"Metchka/Tristenik - Russo-Turkish War, 12 December 1877" Topic

Here is another anniversary post, which combines scenario design notes and a battle/ campaign report.

Despite having been a longtime enthusiast for wargaming the Russo-Turkish war, I was barely aware of this substantial battle (40,000 vs 30,000) until I started the BBB project. As it turned out, it is possibly the best of the BBEB Russo-Turkish battles to game, because both sides need to maneuver. This is a Turkish attempt to threaten Russian lines of communication from the east; or rather, two attempts in the same place, two weeks apart. The obvious thing to do in BBB terms, of course, was to combine the two actions into one scenario.

This is yet another instance where drawing the frame larger made the game much more interesting. In principle it is a Turkish frontal attack against entrenched Russians. On the Russian left is the Danube (with a gunboat for added flavour). But what was on their right, beyond the edge of the contemporary battle maps? The answer is, some difficult hilly terrain, beyond which is a river with a couple of crossing points. These did not feature significantly in the main historical action, but including them does give both sides some extra game options that fit with the historical situation. I think this is one of the bridges in the scenario:

At one point, to try to capture the ebb and flow of this particular action, I tried a kind of "high water mark" scheme, whereby the further the Turks advanced on day 1, the further the Russians would have to advance on Day 2. But when we tried it, this didn't have enough nuance to it, so I reverted to a more conventional "par score" number of objectives for victory.

However, by making the scenario cover both the preliminary operation and the second, major attack, I was able to make this a bit more than a simple "hold the line" mission. Ultimately that is still what it is – the winner is whoever holds most of the 10 objectives – but the extent of the Turkish advance on Day 1 affects where the Turkish reinforcements can deploy on Day 2, which gives the Russian defender some incentive to conduct active defence and counterattack, as opposed to simply sitting in his trenches and rolling his firing dice.

Scenario map:

‌RTW4 Russo-Turkish War 1877 Metchka-Tristenik map by bbbchrisp, on Flickr

We played this as the final battle in our Russo-Turkish 4-battle campaign weekend. The Turkish players attacked in all three directions initially, to make space for their reserves to arrive in. Their central probe was stalled with heavy casualties, but they made good ground on both flanks. When battle was renewed on day two, the Turks elected to make their major push in the north, against the Metchka position, forcing the Russians to commit there as well. This was a bloody and brutal contest in which the Turks got onto the Russian hill a couple of times but were repulsed each time with heavy casualties. The Russians then pursued them, recaptured the village of Metchka, but were unable to retake the Pirgos hill. Meanwhile both sides had faced off cautiously in the centre, while in the south a handful of troops had maneuvered busily seeking advantage, with the result that the Turks occupied a couple of the more remote target villages. The whole battle came down to the last turn, when three objectives were contested in hand-to-hand combat, and all three results were possible, a Turkish or a Russian win, or, as it eventually transpired: Result: Draw.

Turkish army, looking good for 34 years old:

‌Turkish army of 1854 / 1877 by bbbchrisp, on Flickr

This was a fantastically exciting weekend of wargaming. Two battles a day was very manageable, and didn't impose undue demands on people's domestic arrangements or physical exhaustion. The Plevna scenarios proved to be ideal for introducing two new players, perhaps because an assault on a fortified position is a relatively controlled situation compared with more fluid maneuvering in the open field. The individual scenarios turned out to be incredibly finely balanced, with every one of them being evenly poised right to the end, and both sides having the possibility of victory on the last turn each time, had the dice favoured them. As it happened, the Russians ended up with a campaign victory by the smallest possible margin.

Chris

Bloody Big BATTLES!
link

Chris I got your rules and I am am going to try to solo a game at some point. Any suggestions for which battle from the rulebook? My collection is a bit small: about 40 infantry bases, 6 cavalry and 6 artillery. It will grow slowly.

Kostas,

Glad to hear the books have reached you. As I just replied to vtsao, I suggest trying Loigny / Poupry as a starter scenario. Maybe with your existing collection you could just about fight the first day of it? You'd only need half the table as well.

Hope this helps,
Chris

Another thought: the Tacna scenario (War of the Pacific) in the BBB Yahoo group files might suit your needs. It's a simple little fight, and you could probably reduce both forces proportionally to match the troops you have available without distorting it too much. Simple terrain, a small quick game, suitable for solo play.

Chris

Those are good ideas. I must commend you one the rules, some really neat ideas.

Thank you. I hope that when you get the troops on the table, the game will live up to your good first impressions. Happy solo-ing!

Chris

It would look good gamed in 28mm , Outpost Wargames Services have a good range

Hi Shipka (great nom de guerre, by the way),

For sure, Outpost's RTW range is very nice. Sadly, 28mm is beyond my time/ space/ money budgets. Also, for my BBB games it might look a bit odd: in this Metchka scenario, all the Russian infantry regiments are 3x1" bases, and the Turkish brigades 4x1", which would mean very few 28mm figures per unit. Still, if the scenario encourages people to get into RTW, or gives useful ideas to those who already have RTW collections, I will be very happy.

Chris

Bloody Big BATTLES!
link

I would say Black Powder is better for 28mm (and I will showboat and point out I have a set of lists up on the blog for the RTW 28mm :P with a second edition in the works)

You could play BBB using 28mm with range conversions but it would not look right except if you had a lot of space. I guess you could have a figure as the equivalent of a base in the scenarios. Thus units would be 2-10 figures. But I have to ask if this would work aesthetically for many players?

Seconded – Black Powder is a fun game, ideal for 28mm (though probably better for smaller battles than this one), and KT's RTW lists for BP look excellent.

Chris

Still looking at basing for 28mm, originally was looking at 60mm by 50mm
but now considering a base of three figs 60mm by 25mm for inf, cavalry on 60 by 50 and artillery on 60mm squres.
I like the grand tactical, still trying to model my Polish uprising, making town bases is proving to be a challenge

Shipka (Geoff), if you do settle on a system that works for you, do share it – there are lots of folks out there who prefer 28mm scale figures but might want to try them for BBB-scale games if you can show it works well.

Chris
Bloody Big BATTLES!
link

Hi Chris for me it is area of play and cost of metal lol…….

Many thanks for the posting. I'll have to game this out using my Russo Turkish War figures. It'll be good to see the Turks doing some attacking for a change.

Hi Ostrowski,

Here's another scenario with the Turks attacking – Katseljevo-Ablava, which features Gorloff guns (Russian Gatlings):
TMP link

Chris

Thanks Chris, this is great!

My pleasure – always happy to encourage and assist RTW gaming!

Oh and here is another opportunity to deploy your Turks on the offensive:
TMP link

And have you seen the "Last Century of the Ottomans" campaign that Konstantinos and his group are fighting?
link

Chris
Bloody Big BATTLES!
link
bloodybigbattles.blogspot.co.uk

Great vid. I'll have to try to put one together.