Welcome

Welcome to my wargaming blog,
I'm Dave and live in Morpeth, Northumberland in the UK.
This may or may not be a regular thing, we'll just have to see how it goes.

I am a painter/collector of figures first and a wargamer second. My thrill in this great hobby of ours is to place that final well researched & painted unit into the cabinet. The actual gaming with the figures is an important but secondary experience, we all like to win, but it isn't the be all and end all of it, being with good friends and having fun is.
Hope you will enjoy reading this blog as much as I will writing in it.
Just to remind the visitor to scroll down the various pages and click on 'older posts' to see more.
Dave.

Wednesday 2 September 2020

Franco Prussian 15mm.

 You thought it was all over, well it is now, I think!

There hasn't been a post on here for a while and after scrolling down you will probably see why. I'm not one for posting each time I finish a 15mm unit, particularly if I have done a few similar units before and have already posted about them on here. A 28mm unit is a bit different as they take a bit more work but 15mm, na. No disrespect to anyone else but I will get a few units done before I shove them on here.

My FPW collection was started at least 15 years ago based mainly on the Wyre Forest adaptation of the ACW Fire and Fury rule set which was one I liked. The latest 'official' set is Age of Valor adapted from both Fire and Fury and Age of Eagles (the Napoleonic set). I had always assumed that my FPW collection was as complete as I could wish it to be, a foolish assumption I know but there you go! Now the Age of Valor rule set uses a slightly different figure scale to the original and I observed would need a few more figures added to the old collection to make it viable, yeh right, a few more. I have painted up approx 80 foot and 40 cavalry but it's the artillery that's the doozy 20 more models were needed. I then decided in my insanity that each model would have a limber, you will see the results in the photos below.

You guys may legitimately ask why all the gun limbers? Frankly it is of course all down to personal taste. They are not strictly necessary to play the game, though I do believe that a battery of guns was a big investment in both physical material and training, but also of the actual area of ground that it occupied on the battlefield and that this should be shown if possible when gaming. The down side is that limbers are a frick'n pain to assemble and paint and oh boy was I fed up with doing this lot by the time I was finished! I do think it will be worth it though, particularly in this period when the artillery played such a dominant (or not) factor in the outcome.

Anyway, on with the pictures:

French Imperial Guard (with one division from the 1st corps on movement trays)


The rest of MacMahon's 1st corps.


French 5th corps, all French corps had three divisions (other than the 1st corps.). Each division was made up of four brigades seen here with their attached three batteries of guns. The six batteries of the reserve artillery can be seen on the left.


French corp cavalry brigades for both 1st and 5th corps plus 1st corps artillery reserve,


French limbers, see what I mean!


Prussian V Korps, two divisions composed of 4 regiments in two brigades with attached cavalry and reserve artillery. Note that the figures mounted on hexagonal bases are there to portray the heavy skirmish line thrown forward of the formed Prussian infantry.


Prussian XI Korps.


II Bavarian Korps, organised as per their Prussian counterparts though with some Jagers included.


A mix here, French reserve corps cavalry bottom left. Bavarian Korps cavalry top left and Prussian Korps cavalry right top and bottom.


Bavarian grey limbers, and Prussian blue limbers. Some serious numbers here!


The figures are organised so that both Age of Valor and my adaptation of General de Armee rules can be used. I would be open to Bloody Big Battles but looking at photographs of various games on line the units used seem a little small looking for my taste and at twenty odd quid I'm not sure. People say they are a good set of rules so if they could be used with larger units I may give them a go.

Anyhow I'm pig sick of Franco Prussians for the moment so on with something else!

Cheers, Dave.

7 comments:

  1. My God, that is a LOT of limbers! Great looking collection.

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  2. Those extra limbers will be well worth it. Though I feel your pain in painting them all up.

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  3. Lovely job on the limbers, but I can see why you need a change of scene. :-)

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  4. You've done a great job on both armies and I think you can a well deserved break. I love BBB and you also get a great bunch of scenarios as well as the rules.

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  5. An impressive review, congratulations!
    Regards, James

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  6. Fantastic armies David - I’m about to start down this part too! I notice your cav regiments are 8 figs strong ? Whereas Agecof Valor suggests essentially 4 figs strong from memory

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