"Black Powder" - Franco-Prussian War in 28mm

Prussian infantry advance in Franco-Prussian War action. These are 28mm figures from Wargames Foundry.

In the fall of 2017 I started off with a new project - gaming the Franco-Prussian War in 28mm.  When I started, I hoped to collect and paint sufficient figures to play both skirmish-style games and games with formed units.  While I was able to run a skirmish game in March of last year, it has taken a little more time to get enough units assembled to a game using formed units. But I have been (relatively) focused on making progress with this project through most of 2018 and into 2019.  Curt's Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge has proven to be an ideal motivational booster. The focus has paid off! I was very excited to run an inaugural game a couple of weeks ago! Here are a few pictures from the evening.

French line along the hills and forest to the left - Prussians advancing on to the table along the top right.

The scenario was for a small encounter battle, set in the very early stages of the war in the summer of 1870. The scenario is very loosely inspired by the Battle of Wissembourg. The Prussians were just beginning to cross the French border in force, and have encountered a small French blocking force.  Being aggressive Prussians, the solution was simple - get to grips with them, and get them out of the way! The French would hold out as long as they could, hoping their comrades would come marching toward the sound of the guns and help out...

The French line is anchored by a battery of muzzle-loading 12-pounders.

Founding Conscript Curt was visiting from Regina, which is always a lot of fun.  Curt and Dallas took command of the Prussian forces - five battalions of regular infantry, a battalion of Jagers, a regiment of dragoons, and two batteries of divisional artillery.  In the event the French resistance proved too stubborn, I also had a little "surprise" mechanism hidden up my sleeve whereby the Prussians could call on their corps artillery to assist with "blockage-removal..."

French Hussars in a blocking position along the road. In the distance, at the top left of the photo, Curt's units can be seen moving to take out that lone French battalion on the hill at the top of the photo.

The stoic French were commanded by Byron and MikeF.  The French forces consisted of three battalions of regular infantry, one battalion of "Turcos", a regiment of Hussars, a battery of 12-pounders and, last but not least, a mitrailleuse battery.

The French senior commanders ponder their situation...

Of course, the rules we used were "Black Powder".  One of the things I enjoy so much about those rules is how easy they are to customize.  When it comes to unit stats, I find Black Powder puts too many dice in the combat columns and not enough in the firepower columns.  Particularly in a conflict defined to a large extent by the performance of rifles like the French Chassepot, I wanted the players to be shooting (and, subsequently, for the Prussians to realize that the French rifles are awesome...). But with a great set of rules like "Black Powder", that's an easy fix... 

Dallas' Prussians take up position and engage the French line in a hot firefight...it is a tough go, as the French rifles were blazing.

So, boom, adjustments to the statistics were made - units overall had more firepower, but the French in particular had even more, while the Prussians had  extra stamina to reflect their larger-sized units and general willingness of their officers to happily plow them forward into the teeth of heavy fire...I also made a few tweaks to make the French Turcos to be rock-hard - by all accounts, they performed as such during the war. So they were ranked as "Elite", able to shake off "disorder" with a successful dice roll.

French battalion in position in the woods...Curt's Prussians are eyeing up that exposed flank...

French troops try to do their duty for the Second Empire!

The French forces occupied a line of hills and a wood covering an important road.  The Prussians would move on to the table on turn one, and look to bludgeon their way past these gallic upstarts... 

Curt moves to take the French flank, but the fire of the Chassepot rifles takes near-immediate effect...

Battle was joined! Things opened, naturally, with some command blunders on the Prussian side which saw Dragoons ignore instructions to threaten the French flank and instead simply wander on to the table and get in everyone's way.  Dallas moved his brigade forward to the cover offered by a walled road, and began trading fire with the French battalions on the ridge.

The French Mitrailleuse battery hammers away at the advancing Prussians.

Despite the wanderings of the Dragoons, the French flank was still a touch vulnerable, and Curt was determined to roll it up, so he sent an infantry battalion on a flank advance instead.  They would suffer heavily at the hands of French rifle fire as they advanced.

French battalion takes position to cover a gap in the line...

The Prussians brought their artillery to bear, and it started to have an effect on the French.  Curt managed to get an assault home, taking a French battalion in the flank and sweeping them from the table. Even as Chassepot and Mitrailleuse volleys took several Prussian units to the brink, and even broke one or two of them, the French line finally gave way on the sixth turn.  Fittingly the Turcos, who had ignored nearly every hit they took, and routinely dispensed with any disorder status thanks to their elite ranking (and MikeF's amazing dice rolls), were the final French unit still on the table - they would have covered the withdrawal...

The stars of the game, the French Turcos...

MikeF shook off nearly every hit from rifle fire and every "disorder" that came up...these guys were not in a mood to give ground...

Oh man, it was just great to see this game played! I had a ton of fun running it, and I hope the guys enjoyed it too.  One takeaway from the game that I will need to adjust for next time is the rate at which "disorder" occurs - because I significantly increased the rate of firing, I also materially increased the odds of a "6" being rolled in shooting, so it was tough for the Prussian infantry to keep moving.  In many ways, this is "historical", in the sense that the French rifle fire was murderous, but the Prussian players should at least have a chance to keep moving, and so I will likely make some adjustments to the "disorder" rate. But otherwise, "Black Powder" was fantastic - indeed, the ease of adjustment and customization is one of its greatest strengths as a rules set, and this game showed that once more.

Another view of the action from the road...casualties starting to pile up on the Prussian side...but they are victorious in the end!

While my 28mm Franco-Prussian war collection is still modest, at least we now have the basics for a game, and of course I will continue to add units here and there to "round out" the collection, allowing for some larger games in the future.  Big thanks to Curt for visiting, and to Dallas, Byron and MikeF for coming out to play - I hope they enjoy this new period as much as I do!

French vs. Austrians 15mm Napoleonics Battle Report and New Warmat!

Last week, Greg had a great idea - Napoleonics. We haven't rolled out any of our 15mm collections for some time, and the arrival of a fancy new "warmat" from Barrage Miniatures provided the perfect opportunity.

Greg came up with an interesting scenario for us to play, using the Black Powder rules:

“It is 1809 and the War of the Fifth Coalition.  The Austrians are on the move against the French, but Napoleon and his Marshals are rallying their forces to seize the initiative.  We’ll play “Black Powder” with a scenario featuring a rear-guard confrontation near Landshut in Bavaria. Austrian General Hiller is falling back, but turns to defend against Marshal Lannes’ pursuit.  Will he hold the French back?”

As much as I was looking forward to pushing around some great-looking 15mm Napoleonics, I was also eager to start amortizing some new terrain. With encouragement from Conscript Curt, I ordered a warmat from Curt's pal Alf at Barrage Miniatures in Madrid, Spain. I'll be posting a review on the blog later, but suffice to say that Barrage was great to deal with and kept me well updated on progress (the mats are apparently quite labour-intensive to produce). The mat was certainly expensive but it's very high quality and as you can see from the photos, it looks great and elicited lots of comments from the guys. 

We also used the new "wheatfield" terrain I've been making, using an idea I stole from some chaps at Legio-Con. It's a sisal mat from IKEA cut into 1" squares and makes great looking fields for 15mm or 28mm!

Anyway, on to the game...

Conscript Frederick took command of the French heavy cavalry brigade. They deployed on the French left and aimed to sweep around the Austrian flank and hit them from behind.

Conscripts Dave, Kevin and Bill took the Austrian commands. They deployed a weaker brigade on their right (facing Frederick's cavalry) with the main strong infantry brigade in their centre (just visible in the background of the photo above). The Austrians kept their cavalry brigade and a battalion of Guards infantry in reserve.

Here's the main mass of Austrian infantry.

Helicopter view of the Austrian position, viewed from the French side. They placed a gun in the woods at top left.

Here come the French! We deployed our strong infantry brigade directly opposite the strong Austrian position, the idea being that we would pin the sausage-eaters in place while Frederick's cavalry swept around. Conscript Keegan took the weaker infantry brigade up the French left, just to the right of the cavalry. Check out the infantry moving through the fields - neat effect, eh?

Battle is joined as the French engage with musketry.

"Was is los???" The French cavalry sweep around and end up behind the Austrian lines. One of the French regiments has already zapped an Austrian battalion in the centre of their line, and bounced back behind the hill. (This was a bit of a snafu with our understanding of Black Powder, as the victorious French should have been allowed to sweep into the next Austrian battalion. However I personally think that the balance of the game as a whole benefited from this misunderstanding, as the French cav had been rocket-like in their flank march.)

Anyway, the Austrian arrived from reserve and their cavalry charged in on the French - heavy on heavy - while the Guards infantry lined up their muskets on the other French cav regiment.

Meanwhile, the French infantry continued to advance under heavy fire from the Austrian foot-sloggers.

The French have lost two battalions to shooting at this point and have to turn one to the left to refuse the Austrian flank pressure.

French cavalry have driven off their Austrian counterparts and are about to bounce off an Austrian square. Another slight miscue on our part - cavalry are not allowed to charge home on a square in good order...

A nice view of the fracas unfolding.

The Austrians are starting to really buckle under pressure from both directions.

Austrian battalion on the French left is eliminated in close combat while their colleagues behind are forced to form square.

The end... Too many Austrian casualties to allow them to continue the battle. French victory.

Thoughts... Black Powder is good fun and the battle rattled right along. However, the elastic time scale of battle, with the potential for multiple actions by one unit in a turn, had a real effect on the game. The French heavy cavalry brigade got some good command checks and was all the way around the flank and in the Austrian rear in about three turns. Although some minor rules snafus evened things up a bit, that really put paid to the game for the sausage-eaters as the French vise grip tightened. Even with that, though, the game was great fun and looked fantastic with the new warmat and Greg's exquisite figures.

Black Powder Bavarian Brouhaha

Clouds of disciplined Hapsburg musketry fill the air!

Fresh off a great outing to Prairiecon XXXV (see here and here for some photos), the Conscripts stopped by last Thursday for a game we have not played in quite some time - Black Powder.  Dallas and I cracked out the 15mm Napoleonics for the game.  The scenario was set in the early stages of my favourite Napoleonic campaign - 1809 and the War of the Fifth Coalition.

Pre-game table - the French would start on the left side, the Austrians on the right

The 1809 campaign was a big show, with fighting in Italy and Poland as well as central Europe. It culminated in the noted engagements of Aspern-Essling and Wagram.  Vienna was occupied and Austria defeated. What a busy summer! But it kicked off with an invasion of Bavaria by Austria in April, and for an ever-so-brief period, Archduke Charles had the initiative as the French struggled to assemble properly from their winter encampments strung out along the Danube. Delayed by bad weather and by, let's say, an ingrained Austrian command culture, this wouldn't last, but there was some sharp fighting early on that might have tilted things in the Hapsburgs' favour.

Austrians advance

French brigade advancing

Davout's III Corps, encamped in various locations around Regensburg, was the most vulnerable French formation, and the conservative Austrian commanders did their best to impersonate the decisive movement of the French (Charles had even reformed the Hapsburg army into Corps-level formations instead of columns) in order to pin him and take him out.  But Davout was nobody's fool, arguably of Napoleon's best commanders.  His dispersed units repelled the various Austrian thrusts and escaped to the west, where Napoleon was massing the army and would soon turn the tide and sh*t can the Austrians back towards their own capital and beyond.

Initial encounter - Austrian advance screen against small French brigade...

Ouch - these were the kind of command rolls the French had all night

Hussars crash into the French - why didn't they form square? See above...

The scenario we played was a "what if?" set in this time, an alternate Battle of Teugen-Hausen.  In the real battle, St. Hilaire's division, screening Davout's western movement, fought a sharp and confused encounter with the lead elements of Austrian Field Marshal Vukassovich's Corps.  The fighting took place along forested ridge lines between the villages of Teugen and Hausen.  I used this engagement as inspiration for the scenario.

These Austrian light troops punched well above their weight in the game

Bill and Dallas played the French side.  They had a small brigade of two battalions and a large one of five battalions, and reinforcements in the form of two regiments of Chasseurs. Historically I don't think there was any cavalry present for the French, but where is the fun in that?  We imagined that perhaps units from General Montbrun's cavalry division were nearby. Leadership values reflected the elite and motivated French commanders.

Firefight in the valley - it goes ill for the French...

Frederick and Byron took charge of the Austrians.  The Austrian force had two brigades - one small one with a battalion of Grenzer, a battalion of Landwehr and regiment of Hussars.  The second brigade had six big fat Austrian line battalions - two full regiments of fierce sausage consumption.  Set against this force were relatively low command values and a special rules limiting the success of even a generous command roll.

You can see here the French (on the left) have struggled to set up their line of defence

The goals for each side was to capture the other's village, or failing that, not to lose their own. Fighting would proceed until one side or the other broke. I expected the smaller French force would have a better time maneuvering, while the sluggish Austrian commanders would struggle to get their big units into place. But the dice don't give a hoot about scenario rules, or my expectations, and they did not this night!

A view of the Austrian advance through the valley

Suffice to say the French had some bad luck.  And by "some", I mean "a lot".  While they didn't fail every command roll, they failed a lot of them.  The Austrian players had lots of hot rolling, even with the re-rolling designed to limit their hot rolling!  This carried into the shooting as well - the French musketry was indifferent, while the Austrians blazed away like they had depleted uranium musket rounds or something.

Austrians make a steady advance - see that unit in the back? That is the very first Napoleonic unit I ever painted...more than 14 years ago!

Early on the French were on the receiving end of a charge by the Austrian Hussars - the target French battalion failed to form a square, and got chewed up badly.  Overall, the leading light elements of the Austrians managed to out-gun and out-fight the leading French elements, while the French struggled to move into position.

French Chasseurs arrive and...well, don't get up to very much...

The Austrians, for their part, moved efficiently up the valley and into a nice, double-ranked advance that would make any linear-theory army commander pleased. From there, it was a matter of blowing the French away with some well-ordered musket fire.

Austrians form square as French cavalry approach...

The last chance the French had to turn things back was to get their cavalry involved - they arrived by the sixth turn. But again, command rolls failed at key moments.  It was not to be for the French. Their brigade broke, and General St. Hilaire would have some explaining to do when he next reported to Marshal Davout!!

The 2nd/57th tries to hold the line...

Black Powder is a wonderful set of rules - very quick to play, and very flexible in terms of setting things up.  One adjustment we made for this game was to goose up the shooting values and lower the "close combat" values for the units, with an eye to encouraging the players to hammer away with muskets and hold the bayonets until they have a solid chance to finish the opponents off.

I also love the very specific command mechanics within the spirit of the Black Powder rules.  You don't just roll the dice - you have to specify what you want first. This isn't the easiest change for casual players, but the guys totally embraced this during the game, leading to excellent discussions about what was intended before any dice were thrown, and a more interesting feel to the game - even better than Shako, in my opinion, even though with Shako you have to draw out orders.

Between the "new" edition of the 40k rules and all of the Horus Heresy projects, it may be a little while before we see some Black Powder in this space again.  But a big thanks to Dallas for bringing a bunch of stuff out, and to Bill, Frederick, Byron and Jim for coming out to play. 

Napoleonic AAR - Black Powder Blast

Present! Fire!

I was fortunate to host Curt in my neck of the Canadian Prairies last week.  In addition to fun food and wine we were able to throw down some really great gaming.   For old times' sake we had a game of Epic 40k during the Fawcett Avenue Conscripts' regular get-together.  Then on Saturday night Curt was kind enough to put his stunning 28mm French Napoleonics on to the table to challenge my stubborn, charming and poorly-led Austrians and run a game of Black Powder.

Austrian line before battle is joined

French commanders Byron and Bill scheme to overload the Austrian flank

Attack columns anyone?

We did not busy ourselves with undue application of background.  It was the 1809 campaign.  A French force was looking to open the way forward by knocking an Austrian blocking force out of the way.  The road to Eggmuhl? Teugen-Hausen? Aspern-Essling? Raab? Wagram? Why worry about it? Sometimes it is fun to just throw down and play, even in a period as "serious" as Napoleonics.  The French would have eight turns to break the Austrians. That was that!

Austrian dragoons at the far left of the Austrian line

The French advance, led by infantry on their left

French officers blunder their way forward...

To determine victory Curt adjusted the victory conditions process somewhat. The army break point would be determined by the removal of various units through battle, as usual, but we applied the Army Morale feature from the game "Maurice", where the effect of this would be somewhat random.  An excellent mechanic that fit well with the game.

We also tilted the initiative mechanic on its head - it would be harder to maneuver near the enemy, not easier, so free initiative moves were limited to units at least 24" away from the enemy, not within 12" of the enemy.

A dire and ominous concentration of French troops assault along the flank of the table

Another view of the French assault.  Behind the lines, Cam contemplates just how small Dallas' chance for success is...

The French force consisted of six battalions of infantry, a regiment of Carbiniers, a regiment of Cuirassiers and an artillery battery.  The Austrians met them with a similar force - six battalions of infantry, a regiment of Cuirassiers and a regiment of Dragoons.  They would face off along the opposing long edges of a 5' x 8' table.

Curt's 28mm French are a sight to see on the table!

The extreme right of the Austrian line - Dallas holds out...

Some Hungarians in Dallas' brigade hold out under heavy French pressure

To further reflect the national attributes of the forces involved, the French troops were rated as "Superbly Drilled", meaning they could always count on some kind of action even in the event of a flubbed command roll by an officer (although they could not charge on their own).  The Austrians had some command penalties to reflect the indecisive nature of their command structure, but their battalions were large and ready to accept some abuse in stoic defence of the Holy Roman Empire!

The assault is joined! Dallas' infantry goes down fighting...

My artillery battery provided limited support to the Austrian line...but made the C-in-C feel better....

Mike's assault in the centre moves ahead

Byron and Bill took command of the French, while the Austrian command, true to the flavour of the period, was a touch top-heavy, with Dallas taking command of an infantry brigade on the right, Mike F. taking command of an infantry brigade in the centre, and visiting Conscript Cam leading the cavalry brigade on the Austrian left, while I played the role of Austrian C-in-C, with direct control of the artillery (and a pressing concern for a lute I may have left in Vienna).

Dallas' right is broken

Dallas' remaining troops under pressure.  The French gun on the left is about to unlimber...

The French, being the squeezers they are, overloaded their infantry toward the Austrian right.  Dallas looked a little forlorn as his thin spread of three infantry battalions faced five french battalions, supported by artillery, racing to crush his men.  His troops held on grimly, with Dallas hot-rolling numerous saving throws to hold back the French.  Ultimately, in a slight departure from Hapsburg character, he sent his right-most battalion directly forward into the advancing French, thinking it was better to go down in flames charging rather than waiting for the inevitable.

Curt's stunning French Carbiniers

When you roll like this, you will never, ever charge....

Dallas' troops held out for a long time (considering what he was facing), but at the end of the day it ended in tears, and over the space of three turns two of his battalions were routed.  His stand was prolonged by the French command's tendency to roll blunders, slowing their advance through some random, awkward movements.  Dallas also hit hard with his musketry, and my desultory artillery fire added a little support.

French Cuirassiers run over the Austrian dragoons

On the left flank we braced for an epic cavalry clash.  In between bouts of Hapsburg vapours, I was careful to remind Cam on multiple occasions that the fate of our whole stand depended on his horsemen.  Cam was thankful for the pressure (he may have referred to it as "pre-blame", I can't exactly recall) but he embraced the role with a suitably Austrian vigour.

Victorious French heavy cavalry threaten the Austrian left flank

And the results were...very Austrian...a prolonged standoff, extended by multiple failed command rolls, multiple failed "Follow Me!" attempts...it was really something!! For several turns, the four regiments stood there nose to nose, waiting for someone - anyone! - to get a damn charge roll off the ground.  In the end I was successful first - but only via a blunder!!!

This lone French battalion held the French centre

But once unleashed, it was a hard core battle!  Cam's Austrian heavy cavalry were able to break the French Carbiniers after two rounds of hard fighting.  It did not go so well for the Dragoons, who proved to be little more than a speed bump for Napoleon's Cuirassiers.

Mike rolls out against the Austrian centre

In trouble on the left, and in trouble on the right.  It was pretty dire....but in the centre - wow! Mike's Austrian infantry brigade steadily and methodically shredded the French battalions in front of them.  He did so well he was able to advance forward into the middle of the French line, threatening the flank of the French infantry blocks on the Austrian right, and safe from the dreaded French cavalry on the left.

Mike's three battalions had solid momentum

The Austrian high command was jazzed about the possibilities of this advance, but in true, cautious, conservative fashion, we withdrew.  Remember those army morale rules we mentioned? Well, we rolled high when checking for the demise of each Austrian unit lost to that point, and rolling high is bad.  Our army morale broken, the Austrians ceded the field, leaving the French a little bloodied and a little baffled...

The French centre faces disaster...those Carbiniers at the top of the photo are already beaten....

It was great fun to play Black Powder again, but in the Napoleonic context it is easy to see the numerous irritations - saving throws from artillery, aaarrrrgh so stupid! - which motivated Curt and friends to develop their own variant for the period.

Mike's successful assault moves to threaten the French main thrust, just visible to the right

Nonetheless, the game looked awesome, the company was great, and it was a real thrill to get my Austrian lads on to the table against Curt's stunning French troops.

Only Austrians would maneuver to this point, and then fall back...

I want to thank Curt again for putting on the game - he had done a presentation at a conference that morning, made it back to my place just in time to get the game set up and then helped us bludgeon our rusty way through the game.  That takes a lot of energy, and it was greatly appreciated!  Thanks very much dude.  I look forward to the next game!