RJW - My Project for 2017

Hi everybody,

I hope all of you had a GREAT New Year's and I hope you enjoy good times and good health in 2017!!

We've been doing a lot of board gaming here at the Charlotte Garrison, but I also wanted to focus on one miniature collection this year, and I have decided on the Russo-Japanese War 1904-1905.

Why in the world would I do that?!?!

There are several reasons I want to focus on this period and here some of them.

1. I have a massive 15mm collection I bought from Mal Wright about 10 years ago, and I've only managed to put these figures on the table once! Travesty!!!
2. I want to work on my battalion scale rules for BARRAGE (Piquet Supplement for early 20th century wargaming).
3. I have several first hand accounts and maps from the "Reports of Military Observers attached to the Armies in Manchuria during the Russo-Japanese War" (RMO from now on) published just after the war in 1906. These contain stunning drawings and maps of all major and minor battles, fortifications, equipment, tactics, etc. Just a gem of a resource. This appears to be in re-print now, but I don't think they include the fold out maps.
4. The uniforms are cool, with lots of unit variety, and this represents one of the first glimpses into what war would look like over the coming decades.
5. I'm helping to playtest a RJW strategic level block game and I'm fired up about that too.

First up will be me re-painting and flocking of the Japanese 2nd Division, which was part of the Japanese 1st Army. I also have the Guards Division from the 1st Army halfway completed.

Typical Japanese Divisions in this war comprised of the following

2 Brigade, 2 Regiments per brigade
1 Cavalry Regiment (Scouting, etc)
1 Pioneer Battalion
Divisional Artillery (7cm Arisaki Field Gun): six batteries of six guns each (36 total guns).

The above is what I would need to be able to field this wargaming Division on the table. One of the challenges will be to find 15mm Japanese 7cm Arisaki Field Guns as they are very unique looking. More on that in another post.

The infantry Regiment was made up of 3 battalions, with 4 companies each. Each company had 3 zugs (platoons), which had 5 subsections (squads). Each company had 5 officers, 30 non-commissioned officers, and 200 privates (paper strength). [Page 7, Part III, RMO]

Here is a nice photo from my RMO book, part 1, which shows the composition of the 2nd Division. Mal did make a telegraph company so that has to get on the table at some point!

My next post will be on the 2nd Division's makeover. :-)

Good gaming
Eric