Topic: Russo-Japanese War AAR

Pardon the typos.... Having a hell of a time with the wife's ipad.

A friend and I were able to test Ql in regards to how it might handle historic battles. Our counters were way rough but he had a hex mat that looked pretty sharp and top down card stock terrain.

Anyway, it was a hypothetical battle in which the Russians actually engaged the 1st Army's advance guard at the Korean town of Wiju.

On one side, elements of Kashtalinski's 3rd Eastern Siberian Rifle Division:
3 battalions / 9th regiment
3 battalions / 11th
3 battalions / 12th
3 arty batteries (not Qf)
3scout companies from regiments listed above

VS
3 battalions infantry (better quality)
3 cavalry squadrons
2 arty batteries (2.95")
1 engineer co
Slated reinforcements.

The Russians had to take the town before Asada's troops were reinforced.  They actually gained a foothold in that burg after crossing the open ground to it's east.  One tweak, though, will be to reduce arty attack dice.  Guns are represented 1-1 if in terms of size.  But our thought was ad should be trimmed down to 2:3.  The Japanese guns suppressed two battalions of enemy infantry, blowing 2 steps off one, before Kashtalinski reached the town.  Then they mauled a Russian battery in record time.  One thing we agreed worked was that the Japanese guns could fire If, which the Russians, to mirror their historical inability to fire their guns from concealment, don't have that.

We also liked the as-yet unpointed  ability of cavalry to "harass" enemy formations....inflicting suppression on a 1 or 2. 

Moving on, riflemen with the 12th finally drove off two battalions of japanese infantry, then held against the cavalry (mowing down Two squadrons).  Russian scouts advanced around the town, and set up on the road behind it, effectively surrounding Asada's troops.  But this turned out to be a stupid move on my part as his surviving riflemen just teamed up with the reinforcements now entering through his map edge and wiped my boys OUT.

The battle ended by mutual agreement with my grunts and his locked in the town and his fresh horsemen poised to hit my arty, already battered by the better Japanese crews.

Scale right now is an infantry battalion at size 4 or 5, representing 750 to 950 men.  A cavalry squadron at size 1 marking 150 or so horsemen and batteries at 1 size step per gun.  There are some house rules/ traits for the various units, which so far feel pretty on target.  As mentioned, I just have to neuter the aty a bit as even their suppression is a bit too much.

Thanks
Matt

Re: Russo-Japanese War AAR

Home early, and on second thought, this is just wasted calories.

There's about to be a full-blown, fully done game on the RJW at the same scale, done a lot better than I could manage trying to apply it to QL.  Not knocking the set.  Knocking my capabilities at creating a conversion compared to a full blown set of rules.

Sorry to take up the bandwidth big_smile

Re: Russo-Japanese War AAR

themattcurtis wrote:

Home early, and on second thought, this is just wasted calories.

Not really. Glad to see the game can inspire some discussion along these lines. I do think some historical (or semi-historical) work can be done with QL.

Daniel Kast
Majestic Twelve Games
cricket@mj12games.com

Re: Russo-Japanese War AAR

themattcurtis wrote:

Home early, and on second thought, this is just wasted calories.
There's about to be a full-blown, fully done game on the RJW at the same scale, done a lot better than I could manage trying to apply it to QL.  Not knocking the set.  Knocking my capabilities at creating a conversion compared to a full blown set of rules.
Sorry to take up the bandwidth big_smile

What set are you thinking about picking up?
I hadn't heard of any RJW sets, or even late 1800's for that matter, being released.
I guess there's Dystopian Wars, which is basically during that time frame, and looks fairly interesting.

Re: Russo-Japanese War AAR

It's by Legion wargames.  Operational scale.

Re: Russo-Japanese War AAR

cricket wrote:
themattcurtis wrote:

Home early, and on second thought, this is just wasted calories.

Not really. Glad to see the game can inspire some discussion along these lines. I do think some historical (or semi-historical) work can be done with QL.


Hope so.  Got no interest in trying the existing conversions, because I have no interest in recreating Star Wars or other folks' settings that already exist.  Just a matter of taste, but I just don't see the point to that.  The way to show the game's potential will be to take something new -- or at least original to MJ12games -- and run with it.  Hope something is done with the IS universe again someday.  Why not try to represent the land warfare aspects of your ISS sourcebook?

Re: Russo-Japanese War AAR

themattcurtis wrote:

Why not try to represent the land warfare aspects of your ISS sourcebook?

Oh yes ! Mj12, dio that and I will buy  :geek: