Once Upon a Time ... the Revolution - A Red Grand Campaign PBEM

Chapter 13 - Face to Face: Northern front, November 1918 - May 1919​

The first engagement in the North didn't occur before October 1918. The Soviets had a small river fleet on the Dvina.* But since Allied help had reinforced the White forces at Arkhangelsk, it had been badly outnumbered by White gunboats and British river destroyers. Thus the Reds had sought shelter in the harbour of Kotlas, the only safe haven along the river that was left to them. But the Siberians had different plans. They conquered the town in September 1918 which forced the Red Dvina Fleet out into the open. Now the Northern White could have simply waited for their opponent to starve, instead they send their own fleet to hunt the enemy down. On 16 October 1918, a White fleet consisting of 8 gunboats and 4 British river destroyers cornered the Red force which had only 4 gunboats and 4 transports. The Reds were battered but managed to escape.


But the weren't saved; 11 days later the White navy struck again. An American observer noted how this battle reminded him of hunting turkeys. It couldn't have been more one-sided. The Red fleet was manhandled without offering any resistance. It's attempt to flee resulted in the loss of three gunboats. The fourth and last was destroyed a day later, when the Whites returned for some more target practise.
In reaction to this latest naval disaster, training manuals were changed on all Red ships: from now on the main focus would be on swimming lessons.**


On land, the war in the North had been slow as well. When civil war broke out, there wasn't a single Red field army in the North. After Miller assembled a White army at Murmansk and a second one was raised at Arkhangelsk, Sovnarkom struggled to find enough men for a single corps. But luckily it had a secret weapon: one of the heros of the October Revolution, the man who had led the assault on the Winter Palace. His party alias was "Bayonet". How could such a man fail to slice open some White bellies?


Unfortunately, "The Bayonet" wasn't quite as fearful as his chosen name implied.** To say Antonov-Ovseenko was a mediocre general was an understatement.*** But for the moment, the Northern front was relatively easy to contain. This changed when a third White army assembled at Pskov in late November 1919. Now Petrograd and Novgorod were threatened from three directions. "The Bayonet" would have to struggle to keep Miller, Ironside and Rodzianko at bay simultaniously. But he still enjoyed interior lines and was soon to receive a large number of reinforcements.


In the meantime, he maneuvered around in the hope of catching a weaker foe. But "The Bayonet"'s stabs usually only hurt the air, not its human foes. From November 1918 until February 1919, he manged only once to force a battle. If one can call the fight at Gatchina a "battle". It involved Antonov-Ovseenko's entire army attacking a single White cavalry regiment. The White horsemen perished and Antonov-Ovseenko went back to stumbling aimlessly through Northern Russia.

By February 1919, the White forces had gotten uncomfortably close to Novgorod but they were facing a greatly strengthened foe. Antonov-Ovseenko's army had doubled in seize; Avtonomov's 8th Corps had been joined by the 16th under Nadiozhny's command. Moreover a second Red Army had been raised, it was put in the hand's of Makhin, a veteran of the campaigns in Southern Russia, he had the 14th and the 15th Corps at his disposal. Together these two armies contained more than 80.000 Red soldiers.


Antonov-Ovseenko and Makhin found numerous ways to entertain themselves. Theoretical discussions about Marx' model of history, vodka, report on the quality of hats in the Red Army, the local women, more vodka, ... Somehow military matters, rarely made it on the list. In consequence, the two Soviet armies maneuvered around aimlessly.
The soldiers didn't lack to notice that although they heavily outnumbered the enemy, their leaders consistently failed to force the evasive foe into battle. Soon the Red generals lost the trust of their troops. Antonov-Ovseenko and Makhin became known as "Slouch and Slack".****
In the few instances where one of the two deigned to concern himself with military matters. Their attacks inevitably failed. The White commanders evaded the big, clumsy Red armies and retreated just to advance somewhere else. Railroads where constantly wrecked by White partisans and small raiding detachments. But the Red Army had nobody to hunt them down since it was mainly an infantry force. Apart from the Anarchists, who refused to operate outside their native Ukraine, the entire Red Army contained only 4 cavalry division (3.000 man each) which were all deployed on the Southern front.

In late March 1919, "Slouch" finally found the "Bayonet" in himself and tried to pin down Rodzianko. But the White general managed to avoid combat at the last minute. Even worse, his small force managed to slip through the Red lines and marched north. Moreover "Slouch" was back and he longed for the warmth of his comfortable quarters at Novgorod. Antonov-Ovseenko thus didn't pursue his foe.


A month later "Slack" suddenly remembered that he had an army to command and tried to intercept Rodzianko using the railway. For once the Communists succeeded ... at least to some degree. Makhin's Army, 46.700 men strong, attacked Rodzianko who had less than 4.200 soldiers. The real surprise about this battle is that the Reds failed to finish their enemies off. One White regiments was destroyed but the other three escaped and even had the time to take their supply wagons with them.


After this stunning success. Both Makhin and Antonov-Ovseenko decided that they deserved some rest.***** This enabled Rodzianko to eascape north where he joined Miller's army.

The next chance wouldn't occur before mid May, "Slouch" came back from an extended drinking binge and apparently he had found some military wisdom deep down in the bottle. Both Red armies would board trains and head south, along the way, they would join forces and the strike Pskov with all their combined might.****** The plan worked as intended until the Communists reached Plussa, a town just north of Pskov, on 21 May. Here they were intercepted by the 1st White Cavalry Regiment which charged at them with suicidal courage.******


Outnumbered 80:1 the White horsemen perished but their act of bravery disturbed Antonov-Ovseenko so much that "Slouch" came back. He was overjoyed to be joined by "Slack" and any offensives on the Northern front were cancelled for the time being.


Although the campaign took place on Petrograd's frontdoor, Pravda didn't print a single article on it. It was just too embarrassing that all a greatly reinforced Red Army had to show for its efforts were three destroyed White regiments. And it had only taken 6 months (December 1918 - May 1919) to achieve this amazing success. At this rate the civil war would be over sometime in the 21st century!


Next update: Luckily, Red generals prove to be more capable elsewhere. - The Siberians lose their teeth ...


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* The Dvina flows into the White Sea at Arkhangelsk.
** Yes, another fleet goes down. But for once I was innocent. After Kotlas was lost, this fleet was doomed.
** Antonov-Ovseenko was a close ally of Trotzky during the early 1920ies. Surprisingly, he survived Trotzky's fall and went on to serve in Spain during the Civil War. But with his past he didn't have a chance during the Great Purge. He was recalled from Spain in August 1937 and perished in February 1938.
*** Antonov-Ovseenko has 3-0-0 stats in RUS. At this point of the game, he was the worst 3-star general I had.
**** This was one of the most disappointing campaigns I have ever led. I had the numbers to crush the enemy but my two generals had such lousy stats that they were never active when I needed them to be. But I didn't give up hope. Eventually I was bound to get lucky ... or wasn't I?
More importantly, I have to compliment Ian on this campaign. He relied on small stacks to establish a screen that kept me away from his main forces worked. Additionally, he used these forces to blow up as many railways as he could. But most importantly, he didn't overestimate his strength and was very careful to avoid the traps I tried to set for him.
***** Slouch and Slack were both inactive - again (or should I say as usual).
****** Only Antonov-Ovseenko was active but I carefully set the marching orders for both stacks so that they would combine on the move. Makhin being inactive wouldn't matter since Antonov-Ovseenko would be in charge of the combined army.
****** That was some really bad luck. Sometimes a movement is aborted after an enemy force intercepts it. In this case this was a bit annoying since my army obliterated the enemy, it could have continued its attack. I don't know what factors determine whether this happens or not.

New update later today.


Thanks Stuyvesant. Your comments are always a pleasure to read. From a story-telling point, I enjoy a chapter like this almost more than one with big victories. It makes for far better twists to experience setbacks (Blucher's death and the defeat at Rostov) and some frustratingly absurd campaigns (the one in the North) than an unstoppable roll to victory. That also makes the Red a worthy subject for an AAR. They start in a deep hole; getting them out of it is quite the challenge.


Searry. It isn't that easy:

1. Inactive commanders give a stack a 35% movement penalty which makes it hard to even get a stack onto the potential battelfield.
2. An inactive commanders means, I can't put the stack on offensive posture. But a battle won't occur unless at least one stack is on offensive (and Ian won't do me the favour of using offensive posture for his stacks).
3. The 35% penalty to battle performance doesn't really matter at that point since there won't be a battle anyway.

Loki, it wasn't that frustrating. I am a patient player. Besides I had two goals:

1. Keep the White forces seperate. At this I fully succeeded. And as long as the White armies were split, they remained vulnerable. Had Ian manage to unify both forces, I would have been in trouble.
2. Destroy the enemy (or at least significant parts of his forces). At this I failed completely. That last attack was the golden opportunity for which I had waited all along. Having it stopped by a single regiment of cavalry, that was frustrating.

Thandros, that is an interesting idea. I have gotten so used to making the best out of the bad leaders the Reds get that I didn't even think about it. Your solution comes with some disadvantages, though. Without leaders, my big stacks would have occurred a 35% penalty to movement and combat power. They probably wouldn't have been strong enough to take out their enemy under those circumstances. But at least they would have been always active. Moreover using stacks with multiple lose units (units not organized in divisions) is rather dangerous. Small units stand a far greater chance of losing elements than big divisions.
I won't opt for this solution. I am not giving up hope that Slouch and Slack will eventually gain me a victory.

Searry said:

So what happens if the inactive commander's stack is bigger, and thus generates MC and two opposing armies happen to be in the same region? This could happen if two armies end up at the same place when changing turn. I never took a look under the hood, as mathematics bore me.

Click to expand...

The concept of military control works very neatly in AGE games except for one situation and that is the one you are asking about: what happens if two stacks remain in the same region for an extended time. The following is my experience (I may be wrong on the finer points):

It depends on postures:

1. If one side has it's stack on evasive posture (green), this side will lose military control.
2. In all other cases, militray control won't change. Seize of the stacks doesn't seem to matter. A small unit can preserve its military control even if it's in the same region with a much more powerful enemy (that is the point where reality and simulation are far apart).
   But usually this will only happen if both stacks are on defensive posture. If at least one stack is on offensive/assault a battle will occur (unless the weaker force manages to evade) and one side is forced to retreat (automatically switches to evasive posture and is forced to move out of the region). As a consequence, the other side will take over military control in the region. The speed of that process depends on stack size.

At least that was how the system worked under patch 1.04 (which we are continuing to use for this match since changes in 1.05 were rather extensive and are probably not savegame compatible).
The latest patch 1.05 has adressed the gap between reality and simulation that I mentioned above. Now there are events that allow a vastly superior stack to gain military control when it shares a region with an enemy force. But this is a slow process (I haven't seen more than 15% military control gain in a single turn).

Chapter 14 - God Forgives ... I don't: Siberian front, May - June 1919​

One clever writer on statecraft correctly said that if it is necessary for the realization of a well-known political goal to perform a series of brutal actions then it is necessary to do them in the most energetic manner and in the shortest time, because masses of people will not tolerate the protracted use of brutality.
-
Lenin​

Recap: The Siberian front has reached a critical stage. Both sides have launched offensives. Grichin-Almazov has attacked Simbirsk on 5 May 1919, but was beaten back after losing an entire corps in a badly coordinated attack. In the meantime, Zhloba had advanced into the rear of the Siberian army. His objective is the encirclement of Grichin-Almazov's men. Operation Cauldron has begun.


The Siberians had lost control over the only railway line linking them to their hinterland. Now the Soviets had to cut off the remaining retreat routes. However a full encirclement would not be possible. Even the powerful Red Army hadn't enough troops to cover all seven regions bordering Grichin-Almazov's current position. Instead Trotzky chose to occupy all regions east of the Siberians. If the enemy tried to escape it would thus have to be deeper into Red territory which would only worsen his supply situation.


It fell upon Frunze to close the first hole. He took most of the Simbirsk garrison with him since it appeared unlikely that the Siberians would try another attempt against the city after just having failed miserably. Timoshenko and Trotzky would rendez-vous south of Grichin-Almazov's position and seal another escape route. Zhloba would continue to siege Syzran. An assault was avoided in case the Siberians tried to break out of the pocket.

Surprisingly Grichin-Almazov didn't react at all. Hadn't he realized the danger yet? Or did he simply choose to rest his troops after the bloody battle at Simbirsk? Regardlessly, the pocket was sealed or at least the semicircle the Soviets had intended to create. One of the two Siberian field armies was in mortal peril ...


Now the Soviets had to guess where an attempt to break through might occur. Three places seemed most likely: Simbirsk, Kuznetsk and Syzran. Simbirsk was reinforced by Ghai-Khan.* Trotzky abandonned his position completely in the believe that it was unlikely to come under attack and moved to cover Kuznetsk. The other armies stayed put.


It was Syzran where Grichin-Almazov tried to break the cauldron's walls. In many ways this made sense: it was the most direct way back to safety and might have even enabled the Siberians to preserve a foothold on the Western Volga bank.

But the Siberians coordinated their attack badly: The reserves that Grichin-Almazov kept with his headquarters never engaged. This left Galkin's corps to fend on its own. Like Akutin's corps during the battle of Simbirsk it contained a lot of unorganized units but only two bigger formations:** Grivin's 3rd Siberian Division and Kappel's Volga Shock Division - the best unit in the entire Siberian Army. They faced Zhloba's Red Army that contained two formations: the 1st Corps under Zhloba's personal command and Chapaev's 25th Fusilier Division*** Kappel spearheaded the attack. His shock troops charged Chapaev's division ferociously. However they were so badly outnumbered and outgunned that the Volga Shock division was soon transformed into bloody minced meat.


But even worse suffering lay ahead for Galkin's Corps: Frunze brought his 1st Red Army south in order to assist Zhloba. Suddenly Galkin's battered men faced 4 powerful Communists corps eager to crush them.


Casualties had been bad during the first hours of the battle (3 Whites for every Red soldier) but now they became truely horrible: Almost 8 White soldiers were slaughtered for each Red one during the second phase of the battle. The proud Volga Shock Division was completely annihilated and several of the unorganized regiments shared the same fate.


Almost 17.000 White soldiers perished on 6 June 1919. The two Red armies suffered less than 4.300 casualties. 14 White regiments were destroyed. Grichin-Almazov had sacrificed one third of his army but was still trapped. The city of Syzran surrendered only days later which gave the Red Army control over a strategically placed depot.

On 15 June 1919, the Siberian commander was again facing the task of finding a way out of the Red net. Trotzky had left two openings for him. But both were intended as traps. Trotzky closed the Southern opening himself. While it fell upon Kork to move north and protect the Volga shore between Simbirsk and Kazan.
In the North, an old fried had showed up again: Khanzhin's "corps"! These were the last - very much starved - survivors of the failed flanking maneuver of spring 1919 (see Chapter 9). The Red Army had left them alone after they ceased to be a threat. Trotzky had been sure that starvation would take care of them ... but somehow these men had managed to survive on grass and water.


Now the Siberians executed a three-thronged assault: Grichin-Almazov and Khazhin attacked Sviask in an attempt to regain control over the Volga shore. In the meantime Janin led his army against Kazan. If both strikes succeeded the Siberians would have turned the tide in a most spectacular way.

But things started badly. Janin wasn't willing to leave command to his more talented subordinate Semenov.**** Moreover his corps wasn't as well organized as its foe. Vatzetis's Red Army was neatly grouped into two powerful formations: Vatzetis' own Latvian Fusiliers Division and Egorov's 7th Corps. Both units were formed around a core of Latvian elite infantry; they were well equipped with artillery and each was supported by a detachment of carriage-mounted heavy machine guns. Janin's Corps contained three strong divisions: the 2nd Komuch Division under Molchanov, Zinevich's 1st Siberian Division and Diterikh's 3rd Czech Division, which at this point was Czech only in name.


Again it were the Komuch soldiers that spearheaded the attack. Unfortunately, they proved woefully ineffective. The entire division perished under concentrated Red fire. Diterikh was more successful and manged to get his division into close combat without suffering too much. But on their own his men weren't able to break the Red lines. In the end, a furious Janin had to sound the retreat. He left one third of his army behind: 13.000 Siberians had fallen - most of them Komuch. The Red Army had lost 3.900 men.


The first part of the Siberian plan had failed. The second wouldn't go much better. Kork, who had a much shorter way to march, predictably reached Sviask first. His men were even able to dig some nice trenches.***** When the Siberians finally arrived, they attacked bravely. Khanzhin's men were of little use, starved as they were, but Grichin-Almazov's soldiers performed admirably. Nevertheless they were unable to break the Red lines and both formations were forced to retreat. 7.100 Siberian soldiers died; the Red Army lost 4.100 men.


June 1919 had been a complete disaster for the Siberians. Both their field armies had suffered bad defeats. Grichin-Almazov was down to 25.000 men and still trapped on the wrong side of the Volga. The Siberians still held one trump card, though: Siberian gunboats controlled the river. Thus their hinterland was safe even though Kolchak's armies were in bad shape.


Next update: Operation Red Flood


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* Of course this opened a new escape route. But Durk wasn't aware of that yet. And each opening I left was also a trap. This would become a lot like a game of Nine Men's Morris.
** It appears Durk was suffering from a severe leader shortage. This is not uncommon when a Siberian player recruits aggressively. Durk seems to have saved his EP on mobilizations and money printing rather than spend it on generals. Also Durk's recruitment choices may have played a role. I think he recruited too many single regiments. Formed into divisions these require a lot more commanders per element than bigger units (brigades or two-element militias).
*** The term "division" is misleading, this was a monster with over 20.000 men that could rival even the biggest Red corps in size and fighting power.
**** Semenov is an excellent attacker but he would have incurred a command penalty since this army contained some French units. Durk had thus little choice but to put Janin in charge.
***** The speed at which these trenches were dug is due to the engineer unit that I had attached to Kork's corps.

New update in a few hours.


Loki: Usually the golden rule is to keep plans simple. But in a way, I am forced to disregard that rule. Writing AARs is equivalent to putting your own playbook out in the open for everyone to read. If I still want to surprise my opponents, I have to come up with new tricks and maneuvers.

It's indeed ironic that I am once again stopped by a river blockade. My punishment for sending my own fleet to the bottom of the Volga.


Thandros: Unfortunately, I am far better at killing my own generals. Kappel survived. But luckily he is still a one-star general which greatly reduces his impact. Moreover Durk has very few Komuch units left for him to command.


Stuyvesant: June 1919 was actually a rather mixed turn in the Ukraine. Although important generals were lost and the attack on Rostov failed, my units also inflicted considerably more damage than they suffered. The real problem is that Blucher's former army is left in a very dangerous situation. All depends on whether I can get them back to safety. If I succed, all is well.

Stuyvesant said:

you can't get across the rivers, but the Siberians have been so badly battered, that they can't perform any credible offensive.
Now, who benefits more from that stalemate?

Click to expand...

Never say never. No river blockade is airtight. And who said this is a stalemate? I didn't amass so many troops on the Siberian front for nothing...

Chapter 15 - A Reason to Live, a Reason to Die: Siberian front, July 1919​

We would be deceiving both ourselves and the people
if we concealed from the masses the necessity of a desperate, bloody war of extermination,
as the immediate task of the coming revolutionary action.
-
Lenin​

Grichin-Almazov's situation was becoming increasingly desperate. His supplies wouldn't last much longer and he was still trapped on the wrong side of the Volga. An escape towards the South had become almost impossible since his exhausted troops would starve long before reaching safety. This left him with two possible routes: He could try to slip through between Kazan and Simbirsk or he could attempt a crossing west of Kazan and then flank around the city in the North.

Trotzky expected Grichin-Almazov to take the longer route. Surely Grichin-Almazov wouldn't try again where he had just been beaten back. Thus Ghai-Khan, Kork and Schors were given orders to converge on Khanzhin's position. Hopefully Grichin-Almazov would walk into the trap. Should he however choose the shorter route, he was bound to stumble into Ghai-Khan's army which most likely would still be in the region upon the Siberians' arrival.

The offensive was opened by Trotzky who swiftly conquered the depot south of Grichin-Almazov's position. Now an escape south had become completely impossible.

1: Ghai-Khan, 628 pw
2: Kork, 202 pw
3: Battle of Sengiley, 1 July 1919​

Kork and Schors dutifully converged on Khanzhin who was forced to retreat south - deeper into the pocket. Unfortunately, the Siberians managed to avoid combat.

But somebody was about to throw a wrench into Trotzky's neat little plan: Approximatley 40.000 Green rebels had risen between Samara and Simbirsk during the last days of June 1919. For a year the peasants in region had suffered a miserable life in front territory. Red and White alike had stolen their food, pressed their sons into service, trampled down their crops and occasionally showered their villages with shells. Now the powder keg had finally exploded in a wildfire of peasant rage.[1]


It was unfortunate for the peasant rebels that one of their main columns formed only miles away from Frunze's headquarters. Once his scouts had brought news of the Green gathering, the Red general turned his artillery around and ordered an intensive shelling of the entire area. Many of the naive peasants thought hell had opened and tried to escape; but as soon as the shells stopped to rain, Red infantry moved in to butcher the survivors.


The whole affair was the most one-sided battle of the civil war. In the bigger picture, the battle had an unfortunate side-effect, though: as soon as the gunfire started, Ghai-Khan had aborted his march north and turned south instead in order to assist Frunze's 1st Red Army.[2] His men arrived hardly in time to fire a few shots. However Ghai-Khan decided that they deserved some rest after this proud victory. A day of rest became two, then a week, then two ...[3]
This incomprehensible blunder on Ghai-Khan's part left a hole in the encirclement of the Siberians. And as luck would have it, Grichin-Almazov choose exactly that spot for his next escape attempt.[4] His men gained the Volga bank unopposed. Now they only had to cross it before the pursuing Communists could catch them.


While Operation Cauldron had suffered this critical setback, Trotzky had already launched the next Soviet offensive: Operation Red Flood. The objective was to circumvent the Siberian river blockade and reconquer vast stretches of territory before the enemy could recover from the blow Operation Cauldron had dealt.

Therefore two Red armies received orders to strike east. The whole operation hinged on Kolchak's river fleet not having enough gunboats to cover the entire course of the Volga. Zhloba chose a spot just south of Akutin's corps for his crossing. The area had neither roads nor railways and was thus a low priority for the White guboats.


After the Communists had slipped through successfully, they turned back north and administered a throrough beating to Akutin's badly outnumbered force. Almost 3.000 Siberians died on 9 July, while the Red Army lost less than 800 men. Three days later the Red flag was hoisted over Samara - the former capital of the ill-fated Komuch. It was the first major White city to fall into Red hands.


In the meantime, Parsky's small army - actually it contained only a single corps - made use of the Communist controlled railway line between Penza and Pokrovsk to cross the Volga before the Siberians got wind of its presence. On 13 July, the Reds conquered Uralsk that had already been besieged by a small unit of Communist partisans.

The Volga had become obsolete as a defensive position faster than anyone had expected ...


On 15 July 1919, Trotzky dispatched two additional armies to make sure that the Red flood wouldn't lose momentum. Ghai-Khan and Frunze would take the same routes as Zhloba and Parsky before them. In the meantime, Zhloba and Parsky were ordered to grab more land. Parsky leisurely marched his men north and occupied Buzuluk on 26 July without meeting any resistance.


Zhloba doubled back by railway to wipe out the survivors of Akutin's corps. He gained another nice little victory. The remaining 5 Siberian regiments were annihilated. Luckily the members of the numerous supply units could be convinced that it would be better for their health to pin a Red star on their hats. The 2nd Battle of Troitsk had barely lasted an hour, yet it was to be an expensive hour for Soviet Russia. Zhloba was hit by a stray bullet and succumbed to his wound two days later.[5]


Chapaev had the body of his dead superior unceremoniously ditched along the road and assumed command. He was more qualified anyhow.[6] Without pause, he rushed his men eastward and fell upon the garrison of Buguruslan like a hungry wolf. Two regiments of conscripts were destroyed but the Siberian artillery as well as an airfield managed to get away.


But it was to get even better. A day later, 2.300 Siberians disbarked from a train in the station of Buguruslan - unaware that the city had already fallen to the Reds. They realized their mistake when they were greeted by machinegun fire but by then it was already too late. They perished to the last man.[7]


In the meantime, Ghai-Khan had managed to cross the Volga in the same spot Zhloba had used before him. He then proceeded towards the site of his comrades death which he reached on 27 July. He was pleasantly surprised to find two White regiments there which he was happy to dispatch to the afterlife.[8] However, Frunze was less lucky. When he reached Saratov, he found the Volga blocked by Siberian gunboats. He had intended to reach Uralsk before the end of the month but now his men were stuck west of the Volga.[9]


Further north, a race had begun: Grichin-Almazov's exhausted men were desperately trying to cross the river while Kork rushed his men east to intercept his foe. The race was decided by a matter of hours. Just before the Siberians got across, the Communists struck.



Exhausted as they were after two months of battles and endless marches, Grichin-Almazov's men still struggled bravely. But in the end they had to flee the battlefield. Now they faced a cruel choice: jump into the water and try to swim across the Volga under Red fire or flee into the woods further west. Grichin-Almazov chose the sane option and led his men into the forrest - back into the Red trap ...[10]


The only good news for the Siberians was that Khanzhin had managed to get across the Volga behind Kork. Now his starving men "only" had to march around Kazan before they could join Janin's army.



Next update: A gruesome retreat and some Anarchist heroics.


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[1] This is a scripted event. The Greens are quite numerous but they lack leadership which greatly reduces their efficiency.
[2] Ghai-Khan marched to the sounds of guns. I should have disabled Frunze's corps command for this turn. My mistake.
[3] That was bad luck. The corps didn't resume its previous movement orders after that short excursion and stayed put. At least Frunze marched to Simbirsk as he was supposed to otherwise the hole in the pocket would have been even bigger.
[4] Or Durk's wit. He is way too familiar with my little tricks and knows that it's sometimes better to avoid the spot where I have conveniantly left an opening.
[5] And another one bites the dust. It wasn't exactly healthy to be a Communist two-star general in this game. Zhloba had even been half decent; he had started with 3-1-0 stats, but had gained some experience since.
[6] Unfortunately, Chapaev was only a one-star and thus incurred a heavy command penalty (35%) when he took charge of this rather big stack.
[7] Durk had made a mistake, apparently he figured that I would rest Zhloba's stack after its long march. He thus tried to establish a new defensive position. He may even have succeeded, had he send Tseretely's seizable stack to Buguruslan instead of occupying the Volga bank further north.
[8] I have no idea where they came from. But I didn't mind - easy targets are always welcome.
[9] Durk had closed one of the two gaps along the Volga. But at this point I had already 3 armies containing a total of 5 corps on the other side. From now on the Volga would be nothing but an annoyance. The blockade could slow my reinforcements down but it was too late to stop the flood.
[10] AGE games and their retreat mechanism. It takes military control and civilization level into account but disregards the relative position to major depots, objective cities and friendly armies. Thus instead of a retreat across the Volga to safety, Grichin-Almazov's stack went back into the pocket.