AAR: The Russian Revolution in Central Asia

My miniature voyage to the Transcaspian Oblast has finally arrived! Ziggy and I put Setting the East Ablaze on the tabletop yesterday afternoon for a first run. I've been collecting and painting 28mm minis for this project for most of 2025. It was nice to see it pay off with an enjoyable first outing. Of course, where the minis have gotten loads of attention, Transcaspian-specific terrain was less of a focus so I suppose that'll be a 2026 agenda item. 

The Reds (me) were defending a rail + road crossroads from Basmachi and British troops (Ziggy). The Russians started the battle with just an infantry squad and field gun on the table. All other resources would arrive later from reserves.

Basmachi infantry off to the far right and British Indian troops in the center.

More Basmachis on the left and a Godforsaken armored car. The A/C makes a risky move crossing the railroad tracks but didn't get stuck.

Ziggy chose to flank march the Bamachi cavalry which of course showed up immediately on my right flank. Well, the artillery was fun for about a second!

My infantry take a big chunk out of the Indians with a remarkable round of shooting, but that A/C fires back and suppresses the brave comrades.

The inevitable. Ah well, whatcha gonna do?

But when the right hand takes, the left hand gives. I get my first reserve unit, the FT. In an encounter like this, even the dink little FT can be the queen of battle!

The British car forces my brave soldiers to shift as the flip to the other side of the wall. The car gives my tank a wide berth. 

A truck carrying a machinegun team arrives. They set up overlooking the objective. Things really starting to look up!

Pepper gets some measure of revenge on the horsemen, blasting two of them!

And then another unit of Infantry arrives. Finally, a fair fight. The machine gun goes "Low Ammo" on it's first shot of the game. Dear God, did they really show up with just a 50-round drum?

Pepper's reign of terror continues, taking out four Basmachis. My initial squad is done and start heading home.

Heh heh. My cavalry arrives! My plan was to simply slow down the enemy cavalry and keep them from adding their weight to the firefight at the crossroad.

The first round of melee goes remarkably well for me, taking out two tribesmen to no losses! We're even now.

Yes. Three shots in and it's out of ammo. Maybe this whole Bolshevism thing has some unforeseen problems? 

My cavalry continues their remarkable success against the tribesmen!

While Pepper takes out another four enemy infantry.

But at the end of the day, the crossing had been lost and the Red troops had to fall back. Both my infantry squads were spent and I only had a tank and two horsemen left against the AC and at least 30 remaining infantry. 

Well that was a lot of fun! The game itself runs really smoothly and simply. There is pretty much no room for argument or confusion. The scenario worked really well to, considering my total lack of familiarity with the rules. I guess it says a lot about the rules that a real-world scenario can be planned out and happily played through with results that are not just insane. I need to pick up some reinforcements for both sides, both sides could use something capable of killing vehicles and the Russians wouldn't hate some additional troops and another leader-type.

Z and I are both ready for another go at this for sure and I know the other guys are as well. I'm not sure if I'll get any more games in before New Year, so if this is the last game of 2025 for me, at least it was a great one!