Tuesday 5 July 2011

The Battle of Faux-Illy, 15mm Franco-Prussian Wargame Part 2.

.....anyway on to the last part of the game and the first moves.

Just a brief synopsis of the rules as they affect the players as I saw them.
1.Cavalry in line get hit by muskets and artillery on a 2 on a D6 (automatic hits if they are in column!!), don't put your cavalry anywhere near infantry or artillery (difficult).
2. French infantry fire at 18" compared to 12" for the Prussians, Prussian artillery is better (longer range and shell).
3. 2 actions for all units, 2 moves, 2 fires (second fire is minus 1) or a mixture of these.
4. Troops in defence hit in melee at +1.
5. There are others but the main one is don't let your cavalry anywhere near infantry or artillery or that bloody mitrailleuse.

I have narrated from the point of view of myself and Dave's Northern and Southern Prussian forces, better pictures from the East and West attacks on Big Lee's site.

My boys advance

Dave's boys push forward.


A battalion of infantry in this house gave me arseache most of the game, nice smoke marker from the volley.

The French lines start to maul our advance.

Dice show the mauling effect on the Prussians.

Racing forward to negate the French advantage in rifle range

My deep columns advance protected by a screen of skirmishers.

Had to answer a question on Pearl Harbour to get this one artillery piece but it made such a difference (only one to get his question right)


The French fire was ruthless, that double action killed us going in...literally.

Dave especially got hammered by those 2 units in the woods with their fire and plus 1 in melee.

Things are still going well....so far.

A view of Big Lee's advance by his Bavarians (Yokels).

Cuirassiers in the lead, the heavy boys, shot out of their saddles and headed back to the Prussian lines.

This turned into an ongoing slog that wiped out both units.

Poor old Dave getting hammered in those woods, spent the day back and forth like a backpacker.

There was the odd rule clarification that usually screwed the Prussians ( the warm cream soda is still been peddled).

Postie and his contractual shot (cannot show you what he is pointing at but at least the t-shirt is clean enough to show).

Finally got to assault the house and drove the French out and occupied it myself.

Smithy trying to turn the French flank and eventually did but a little too late.

Prussian Lancers hitting the French cuirassiers and giving them a kicking (not technically a military term).


French remnants heading into the woods.

The last stages and as we did not take the hill, this counted as a minor French victory, very good game but a slog, a dice throwing slog with horrendous casualties for the Prussians.

Our genial host with the rules, top man.


39 comments:

  1. Awesome pictures, I like them.
    Have a nice day!

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  2. Nice Batrep, sounds like a fun game indeed! Those poor Prussians.

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  3. Second part just as good as the first part!

    Christopher

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  4. Great stuff - Something very stirring about commanding columns and formations like that in battle!

    I've had those rules for years and never tried them out - what was the verdict on them as a system?

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  5. @Paul: Damn good overall, nice and simple to grasp which is good for some of the older players.

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  6. It was a really good game. The rules were elegant and didn't get in the way of the action. Next time I'd do things a little different. I could have bunched those deep columns up a bit to hit a smaller frontage of French a lot harder. Live and learn!

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  7. Nice AAR mate!
    Not my era, but when I see sth good I say it!
    T.

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  8. Another great report. Very nice photos, the game looks good. Sounds like the Prussians didn't stand much of a chance.

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  9. I hate sending troops in against an opponent with better rifle range, so I feel the Prussians' pain (even though I'm a francophile).

    Really excellent report -- I enjoyed reading it!

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  10. you should sell the script for this and make a movie :)

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  11. Love the little smoke detail! :)

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  12. The Angry lurker was a big bully in the game, but to try and win he had to vastly outnumber me. Although I was beaten badly with just a few troops remaining I held on and beat the ginger sh!t, loser, loser.
    Fran was obviously not given any pocket money for goodies for the game, but very greedily pigged on everyone else's grub!!!! Oink Oink

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  13. @Postie: You don't have a computer so you must be on Ray's or is this just Ray anyway.

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  14. lol@Postie's response (OR IS IT RAY?)

    My gods, there are enough pictures that I can pretty much imagine being there. You guys look like you have more general military know-how than some country's top brass.

    I'm going to go look at these pics again. Thanks for taking the time to share them all (and I just can't figure out whose voice will be in my head for your narration.)

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  15. I just love how you recreate these battle scenes. I'd love to see a "making of" video on youtube or something.

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  16. Postie read your report and wanted to tell the truth about the game. I set the account up and typed his words only, the rest is all him I'm afraid Fran!!

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  17. I can't even imagine how brutal combat must have been back then.

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  18. that must have been an amazing game.
    +1 and following!

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  19. I´m still trying to work out wether the name of the battle is a pun or not....the way my mind works i suppose :-D
    great looking battle
    Cheers
    paul

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  20. I was hibernating for a while. Love the miniature. Closeup shot of a soldier would have been nice.

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  21. Gar, marching into the teeth of quick firing rifles has got to be galling.

    Kind of like a WWI game I once played where I had 100 figures and the enemy (Germans) had 3 machineguns that each rolled 2d6 a turn in CASUALTIES against me. I made it about half the distance to the opposite trenches...

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  22. love the quaint cabin you took over. I imagine only for the high ranking officials of your battalion.

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  23. You must study a lot of history, I like that. Also, is your friend wearing a Three Wolf Moon shirt?

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  24. So are these competitive or are they just recreations of the battles.

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  25. lmfao anyone else notice that stellar 3 wolf howling t-shirt. he clearly one.

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  26. Looks like a good time. Yeah I noticed the shirt, AWESOME.

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  27. i think all of you that do this are so very talented. well done

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  28. Great report Fran. And I can assure you, "giving them a kicking" is indeed a common (and much loved) military term, second only to "filling them in" in the same context.

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  29. love the archiving of events as the game progressed. looks like hell for those troops :D

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  30. Awesome post. Love the play by play breakdown of the game.

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  31. It looked to be a great game Fran. @Paul I wondered the same thing about the title too.

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  32. Pretty cool.

    I think I need to get a hobby.

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  33. epic battle. Poor Prussians though.

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  34. That sure sounded like Ray, but we have no other evidence of what Postie sounds like.

    Also Ray's post seemed friendly but very subtly called the Prussians Monsieur, even as the Prussians call the Bavarians yokels.

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