BOB Campaign – the biggest battle so far – 2nd Battle of Shardara
The campaign so far has produced some very interesting clashes on the table top.
The 2nd battle of Shardara (North West of Tashkent) involved 4 armies. The White Russians under the command of Juan who were supported by their allies the Warlord Chinese forces commanded by Richard. Opposing them were a Bolshevik army under Kamall and an army from the Emirate of Bukhara led by a guest appearance from Noel who travelled over from Ireland.
It was great to see players bring along their own troops for this clash but this battle stretched all our collections. I had practically all of my BOB figures out and a considerable portion of Phil S’s collection. Both Phil and I also took troops from other periods such as ‘Darkest Africa’ a number of other colonial troops in Phil’s collection to furnish troops for the Emirate of Bukhara.
This battle involved over 50 brigades which equates to over 2,000 figures along with tanks, armoured cars and planes.
I am not going to try and emulate Piotr with a blow by blow account especially as this was fought over Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I will be mainly adding some pictures with a little bit of commentary.
The Warlord Chinese in their opening deployment with figures from the collections of Richard, Doug and Phil S.
The White Russians in their opening deployment with figures from Juan, Myself and Phil S
Some of the Bolshevik forces with figures from the collections of Philip M, Phil S and myself.
A photo of some of The Army of the Emirate of Bukhara from the collection of Phil S and myself.
A few other pictures of the initial set up.
The game was a a hard battle with the Bolsheviks rolling for an army test first and just passing after a re-roll followed by the Whites who failed their first test and re-roll. The dice can very fickle indeed just as the White were very much in the ascendancy.
The mission of the Bukharan army was to capture the Chinese C&C as part of some earlier twist in the campaign and with them having special morale rules made this a very hard game for the Chinese, despite the superiority in numbers. The Chinese took some fearful casualties and there were some ‘Benny Hill’ moments in the game with the Chinese C&C running around the board trying to avoid the Bukharan off board artillery!
Below are some pictures of the action over the weekend.
