Hex Shambattle

 

The Bluvian II Division at Cerulean City.
The significance of the RED Strength point marker 
will be explained in due course...

It is high time, I am supposing, to relate what happened in the recent border clash between the armies of Redina and Bluvia. No one quite knows what caused the conflagration this time. Where there is friction, the least spark will ignite the flames of war, and so it was on this occasion. Perhaps Bluvia feared a reprisal for their decisive victory in the previous clash (see here). Certain it was that Redina had failed to make good upon ceding Redville to Bluvia administration. However it was, Bluvia once again set in motion their powerful army.

The Shambattle map. The names of half the towns
have been renamed.

In this action I made slight changes to the Order of battle I outlined in a previous posting (Shambattle Maps).  For both armies I reduced the infantry from 14 to 12 stands (each representing a battalion), but increased the artillery to 2 field and 1 medium battery. I also added an engineer battalion at 3 Strength points, plus a train of another 3SP. As it happens, one of those trains contributed materially to the action.

The infantry formed 3 Divisions of 4 Battalions, plus a machinegun company.  The 6 cavalry regiments formed a Division. Again, the likelihood of treachery in the ranks was determined by a series of die rolls, the identity of which was indicated by a 'wrong' coloured strength point marker (die). The time and nature of their perfidy would be determined during the course of the action.

The remainder of this first instalment of the narrative, I'll reserve it to the pictures' captions to lay out the situation...

Scarletton: the Redina capital city. The red brick edifice
is the hospital, recruiting centre and logistics collection 
point.

The plains before Scarletton. Redina machine guns and artillery cover
the Middle Bridge...

... whilst on the opposite bank of the Purple River, the Bluvian
 Cavalry await the order to march.
 

Redina 3rd Brigade garrison at Redville

Bluvian 1st (Turco) Brigade massed at Blueford

Overall view of the Theatre of War, looking west
from behind Cerulean City towards the distant hill upon which
 stands Scarletton.

View of the plains between Cerulean City and the river

Blueburg - the Bluvian III Infantry Brigade awaits the 'off''.
But their first task was merely to hold...

The plains before Scarletton. The horse team to
the left of the picture is the Engineers' train; the 
wagon near Vermillion City in the foreground
a mobile hospital and recovery unit.

Opposite Vermillion City: Blueburg

The Bluvian invasion begins! Hussars, followed by the Lancers,
clatter across the Middle Bridge

The cavalry attack is supported by the Turco attack from Blueford,
and massed artillery and machine guns from close by Blueburg.
II (Chasseur) Brigade moves up from Cerulean City 

The Turco Brigade attacks across the bridge and the fords

A comment on the fords. The original game system has no fords, nor means of crossing the river other than by the bridges. My version, even the smaller 'square-grid' game, being rather enlarged, called for something a little extra, offering more scope than the three bottlenecks. The river in sections, each section was diced for, a '6' revealing the existence of a ford. This action led to fords being discovered in a whole different location from last time - a very unpredictable river, this! These were close by the Blueford Bridge - offering an explanation for the appellation of the nearby town. The small stones indicate the fordable river sections.

I also decided that the engineers, not present in the 'square-grid' game, would accompany a bridging train. Were I to do this again, I would task the invading army with supplying a bridging train; the defenders with laying out a fortified position. Unfortunately, I failed to give the defending army (Redina) a well defined engineering task. Their engineers became little more than just another battalion.

To be continued...