Franco Prussian War rule testing " Second Empire"

Hello, this time of the year we decided to play FPW, 10mm using this time a derivate of my "Seven Years" rules, I will call it "Second Empire". Same game engine, no reloading (obviously) and more brutal shooting phases, different distances, for guns and rifles, aaaand instead of a unit being made less responsive due to re-loading we just inverted this to "being prone". i.e. each unit being hit by someone (successfully, that means the "attacker" hit the unit, regardless of the saves following) is "prone", artillery would loose an action/or a shot, while Infantry would be prone, down in the grass, harder to hit, but more vulnerable to charges (1st round) and would loose half of the movement getting out of it.

Bart would play the French and Mike assisted to play the Prussians with me. We gave the Prussians 2  permanent staff officer and a better chance to generate them. I just quickly deployed both armies, the Prussians in position, the French a bit lagging but they had the guard in petto.

The command phase worked well, the French had issues, then the Krupp artillery began their pepperment of the Gauls. At the end, we even had some melees! Cavalry attacks were not to be advised, even if the defender had a bad luck dice day!

For the 1st time it work relatively well the distances in relation to each other are perfect, they just need a bit adjusting to 10mm (I just used cm instead of inches, I will give them +20% ...)

Most importantly the new "prone" rule worked and gave the whole thing a FPW feel to it. Some of the specialities can be worked out more, but that wasn't the aim of the game today. Bart had also some input ... so watch this space ...

P-S- the doormats as woods worked very well for 10mm, I guess I will hunt some door mats ...

Initial set up

the guard is coming up

The Prussian Cavalry comes in as well

The French advance in March column 

The Prussians advance slowly

The Krupps in "stellung"

The French withdraw a bit

the guard tries a flanking maneouvre

but the bearskins align to attack

All French are in line

The Prussians are in shooting range but too late 

not enough time to soften the French up

Forward! to the Arch enemy!

... but the Krupps fail to impress 

and the Guard cavalry can finish their tactical move

sending in the light Hussars

clashing with Prussian Dragoons

The Cavalry zoomes in for a cavalry clash

But then the Infantry formes a defending line

Absolutely nothing's new on the western front

Hello! This Tuesday (Thursday polling - club was closed), we decided to go Great with 28mm First World War with a muddle of rules (Chain of command mixed with Through the Mud and the Blood - or simply Muddy CoC). The British, after extensive barrages, got into the first German trench line, A platoon of veterans trying to survive until the rescue would come, played by Peter. While Alisdair played the German platoon who supposed to help a platoon of stormtroopers (played by Bart) to get back what belonged to the kaiser, at least in his point of view.

The tanks were bombed out the barrages otherwise occupied, we just wanted to see what two platoons vs one plus a HMG would do. Aand the stormtroopers had a flamethrower ...

Well turns out it was probably too advanced towards the end of the war, as both players were reluctant to risk an all out attack at the same time and after some honorable advances and fire fights and losses it ended pretty much as a draw.

Still I had fun, but I would like to have seen more slaughter. Next time we will just do 1 or 2 set off points in the trenches and two to advance/fight out ... and we will incorporate some tanks ... without the german rabble seems too frightened to get over the papermachee top ....

Below some pictures from our Kaiserlichen Kriegsbericherstatter sampled photographs, achieved and shot under extreme conditions and danger of life.

The Initial set up

Stormtrooper before the storm

Normal Germans on their way to the slaughter 

Massed infantry before the storming attack

The trench packed with Brits

Ready to defend the new captured trench

To kill as many huns as possible 

While these huns "approach"

until the end of the foremost post

Meanwhile the stormtroopers

storming in their trenches

and firing with rifles at the enemy

The Brits get hurt but not too much 

Crucially not the heavy machine gun

and their supporting mates

they even fire their mad minutes

But the Germans somehow 

are stuck in their trenches

The British officer reading the news

while the storm troopers attack via the connection trench

but everybody get shot who sticks out their noses

The British line seems impenetrable 

Then in the last hour all advance - Attack!

Even the stormtroopers get near to melee with a British unit 

But in the end ... nothings new on the western front.

When you feel the urge for overkill ... (Ar-Bart-Ghorgorgorgoroth-al-dhul)

This time we decided to play Lord of the Rings, 28mm, with Alisdairs figures. He came up with a  typical last stand scenario, where the dwarves meet Galadriel with just a few guards (played by Bart) and then the overpowering hordes of (Dol-Guldur?) Gorgorgoroth come along to crush everybody (played by me as I have a soft spot for all evil, and was a dark owner of a once mighty (350 souls) ork horde). Alisdair would kindly play the umpire as me and Bart didn't (as usual) read the rules.

So task was easy, I had more units because I'm evil and then more because it was a last stand scenario - hey I like it! Bart out manouvered me a couple of times and hit first and got some charges, but in the end I made my numbers count. I send my beast and hard units to his flank and showered the others with arrows. Hach, da plan worked! Slowly Barts dwarven line was melting away, his Elven cavalry attack rode into doom, and then I killed Galadriel (ups, pardon moi, I know, very politically incorrect, but I didn't hit her, the arrows of my horde just did it), end of movie, credits start to run, no happy end (at least not for Celeborn for a while) as we run out of time, but Bart conceded defeat, so I had also demoralised his fighting spirit ... total victory on every level - I imitated a cinematic evile laugh ...

Then Alisdair apologised for underestimating the power of the horde and the set up of an unbalanced scenario ... ts, ts, ts, puny humans always get so easily emotionally unbalanced. Me though had a marvelous evening, and enjoyed killing good ones ... Yours, sincerely evil Captn Bad!

P.S. and at home I finished a late project ...

Thats me, the Vice-Chancelor of Minas Morgul with a cool move pointing at all he wants to be dead

Thats my horde plus the 20p coin is the center of the lidless Eye!!!

On the hill for now the elves and stunties (dwarves) and Galadriel

My deathknights and trolls advance to crush the puny humanoids

Then my death knights collide with the elven guard, me again pointing towards victims

while my goblin warge riders crush small dwarves!

Elves look good, even better when dying

the pointing-towards-victims-move did work!

a few stunties less to worry 

even the hands of the dwarf gods cannot prevent a few additional pages in the book of grudge

Thats my ever firing gogoroth horde - did I mention, I like hordes? 

short attacks followed by feigned retreats and then a shower of arrows

my small hordes surrounding the allies

my warg riders behind the lines 

the death knights sourounding the dwarves

Galadriel the sexy beast throws herself into battle wow! 

... just to get shot down - Galadriel no more!

Oh, may I introduce my 2 new friends: 6x4Eins and 6x4Zwei

together they are even better