RJW Skirmish Game Set-Up

It's been awhile since posing an actual gaming post - and this one is just the set-up for a game this Friday. The scenario is loosely based on the Battle of Motein Pass in the early part of the Russo-Japanese War. Plan to try out (for the first time) The Men Who Would Be Kings for rules. In the past I had planned to use Bolt Action for RJW skirmish, but figured more of the local gamers might be more interested since a lot of them dislike Bolt Action.

That's an actual IJA cap from the period - it was graciously given to me by a local gamer many years ago. He has a large collection of authentic military gear. The cap is very old (over a 100 years) and fragile, and normally kept in a bin with packs of silica gell to help preserve it.

Edit: Reconfigured the table to give the Russians two rows of trenches - one elevated. They are slightly outnumbered in infantry, but have two mounted Cossack units to only one mounted unit for the IJA.

The game will be a playtest for hosting it at a game day later this month. Only using a 6X5' table area as the venue for the game day will have similar sized tables.

IJA center with the sole cavalry unit. Artillery and machine guns are interspesed between infantry units. Players will be able to rearrange their units at the start of the game.

IJA right with Imperial Guard units.

IJA left with line units.

Russian center with two Cossack cavalry units. Again, players will be able rearrange placement of their units before the start of the game.

Russians behind their trenches.

Well, so much for now. Hopefully the rules work okay. A few folks who've played the rules say they work best for European/Colonial troops against natives best. A full report will follow, in any case. Thanks for stopping by and apologies for not visiting your blogs for the last week or so. I was entertaining an old Army buddy who I hadn't seen in 40 years. He and I were both at Fort Ord in the early 1980's, then we both went to Jump School and ended up at Fort Bragg. I left for Korea and he went into Special Forces. He was an SF Medic and spent most of his time in Central and South America in the 1980's and 90's. He had a lot of very interesting stories. He got out an became an orthopedic surgeon - so very proud of him.