russian position with two divisions while the third would be compelled to hold off the Russian reinforcements. But id didn't quite work out that way. The reinforcing force was slow to arrive, due in part to some poor dice rolling and never really threatened the Japanese right flank.

The Siberians put up a mighty defence, but in the end were overwhelmed by the Japanese, who had more battalions, more machine gun and more artillery. But it is not to say that the Japanese had it all their own way, half the Guard Division was badly knocked about and the first of the line divisions suffered badly at the hands of Russian machine guns and artillery.

Still it was nice to get these figures out of their boxes...the last time they saw daylight was in August 2019.

The thin Siberian line at the commencement of the battle

The Guards division at the kick off

The Guards engaged with the Siberian right

The Eastern Division making its way through the gap

The Japanese 1st line division advancing

The Japanese 2nd line Division advances, turning some troops to face the Russian reinforcements.

A view of the whole Japanese advance, the guards can be seen in the distance ascending the hill opposite the Siberian right

The Japanese line divisions surging forward

Attacking the trenches...

...defended by the Siberian battalions

More Siberians facing a Japanese assault

The Guards advancing

The trenches fall

And now a whole bunch of pictures provided by John, our Foreign Correspondent.

Russo-Japanese War Game

Today we played a Russo-Japanese game

The background story is that a Japanese force of three infantry divisions is seeking out a Russian force. A fairly basic table was set up with a few low hills and a couple of woods. The Japanese’s were instructed to deploy one division. They chose to deploy the guards division in the centre of their table edge. The Russians then could place a ridge anywhere within their own half of the table and then one meter of trenches, again anywhere on their half of the table: they chose to place both in the centre. The Japanese then placed a division, then the Russians placed a division, then the Japanese and finally the Russians. The result of all of this was that two Japanese divisions faced a weak Siberian infantry division, while on their left a single Japanese division faced a strong Russian division. The Japanese could count 12 batteries and 12 machine guns again the 10 Russian batteries and six machine guns.

The Russians chose to hold the trenches but attack the Japanese left in force. Despite heavy losses the plan worked and the Japanese left, with 12 battalions facing 16, collapsed after a hard fight.

Being pounded by the Japanese guns and machine guns, the Russians withdrew from the trenches, intending to reoccupy them when the Japanese got closer.

Although their left was destroyed, the Japanese pressed forward on the right trying to work behind the trench line.

In the end, with their left turned the Japanese advance stalled, although they were close to driving back the Russian left. Here we called the game a draw.