All 28mm Renegade WW1 french infantry (same uniform as 1870) Old Glory for Legion - Chassuers ... Zouaves from 28 mm ACW, french cuirassiers from Napoleonic 1815 and dragoons...prussian are all Hellion figs...rules used are Black Powder.
Played 2 large games now and we think we got it right...over a 1000 figs on table and it was very closed in both games
Franco Prussian Black Powder stats
A number of Grimsby members gamed the F.P. and we came up with what we thought was the
best stats for the B.P.
First is the Chassepot and Needle distance,many people have said the Chassepot should be double
the Needle,on a 5 foot wide table (Which i guess most tables are or 4 foot) it simply does not work,so
we had to reduce this down and give a bonus elsewhere.The range is Needle 18 and the Chassepot
24 ... reason for this is that the French did a move forward (3 turns-36 inch) then opened fire upon the
Prussian Brigade,first turn they became disordered and one Battalion had to roll for moral and had to retire off the field before the Prussians even had a turn.
Sounds great for the french but spoils the feel for the game and a full Brigade was gone before we knew it,so we reduce the range and gave the French Sharp shooters bonus and because the Prussians
where mostly aggressive and attacked in numbers they move first.
Cavalry was also changed,they could not do a frontal attack unless a unit was shaken,they had to find a way around the flanks and rear,but we gave the Prussian cavalry a bonus the french could not have and that is the "Von Bredow death ride" you have 1 in 3 chance of doing this so you proberly will only use it when things are desperate,which is what really happened anyway.
The death ride is a frontal attack,move into position and roll a 5 or 6 on a d6,if successful panic sets in on the french unit and they may not fire but move straight onto melee.
Prone is also used,any unit may use this with a -1 to hit the prone unit,if charged the unit may go from prone but loses the fire and straight into melee they go.
Mitrailleuse must be attached to a artillery piece,which the French did as it was a secret weapon and must not fall into enemy hands,if the artillery piece is destroyed the mitrailleuse retires off the field,even if the gun is attacked the mitrailleuse will leave the field,the french never used the mitrailleuse to its full use and so rather than let it fall into enemy hands they attached it to a gun.
We also used Valiant break test for the prussians,each brigade was given one,since they were attacking they need some thing to help them as they get more casualties than the french.
Staff rating was changed,we did not want the french to be reduced to a 7 as this is to much of a punishment so we kept it at 8...the prussians were given a 9...it worked perfectly which we wanted,this gives the prussians to out-manouvre the french and a flank attacked did happen during the game and push the french towards the center.
When gaming the Franco-Prussian war remember you can use World war one and two buildings (we used the ruins buildings),use hedge-rows in the fields,farm buildings ect..the right flank in our game was a open play...thats how we came to the conclusion of the chassepot needle gun distance...overall it was a top game and very enjoyable and if you feel you may wish to change the stats,by all means do so.
