Started playing Red Actions! earlier this week. Since this was my first play-through, the scenario was simple, with just a few units, no machine guns, artillery or AFVs. I wanted to find out how the fire and manuever rules work and what their effects are.

Three Soviet Companies are tasked with taking a entrenched position on a ridge line. The Soviet force is comprised of regular, Cheka, and naval infantry companies. The opposing Chinese force consists of a regular company and conscript company.

The terrain is relatively open, with a wooded area to the east and rough terrain to the south of the ridge. I designated both the entrenched position on the ridge and rough terrain as hard cover, allowing a -1 column shift for the defenders. The intent for the rough terrain is to provide the Soviet force with some cover and concealment. The distance between the ridge and rough terrain allowed for long-range fire at one-half the fire factor.

The tactics are straightforward. The regular Soviet company is to advance and take cover in the rough terrain, and to then provide suppresive fire on the ridge. The naval company is to advance through the wooded area (providing cover and concealment) and attack the ridge from the flank. The Cheka company is in reserve.

The Chinese have their regular company entrenched on the ridge, with the conscripts in reserve behind the ridge. This deployment involved a trade-off. The regular company has a higher fire rating, but the conscripts are rated as a “Mob” and can only charge or fire without taking a special morale check. On a D6 role of 1-2 they will remain in place.

The first few turns saw sustained firing between the ridge and regular troops in the rough terrain. Both companies were pushed off due to retire results, but quickly returned to their positions. The naval troops worked their way through the woods, and began taking the reserve conscript company under fire. Due to the short range between the units, this developed into a firefight, with both units firing at each other at full strength during each turn, rather than the turn-by-turn long-range fire.

Growing impatient with this back-and-forth, and like an overenthusiastic Lieutenant at The Basic School, I ordered the Checka company to advance along the (Chinese) right flank or west side of the board. Double envelopment Little Schlieffen?

As this advance developed, the Chinese conscripts  sustained losses and were in bad shape morale wise, while the regular troops had retreated (again) from their trenches. The question for the Chinese was whether to fight it out, or retreat. Since I had not set this contingency up (delay/defend with turn limit), and had a good initial feel for rules and effects, I stopped the game.

I like this rule set.  I think the morale rules using terror markers, as well as other outcomes are very playable. Infantry fire at long range is not particularly bloody, but short range fire – and its accompanying firefights- can decimate a unit quickly. Although using 28mm figuures, I kept the 15mm movement scale because of the small size of my “big board”. This scale seemed to work just fine, and made working with the rules easier.  While some folks have mentioned having trouble with the conversational dialogue of the rules, I think they are just fine.

For those of you interested in reading more about Red Actions!, here’s some links that might be of help. I know this is an older system (more on that in another post), but it is good one that can be played without miniatures. The link to the website and rules is here. A couple of viable reviews are here and here. The always entertaining Edinburgh Wargamers have a portions of their site devoted to this period. While they use another rule set, it’s a great source of fun and ideas.