Ivan Interrupted - Thanks Microsoft

I have a slightly new set up in Shedquarters. After upgrading my main PC to Windows 11, I revisited my older, back up machine. Having established it wouldn't take the Windows 11 upgrade, I stripped out all the extraneous stuff on it, cleaned up the start menu, and installed it permanently in Shedquarters, to act as a video hub for Tuesday's games. Having been caught out before I did a few low level tests, and let it run to update any software before the game. Much easier than lugging my main machine out there in the rain and dark these winter months.

The writing up and researching for "It Rolls for Ivan" has been gathering pace. The writing up reveals more and more holes, as does the research. More reinforcements are required to plug some of the identified holes, and there'll be a steady trickle of oddities over the next few weeks reaching the painting desk. 

For this game I scattered a few fields providing light cover across the table, and pitched a smaller, more experienced White Regiment against a couple of Red Regiments, including some recent conscripts. The Whites had an armoured car, the Reds some cavalry. Both sides had a small artillery battery. I'm mixing things up to try out different combinations for the rules. The scenarios aren't too clever for now. Mostly capture a road/rail junction, and shoot up the enemy. 

Reds are to the left of the picture, Whites to the right.

In Shedquarters were Tim and Chris, online were Jon and Ian. Jon and Chris were the Whites, Ian and Tim were the Reds. We try to keep Jon away from the Reds. We don't want his neighbours finding out he's a closet Bolshevik.

Ian sends a column towards the stanitsa, in response to the White probe in that direction. Chris runs his armoured car up the main road. Ian deploys his gun, and succeeds in inflicting some damage on said vehicle.

Jon gets his artillery into action, and shells Ian's column. The initial strike is enough to Pin the unit.

Jon occupies one of the fields of unripened wheat. Tim's conscripts start to probe forwards into the wood.

Ian pushes up into another of the fields, deploying into skirmish order. Due to a misjudgement of the terrain, he has blocked the advance path of his cavalry. Chris pulls his armoured car back out of direct fire range from the Red artillery. Ian has missed a trick by not firing at it again when he had the chance.

Instead he is forced into trying to knock it out with a bombardment. Chris doesn't have any activations left, so he can't back out of the strike, and just has to weather it.

Jon lifts the strike on the infantry advancing on the village. When he resolves the markers he finds he has hit every base. Impressive. Ian has sort of given up on that battalion, and moves up a fresh one to challenge for the stanitsa. White troops are already infiltrating into the far side.

Jon tries to take out the new battalion, but over shoots, and hits his original target. It isn't their lucky day, is it?

He is able to correct the fire with his next activation. Ian retires his badly damaged unit into the woods, leaving his casualties behind.

On the other flank, Tim's conscripts advance steadily through the trees. Ian has sent his cavalry forwards, making use of the cover. Chris has now been able to reverse out of the artillery bombardment, and luckily takes no further damage.

The attack on the Red right develops further, with the cavalry moving through the woods. One of Tim's battalions occupies a wheat field in support of this thrust.

Ian has moved his artillery up. Being out of action for a turn and a bit has cost him. Chris consolidates his hold on the stanitsa.

After a bit of confusion, Jon swings his artillery round and hits the flanking cavalry. We were having intermittent problems with the video feed all evening, which I put down to the stormy weather. All very annoying. The Zoom session had to be rebooted a few times, and in the end I had to cut one of the camera feeds to stabilise it.

Chris advances again with his armoured car, and Ian's gun crew fail a Terror Test, becoming Pinned.

As the game clock ticks down, Tim's conscripts move out of cover, form up, and open fire on Jon's infantry. It's quite effective.

The White infantry in the wheat field return fire, and inflict a lot of damage. However, Tim's grand plan reveals itself. He now moves up his third conscript battalion in support, although they are proving reluctant to advance. They are persuaded of the error of their ways, and move forwards, grumbling as they go.

They are now forced to charge the Whites in the field, who have used all their activations this phase. Much to Tim's surprise, they achieve a victory in the combat, throwing the Whites back. They take a little more damage, but no problem, as they have an activation left, so they can follow up. Following up a previously defeated opponent can be very effective, to put it mildly.

But no! Their race is run, and despite the screaming and waving around of Mausers by their commanders, they "Nyet!" again, and compound it all by mutinying, and collapsing in Disorder.

The Red bolt has been well and truly shot by this point. Most of their good units are badly roughed up, whilst the Whites are in good shape generally. The cavalry flank attack has stalled, and the conscripts are about to be undone by a counter attack.

So, as the wind howled round Shedquarters, and the rain lashed the windows as Storm Barra passed over us, we drew the whole thing to a close. Another tense game, with a lot of incident. The Whites rode their luck, but did have a more coherent plan. Jon likes to deploy his guns early, and then hit as many targets as possible. This can disrupt an opponent quite badly, if done well as it was in this case. The armoured car proved a nagging presence, and was lucky to not suffer any ill effects from the Armour Incident Table. The latest revisions more or less tie wheeled armour to the roads, with the danger of bogging down off road now quite high, and speeds low. Chris, even though he commanded the armoured car, approved of this, and I liked the feel it gave the game. The roads now become really important.

Most units survived their "Nyet/Da!" tests, until near the end, when Tim's conscripts became sulky. Again, that looked right. The fear of things going badly when using what are currently called "Push Your Luck" suits is certainly having a major influence on play. A change to the rules, which means a phase ends for you if you have an un-Coerced "Nyet!" is focussing minds wonderfully. Now players understand the importance of holding back activations, we're seeing more careful play in certain places. I'm not getting complaints about units being charged and being unable to shoot, as they realise it's their own fault if they don't manage their activations.

Next week I shall be trying something with tanks and trenches, so a bit less dashing, probably.

And as I packed up, I got that little orange dot on the Shut Down option on the PC. The little b*gg*r had been downloading a flippin' updater during the game, despite my careful preparation. No wonder the bl**dy signal had been dropping out.