FPW Battle of Gravelotte-St Privat

Started by mollinary, 12 September 2010, 10:43:45 AM

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mollinary

12 September 2010, 10:43:45 AM Last Edit: 13 September 2010, 05:35:08 PM by Leon
A weekend towards the end of August in sunny Suffolk saw the culmination of a year's preparation - a 10mm, Pendraken heavy, Realistic Modelling terrained, To the Last Gaiter Button Ruled, multi player wargame.   Some 6,500 figures eventually made it onto the 16ft by 7ft table, leaving about a 1,000 more who never managed to stir from their boxes.  

The game involved 5 players a side, and 4 umpires/watchers!    

The French:


The Prussians;


My preparation time was involved in visiting the field, sorting out the terrain, and getting Keith Warren at RM to make what special we needed, and sorting out, getting painted, and labelling, and organising the troops.  John Dz, my wargamer partner in crime, at whose wonderful house this was all set up, joined in the battlefield tour and setting up of terrain, and then concentrated on aspects which go beyond my organisational abilities, drawing up orders of arrival, drafting starting orders for all the commanders, and issuing the invitations to all the participants.  



Looking back, perhaps the greatest contributor to success was having done more preparation than ever before, and having given some thought as to which individuals should be given which roles.  This could be broadly summed up as allocating the more "senior and experienced" wargamers as French, and the "younger and more offensive in spirit" to the Germans.  We also took a gamble - that the younger participants were perhaps less likely to do their homework, and therefore we might be able to reproduce the surprise that the Germans experienced when they found the French line extended beyond Amanvillers to Roncourt in the North. This worked and the result was an astonishing , and in my experience almost unprecedented, reproduction of the historical battle.



The rules, simple though they are, led to the sort of duel between Chassepot and Prussian artillery we have all read so much about, and the Prussians found themselves forming long gunlines almost exactly where they did in real life. In the south, they just got a toe hold on the ridge above the Mance Ravine, but could go no further.  In the centre the Prussian/Hessian 9th Corps immolated itself on the French lines in front of Amanvillers, and in the north the Guard and the Saxons eventually cracked the French position, although at horrendous cost to the Guard.  



Most players were unfamiliar with TLTGB before we started, but picked it up very quickly (including the oddness of the "square rather than measuring" system). Given the number of units (some 400+) and players (10) it moved very smoothly, aided by my prize new possession, a set of dials to keep track of casualties as they were calculated and before removal of figures. These were purchased from the Dial Dude in the US, and allocated one per brigade. Good to look at with the coloured flags on top, they also proved invaluable in reducing the tedium of keeping records.



Overall, although as an organiser I would say this wouldn't I, the game looked great (kudos to Pendraken whose figures were about 90% of those on display), and played well and quickly, producing  a period feel with simple mechanisms.  This reinforced my attachment to this set of rules for big battles, as watching players get to grips for the combined arms tactics necessry for this period was fascinating.



A great day, truly enhanced by JohnDz's hospitality, and a bunch of good natured and tolerant players. Henry Hyde, a tenacious Canrobert, took over a hundred photos which should with a bit of lkuck, appear on FLIKR shortly, when I'll post a link.

Hope someone out there finds this useful!
Mollinary
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fred.

Wow! Sounds awesome.

Can't wait to see the photos.
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Maciek

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privateer

Some photos would be great, a whole lat of photos would be better.

We done on the game

Leon

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maciek

Thanks for photos. Impressing !
Add some close-ups please ! Not the particular figures, but rather like last photo.
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Aart Brouwer

Very, very impressive.  =D>

I once organized a big WWII battle (Kursk) at my home. Things went smoothly because we had a group of ten relaxed, experienced wargamers. It helps a great deal if you assign each player a specific role in advance and ask people to come prepared so they know the specific qualities of the troops they get to command.

It didn't look as good as yours though. Terrific pictures, mate!

Cheers,
Aart

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nikharwood

Stunning  8)

Really impressive - looking forward to seeing more pics of this one!

mollinary

For the hundred plus photos of this game taken by the inimitable Henry Hyde, please see his thread innovatively titled "Henry's photos of Gravelotte-St.Privat!

Enjoy.

Mollinary
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lentulus

OK, you have pushed me past the point of resistance to FPW

The troop density looks really right.  What are your base sizes?

mollinary

I think I may be posting on stereo here and on TMP!  I wanted something which looked pretty massed when deployed in divisions and corps, so I went with 25mm wide by 15mm deep for infantry (4 figures to a base), 30mm x 30mm for cavalry (3 figures to a base) and 30mm x 30mm for artillery (1 gun and crew per base).   A Chasseur/Jagers for these rules are 25mm circular bases with 2 figures a piece on them. A Prussian Corps for these rules works out at c 14 guns, 8 bases of cavalry and 24 btns, each of 4 bases + an officer,  so some 450 figures.

Mollinary
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lentulus

Thanks!

(you might be answering my questions in stereo, too.  I've not checked in there yet this am)

lentulus

16 September 2010, 01:45:03 PM #12 Last Edit: 16 September 2010, 01:53:50 PM by lentulus

I am really impressed with how much those ragged but definite lines look like the period artwork -- which is certainly the look I want to achieve.

(and I seem top be messing up basic post edits -- sorry)

Captain Verbeek

Non Cadmus

mollinary

Lentulus,

   Thanks, that is just the sort of look I was trying to get, particularly with the Prussians - there are some great Rochling paintings, both of 1866 and 1870, which show just what I was aiming for.

Mollinary
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