Bolt Action: Battle of Riga - Bolshevik Attack

Comrade Johnski, he's the chap in Royal Blue, is a 'technical expert' (i.e. ex-Czarist officer) in the Army of the Petrograd Soviet. His quiet life in 1919 is interrupted with the arrival of Commissar Spart, the chap in the brown leather coat, who orders an immediate preemptive attack on von Shaun's Freikorps massing outside the City of Riga. Johnski's desperate protests are waved by the promise of heavy tank support.

As well as a Ricardo (British heavy Mk V male) Spart provides two Renos (FT17s), a half track armoured car and a gun truck to add to Johnski's force of three conscript companies (Inexperienced), two companies of Petrograd sailors (Regular), a company of Lenin's Red Guards (Regular) and a field gun.

Johnski positions a Maxim gun behind the conscripts to encourage them to move forward.

Von Shaun's advance guard of Freikorps takes up a blocking position at a crossroads.

The game really ended on Turn 2. Von Shaun had cunningly hidden a forward observer in the village who called down a perfect artillery shoot (white marker). One of the FT17s was hit by six heavy shells and was turned into instant razor blades. The real damage though was done by he impact of the shelling on the remaining troops. They were bogged down with suppressive fire (lots of pin markers).

Meanwhile, the first unit of Bolshevik conscripts were wiped out by massive fire from an ambush of elite stormtroopers.

The Bolsheviks never recovered. Most of their infantry remained pinned down and was massacred by the endless stream of artillery. The gun truck blew up after a shell set of its ammunition and the Mk V was pinned by continuous fire from an anti-tank rifle and a heavy armoured car with a light howitzer.

The photo shows the situation after turn 5. Comrade Johnski is feigning death in the foreground. As soon as Spart falls, Johnski legs it.