Russian Civil War game

This past weekend, my youngest son asked to play with some soldiers. I happily obliged. I decided to use the Squad Hammer rule variant October Hammer. I first played Squad Hammer last March and really enjoy the ruleset.

Here’s the table. It’s a basic attack and defend scenario. The attackers (on the hills in the two top corners) have to claim the barn from the defenders. My son was the attacking Bolsheviks and  I was the defending Makhnovists.

To the right of the barn, the Bolsheviks deployed two squads and a machine gun team. They advanced on squad to behind the broken down farm wagon. My squad in the right paddock met them and engaged in combat. My squad eventually wiped out the other but were wiped out in turn by the machine gun and other squad.

On the left flank, one squad of Bolsheviks worked their way past the outbuilding. I left cover again and saw them off after a firefight supported by my machine gun team. I pushed the offensive and stormed the hill to flank the outbuilding but was cut down by field gun and machine gun squad. 

The other Bolshevik squad (behind the hill in the top picture) also worked their way down the left flank.

Back to the right flank, one Bolshevik squad entered the paddock and began to flank the barn. They were heard by my machine gun team who wiped them out.

My machine gun team and a squad I had hanging out at the front of the barn we wiped out from several rounds of shooting from the machine guns and field gun.

Meanwhile back on the left flank, the last Bolshevik squad got into the left paddock. I could have charged them with my last squad and tied them up but chose to engage in a firefight instead as my son was close to victory. 

He got inside the barn and eliminated my leader for the win. 

I’ve really enjoyed Squad Hammer and the October Hammer variant. I’ve played it once at a convention and 2-3 times since at home. Maybe one day someone will put a review on YouTube. Maybe that will be me. 

Until next time.

Labour Day October Hammer

Today is the holiday Monday of Labour Day. Most things are closed and the kiddos don’t go start school until Wednesday. 

The youngest wanted to play with my red and blue soldiers (Bolsheviks -Trotsky’s train guard and Red sailors).

I had played a convention game of Squad Hammer at Hotlead 2022 and so thoroughly enjoyed it I bought the rules (PDF on Wargamevault.com).

Here’s the basic set up. Bolsheviks on the left. German Freikorps on the right. It’s an attack/defend scenario around the barn. While attackers usually should have a larger force I chose to keep it even as the boys haven’t gotten the grasp of uneven battles yet (“Why do you have more figures” etc).

We each had a leader, 3 rifle squads, an automatic rifle squad, and a machine gun. One platoon had shock troops and the other had cavalry.

Each son had one platoon of Bolsheviks and I had 2 platoons of Friekorps.

We played 8 rounds (6 plus 1D6) and I had failed to capture the barn.

My 1st platoon was wiped out and my 2nd platoon had 1 rifle squad with 6 hit points (1 away from wiped out) and an automatic rifle squad with the leader with no damage ( both in the foreground)

James had 1 rifle squad (in the fenced paddock) and his machine gun (in the barn’s loft)

Charlie had 1 automatic rifle squad (on the other side of the barn in the other fenced paddock), a machine gun (on the back left hill), 1 rifle squad with the leader (on the ground in front of the machine gun) and his cavalry (on the top right, having flanked me).

We all had fun. I think this was the first time we’ve played using an actual rule set (as opposed to home brew rules) and with minimal tantrums when things didn’t go as planned (the boys were good too 😂).

Here’s a couple photos showing the casualties. What can I say, “War is hell.”

Charlie’s two sailor squads (6 dudes per squad) and James’ Leader, 3 squads and shock troops.

Here’s my losses. 6 squads, both machine guns, one leader, my cavalry and shock troops.

I had a great time using a rule set I enjoy and the boys said the same. The game can be fast and bloody.

Here’s a list of everything below from the photos in case anybody is interested.

Until next time.

The figures are:

Russians - Copplestone Castings

Germans - Brigade Games and Great War Miniatures

Barn - Tinned Fruit Buildings (on Facebook)

Outbuilding - Colin Rush commission 

Trees - The Last Valley (on Facebook)

Hills - Miniature Landscape Hobbies

Fences - Pegasus Hobbies

Barricades - Gale Force 9

Mat- Cigar Box Battle

Finished and Based

So here they are! In all their glory!

20 Infantry and a standard bearer, leader and Lewis gunner for the HQ element. I picked up a 2nd banner bearer off of eBay but need to rebase her to match.

I based them last week and added the grass tufts yesterday. Didn't have tweezers on hand but whatever. It works.

I just realised that this is the most I have ever painted in a single year, let alone a 3-4 month period.

The maxim support gun. The loader is propped up on his own washer which is still visible from above so I'll need to fix that. Maybe some more grass tufts? 

I added First Corps Miniatures  Austin Armored Car v2 that I picked up sometime in 2016.
Painted black. Lined grey and then washed. Added a wolf howling at the moon transfer from a old Space Wolf transfer sheet. (Actually added 2 but forgot to seal with nail polish and one got damaged and had to be removed). It was my first time using transfers. Luckily a guy at work plays Bloodbowl so he walked me through it.

The other side. Added a mud effect by flicking paint from an old toothbrush. Worked like a charm. Thankfully I finished this up and hopefully the impetus will push me to finishing all of those pesky Copplestone Chinese I bought.

Bolsheviks Finished

Well, I finished those Bolsheviks. I'm pretty happy with the results. Total working time was about 10 hours which was composed of 8 lunch hours and 2 at night when the kids were asleep.


They say pictures or it didn't happen.

Here are two units of 10 and the commander.

A close up of the left squad.

A close up of the right squad.

A close up of the commander. Gave him a white mustache just because.

All I have left to do now is base the suckers and paint a Lewis gunner and standard bearer for the HQ element, and a Heavy Machine Gun for support.

Then on to those pesky Chinese.

The Bolshevik's are coming!

Just wanted to share a quick post about what I've done recently.


After failing miserably painting those Copplestone Chinese troops (still only 1 painted), I though I would start anew and build up some paining mojo before diving back in (read, oh shiny, look). I have some Copplestone Red Russians in the desk at home that also need paint but I also have fewer so it's not as daunting.


I painted during my lunch break yesterday and the day before and managed to finish these four, minus the bases. They are supposed to be Trotsky's Red Train guards. I'm pretty chuffed about them to be honest.


Army Painter Pure Red Basecoat
Assorted Reaper, GW, and Vallejo paints
Army Painter Strong Shade

So, in 2 hours, I painted more Russians then a 6 month allotment for my Chinese. What did I learn?


I do like batch painting but need to focus on smaller numbers. With the Russians, I was doing groups of 4, while the Chinese were groups of 20.


What does that mean? Well, two hours got me 4 troops completed. Confidence, mojo, drive all increase fairly quickly. Changing colours often, not painting the same parts, over and over and over again in an hour keeps it fresh.


Doing larger groups is slower overall progress, and seems daunting. I felt no desire to "power through", just one more colour.


So hopefully, in the next month, I'll have these pesky Russians done and can resume with the Chinese.


Aaaand on a side note, Hotlead, Southwestern Ontario's premiere  war-gaming convention is this weekend. I am super excited.