Hi
Anybody use black powder for the Franco prussian  war. I personally think they are probably the easiest set of rules to adapt/tinker with. I was thinking of several ways to make them more suited to the period . The obvious one is to make the french have a longer rifle range but some others  need a bit more thought. The first is the french command, do you give them a 7 rating or do you limit the french to a maximum 2 actions instead of a possible 3 but keep the command at 8. Next the prussian artillery, I was thinking of not giving them the -1 for firing at more than half range for the better ammo avaliable. Also make the prussians attack in attack column when going into hand to hand but without the +1. Next the question of prone units, it could be a formation change and the unit would be a 6 to hit but would only fire with one die and if caught prone in hand to hand was automatically removed. Let's know your opinions.

cheers

Jim.

Some interesting ideas there. If you are intending to game the republican phase, which was the bulk of the war, bear in mind that the Germans had started to learn that column attacks were very costly against chassepot fire and were starting to use looser formations and supported rushes, i.e. one group fire while another rushes forward, then roles were reversed. Also, under the republic the French artillery began to use percussion shells, similar to the Prussian ammunition.

Black Powder appear to have been produced for groups of players to introduce their own ideas, consequently what works for your group in FPW may not be replicated by other Black Powder FPW players.

Hi

Good reply exactly what I was after. I was thinking of the imperial phase. Just had another thought which isn't like me on a Monday. Do you represent prussian units as large or do you give them a stamina of 4 to represent full strength units from better mobilization.

Jim

Either way will give the impression of a larger unit than the French in the imperial phase. The objective for the French is to weaken advancing Prussian units whilst their needle guns are out of range. Once the Prussians get in they apparently displayed the fact that, on average, they were bigger men than the French which made a difference in melee. As the war progressed the Prussians began to lose the size of unit advantage. Some Bavarian units were down to 500 men by November. Nevertheless, the Prussian units were still a higher quality than the bulk of the republican armies.

Yes, I have used them an awful lot for FPW, a few (mostly negative) modifications from the rules and they produce very accurate games, especially at multi-corps livel, in an evening.
PM me your email and I will send you the mods and stats I used in our very successful campaign (later this week most likely)

Large for Prussians

Hey Lem, can I pm you as well? Looking at different sets to use with the 10mm stuff, as I only do BBB here with 6mm and 2mm. Looking for something for smaller tactical actions. Cheers.

Great, of course Leman

I've used BP for a large scale Gravelotte/StPrivat. Made modifications for range etc. it went uncannily: Prussian attack faltered under fire and went disordered. French Guards division ordered to move down to finish them off. Couldn't get them moving because of the way I'd set the command values.... Prussians pulled themselves together and the rest was history....

As that was your first post, 'Prof'....

A very warm welcome to the madhouse forum.

Cheers - Phil

Indeed, as friend Techno says, welcome to the forum Professor.

Nice to see a bit of class about the place.

Hello and welcome

Hi. One limitation you could try is to limit the number of "battalions" you can move as a group. makes CC bloody difficult. (Pinched from an 1812 Scenario in Wargames Monthly [I Think] )

IanS

We have adapted Fire and Fury for FPW at club

Welcome Prof.

Thanks for the kind words of welcome. I'm based in Sydney and do 6 &10mm solo only in a large range of Black Powder periods.
I'm about to start a big ACW intervention project.

Welcome Prof. I also wargame ACW and FPW. Just been skimming the new Black Powder 'Glory Hallelujah' ACW supplement and there may be some bits that could be applied to the FPW, like the ranges for breach loading rifles and carbines (needle gun). There's also info on the effectiveness or otherwise of various formations at that period, and how they can be accommodated by the rules.

I hadn't come across that supplement and, as a BP completist I'm going to have to get it!

Not FPW specific, but these  are our house mods to the rules

1) Fire Before Moving.  A unit that fires has a -1 on command

2) 3 moves on a roll of Command -3 AND Roll< half command.  Eg modified command of 7- 3 moves on 3 or less.  This stops the weird situation where 2 moves is the least likey result.

3) a) Brigades are Broken at OVER half shaken/routed.  You CAN rally shaken units to try and unbreak the brigade

4) Sunjester banned from throwing anything over a d4, except for command rolls, when he must roll 2d20.

I got the new BP ACW supplement and I agree that it does have interesting FP related possibilities. You could also use it for 2nd Schleswig War. All I've got to do now is paint the armies (and the ships - riverine gunboats are going to figure big time and I'm making a balloon). I think I said I'm doing 'what if' ACW with an Anglo-French intervention force using a mixture of Canadian militia and various Crimea and Franco-Italian figures. Letting the French - slightly anachronistically - have a mitrailleuse  and the Union a gatling or two. So Pickett's Charge led by the Zouaves of the Guard and the Canadian Grenadier Guards. I'll let you know if they get to the top. As this is 'what if?' I'm also majoring on the unusual units. French and Italians on the Union side, Italian red shirts on the Confederate. I'm also thinking of the Milwaukee Light Guard with their bearskins but I cant find a decent proxy for the NY Highlanders. I wasn't much interested in the ACW until I discovered the intervention scenario which makes for a more colorful table. It will also be interesting to set the command values and stamina of the European elite troops in very different ranges from the suggestions in Glory Hallelujah.