Campaign Considerations Part Two: Back of Beyond

The second thought I’d had for a campaign (after the English Civil War Campaign Option) was the “Back of Beyond” - Tsarist, Bolsheviks, Warlord Chinese, and Western Interventionists all fighting in the far eastern part of the crumbling Russian Empire during the Russian Civil War. I ran this campaign with a modified version of DBA a little over twelve years ago:

Back of Beyond Campaign  

(Give it a read - it’s quite fun!) 

Almost ALL of the stuff I have is fully-painted and MOST of the forces have been rebased to individual bases - to use with Contemptible Little Armies and Savage Worlds and other games I was playing at the time. This time around I thought I’d use Neil Thomas’ One Hour Wargames (or… possibly… a modified version of Men Who Would Be Kings…?) and planned to run it with the same factions as the campaign above - two Tsarist, two Bolshevik, two Warlord Chinese, and one Western Interventionist. 

Somehow, initially, I had figured I had enough miniatures to just run it (after the Warlord Chinese were re-based). I got so excited about it, I spent all of Saturday writing out rules for the campaign (loosely based on the old campaign rules presented in earlier editions of DBA). I got part way through re-basing the Chinese last week and realized I have no where NEAR enough Bolsheviks to run it with TWO Bolshevik Factions!? 

I MIGHT be able to do it, IF either I switched to 12-figure units - either switching to Men Who Would Be Kings (which uses 12-figure infantry units) OR modifying One-Hour Wargames to only use 12 strength units…? Maybe.

Alternatively I could just use ONE Tsarist, ONE Bolshevik, and one or two Chinese and the Western Interventionists… But I like the idea of larger campaigns with more people involved - and the possibility of infighting among factions (bolsheviks fighting bolsheviks or Tsarists fighting Tsarists) because… it happened?! Idealogical differences between individual commanders that were theoretically on the same side came to blows (and bullets flying). Or, way out in the ass end of the empire, it was everyone for themselves and individual commanders sometimes sought to carve out little empires of their own!? 

I COULD say the Bolsheviks can’t fight each other - as only two armies can really be in the same place at once - I could have two bolshevik players using one army… but I don’t like having to say that - partly because of the reasons above (I like the idea of possible in-fighting), but also because I’ve found in previous campaigns, when I’ve proscribed that certain factions cannot fight each other, SOMEONE figures out a way to use that to their advantage and break the game. 

This is the state of each of the forces

Tsarist Russians

Splitting this up evenly, so I can field two factions, each could potentially field:

• 3x Infantry
• 1x Heavy Infantry
• 2x Cavalry
• 1x Artillery 

I'd have to paint up one Artillery unit. 

There is a third machine-gun team, so ONE of the two armies could upgrade a unit of Infantry to Heavy Infantry... 

Bolsheviks

Not sure how I thought there was anywhere close to being enough... There are seven Infantry units, total. Two MG teams that can be added to Infantry units to make them Heavy Infantry.

No Cavalry!

No Artillery!?

There is no chance I am going to order two (or more) units of Cavalry and two (or more) units of Artillery to play this... By the time it showed up and I got around to painting it, the moment would have passed.

I mean, I guess I COULD just borrow Cavalry and/or Artillery from the Tsarists... 

The way I wrote the rules only two armies can be present at a battle - I figured because of the distances involved, communications available at the time and the sparse population and available supplies, it would be challenging to coordinate multiple armies arriving at the same place at the exact same time... (not saying impossible or it never happened, just using that as the justification for writing rules as I did). 

So even IF the Bolsheviks were fighting each other... I could just borrow the cavalry and artillery from both of the Tsarist forces. 

(this is why I do these posts... I actually just figure shit out AS I WRITE IT!? Realized I didn't have nearly enough that I HAD to do for the ECW as I was writing THAT post... and then realized, THEY'RE ALL RUSSIANS - I don't HAVE to have specific Bloshevik uniforms)

I also have these... Russian Sailors. The miniatures are WW2 figures... but how much would the uniforms have changed. 

On that note, I also have WW2 partisans - civilians with rifles - that could also be used...? 

Warlord Chinese 

Lots here, enough to field:

• 3x Infantry
• 1x Heavy Infantry
• 1x Cavalry
• 1x Artillery

Might even be enough for an extra infantry unit each - If I get a few more things painted. Also the initial artillery would be the Mortars, but I have two howitzers and crew that just need to be assembled and painted. 

The Western Interventionists were just made up of my Great War Canadians, of which I have SO MANY… 

Maybe my GOAL for this week should be to PLAY A GAME of One Hour Wargames - no fussing and mussing about trying to come up with an historical scenario (like I'd planned for the Hundred Days) - just put the figures on the table and play a game. 

I had thought about trying it with just 12 miniatures per unit - as that way I might be able to just field 6 units of Bolshevik infantry... but that would be silly... I think borrowing Imperialist Russian Artillery and Cavalry (and calling them deserters!) would probably be a better option.

This may be the one I start with after all... 

Though, for a moment, when I realized I didn't have bolsheviks, I had started to consider YET ANOTHER option for a campaign... I'll probably post that in a bit as Campaign Considerations Part Three!