Played another Franco-Prussian game with Alan and Goldie to carry on our journey of finding rules that work for us with Franco-Prussian War.

This time Goldie proposed scenario as below.

Scale:

Gravelotte-St Privat was the largest and decisive battle of the Franco-Prussian War.

The French army under Bazaine had adopted a position magnifique to defend from, sitting on a low ridge with wide open fields in front of them. Von Moltke’s plan was to pin the French army down with spoiling attacks in the south and centre but outflank the French to the north with the Guards and XII Saxon Korps. This would swing through the supposedly deserted village of Saint Privat.

Except St Privat was held in strength by Canrobert’s VI Corps, who were waiting for the advancing Prussian masses.

Fought on a 6’ by 9’ table. French deploy 30” in. Prussian Guards move on the right, Saxons on the left. The terrain is flat and open, with two sprawling villages and a few small woods.

Alan was the Prussian Guard, Goldie the Saxons and I was the Glorious French!

The map below was the terrain with the French setting up on the right extending from Roncourt south through Saint-Privat.

The Rules for the game are Black Powder with the following house rules.

So below we have the start of game on French right flank. I have placed 2 regts on the edge of board, 2 more in the town, the mitrailleuse is hiding behind village with the artillery in right rear of village. Goldies Saxons are moving on.

In French Centre right 4 regts are in the village, Mitrailleuse is hiding on road in village with a battery out back and another division to their left.

Otr on right Saxons have rushed up to shooting range….and they got shot up!

Prussian Guard Corps where several blunders occurred halting Alans attempts at a combined advance, which allowed the French to concentrate shooting on his units on table.

First blood to the French…the Mitrailleuse was shooting from behind village, out of sight of the Saxon artillery…which combined with the artillery and infantry shooting from the village and troops on the table edge, destroyed a unit. The Mitrailleuse had 2 rounds of superb firing…then…..fluffed it for rest of the game!

Mitrailleuse moved into open…managed to survive the incoming artillery fire…and combined with infantry fire destroyed another regiment, this time Guards.

With Alans blunder problems I moved 2 regts out to my left flank to take advantage of my 24 inch v 12 inch firing range…..accepting Alan might get some good results from his batteries…but needed to get some damage in before he could advance his troops.

Saxons advance on the village.

So much for tempting fate of the Guard artillery…disordered and 3 wounds.

First line of Saxons destroyed but am now taking hits.

Hmm……4 batteries and a couple rounds of shooting and unit in this part of village is no longer around….stamina is 3 so was 5 hits over and disordered….so -5 on dice roll…the survivors are heading for Spain.

Guard division with the rear 2 units having retired from shooting. However that means 2 fresh units in the front!

The 2 French regts I was holding in reserve behind the centre have moved across to vacated buildings in Roncourt.

Hmm 2 more of my units are shaken…..

Hmm…..both my right division and one of Goldie’s Saxon divisions have passed break stage and been removed.

Game end….we called it a draw….there were not many infantry units looking that healthy.

Same on other side of table…..

Well… that was an interesting game……we played Prussians artillery as 2 shots at long range……as opposed to Scenario plan…which I believe is correct way to do it. We will replay this but bring in ability of troops to lie done…its what they did…see how that works out. I did some amazing saves from incoming Prussian artillery hits at the start of game, which coupled with the blunders for them moving on, allowed the French to get some casualties in.

I am still not in favour of stipulating we follow the tactics employed by the armies at the time, after all.. the French LOST…so expect I will continue to disagree until I get my way.

Until next time….

So its welcome to 2024 and the first game of the year.

Alan hosted a Franco Prussian Game at his place which 6 of us were available for. Both Alan and Goldie have collected Prussians while Goldie and I have collected French. While I continue to paint as slow as ever, the French are a bit short on units so again ACW units are subbed in.

Once again the rules used are ‘Black Powder’ plus the ACW ‘Hallelujah’ supplement. We are still tinkering with shooting and ranges so these were the adjustments used for this game:

• Artillery shoots 48 inches
• Prussian artillery have no long range penalty
• French rifles/Mitrailleuse weapons shoot 24 inches
• Prussian rifles shoot 12 inches
• French are 3 base battalions and Prussians are 4 base battalions

From memory the number of battalions per side were evenish…but the Prussians were at least 2:1 in artillery(I am painting my 5 guns up now!).

Below is the centre of table where both sides are in possession of a building. Alan on one of his business trips to China spotted some display clothes in a shop , purchased 4 of them, has had them sewn together and now has quite a good terrain base cloth!

French firing line anchored on building…Prussian artillery in distance and troops in wood.

Prussian advance on their left flank……

The nasty Krupps.

French attack into flank of a Prussian line…..French fluffed attacks…took several turns but larger Prussian units attacking them on 2 sides eventually destroyed them.

French left flank…….avoiding the Krupp’s but giving up the longer rifle range.

Massed Prussians preparing to attack across the river.

Across they are….a mitrailleuse was hiding behind the building so artillery could not get it, and firing off against the Prussians advancing on the table edge…so a Prussian unit charged from other side and took it out….French commander has been taken away…….

French centre was quite well protected with 2 defensive zones and good firing zones.

The gap in Prussian lines is from a blown away battalion. It took A LOTOF SHOOTING TO DO THAT.

I tried using a twinkling light feature on phone camera…didn’t work that well.

French used old fashioned lines and swapped units to recover casualties…. as you should!

End of game…..Prussians take the building by charging in on 2 sides. French 2nd line was supporting but you need lots of hits to cause casualties…and artillery!

So that was first FP game for year. Was fun. We will need to work on the shooting as I still think its now quite right. Hopefully the Perrys will give us some more love in this period this year so we can flesh the armies out.

Now at Xmas I was given some love with 3 new bottles of Whisky!

The first to be reviewed is a gift from friend PW who was back from Vanuatu.

This is from Glenmorangie and it is ‘A tale of Winter’.

The bottling note for it is:

Following on from Glenmorangie’s A Tale of Cake, the magnificent distillery has gone and created Glenmorangie A Tale of Winter (we do like the idea that “cake” is in fact a season and that it precedes winter, but we don’t think that’s what they’re going for here)! Director of whisky creation Dr. Bill Lumsden wanted to evoke the feeling of winter, of sitting in front of a fireplace while the snow fall outside, and to do so, he finished a bourbon barrel-matured single malt in ex-Marsala wine casks. All those rich, comforting, chocolatey notes certainly put this one in the ‘winter warmer’ category.

Tasting notes are:

Nose Honeycomb, chocolate digestives, fragrant lavender, sultana, and cinnamon.

Palate Cocoa, Brazil nuts, vanilla tablet, jammy red berry sweetness developing, crystallised ginger.

Finish Spicy ginger remains, mellowed by vanilla and chocolate mousse.

Now I had a bottle of ‘ A Tale of Cake’ a year or 3 ago, and PW went a bought one as was so delicious. This one I have been enjoying almost as much.

Recommended.

Until next time…Terry out.

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.