Back of Beyond Campaign - Summer 1918

 As Spring turned into Summer, the fighting continued... though not with the quite the same level of widespread violence that winter and spring saw. 

Summer 1918 movements

The Siege of Bashkent

The Siege wore on into the summer of 1918. The Kahn started crucifying peasants that tried to till the fields in the region outside the city walls. 

Midway through July, in the middle of the night, a violent battle broke out within the city. Just before dawn the Great Gateway - the entry to the old city were flung open and the ringleaders of the coup delivered the head of the Warlord of Bashkent to the Kahn and begged for mercy for themselves and the city... 

The Third Battle of Engelsk 

After bringing the siege of Krotpkand to a successful conclusion, Kombrig Mahat Mikhan marched the  Ist Guard Regiment, Ipatiev House east to Engelsk hoping to succeed where the Babushka Army Corps had not and drive the Tsarists from the city. 

Approaching the city from the West, they discovered the entire 437th Infantry Regiment dug in before a strategic bridge across the White River. The Guns were quickly brought up and a preliminary bombardment was dropped on their position before the Bolsheviks moved forward to seize the bridge. 

Advance elements of the Borshevik army drew up before the entrenched Tsarists and began to exchange fire with them, while the cavalry galloped south to try and flank the Tsarist position. 

The rest of the Bolshevik forces arrived. The Bolshevik 1st Infantry Battalion and Artillery Regiment continued to try and pin down the entrenched Tsarists, while the rest made to march around the marsh to the south. 

The Tsarist 1st Battalion, 437th Infantry Regiment was forced to give up their position after taking terrible casualties in the firefight. 

Tsarist Reinforcements arrived from Engelsk - the 32nd Cossack Cavalry Regiment and the 245th Artillery Regiment. 

Fire from the entrenched infantry caused the Bolshevik 1st Battalion to also flee from the field. 

The two opposing cavalry units exchanged fire for some time across the river. 

The two opposing artillery batteries also began a long protracted duel from their positions on opposite sides of the field of battle. 

The Bolshevik 2nd Infantry Battalion continued to march around the flank to the south of the marsh. The 3rd and 4th infantry battalions had peeled off the column to try and take the trenches. They succeeded in driving off the 2nd Battalion, 437th Infantry Regiment, but not without the Bolshevik 3rd Infantry Battalion sustaining significant losses. 

The Bolshevik Artillery had been driven from the field, so for the balance of the battle, the Bolsheviks had to advance under relentless fire from the Tsarist gunners. 

The 2nd and 4th Bolshevik Infantry Battalions managed to seize the bridge. But the 4th Battalion was eventually driven off by the Tsarist guns. 

Then the last of the Tsarist reinforcements arrived. 

Fire from the Bolshevik 2nd Infantry Battalion eventually persuaded the Tsarist guns to beat a hasty retreat, but the Bolshevik battalion was not able to hold the bridge against the counter attacks of the two battalions of the Tsarist 231st Infantry Regiment. 

The Bolsehvik Ist Guard Regiment, Ipatiev House, was obliged to retreat back to Kroptkand.

Sweet Jiminy! Those fucking Tsarist Gunners!? Murderers, every last one! They must have all been the top graduates from the Imperial Artillery Academy... They just continue to savage those bolsheviks!? 

I was even wearing my "Lucky Marxist Hoody"... 

(not that I'm favouring any sides or anything...) 

The Siege of Holopchi

The Most Illustrious Beacon of Celestial Light and Commander of the Arm of Earthly Might, Win-Cao Lo-Fat, led The Illustrious Arm of the Nine Illuminated Terrestrial Immortals out of Ching-Ho and marched through the mountain pass to the west and on to the city of Holopchi. After an initial, unsuccessful, attempt to take the city be assault, the Chinese invested the city and prepared for a lengthy siege! 

Elsewhere

Hedwig Markus von Eggenberg, Margrave of Grosswardein, and his East Asia Cavalry Division continue to lick their wounds in Gura.

Lieutenant General Sir Percy Arbuthnot-Worcester-Gruntfuttock-Smytheleft a small detachment in Stlojia and marched the rest of the 14th Allied Eastern Expeditionary Army north to Canukand. 

The Ist Babushka Army Corps, having sustained significant losses in their initial two attempts to take Engelsk, retreated to Baboushka. 

The state of things at the end of Summer 1918

One more round of campaigning until armies with retreat to winter quarters, gather resources and taxes and recruit replacements - or raise new units entirely! 

ORANGE

• Commander of the Field Army: Lieutenant General Sir Percy Arbuthnot-Worcester-Gruntfuttock-Smythe
• Faction: Western Interventionists
• Army: 14th Allied Eastern Expeditionary Army
• Base of Operations: Canadar 
• Other Cities: Canuckand, Molsensk, Stlojia
• Field Army:
• 3rd Battalion, Winnipeg Grenadiers (10)
• 5th Battalion, Cape Breton Highlanders  (7)
• 2nd Battalion, Regina Rifles  (11)
• 105th Canadian Fusiliers - Heavy Infantry Battalion (15)
• 8th Battalion, Canadian Mounted Rifles - Cavalry (12)
• 37th Field Artillery (15)

YELLOW

• Commander of the Field Army: Hedwig Markus von Eggenberg, Margrave of Grosswardein
• Faction: Tsarist
• Army: East Asia Cavalry Division 
• Base of Operations: Gura
• Other Cities:  Driutsek 
• Field Army:
• 1st Battalion, 337th Infantry Regiment (Heavy) (8)
• 2nd Battalion, 337th Infantry Regiment (6)
• 1st Battalion, 369th Infantry Regiment (6)
• 2nd Battalion, 369th Infantry Regiment (5)
• Mongolian Cavalry (1)
• 38th Hussars Cavalry (4)

GREEN

• Commander of the Field Army: Altan Baatar Kahn
• Faction: Warlord Chinese
• Army: The Red Horde
• Base of Operations: Lung-Hu
• Other Cities: Wurumchi, Sui-Pei
• Field Army:
• Heavy Infantry Battalion (12)
• Infantry Battalion (13)
• Infantry Battalion (7)
• Infantry Battalion (11)
• Cavalry (2)
• Artillery (12)

LIGHT BLUE

• Commander of the Field Army: Win-Cao Lo-Fat, The Most Illustrious Beacon of Celestial Light and Commander of the Arm of Earthly Might
• Faction: Warlord Chinese
• Army: The Illustrious Arm of the Nine Illuminated Terrestrial Immortals 
• Base of Operations: Wei-Li
• Other Cities: Ching-ho, Ulaan-Goom,  
• Field Army:
• 1st Heavy Infantry Battalion (8)
• 2nd Infantry Battalion (12)
• 3rd Infantry Battalion (12)
• 4th Infantry Battalion (11)
• Cavalry Regiment (12)
• Artillery Regiment (8)

DARK BLUE

• Commander of the Field Army: Kombrig Mahat Mikhan
• Faction: Bolshevik
• Army: Ist Guard Regiment, Ipatiev House
• Base of Operations: Kubassa
• Other Cities: Kropotkand, Pyrohy, Holopchi
• Field Army:
• 1st Infantry Battalion (Heavy )(11)
• 2nd Infantry Battalion (8)
• 3rd Infantry Battalion (5)
• 4th Infantry Battalion (8)
• 5th Cavalry Regiment (10)
• 6th Artillery Regiment (6)

PURPLE

• Commander of the Field Army: Baron Yevgeny Lytton
• Faction: Tsarist
• Army: Gvardiya Belykh Koroley (Guard of the White King’s)
• Base of Operations: Bakunin
• Other Cities: Engelsk
• Field Army:
• 1st Battalion, 437th Infantry Regiment (Heavy) (10)
• 2nd Battalion, 437th Infantry Regiment (9)
• 1st Battalion, 231st Infantry Regiment (7)
• 2nd Battalion, 231st Infantry Regiment (8)
• 32nd Cossack Cavalry Regiment (10)
• 245th Artillery Regiment(11)

RED (of course) 

• Commander of the Field Army: Commissar-General Lev (Leon) Davidovitch Runstein
• Faction: Bolshevik
• Army: Первый Бабушка Армейский корпус (Ist Babushka Army Corps)
• Base of Operations: Baboushka
• Other Cities: Borschka, Vlodkask
• Field Army:
• 1st Transuralian Peoples Infantry Battalion (Heavy)  (4)
• 2nd Transuralian Peoples Battalion (8)
• 3rd Transuralian Peoples Battalion (8)
• 4th Transuralian Peoples Battalion (10)
• 1st Babushka Cavalry Regiment (5)
• 1st Borschka Artillery Regiment (10)