Day 2 - Siege of Sevastopol - The French Assault

Having conferred during the night Lord Raglan and French commander General Pelissier agreed that the French should have a go at assaulting the Mamelon. Accordingly all supplies and action points would be allocated to this attack. 

At 9am four French regiments rise out of the forward trenches and advanced towards the Russian position.  

Immediately the light infantry on the left come under fire from the 32 pdrs up on the Mamelon. They waver under the hail of shot and pull back to the safety of the trenches. However, the Zouaves, Algerians and a French line regiment continue on, but soon another French unit is forced back.

The Zouaves reach the wall and begin to break in causing some Russian casualties.  Then the Russians counter attack. The Zouaves are all but wiped out and in the next turn all of the French pull back towards the safety of their own lines. 

The French are severely bruised, but they have destroyed one Russian regiment and damaged another.

The French artillery begins to bombard the Mamelon, this time aiming for the Russian infantry, causing more casualties. A second French assault is also unsuccessful and two of the French units are destroyed.

French reserves move, including a Guard Regiment and reorganise themselves for another assault.

  The Russian take advantage of the lull and move up more infantry into the Mamelon, just in time to receive the second French assault.  This time the French have a little more success, although one of the French line regiments is destroyed by a mix of artillery and musket fire.

The French guard and a line regiment reach the defences and storm into the Mamelon, sending a Russian regiment to destruction:

  however the other French units are not so successful and are forced back.  The Guards are now on their own inside the Mamelon.

The Russians immediately counter attack and the French Guard are overwhelmed and destroyed.  The Mamelon is now back in Russian hands.

The two remaining French regiments, which includes the battered Algerians, rally and once more charge up against the defences. 

They are met with a hail of musket balls and canister from the guns up on the Malakoff. The French attack fails and the remnants of six battalions limp back to the French lines:

As night falls the allied commanders confer and decide to try again in the morning. Once again the allies throw a strong 9 for resupply. During darkness they will bring up fresh troops for the morning assault and have sufficient to replenish the guns. The Russians again are not so lucky, throwing just two. They decide to use all their points to resupply the guns on the Mamelon and Malakoff defences.

Unboxing the British Armour

More boxes yeild a good collection of British tanks:

They were in pretty good condition with just a few loose wheels, one broken track and the odd missing machine gun. The haul consists of some 11 Shermans, seven Comets (which I recall were used as Cromwells).  I have a feeling that there may be some more Shermans, but so far I cannot find them:

A hot day on the gun line - Day 1 at the siege of Sevastopol.

Having set this game up, I have been working out how best to play it. I plan to use Battle Cry rules with some slight modifications to weapon ranges. Also, I will not be using the cards, but will use D6 dice to activate units; this is largely because the action, when it takes place, will likely be in just one sector of the board.

The game will be played by ‘days’ each lasting ten turns.  Guns have sufficient ammunition to fire for three turns each. Each salvo is marked by a ‘puff’ of cotton wool. This means each side will have to manage resources well, as resupply will occur at night. There may not be enough supplies available to replenish all the guns in one night.

At night each side will roll a D 10 which will give them activation points. These can be used to resupply gun ammunition (one point per gun, giving three turns of fire), or the points can be used to repair damaged earth works/guns or to move reserves up to the line. Reserves are limited to those available at the beginning of the game. This means that the allies will have about 15 fresh battalions and the Russian around six.

I am anticipating that the allies will attack on one day, but, if unsuccessful, will have to spend a few nights replenishing before going on the offensive once more. Meanwhile the Russians can repair damage and bring in fresh troops to the defences.

The action points will limit the size of the allied assaults too. This should all make for an interesting game.

So, the first day consists of an exchange of fire with the opposing guns blasting away at each other. On the allied side it is mostly the French guns that attempt to destroy the guns in the Mamelon – to no real effect. Some of the British guns also add to the fire.  After five hours, with ammunition running low the firing fades away.

The Russians reply with their heavy guns to pummel one of the British heavy batteries, killing the crew and destroying the emplacement:

 As night falls both sides start to resupply. The Allies roll an 8 and decide to resupply seven batteries and repair/replace the destroyed battery. The Russians are less fortunate as they roll a one.  This means that only one battery can be resupplied, leaving some guns dangerously low on ammunition for the next day!

Ready for Battle - more US armour

Having taken them out of the box, dusted them down, reattached the broken parts and finished off the paint scheme, the latest box of US tanks is ready to take to the field.  The group consists of five Stuarts/Honeys, I believe by Matchbox, and two Airfix Lee tanks:

Opening another box - US Armour

Lifting the lid on another box of tanks revealed some Stuart and Lee tanks for my US forces:

There were also four British armored cars in the box; two Humbers and two Daimlers:

The Stuarts will need a bit of finishing off, but otherwise all useful additions.

Assault against Sevastopol

Inspired by this old print of the siege of Sevastopol, during the Crimean War, I thought I would have a go at building a similar battlefield on my hex mat and perhaps re fighting some of the action:

Playing around with my tiles I put together the battlefield to cover the key areas attacked by the Allies in 1855:

Here is some of the detail. First the area of the Mamelon, in front of the French lines:

This was a fortified pimple of land that sat forward of the main city defences and was regarded as a key position by the allies as fire from here could sweep across the open terrain on both sides. The French will be responsible for the attacks in this area.

Beyond the Mamelon lies the much tougher position, known as the Malakoff, consisting of stone walls, a fortified tower and earthworks:

A series of earthworks running along high ground link up with the main British objective, The Redan lying at the far end:

More Russian guns will be positioned in the Redan.

The Allies have assembled a mass of heavy guns that are positioned behind major earthworks on high ground opposite the city. Allied infantry are deployed across the front, protected by deep trenches:

The Allies have significant reserves encamped to the rear (off the table, including Sardinian and Turkish troops, as well as the balance of French and British forces. The Russians too have reserves within the city, which is also being bombarded by Allied naval forces and other siege guns.

The Allies are preparing for their first assault.

Footnote:
I am not trying to accurately recreate the actual siege, which would require significant additional work, but I am simply drawing inspiration from the defences to create a setting for an assault against a fortress. In the real battle the Mamelon fell to the French in June 1855, while the attacks against the Malakoff and the fall of the city did not happen until September that year.

US Armour

I have looked through US armour and fixed the odd loose wheel and machine gun and this is what I found:

A group of 76mm and 75mm armed Shermans:

Three Chafees:

Seven half-tracks:

Two M7 SP guns:

Three 155mm SP guns:

Altogether, as useful force:

I am sure there are some Stuart light tanks too somewhee?