This time, it needed to be FPW, 10mm, Black Powder (plus amendments) - Bart played the ailing second empire while Campbell stood in for the upcoming one. The fictional setting would be at the start of the conflict where the French guard tries to concentrate on and around the joyful little town of "Kicheren", while realising the Prussians had the same idea.
Rules wise we played black powder, with enhanced ranges, diminished cavalry and a melee and shooting system by base (and stamina relatively) ... as the different commonly used infantry formations (in the FPW) naturally make more sense. I left the prone positioning out ... too complicated for a first test out ... maybe later more. Also the ammunition was limited in this scenario.
Both participants had trouble getting their act together and concentrate their troops, which was a beauty to watch as it felt like two old Napoleonic veterans needed to get to grips with the "new" times.
Then Bart as usual started on the French right flank a cavalry attack and kept Campbell constantly under pressure. Remarkable as the French Horse were first outnumbered! The Prussians seemed to have a hard time to get their men into the frontline and their Krupps lost some of their effectiveness due to men standing in front of them.
Then the Prussians countered the first French cavalry wave with help from some infantry and got into a mitrailleuse fire fight (with some cannister) that saw off some Prussian dragoons.
Mainly the French waited, took the reduced Prussian artillery attack on the chin and just as the Prussians came into the Chassepot death zone, aimed for the Pickelhauben... Unfortunately due to time restraints we had to finish there, BUT we all agreed to start off next time where we left it.
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| Initial set up |
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| The Prussian centre |
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| The French commander |
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| The rules |
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| First turn both crawl towards each other |
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| Slowly guns can be heard ... |
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| And the battle starts ... |
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| The first Cavalry clashes |
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| The French win |
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| ... until more Prussians appear |
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| The French have something of a line |
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| Which the Prussians start to pepper with shells |
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| Prussians counter charges come in ... |
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| The Prussian centre arrives at the river |
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| The Guarde attacks and gets hit |
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| The Prussians get on the hill!!! |
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| The Prussian cavalry charges the French gun line ... hmm |
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| ... and many dragoons die in the machine gun fire ... |
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| no Prussian dragoons anymore ... |
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| The Prussian centre crosses the river |
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| The Prussian cuirassiers reenact their deathride ... |
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| The Prussians are over the hill |
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| more cavalry fighting |
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| The Deathride verbatim |
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| less deathriders afterwards ... |
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| The battle seem to split between two flanks ... we stopped here. |
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| The Death table |
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| My rule tweaks and rationale ... |
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| some melee examples |
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| The Prussian stats |
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| The French stats |
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| The battle map where we left it ... |
A great looking game during a very interesting period Michael...Superb!
ReplyDeleteThank you Phil! I hope to catch the feeling of the period a bit. ... I have left out prone positioning and skirmishing ... for the time being ... ;)
DeleteSo far, so good. I'm still on the table ;)
ReplyDeleteWell, and you have very good chances to hurt him now ...
DeleteGreat looking game in your 'new' period. It will be interesting to see how this one finishes. The old fashioned tactics with new weapons have taken their toll to date.
ReplyDeleteRegards, James
Thanks James! It still can swing both ways, I guess... we‘ll see in 2 weeks. :)
Delete