It’s been 20 years since a group of us had a Chinese meal with the Perrys in Wellington while they were here for ‘Lord of the Rings’ activities. I asked them then if they would ever do FPW…and they have….so Goldie and I are finally having our first game with their figures.

So figures are Perry Miniatures.

THANK YOU LADZ!

Now Goldie had already painted a force of Prussians, and he has added enough French which when we add ACW Zouaves we can have a game.(my French are underway but not ready).

Each side is fielding 2 Brigades of 6 infantry with the Prussians also fielding a regt of 4 artillery batteries. The French have 2 batteries of 4 pdrs with one attached to each brigade and a mitralleuse which is attached to the Zouave brigade(5 Zouaves and a light infantry).

The terrain has the French defending a farm complex and a wooded ridge and there are 3 woods and some hedges scattered around the table, The French are defending the ridge/farm house side of the table.

Goldies right side brigade which is regts of 3. The Division commander is attached to the brigade. Regts are 3 bttns, each of bases with 5 or 6 figures to a base.

Close up of Prussians.

Goldies newly painted French which are in regts of 3 bttns, with bases of 5 or 6 figures per base.

View down the line. The beautiful flags Goldie picked up from ‘The Flag Dude’ at this year’s Salute Show while holidaying in London.

The French left brigade with subbed in ACW infantry with a French la Hitte artillery battery.

A regt of the dreaded Prussian Krupp artillery opposite the farmhouse. I was very happy they were there… and not facing my infantry in the open.

Goldie has advanced one regt into the protection of the hedges while the second is in behind the wood.

View of French right flank. Prussian artillery in top left gets 2 shots a battery and has a range of 60 inches. But only target is the buildings where 1 bttn is sheltering! There is a French battery with a 48 inch range, also shooting 2 shoots skulking hidden from the Krupps opposite it and then 4 infantry bttns in line. The French infantry shoot 36 inches compared to the Prussian 18 inches! The Prussians being larges units, get 4 shots though.

First French shooting and the 2 front bttns are disordered and one has 3 casualties. I need to inflict 4 to shake them.

On opposite flank Prussians did not move! French moved up through the woods on ridge.

I rushed a unit up into the centre wood with another at rear of wood and a 3rd angles to shoot across table. Each division has 1 unit of light infantry.

Goldie forms a 3 bttn line on his left flank .

View from hedges to French line and farmhouse.

The Prussian batteries would spend several turns of ineffective fire on the Farm house.

Goldies right finally did some advancing.

Realising he needed artillery support on his right. Goldie ordered the artillery regt to limber up and move to the right. They got the order wrong…instead rolled a double six…which is a blunder…followed by and 1 and they retired off the table. This means be 2 or 3 turns before they can fire again…PERFECT!

Goldie advanced the brigade to throw me out of centre wood.

I managed to roll a few more than one would expect of 6’s when shooting so was constantly disordering Goldies advancing infantry which also reduced the effect of their firing. Below Goldie has advanced a unit up to close range ready to blast my flank bttn.

A bit further on French have moved bttn from behind wood to get more shots in,,,,,,the Mitrailleuse is also ready to machine gun down the enemy!(this shoots as a machine gun, it rolls 2 dice…if a roll hits, you keep rolling until it misses)

Here is a close up of this little beauty. I deployed this away from Goldies artillery and being an ‘Unclear’ target, Goldie cannot target it with infantry if they are same or closer distance.

The plan to advance to close range and shoot up my flank bttn has not worked. By games end Goldie was lamenting about these guys. The saved hit after hit! And dished it back out!!

Hedge bound bttns…they kept getting disordered…not only from bttns to front but also the battery and a bttn in other brigade. The 36 inch shooting range for French infantry is awesome.

The first Prussian bttn breaks and flees.

Goldie moved the 3rd regt from in the hedges to cover the front of a shaken bttn on the left, it then gets disordered….the other 2 bttns are taking damage as well.

Mitralleuse checking out which target to shred!

Other flank and another Prussian bttn has popped…..they have a stamina of 4, and the 3 remaining are on 3. The French have stamina 3 and 2 are on 2! Its close.

Another Prussian bttn pops…this time in the hedges.

Goldie deployed his artillery within 36 inches……and they didn’t get a shot as had moved x 2 …so they drew all my fire…..they are stamina 1 units…so 3 are shaken and the left 2 are also disordered.

Goldie continues trying to take the centre wood……he has moved Prussian bttn up the flank and shot up a bttn on ridgeline that coupled with artillery fire…broke and ran!

Goldies left flank brigade now breaks. The forward bttn gets 3 bttns and battery firing into it…it pops. With damage to other bttns..brigade is now broken.

The mitralleuse finally got some god shooting in and a battery popped..Goldie moved his guns back out of range…and the French on ridgeline moved forward to keep shooting them.

So that was game 1……. we agreed a French victory.

Back in the 80’s I started playing FPW games at Military Miniatures in Auckland where Mark(1866 and all that) had a MASSIVE collection of figures…we played HUGE games and invariably they were games of attrition…..but great games…so this is the start of that love affair for me again.

What makes the period so much fun is the differing weapons…the ranges of them…the size difference in units…..Zoauves…….Guard…….and the need for each side to employ differing tactics.

Will be painting French quite a while I think!

Until next time…Terry out.