The answer to the quiz was the Crimean War - full marks plus bonus marks to Paul. This semi modern war was another classic in terms of military thinking being decades behind technology. The generals wanted to refight the Napoleonic Wars (Russia with their massed artillery and men in columns, the English with their world class musketry, and the French with their Imperial Guard). Apart from a few short actions, most of the war looked like the First World War - trenches and co-ordinating attacks with artillery bombardments, but famously with little regard to supplies and medical services.
I tried out the game that game with S&T 193. (This is long after the time of John Michael Young.) It is a Grand Tactical simulation that suffers from the general problem with these - 90% of the map is never used; everything happens within a few hexes of a port or Sevastopol. After you get past that annoyance, it is quite playable.
The premise of the war as their the Russians were trying to knock the Ottoman Empire out of Europe. They were trying to take fortresses in the Caucasus and Bulgaria. The French and British did not want a change to the balance of power and arrived with a small army. With the threat of Austrian intervention, the Russian's withdrew from Bulgaria back to Russia. The Allies did not want to leave it at that - they wanted a demonstration of their resolve, so they decided to invade the Crimea. To the Russian's this was a minor province, but they could not ignore the insult.
As the Russians had a huge army, but they had to face Austrian threats, Allied threats in the Baltic and their own offensives in Central Asia, they are allow to bring as many boys as they want onto the peninsula, but they pay in victory points for what they bring. Examining the costs, the most effective approach was to opt for a minimal garrison and the monthly reinforcement of a corps (which was the historical approach too)
The Allies have their small army in Balkans. However, to bring it in effectively, they need a port. In this respect, I differed from the original Russian strategy: I garrisoned every port.
So in the first turn, the Allies had to launch an amphibious invasion. I chose Eupatoria, as that was their historic invasion. You can see Lord Raglan with two divisions and some supplies (bottom left) attacking a militia guard (top right) while the rest of the force remains in the Balkans. (I arrive with only English so I do not feed two different supply trains.) The Russian fleet stayed safely in Sevastopol (no choice). Although the English drive off the defenders, the cholera had weakened the English and many men found the exertion of the first battle debilitating. (They rolled a marginal victory, and a division was demoralised.)
At the same time, the Allies bombarded naval installations in the Baltic. (A random event - historically this happened the next year.) As a result, the Tsar refused to send reinforcements in the first month. However, Prince Menshikov responded aggressively with the best of his forces - two divisions, a cavalry division and some Cossacks and counter-attacked. He managed a prepared attack (he got a good role on command initiative - something the Russians never managed once in the actual campaign) and won a minor victory. Importantly, this action retook the port and left the English in the wilderness.
The effort did cost the defence though and the French were able to walk into an undefended port with three divisions - two much for the battle weakened Russians. The English survivors fortified a village and waited for rescue, but Lord Raglan rode a flying column around the Russian army to reach the French. An English correspondent witnessed this departure and reported it as cowardice causing demonstrations in London. (Another random even that cost the Allies victory points - this actually happened the following year.)
As Menshinkov could not hope to prevail until reinforcements arrived, he chose to fortify the Inkerman hill before Sevastopol. He did receive some good news from the Caucasus - a Russian victory caused the Turks to withdraw troops destined for the Crimea to deal with that. Also, the Tsar finally dispatched the promised corps (top box second down).
The French forces aggressively advanced on Balaklava and overran the militia their and them followed on by attacking up the Inkerman hill. They got close, but the Russians held. At the same time English attempted to break back into Evpatoria against the militia forces there without success - exchange.
With winter starting next turn, the Russians attempt to dislodge the Allies from Balaklava. They bring up the reinforcement corps with a force march and attack the beach head.
The result was a few more losses on each side - another blood bath. And with that, the campaigning season came to a close. Both sides spent the winter reinforcing. The Russians building a second army at Simferpool, and the Allies reinforcing Balaklava. However, a portion of the Allied naval transport was dedicated to shipping. The stacks began to get a bit unwieldy:
In the spring, the Allies launched a renewed attack on Inkerman hill. Using their superior siege artillery, they destroy the Russian entrenchment and kill a militia unit monitoring the pickets. Following the bombardment, the Allies attack up the hill and run into disaster. Was it lack of co-ordination or another charge of the light brigade, but the attack was repulse with losses. A Russian counter-attack sends the Allied army reeling and Balaklava is lost. The Russians launch two armies in pursuit:
The encircling armies launch a synchronised attack. This looks huge, but the forces are roughly equal in strength.
However, the Allied army is forced to retreat at the loss of a few divisions for the Russians. Retreating through zones of control cause more losses and the remaining army surrenders. The Crimean War is over.
It struck me playing the game that had the Russians made a serious commitment to the Crimea, they would have crushed an amphibious attack piecemeal. However, in re-reading the rules, I realise that I halved the Allied reinforcements by mistake. (They had two fleets, a Frnahc and an English fleet, and I only had one reinforce.) So the scenario as I played it would never had happened - there would have been more in the initial invasion and they would not have been repulsed by only three Russian divisions. However, had I taken the 20 VP hit had started with 12 divisions, I suspect I could have prevented the allied invasion. I wonder...
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