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.

Sunday 18 October 2015

The battle of Froeschwiller, 1870.


Our once in a while trip up to Mick's fantastic wargame venue last weekend consisted of a re fight of the frontier battle of Froeschwiller-Worth which took place during the Franco Prussian war of 1870.
As will be seen from the historical account of the battle here we (or should I say Scotty who organised the thing) decided to allow the French to receive the reinforcements that were due to arrive the day before and to replace the Bavarian II Corps with a Saxon Corps which Mick had painted up.

A map of the original battle on the 6th August 1870,  defending on the left, Prussians attacking right.

Most of the 15mm troops were painted up by myself and Scotty though as stated Mick contributed a Saxon Corps. The rules were hex adapted Fire and Fury Francais gamed on Micks fantastic hex table.
Neal and Mick took the obnoxious German states while yours truly and a first timer to our group Chris had the suave and debonair French (you can begin to see dear reader how fair and unbiased this report will be!). Scotty umpired.




The field of battle, French deployed defending the full length of the ridge line and the Prussians on the other side of the stream impassible to their artillery which had to shoot in at long range. (Ignore Neal giggling inanely at the strong French position.)



 The Saxon Corps (commanded by Mick) can be seen at the top end of the table advancing on the French redoubts on their left.




 Prussian columns awaiting Neal's order to advance.


Main Saxon force.


With their Jagers advancing ahead through the woods towards the French left.



Mick (left) and Neal (right) pushing the Prussians over the stream towards the French position.




Chris, commanding the large French 1st Corps in the front line pushes a rgt of Tiraillures forward to help drive off the Saxon Jagers, but the main Saxon force isn't far behind and their artillery are causing substantial casualties even in the French redoubts.



A French cavalry division charges into the Saxon skirmishers in support of the Tiraillier rgt, destroys one Jager battalion but suffers greatly in return.


Meanwhile the Prussian centre continues it's advance encouraged on it's way by some abusive hand gesture towards the French commanders by Neal!


Scotty as umpire presumabally taking offence at the above hand gesture which I pointed out was made in his direction, it never pays to call the umpire a w****r. (he didn't really but it looked too good a photographic opportunity to pass up!)



With the pressure increasing on the French centre and left the right hand French Corps decides to hastly re-deploy to the north.

Next post, the pressure mounts!
Dave.

7 comments:

  1. excellent write up Dave. Get the next part posted ASAP

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  2. I wondered what happened to Mike Nichol, he used to do some wonderful SYW battles, and write ups. Its good to see he is still wargaming.

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    1. He still does some great SYW games

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    2. He's a good bloke Robbie, proper dedicated wargamer and a great host when we go up there. Most of the games there are huge and require a dedicated type of gamer to see them through to a conclusion, so it's full on with all the banter left for breaks, meal times and evenings.
      Dave.

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  3. Mick spends most of the year in an induced coma for tax reasons. We go and wake him up occasionally for the odd game.

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  4. Smashing write-up Dave. Great to re-live the action again.

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  5. G'Day. I love that hex board. Could you let me know the make?

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