French Reinforcements for 10mm Franco-Prussian War

French reinforcements - 10mm line infantry (front) and Zouaves (rear) - ready for action! Figures from Pendraken.

 

Some more 10mm Franco-Prussian War work to share. This has been a fun project to come back to this year, but much of my work in this setting and scale has been focused on the Prussian forces and their allies. It is time to get some more French troops on to the table! So here are two units of French infantry in 10mm - a unit of regular line infantry, and unit a Zouaves. The figures are from Pendraken.

The line infantry prepare to bring their deadly Chasspot rifles to bear on the invader.

The close up is a little blurry...sorry...but as you see, 100% fantastic sculpts and casting from Pendraken.

Vive la France!

 

I have said it before, and I will say it again...the uniforms from the French army of this period are just magnificent, no matter what scale of miniature you are working with, and the castings from Pendraken are just tremendous quality. 

There are different rules which can be used, so the unit representations can scale up or down...in my case, I hope to use each base to represent one battalion, so the three bases together would comprise an individual regiment. 

Profile view of the Zouaves - love the baggy pants and fez!

 

Even in 10mm, the fantastical uniforms of the French Zouaves really pop - I just love them. There were a few regiments of Zouaves in Patrice MacMahon's I Corps, which was stationed in Alsace at the outset of the Franco-Prussian war in the summer of 1870. Thus Zouaves and Turcos are notable in some of the preliminary engagements of the war which were fought in that region. 

 

Another view of the Zouaves.

 

My 10mm collection to this point has focused on preparing for the Battle of Wissembourg, one of the very first battles in the Franco-Prussian War. The French were caught by surprise and heavily outnumbered in that engagement - therefore my 10mm forces contain very few French units (as opposed to two divisions of Prussians and a division of Bavarians). The two units of infantry seen here thus represent a substantial reinforcement for the French!

 

As the COVID situation continues to swirl, I really have no idea when or how I will get these on to the table, but my interest in the period remains undimmed, and I have some more French units lined up in the painting queue...even if it has to be over Zoom, we'll try some kind of game at some point. In the meantime, I hope you are somewhere safe, and able to stay healthy and sane and stocked up on hobby projects. 

Thanks for reading!

Painting Challenge Submission 10 - Mme. Clergue, Franc Tireur Commander

Mme. Clergue and her first recruit prepare to resist the Prussian invaders...

Regular visitors to this space will have noticed reference to "Challenge Island", a feature of the 10th edition of Curt's Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge.  One can "travel" on the island following a particular path, making the themed submissions in turn, or one can take a short cut to any particular spot on Lady Sarah's Balloon.  The fee for the journey is simple - you need to paint a female figure. And you get bonus points if you show that you are enjoying some bubbly drinks as part of the painting. For more info and background on the Island and Sarah's Balloon, see info here.

I needed to make some more progress on my Challenge Island journey, but the options for my next stop were not great - either "Rousell's Sandhill" or "Douglas' Shallows".  Neither theme location worked for me or my figure collection. So, I summoned the Balloon of Lady Sarah.  As a figure, I submitted Mme. Clergue - budding commander of a Franc-Tireur formation for my Franco-Prussian War project. These are 28mm figures from the Wargames Foundry 28mm FPW collection.

Things go pear-shaped for the French in 1870...

The Franco-Prussian war went very badly, very quickly for the Imperial Government of Napoleon III.  Moltke and the gang had them in the bag at Sedan, and surely assumed some smooth negotiating and tough concessions would make for a lovely fall.  But that was not to be...the French Republic rose from the ashes of Napoleon III's abdication.  It had almost no army to speak of, but the French spirit was not to be easily quenched, and the Republican forces fought on.

Some sort of volley-gun-style pistol...should be epic.

The Prussians found themselves needing to occupy and secure considerable chunks of French territory as they pursued a siege of Paris and fought to crush the Republican French armies.  This task was made harder by the Franc-Tireurs, guerilla fighters who harassed Prussian troops along their lines of supply and joined in at the margins in some of the engagements in the later phases of the war. Foreshadowing the time of the Maquis, the Franc-Tireurs battled to make sure the Prussians paid as high a price as possible, and made the final defeat of France in 1871 a lot tougher.

As is so often the case in these situations, many a Franc-Tireur met a grim and summary fate, either in action, or caught in security sweeps. The reprisals visited on these resistance fighters were at times expanded to local communities by weary, angry and scared occupying troops.

My Franco-Prussian War collection is, for now, very focused on the initial "Imperial Phase" of the war, but for skirmishing purposes I want to get from Franc-Tireurs organized.  Many of these bands were led by men, but the women of France played a critical role in these efforts too, and I wanted my band to be led by one.  Thus we have Mme Clergue...she is on a hex-shaped base used in our skirmish games to denote senior officers. Standing with an innocent basket (loaded with baguettes and spare ammunition), she will be coordinating the efforts of the resistance in her local district, ready to show the Prussians that France is not vanquished yet...

We also have one early recruit, who looks to be sporting some kind of volley pistol(?) - should be entertaining. Watch for this band to grow as this edition of the Challenge goes forward.

Sparkling wine is a favourite! This is Paul Mas Cremant de Limoux, from St. Hilaire. So, so, so good...

For refreshments on the balloon trip I thought French wine would be appropriate (actually, French wine is always appropriate, but I digress).  With these figures I enjoyed a bottle of blanquette, a sparkling wine from Limoux. 

Updated map showing travel to "Piper's Peak" and the "Path of Imagination".

Sarah's Balloon transported me to a location called "Piper's Peak". Stay tuned for more on my submission for that location!

10mm FPW Again...This Time, French Hussars

10mm French Hussars for the Franco-Prussian War - figures from Pendraken.

More "small" progress from the painting table, a continued theme from recent posts - 10mm Franco-Prussian War figures.  These are French Hussars from the Franco-Prussian War, and as before, these are castings from Pendraken - and they are amazing quality sculpts and castings.

Lots of character and detail on these little fellows - fun to paint!

There are a number of different gaming options out there for this period, but consistent with my recent 10mm output for the period, these are intended for use with Bruce Weigle's "1871" rules. Each base would represent two squadrons of cavalry, so the two bases together would represent a French cavalry regiment in the game.

A charge in line...

These little fellows are wearing the light blue coats, kepis and red pants of the newer Hussar uniform that was still in the process of being issued in 1870.  Even though they are small little guys, the level of detail on the sculpts is incredible, and I love how Pendraken have given them an animated, dramatic look - charging forward, sabres drawn, for the glory of the French Empire (and, later, the French Republic).

Another view of the detail...

If you are curious about 10mm, you should give Pendraken a try...I'm blown away by the quality.

Together with the Chasseurs and Dragoons, I have close to a division's worth of French cavalry ready for a game of "1871".  But there is always more to do...I still need to get many more Prussians, and some Bavarians, painted up before we try these rules.  Summer is approaching (on the calendar, if not in the climate), so hopefully my summer painting will bring some more progress to share on more of these little fellows.

French mobilization continues in 10mm...

Thanks for visiting the Blog, have a great day!

A Few More 10mm FPW French Fellows

10mm Franco-Prussian War castings from Pendraken.

Not too much painting happening these days, but I'm chipping away here and there at a "small" project - 10mm Franco-Prussian War.  These are castings from Pendraken, and they are really quite amazing - very small, of course, but sculpted in cunning fashion so as to give you little bits of detail here and there to jump on to.

While these figures might ultimately accommodate a number of different rules, I am aiming to use them for Bruce Weigle's "1871" grand tactical rules.  In this case, each base of infantry would represent one battalion, and each base of cavalry would represent two squadrons/half regiment of horsemen.  So the three bases of infantry would represent an infantry regiment, and the two bases of horse would represent a cavalry regiment, etc. By using this sort of scale, it will be possible to play some of the large battles from the Franco-Prussian war - or at least, large parts of them.

The Pendraken figures have cast flags on them...I thought this was a terrible idea - and to Pendraken's credit, you can order separate flag bearers with empty poles and then use paper flags - but the scale is small, and as flags go, the French one is pretty straightforward...my free-hand is nothing to write home about, but I'm starting to like the look of the painted flags in the small scale.

So there are three bases of French line infantry:

In any scale, those Second Empire french uniforms are just lovely.

Ready for a charge after softening up the Prussians with Chassepot fire...

Incredible detail for 10mm castings!

And two bases of Chasseurs a Cheval:

Charge!

Love the animation in these little sculpts!

Again, amazing details for 10mm castings.

Still not enough 10mm chaps painted for a game as yet, but getting there slowly-but-surely. Watch this space for more progress (I hope!). Thanks for visiting, and have a great day. 

Franco-Prussian War - 10mm Turcos & Friends

10mm Franco-Prussian War castings from Pendraken.

The blogging pace has slowed in the past few weeks - work has been rather busy, and abysmal "spring" weather has finally relented somewhat, allowing glimpses of a bright, glowing orb in the sky that appears to generate sufficient heat even to melt snow! I have been trying to get outside to maximize my enjoyment of this wondrous development...

But I have still been painting a bit. The period and setting will be a familiar one - the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, but I have switched scales for a bit, adding a few more 10mm figures. These castings are all from Pendraken. They add to some "test" figures I painted last year, and to some more I painted during the recent Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge.

These 10mm figures are being based with the game "1870" in mind.  In the basic version of this game, one base equals one battalion of infantry, two squadrons or cavalry or a battery of guns. This scale allows for some of the very large engagements from the Franco-Prussian War to be played out on a gaming table of a somewhat reasonable size in a somewhat reasonable time. 

There are a few different elements in this post - up first is a regiment of Tirailleurs Algerian, the feared "Turcos", colonial troops from Algeria in French service.  The Turcos were fine soldiers and performed bravely during the war.  The three bases together would comprise the whole regiment.

The Turcos are ready to march in defence of the Second Empire!

Incredible detail and quality on such small figures - Pendraken sculpts are incredible, and really do justice to these iconic troops!

These same sculpts can be used to represent Zouaves...I'll paint some of those up soon.

Up next is some cavalry - French Dragoons.  These two bases together would comprise an entire regiment of Dragoons.

French Dragoon regiment in line.

French Dragoon regiment in column.

Then we move on to artillery - there are three batteries of French "4-pounders".  These were rifled muzzle-loading pieces and two batteries of these guns were attached to each division in the Imperial army.

These 4-lb artillery pieces were the main components of a French divsion's artillery strength.

Then we have that exotic French weapon from 1870, the Mitrailleuse. Generally speaking, each French division in the Imperial army had one battery available.

The mysterious mitrailleuse.

One battery of these exotic weapons per division...

Finally some small stands to represent command - there is a French base and a Prussian one. 

French divisional command base.

Prussian divisional command base.

How dumb is it to paint one setting in multiple scales? Certainly this causes a diffusion of overall progress toward goals...and this is true - when you spread your efforts out, you make a smaller percentage of progress towards a larger number of goals...no doubt this approach helps fill my basement with unpainted stuff, right? But there are many other positive things I find from collecting and painting a period or setting in different scales.  

First, there are some big battles from this setting I would like to game with the guys - but that won't happen in 28mm.  I love and enjoy my 28mm collection, and will continue to add to it, but this will almost always be used to play smaller components of larger battles.  Most of the main engagements in the Franco-Prussian War featured at least one Corps-level formation per side. At a battalion level, a French division alone would have 13 battalions of infantry.  With 24-figure battalions, that's 312 figures just for the one division...a French Corps would have had three divisions, plus a cavalry division, and then the attached artillery...and that doesn't even count the Prussians!

My 10mm Franco-Prussian war collection to date...not very big, but as the gaps on the shelf fill in, we'll get towards a game...still you can already see how the smaller scale can offer a big "sweeping"  view for the period... for rules like "1870" this small collection still represents a total of 21 battalions of infantry, 12 squadrons of cavalry and 10 batteries of artillery...

And even if I could somehow summon the time and skill to paint all of those figures in 28mm (hey, that would be cool, if miraculous), I'm not sure I could find a table or the space to represent, say, the battle of Spicheren or Mars-La-Tour...those would have to be enormous tables, so far beyond my skills to create, or the size of my house to hold!

A Prussian division in 10mm for "1870" - two brigades of infantry (each of two regiments), a regiment of Dragoons (cut off on the left of the photo). The divisional artillery at the back. Command stands are at the front, along with a battalion of Jagers (cut off at the front left of the photo). 

So diving into smaller scales is the answer.  But there is a further benefit...I find it refreshes my interest and motivation (oddly), to paint a period/setting in different scales.  While I'm painting my 28mm figures, I'm saying to myself "oh man, this takes time, it would be so cool to just get a whole regiment painted in a few hours".  So I crack out the 10mm figures, and boom! But then, while painting the 10mm figures, I'm saying to myself "oh man, these uniforms are SO awesome, I would love to see them in 28mm", so when I finished a stretch of 28mm, well, boom! I'm fired up for the larger figures again!

An Imperial French division taking shape...one brigade of infantry is now complete, along with artillery and the attached Chasseurs a Pied battalion (they are at the front, lower left).  Needs five more infantry battalions to complete the second infantry brigade. The cavalry, meanwhile, is the start of its own division...needs some lancers and Hussars to round out...always more, right?

And while I'm blown away by the quality of the 10mm castings from Pendraken, I'm also experimenting with castings in the other small scales - some 6mm from Baccus and 15mm from Old Glory.  Hopefully I'll have more to share here on the Blog at some point.  Again, each scale offers a different set of trade-offs in terms of look vs. table size vs. game scale...and dabbling in each figure scale feels different enough that my interest and overall motivation remains pretty strong...you know, until I decide I need a new Titan or some more Space Marines :)

Thanks for visiting!

Franco-Prussian War - French Chasseurs a Pied in 28mm

French Chasseurs a Pied from 1870 - 28mm figures from Wargames Foundry.

 Curt's most recent Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge has concluded.  The annual paint-a-thon is always a great time, and the last few weeks are often a bit hectic, so after wraps up, there is often a little break for me before I get painting again.  But just a small one! A few days off, and then I was back at the brushes, continuing with a familiar project - the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 in 28mm.  Here is a unit of French Chasseurs a Pied.  The figures are all from Wargames Foundry.

Chassepot rifles ready to defend France...

The Chasseur battalions fulfilled a similar role to the Prussian Jagers...these were light infantry, meant to support the larger formations to which they might be attached.  There was, generally, about one battalion of Chasseurs attached to each French division.

I love the NCO sculpt - he's bellowing something at the skirmish line.  All NCO sculpts should be yelling...

The uniform of a Chasseur varied slightly from their line infantry counterparts - they still had the kepis, but wore blue pants that matches their tunics. The epaulettes were green, and they had yellow piping on the uniform. 

The chef-de-battalion's uniform is pure guesswork - and possibly/probably totally wrong...but at leas he fits in well...

I am running low on French officer castings, so there was a bid of bodging in this unit.  The chef-de-battalion marching in the front row is painted all in dark blue to match his colleagues, but this is pure fabrication on my part...you'll also see the drummer is lacking epaulettes, as that casting is, strictly speaking, meant for the later Republican units.  The officer packs from Foundry are a total smorg, so you sort of need to make the best of what you get...and besides, the French mobilization in 1870 was pretty chaotic regardless, so there could have been all sorts of exceptions found among the troops, right?

Drummer is missing his epaulettes...of well...

You'll see I have done a casualty base for this unit as well - that is something new for me.  I used to find casualty markers to be a bit of an extravagance - nice to have, but not worth diverting painting time from the actual gaming figures in order to create them. 

Fallen Chasseur on the handy casualty base...those empty spaces will hold small D'6s.

 Curt and Byron have helped to change my mind on this - Byron in particular has some lovely and simple casualty figures for his excellent Greek collection, and this really helps keep things organized in a nice way when it comes to tracking hits etc. on a unit.  I liked to simply put dice behind the unit...but then I would always pick those dice up! Not a easy way to keep track of things at all!

Byron used his excellent 3D printer skillz to create a bunch of little tandem trays that will hold very small D6's.  I attached these to a base next to a wounded figure, and boom, there is a good visual aid for the gaming table, with a mount for dice that even a clod like me will remember not to touch! I now have a little pile of casualty figures to paint up...watch for more on those...

Completed unit - and casualty base for when the Prussians get close...

The 28mm FPW collection is starting to build a nice critical mass - this is my fifth infantry unit for the French, and 11th infantry unit overall for the entire collection.  These reliable, sharp-shooting light infantry will give the French commanders some extra options on the gaming table the next time we visit this period.

Thanks for visiting!

"Black Powder" - Franco-Prussian War in 28mm

Prussian infantry advance in Franco-Prussian War action. These are 28mm figures from Wargames Foundry.

In the fall of 2017 I started off with a new project - gaming the Franco-Prussian War in 28mm.  When I started, I hoped to collect and paint sufficient figures to play both skirmish-style games and games with formed units.  While I was able to run a skirmish game in March of last year, it has taken a little more time to get enough units assembled to a game using formed units. But I have been (relatively) focused on making progress with this project through most of 2018 and into 2019.  Curt's Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge has proven to be an ideal motivational booster. The focus has paid off! I was very excited to run an inaugural game a couple of weeks ago! Here are a few pictures from the evening.

French line along the hills and forest to the left - Prussians advancing on to the table along the top right.

The scenario was for a small encounter battle, set in the very early stages of the war in the summer of 1870. The scenario is very loosely inspired by the Battle of Wissembourg. The Prussians were just beginning to cross the French border in force, and have encountered a small French blocking force.  Being aggressive Prussians, the solution was simple - get to grips with them, and get them out of the way! The French would hold out as long as they could, hoping their comrades would come marching toward the sound of the guns and help out...

The French line is anchored by a battery of muzzle-loading 12-pounders.

Founding Conscript Curt was visiting from Regina, which is always a lot of fun.  Curt and Dallas took command of the Prussian forces - five battalions of regular infantry, a battalion of Jagers, a regiment of dragoons, and two batteries of divisional artillery.  In the event the French resistance proved too stubborn, I also had a little "surprise" mechanism hidden up my sleeve whereby the Prussians could call on their corps artillery to assist with "blockage-removal..."

French Hussars in a blocking position along the road. In the distance, at the top left of the photo, Curt's units can be seen moving to take out that lone French battalion on the hill at the top of the photo.

The stoic French were commanded by Byron and MikeF.  The French forces consisted of three battalions of regular infantry, one battalion of "Turcos", a regiment of Hussars, a battery of 12-pounders and, last but not least, a mitrailleuse battery.

The French senior commanders ponder their situation...

Of course, the rules we used were "Black Powder".  One of the things I enjoy so much about those rules is how easy they are to customize.  When it comes to unit stats, I find Black Powder puts too many dice in the combat columns and not enough in the firepower columns.  Particularly in a conflict defined to a large extent by the performance of rifles like the French Chassepot, I wanted the players to be shooting (and, subsequently, for the Prussians to realize that the French rifles are awesome...). But with a great set of rules like "Black Powder", that's an easy fix... 

Dallas' Prussians take up position and engage the French line in a hot firefight...it is a tough go, as the French rifles were blazing.

So, boom, adjustments to the statistics were made - units overall had more firepower, but the French in particular had even more, while the Prussians had  extra stamina to reflect their larger-sized units and general willingness of their officers to happily plow them forward into the teeth of heavy fire...I also made a few tweaks to make the French Turcos to be rock-hard - by all accounts, they performed as such during the war. So they were ranked as "Elite", able to shake off "disorder" with a successful dice roll.

French battalion in position in the woods...Curt's Prussians are eyeing up that exposed flank...

French troops try to do their duty for the Second Empire!

The French forces occupied a line of hills and a wood covering an important road.  The Prussians would move on to the table on turn one, and look to bludgeon their way past these gallic upstarts... 

Curt moves to take the French flank, but the fire of the Chassepot rifles takes near-immediate effect...

Battle was joined! Things opened, naturally, with some command blunders on the Prussian side which saw Dragoons ignore instructions to threaten the French flank and instead simply wander on to the table and get in everyone's way.  Dallas moved his brigade forward to the cover offered by a walled road, and began trading fire with the French battalions on the ridge.

The French Mitrailleuse battery hammers away at the advancing Prussians.

Despite the wanderings of the Dragoons, the French flank was still a touch vulnerable, and Curt was determined to roll it up, so he sent an infantry battalion on a flank advance instead.  They would suffer heavily at the hands of French rifle fire as they advanced.

French battalion takes position to cover a gap in the line...

The Prussians brought their artillery to bear, and it started to have an effect on the French.  Curt managed to get an assault home, taking a French battalion in the flank and sweeping them from the table. Even as Chassepot and Mitrailleuse volleys took several Prussian units to the brink, and even broke one or two of them, the French line finally gave way on the sixth turn.  Fittingly the Turcos, who had ignored nearly every hit they took, and routinely dispensed with any disorder status thanks to their elite ranking (and MikeF's amazing dice rolls), were the final French unit still on the table - they would have covered the withdrawal...

The stars of the game, the French Turcos...

MikeF shook off nearly every hit from rifle fire and every "disorder" that came up...these guys were not in a mood to give ground...

Oh man, it was just great to see this game played! I had a ton of fun running it, and I hope the guys enjoyed it too.  One takeaway from the game that I will need to adjust for next time is the rate at which "disorder" occurs - because I significantly increased the rate of firing, I also materially increased the odds of a "6" being rolled in shooting, so it was tough for the Prussian infantry to keep moving.  In many ways, this is "historical", in the sense that the French rifle fire was murderous, but the Prussian players should at least have a chance to keep moving, and so I will likely make some adjustments to the "disorder" rate. But otherwise, "Black Powder" was fantastic - indeed, the ease of adjustment and customization is one of its greatest strengths as a rules set, and this game showed that once more.

Another view of the action from the road...casualties starting to pile up on the Prussian side...but they are victorious in the end!

While my 28mm Franco-Prussian war collection is still modest, at least we now have the basics for a game, and of course I will continue to add units here and there to "round out" the collection, allowing for some larger games in the future.  Big thanks to Curt for visiting, and to Dallas, Byron and MikeF for coming out to play - I hope they enjoy this new period as much as I do!