Lair of the Uber Geek: Picture Dump From the July 11th Liaoyang Game

The last half of July has been crazy busy work wise so no time to post about gaming. Thankfully, at least there was time to game! Anyway here is a picture dump from the Liaoyong game I ran. The commentary will be a bit sparse but will be amended over time.

Our Historicon replacement game day was featured in this video

Here's the initial set up from the Japanese left flank.

A close up on the Japanese 6th and 3rd Divisions which make up the 2nd Army. These formations would attack the hills directly in front of them for the entire battle.

You can also see the sabot bases I made for all the stands

The Japanese right flank. Not pictured is the 12th Division, which started the game hidden from the Russians and already across the Taitzu River.

Opposing the Japanese are 14 Russian Divisions (12 Infantry and 2 Cavalry)

The Japanese force consisted of 8 Infantry Divisions, 3 Kobi (reserve) brigades and some independent artillery and cavalry regiments

The Japanese have a slight edge in quality and command but there are a lot of Russians!

Theres a lot going on this 8x4 table. In hind sight, I should have played on a 8x6 table - I just didn't bring enough terrain squares to set it up that way. The distance from the Russian front lines and Liaoyang was too small and should have been another 18 inches or so. Live and Learn.

We're using Greg's Altar of Freedom rules which I've modified for WW1 by introducing indirect artillery fire, machine guns and longer rifle fire ranges. The command friction aspect of the rules (Priority Points) was unchanged as that's the heart of the system. The artillery rules need to be modified but overall I was very happy with how the rules "mod" worked.

The Japanese attack commences with their lone reserve division (the 4th) committed to attacking the extreme Russian right flank.

Tony and Greg commanded the Russian forces while I commanded the Japanese. About halfway through the game Josh was able to join and took command of the Japanese left half - finally getting some competent command to the Japanese forces.

The battle in the center was a see-saw affair with the Russians launching a counter attack that very nearly captured the 4th Army's HQ. The red pins on the bases reflect fatigue points which is how the rules reflect battle damage. The magnetic pins worked fantastically. I'll be adapting a lot of game systems to use them.

The determined assault by the second army finally carries Hill 683, which is a VP location

We used the flashing smoke markers from the Trafalgar game to represent artillery that had fired indirectly during the turn.

The Japanese left flank continues to prepare for the attack. In the upper right corner you can see parts of the 12th division which was revealed to the Russians - they are moving to cut the trans-siberian rail way (the grey road)