Franco-Prussian War... Bavarian Infantry.

Greetings...

My little game with Mharaid has encouraged me to finish of this battalion of Bavarian Infantry which has been sat at the back of the desk for over a year now...
After all that patient waiting they deserve to have their shiny new uniforms...

The Uniforms are... Wargames Foundry... Sky Blue 21B.
The Facings are... Wargames Foundry... Ochre 4B
The Piping is... Citadel... Evil Sunz Scarlet.
The Knapsacks and the Officers Gloves are... Citadel... Pallid Wych Flesh.
The Backpacks are... Citadel... Skrag Brown.
The Greatcoats are... Wargamers Foundry... Slate Grey Shade 32A.
The Rifles are... Citadel... Mournfang Brown.

Everything was given a coat of Aly’s Brown Liquid then highlighted with the original shades...
I am glad I took the time to finish these... I honestly don’t know why I was putting them off for so long...
I may actually get around to painting the other two battalions...

The figures are of course Spencer Smith Classic Range FPW...
http://www.spencersmithminiatures.co.uk/html/franco_pruss.html

The Paints are from Wargames Foundry and Citadel...
https://www.wargamesfoundry.com/collections/paint
https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Painting-Modelling

The Bases are from Warbases...
https://warbases.co.uk/product-category/bases/premier-bases-metric/

The Standard is from the old Flags for the Lads Range... I am not sure if they are available anymore...

I have some more shiny things and Sassanids on the go at the moment... we will see who crosses the finishing post first...

All the best.  Aly

From my side of the table... Lockdown Franco-Prussian frolics.

Greetings...

Mharaid and I had another lockdown game using FaceTime...

This time we went for The Franco-Prussian War using Black Powder...

The objective was to take control of a crossroads... a result which I was surprisingly able to achieve and the quite predictably able to loose in the process of the game... sigh!

The peaceful crossroads...

Our troops entered the table in march column...

Through outrageous good fortune my men arrived on the battlefield first and moved rapidly forwards to consolidate my position...

While my daughter failed spectacularly to make any moves... for five... yes five turns...
All she had to do was roll below 8....
Even with added bonuses she consistently rolled high...
Five turns...
Have the dice gods abandoned her...
Do they now look kindly on me...

Don’t be ridiculous... they were just playing with me.... The  bast***s!

Seeing and opportunity I went all Glory of France and rushed forwards out off my very defendable position in an attempt to hem the Prussians in at their entry point...

Here you are, the only units that obeyed their orders... sigh!....
Yup!.... you can see where this is going... can’t you...

And on they come...

A firefight ensues...
Well to be honest... I rolled some dice and some of them hit...
Mharaid rolled some dice... and most of then hit...

My (Very pretty) Guard Lancers prepared to charge...

While the now luck heavy Prussians poured fire into my somewhat isolated troops...
A red button indicates a broken unit...
No surprises there then... sigh!

The only respite was when Mharaid’s broken cavalry got in the way...
Small victories... take them when you can... sigh!

In a desperate attempt to save the situation my cavalry managed to get around the flank of the enemy...

Where they were slaughtered... although they still look very pretty...
The laundry bill will be terrifying...

My infantry started to evaporate and even my artillery decided it was time to leave...

With over 50% of my force broken... I of course graciously conceded the game...

Sigh!

This was a lot of fun... and it did swing in the balance for a couple of moves (honestly it did... well it felt like it did)
The break point of our forces was 50% including artillery because we only fielding a few units each...
It worked well...
The numbers were there to make it easier for orders to be given in the virtual world...

I suppose I should have stayed still and let Mharaid try and force me out of my very defensible position...
But where would the fun be in that...


All the best.  Aly

Franco-Prussian... Photo shoot.

After the last Franco-Prussian War game we had , I decided to take some 'studio' shots of all my units...


So as a little shiny and colourful refresher after the khaki of the Great War here they are now ... in no particular order.

Hesse-Darmstadt 1st Infantry Regiment... Composed of two large battalions.

 French Foreign Legion provisional regiment... Composed of three medium battalions.

Bavarian Foot Artillery.

Mecklenburg Jager Battalion.

French Marine Infantry Battalion... Part of the Blue Division.

 

French 100th Infantry regiment... Composed of three medium battalions.

French Foot Artillery.

French Command Stand.

Prussian Uhlan Regiment No.16... Composed of a single stand Vidette.

French Chasseurs d'Afrique.

Hesse-Darmstadt 2nd Infantry Regiment... Composed of two large battalions.

French Lancers of the Guard.

 

Brunswick Infantry Regiment... Composed of three medium battalions.

Hesse-Darmstadt 2nd Light Horse Regiment.

French Infantry Legere d'Afrique 1st Battalion.

French Command.

Prussian/German Command.


My infantry units are organized into Small-one stand, Medium-two stands and Large-three stands.
The cavalry are all three stands.


The French are-so far-based loosely around L'Armee D'Afrique.
The Prussians I have-so far-based around the German States.
This will of course change as I find pretty toys to paint...


The miniatures are Spencer Smith Classic Range with a few Stadden's and Willie's


http://www.spencersmithminiatures.co.uk/html/classic.html








All the best   Aly

 

From my side of the table... The Franco-Prussian War

My lovely daughter stayed over the other night (After an evening of 'Drink and Draw' at the Nottingham Rough Trade record store... an excellent social event ...they supply the pens and paper ...you supply the drawing ,drinking and making new friends.)


We decided to spend a few hours the next day having a Franco-Prussian game using Black Powder Rules... we played the rules fairly straight, but gave the Prussian artillery an extra dice when firing to reflect their use of breech loaders...


My chance for revenge was at hand (yeah! Don't hold your breath...).

I took the French... Commanded by the dashing general Malchanceux...

Mharaid took the Prussians... Commanded by the efficient General Von Rust...

The scenario was to try and take control of three points on the table...
Going from left to right ...
The feature known as LA COLLINE DANS LE COIN.
The village at the crossroads known as AU MILIEU DE NULLE PART.
The small farm known as LA FERME SANS MOUTON.


We threw dice to see which side and where our divisions would arrive...

Rust's deployment... I think she has the hill...

My deployment...

Mmmmmm!... check out that beautiful French cavalry...

I move towards the road... Rust comes down to meet me...

My Chasseurs take the farm...

My infantry... looking good...

Rust does some shooting...

I do some 'saving'... maybe I shouldn't have used Rust's dice...

Rust does some more shooting... this is starting to look very familiar...

As my second infantry division and cavalry (Very pretty aren't they) start a rather leisurely flank move... you know the kind of thing... one move, no move, one move, no move....

I pull back my heavily bruised African Light Infantry and engage in a prolonged fire fight with Rust's main force...

Rust does some more shooting... here we go again...

And again...

Wow!... now that is what I call a saving throw...

Unbelievable... my shooting... Rust's 'save'... Ha!

My Chasseurs continue to hold the farm... they like it here..

My infantry continue their casual flanking move...

Rust shoots...Rust misses... could it be that my luck is actual going to change?...

Nope!... this is my movement roll...

These beautiful cavalry wont be making a sweeping move onto the flank of the enemy and the chasseurs wont be leaving the farm...

With half of my first division broken I decide to put some distance between me and those nasty men with guns...

My beautiful cavalry... still look beautiful... and static!

Rust throws a blunder...Hurrah!

And sort of ends up in control of the village...Boo!

Rust presses forwards against my 'redeploying' troops...

Rust decides to prove that our dice throwing is back to normal...

My first division realise they have all got tickets for The Opera back in Paris and head off...

The beautiful cavalry decide it is their moment to move...Hmmmm!

With Rust's troops consolidating their gains and a real need for us to visit a new pub that has opened round the corner I graciously concede the game...

My (soon to be replaced with cuirassiers) beautiful cavalry still look beautiful...


Another excellent game with a truly worthy opponent...
I think both forces could do with at least another division each and I also think that the smaller sized units work really well on my 5' x 7' table.


The miniatures are Spencer Smith Classic Range with a couple of Willie and Tradition command , all available from...
http://www.spencersmithminiatures.co.uk/index.html


Black Powder is available from...
https://store.warlordgames.com/collections/black-powder


All the best  Aly.