Map and Counters

THE CRIMEAN WAR is a set of four games each simulating a different critical battle in the war between the unlikely alliance of Britain, France, Turkey, and Sardinia against Russia during the Crimean War, 1854-1856. The four battles represented in this collection of games are: the ALMA, BALACLAVA, INKERMAN, and the TCHERNAYA RIVER. This collection of games, each with its own design and development team, was published by Simulations Publications, Inc. (SPI) in 1978.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The Battle of Alma

On 28 September 1854, the allied armies of Britain, led by Lord Raglan, and France, under General St. Arnaud, and accompanied by a contingent of Sardinian troops, finally made their way to the outskirts of Sevastopol and began the laborious preparations necessary for a major siege. The capture of this one Russian fortress and naval base had been, from the very beginning, the strategic focus of the entire Allied Crimean Campaign. On 17 October, the first Allied parallels were completed and an almost constant bombardment of the fortress began.

Sevastopol’s large Russian garrison was commanded by General Prince Menshikov with the assistance of his chief engineering officer, General Todleben. Because of the limited size of the besieging force, the entire naval base could not be completely encircled. So, much in keeping with the conduct of the rest of the campaign, the Russians continued to reinforce and resupply the naval base and its garrison using unblocked routes into the northern side of the fortress. This peculiar situation persisted through the entire duration of the siege.

Finally, on 8 September, 1855, the crucial Malakov defensive works on the southern side of the fortress fell, in spite of the gallant efforts of its defenders, to a violent French assault; and the Russian engineers, after inspecting what remained of the southern defenses, reluctantly declared that the fortress was no longer defensible. On the following day, Allied troops finally entered Sevastopol; they were unopposed. The higher than expected Allied losses incurred during the siege had, it turned out, resulted as much from disease as from enemy action. On the defenders’ side, casualties numbered over 54,000 killed, wounded, and missing; with as many as 3,000 Russian soldiers a day falling due to the constant Allied bombardment during the last stages of the siege.

DESCRIPTION

The four games that make up THE CRIMEAN WAR utilize a similar mix of game components, and are designed around a set of Standard Rules that are common to them all. Each individual simulation also has its own short set of Exclusive Rules specific to that game. This design format makes it almost effortless to move from one game to the next without a lot of time spent learning a new game system with each new title. Thus, each title while similar to the others in this set, still offers the players a different and unique gaming experience. The simulations in this series are designed to be above average in complexity; and playing times will typically vary from three to five hours depending on the game chosen.

THE INDIVIDUAL GAMES

ALMA (20 September 1854)
is a tactical simulation of the first battle of the Crimean War. After landing at Evpatoria, the allied force of British and French regulars began their march towards Sevastopol. At the Alma River, they met General Prince Menshikov’s Russian forces in prepared positions on the south bank. This was the one and only clash, during the entire war, between the main armies of the three major powers: Britain, France, and Russia. The Russians, although outnumbered, occupied very strong defensive ground; the Allies, while numerically superior, suffered from severe organizational and command problems. A Russian victory at the Alma would probably have ended the war — to the enormous benefit of virtually everyone involved — before it had really even begun. ALMA is twelve turns long and was designed by J. Matisse Enzer.

BALACLAVA (25 October 1854)
is a battalion-level simulation of the Russian attack against the British supply base at the port of Balaclava. Today, this battle is remembered more because of Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem: “The Charge of the Light Brigade,” than for what actually transpired there. This is unfortunate. Balaclava was a battle that illustrated, for anyone with eyes to see, that the British and Russian commanders were equally matched in their stupefying incompetence. Initially, despite the tactical bungling of the British commander during the actual engagement, the battle would make the Light Brigade’s commander, Lord Cardigan (perhaps the single worst officer, and this is saying something, in the British Army) a hero, while the British general who was ultimately responsible for the botched orders that led to the debacle, Lord Raglan, would deftly pass blame off to his second-in-command, Lord Lucan. In the end, however, Raglan's excuses would prove insufficient, and Balaclava would bring about more formal inquiries into the conduct of the British Army than any action before it. BALACLAVA is twelve turns long and was designed by Thomas Gould.


INKERMAN (5 November 1854),
also known as “the Soldiers’ Battle,” is a tactical simulation of the action between British and French forces and the Russians on Inkerman Ridge. The Russian plan was to attack and defeat the British force in the area of the ridge before reinforcements could arrive from the nearby French Army. Nineteen thousand Russians, under General Soimonov, began their assault on the British outposts at about 5:30 am, but a heavy fog hampered efforts to coordinate with General Paulov’s 16,000 men. With visibility limited to a few yards, the artillery on both sides was restricted to firing at the dimly visible muzzle flashes of the opposing guns. Even more important, whatever command and control existed prior to the engagement quickly collapsed, and the battle became a short-range clash between disorganized groups of soldiers stumbling through the fog. This battle was, perhaps, the Russian Army’s best opportunity to smash the exposed British; that the attack failed, was more a testament to the high morale and professionalism of the individual British soldier, than to the skill of the local British commanders who, characteristically for this war, seemed to have been almost totally absent from the fight. INKERMAN offers two scenarios: the Historical scenario, which begins on turn eight and continues until turn twenty-one (14 game turns); and the Russian Option scenario, which begins on game turn one and continues through turn twenty-one (21 game turns). INKERMAN was designed by Martin Goldberger.

Russians and French skirmish.

TCHERNAYA RIVER (15 August 1855)
is a tactical simulation of the last attempt by the Russian Army to defeat the Allies in the field and, thereby, relieve the siege against Sevastopol. A force of more than 65,000 Russians attacked the French and Sardinian Armies, with a combined strength of about 28,000, at a section of the allied line thought impregnable by the Allied commanders. In this particular instance, the Allied commanders were almost correct. The French and Sardinians occupied prepared positions on high ground shielded by the Tchernaya River and by steep slopes, both of which served as barriers to attack. In addition, an aqueduct ran along the length of the front; the presence of this man-made obstacle meant that any troops advancing across this ground would be completely exposed to artillery fire from the guns of both the Sardinian and French artillery on the heights. Nonetheless, the Russians attacked and achieved complete tactical surprise. The fighting that ensued came heart-breakingly close, after a series of desperate assaults, to bringing the Russians victory. In the final moments of the battle, however, with the Tsar’s troops seemingly on the verge of success, a surprise counter-attack by the French threw the exhausted attackers off the heights and back across the Tchernaya River. TCHERNAYA RIVER offers two scenarios: the Historical scenario which follows the actual Russian plan of battle and runs 15 turns; and the Non-historical scenario which lasts ten turns and assumes that the Russians had waited to better concentrate their forces so that fresh reserves would be available to exploit any success in the initial assaults. TCHERNAYA RIVER was designed by Steven Ross.

A PERSONAL OBSERVATION

Charge of the Light Brigade by Richard Caton Woodinville

The four engagements simulated in THE CRIMEAN WAR, and the campaign of which they were a part, are rarely examined by modern students of military affairs. This is probably unfortunate from a historical point of view, but quite understandable: although the Crimean War was, in many ways, a precursor to the modern wars that were soon to come, it is known today primarily for the almost unbelievable incompetence repeatedly demonstrated by the senior commanders of both sides.

Unfortunately, this incompetence was not restricted just to senior battlefield commanders. The supporting and administrative services of both the Russian and the British armies were, in many cases, little changed from the napoleonic Wars. Thus, while Russian logistical arrangements to supply Sevastapol, once it had fallen under seige, were primitive, to say the least; on the other hand, Russian medical services in the fortress actually showed improvement as better methods for classifying and treating the wounded were developed.. And if the British commander, Lord Raglan, couldn't seem to get anything right, he was in good company when it came to the officers responsible for supporting his army in the field. The complete breakdown in both supply and medical services to the soldiers manning the seige lines would reveal, yet again, that both the British army's quartermaster corps and its medical services were so backward and incompetent in their operations that they literally placed the entire British war effort in the Crimea in jeopardy.

Interestingly, the only army of a major European power to emerge from this debacle with its reputation relatively untarnished was that of Napoleon III^rd’s France. Once the Allied armies actually reached the Crimea, the French transport, quartermaster, and medical services, it quickly became apparent, were everything that the British services were not: efficient, well-organized, and modern. In simplest terms: while the ordinary British "Tommy" froze in tents during the harsh Crimean winters and starved because of short rations; his counterpart, the French soldier, slept in dry, warm huts, had excellent medical services close to hand if he needed them, and, most important of all, ate well, even in the dead of winter. Unfortunately, all of France's many advantages could not save the army from battlefield casualties and disease. And French losses, mainly due to disease, would exceed, by the war's end, those of the British by a factor of almost five-to-one. Nonetheless, in virtually every way imaginable, the French military establishment demonstrated itself vastly superior to that of the British throughout the campaign. Unfortuantely, France's hard-won reputation for military competency would, all too soon, be wiped-away by her army's humiliating defeat in 1870, at the hands of a newly-resurgent and expansionist Prussia.

Game Components (for all four Games):

• Four 17” x 22” hexagonal grid Map Sheets (with Unit Starting Positions, Turn Record Chart and Terrain Key incorporated; Inkerman also includes a Fog Visibility Table and a Unit Movement Table)
• 400 ½” cardboard Counters
• Two 8½” x 11” Standard Rules Booklets (with Terrain Effects Chart and Artillery, Fire, and Melee Combat Results Tables incorporated)
• Four 8½” x 11” Exclusive Rules Booklets (with Scenario Instructions)
• One 8½” x 11” Historical Background Booklet
• One 8½” x 11” Crimean War Errata Sheet (19 May 1978)
• One small six-sided Die
• One SPI 12” x 15” x 1” flat 24 compartment plastic Game Box (with clear compartment tray covers) and clear plastic box cover with Title Sheet

Additional Information

For additional information on the Crimean War, see the following title

Recommended Related Artwork

Charge of the Light Brigade, Balaclav... Richard Caton Woodville II 9x12 Giclee Print Buy From Art.com

Crimean War - Bombardment of Sebastop... 18x24 Giclee Print Buy From Art.com

ALMA was designed by Frank Chadwick as an addition to GDW’s Series 120 Game Collection. The game was published by Game Designers’ Workshop (GDW) in 1978.

DESCRIPTION

ALMA is a grand tactical simulation of the first battle of the Crimean War. The game is 10 turns long, and each game turn represents 30 minutes of real time. The combat units are batteries (artillery), battalions, regiments, and brigades. Historically, this battle was the first and only time that the forces of the major powers (England, France, and Russia) actually faced each other in a set-piece battle. The unlikely anti-Russian coalition of Britain, France, Turkey, and Sardinia had chosen the Crimean port of Evpatoria for a landing. After several days spent organizing and arguing on a plan of action, the main Allied force of British, French, and Turkish troops began the march towards the Russian naval base at Sevastopol. On September 20, 1854 they met the Russian Army of General Prince Menshikov drawn up for battle on the south bank of the Alma River. The Russians, although outnumbered, were in strong prepared defenses; the Allied force, although numerically superior, was disorganized and poorly led. This is the tactical situation the two players find themselves in at the beginning of ALMA. Interestingly, a Russian victory at the Alma River would probably have ended the Crimean War before it had properly begun.

A PERSONAL OBSERVATION

ALMA, despite its size, is not a simple game. Although the Series 120 games were designed to use no more than 120 counters, and to be played to conclusion in 120 minutes or less, this title is surprisingly textured and challenging. The game system blends fire and shock combat with the effects of morale to produce a very interesting simulation. The game’s counters are attractive and clearly-printed, but the game map is surprisingly primitive, even for GDW in 1978. Still, for those players looking for a small, tactically detailed, and challenging title that deals with a critical battle during the Crimean War, ALMA is probably a good choice. For those looking for a simple, easy-to-learn little “introductory game,” this, I can assure you, isn’t it.

Game Components:

• One 17’’ x 22” hexagonal grid Map Sheet


• 120 ½” cardboard Counters


• One 8½” x 11” Rules Booklet


• One 5½” x 8½” Errata Sheet


• One 9¼” x 12” Zip-Lock plastic Bag