Kavkaz Campaign - Surprise Attack!

The Attack Begins...

 
At first light of 6 June 1875, the Turcowaz columns were already on the march to force the river crossings at Zugdidi. The commander was under no illusions about the difficulty of this proceeding, but the rewards of success seemed to justify the risk of a repulse.

His army he divided into three columns. On the right, 3rd Division was to march up the side road to the bridge crossings and fords east of the town. In the centre, supported by the 1st Artillery Regiment and the machine gun company, 2nd Division was to storm the main highway river bridge and the woods and the town beyond. 

Much reliance was attached to the operations of the third column. A ford, unknown to the Izumrud-Zeleniyans, had been discovered a considerable distance west of the town.  Led by the cavalry brigade, and supported by the 2nd Artillery Regiment, 1st Division was ordered to cross the river and attack the town from the west. 

For their part the Coastal Column of Izumrud-Zeleniya had arranged its defences with care. Third Division occupied the town. Ninth Regiment stood at the southern end, the 11th covered the fords at the northern river bend, and the 12th covered the east bridge. Together with the Division Commander, General-Maior Gennady F. Stukhin, 10th Regiment stood at the north west quarter of the town.  

The sailors, meanwhile, covered the centre: the Gardner gunners in the woods, covering the river bridge, and the artillery within earthworks on the hill alongside the woods. West of the town, only pickets had been posted: 1st and 4th Cavalry Regiments, and 1st Grenadiers. The Army artillery commanded the approaches from the river. The rest of the Army was just rousing themselves in their camps when the lookouts send the alarm - the Turcowaz were across the river!

To determine how far the Turcowaz columns had reached, I rolled a die for each, plus a separate one for the machine-gun company.  The die roll score indicated how many squares in from the table edge the column had reached, except that a '1' counted the same as a '2'. 

The third (west) column rolled a six!  This placed the cavalry leading the column across the river already, when the dawn broke.  The central column (2nd Division) rolled a 4 which placed its lead elements astride the main highway almost up to the bridge.  The Gardner gunners were even ahead of them, forming a battery position at the bend of the river where it trended from south to west.  

But for some reason, the 3rd Division column had got off to a slow start - rolling a '2' - having progressed no further forward than the gun line of 1st Artillery. Having further to march to reach its first objective, this was not a fortunate augury for the success of 3rd Division.

Although the whole of the Izumrud-Zeleniyan 3rd Division and the naval artillery detachment, were alert and ready for action, the rest of the army column was caught at least partially by surprise. Only half the cavalry were deployed betimes, and just one Grenadier unit, but the guns at least were so placed as quickly to come into action.   

Now, I'll continue this battle narrative another time, but there are a couple of points I want to make here. You might find the occasional pic of artillery facing a corner of a grid-space, rather than, per rules, the side. Now, I like to have the option - even when using hexes. It goes to firing arcs, and doesn't affect the range (still measured through the sides of the grid-spaces). The other point is that the scattered stones on the river sections denote the fordable stretches. The river reach between the bridge and 1st Division's ford was entirely unfordable.

... Oh, yes - I almost forgot.  You will also notice two units in a single square.  One 'activation point' would allow them to move together, or, in the case of the Turcowaz artillery regiments, shoot together. However, if one activation permitted the pair of gun units to shoot, they had to be at the same target, even though a shooting die was rolled for each gun. One of the effects of the Turcowaz 'surprise' attack, was that the Izumrud-Zeleniyan units off table had to be activated separately to enter the action. As it turned out, this was not to be a problem...

Battle of Zugdidi - initial positions and Turcowaz 
assault plan.

You might recall that the Turcowaz had a good, but not outstanding reconnaissance, and the Izumrud-Zeleniya an altogether ineffective one. I wanted to translate this into some kind of advantage to the Turcowaz that fell short of a complete surprise. Hence the not quite well coordinated Turcowaz assault; and the Zeleniyans' incomplete state of readiness...

To be continued...