An Army is Completed!

This might be a new record for me. I painted my complete Prussian starter-army pack in like, two or three days. Now to get started on the French, to oppose them. The miniatures are all Pendraken 10mm, and they came in convenient $40 starter packs.

My Prussians make up five infantry divisions, one Cavalry division? (If they fielded complete divisions, probably not. But four bases, anyways) and three battalions of artillery (three bases) 145 infantry miniatures, 12 cavalry, 12 artillery crew and three guns.

Prussian Dragoons! With the advent of bolt action rifles, the days of the cavalry were nearly at an end. Still, in the era before the use of automobiles in warfare, cavalry was vital in it's role as Scouts, and to screen your own army's movement from the enemy scouts. In our most recent battle, they didn't exactly do a whole bunch, except when they operated closely with friendly infantry.

The flags came modeled on, which is terrible unless you can free-hand amazing looking flags, which I can't. When I order some standard bearers w/ just the flag pole, I'll pry these guys up and swap them out for something more professional looking.

I slapped some white on the flags so that at least from a distance they look reminiscent of Prussin banners.

Krupp guns! In the Franco-Prussian war, the superior French Chassepot rifle had double the range of the Prussian Needlegun, but Krupp breech loading artillery was miles ahead of French muzzle-loading cannons.

Also, my Dad visited this past week, but before he came he was kind enough to print off some Bavarian flags for my Beneath the Lily Banners army of Bavarians. I think it looks pretty damn snazzy, if I do say so myself.

The regiment in the lead there is, apparently, the Leibgarde Rgmt., or Life Guards

While the regiment with red facings is the Regiment de Mercy.

And these guys are French. Still no banners for them yet. Really could use some colored ink.

Bloody Big Battles! Wargaming in the Age of Rifles, 1850-1900

Thank GOD I enjoyed this game, because I bought a French AND a Prussian army starter pack for the Franco-Prussian War in 10mm, without having played the game or even looked at the rules. Stupid? Yes! But I did it anyways. The Prussians in the picture below are what tricked me into playing it, they looked so damn cool. I bought French, too, because the store needs more French players and with two armies I can demo the game to others.

(once I get the rules, still waiting on those.)

These are, I'm pretty sure, Dave's Prussians. Gah, love them. 10mm is so fucking small, but honestly they're not hard to paint. You don't have to go into much detail at all to make them look good.

Here, the table! And Rob selecting his French forces. The objectives are the bridge in the far upper left corner of this picture, and other bridge to the center right (halfway covered by the paper), and the third was the crossroads in the woods.

A Bavarian division under my command. I love Bavaria, and I'm going to buy some asap, but sadly they're kind of shitty in the Franco-Prussian war. Oh well, some cheap troops to fill out a Prussian army.

The Prussian Right flank

A French Infantry division crests a hill, somewhere.

French Cavalry and Infantry advance onto the table in column.

The French general directly opposite my own Corps had Terrible rolls for movement, his only unit that really hoofed it was a veteran division, that beat the Prussians to the crossroads and deployed in the woods. (The woods Really limited movement and weapons range, negating much of the French firepower advantage) (The French Chassepot rifle had literally double the range of the Prussian Needlegun.) But you can see that they have their work cut out for them, with three full Prussian division advancing towards them.

My Corps advances. My Bavarians were 'raw' troops, but they managed to avoid much fire until they were in a position to do some good.

The fighting in the woods was brutal, with ammunition running low for both sides several times. The French took heavy casualties, and the Prussians charged!

Dave's Prussian Division slams into the French, supported by one of mine.

Another pic of the above situation.

My Bavarians cross the field without taking any fire, forming line and advancing on the French artillery! Solid dice rolls see them driven back.

The French are driven back, taking fire all the way!

The Bavarians advance after the fleeing artillery, preparing to confront the cowardly French cavalry...

I didn't get pictures of the final turn or two, but the Bavarians got a bloody nose as some of the French finally decided to fight back. The Prussians won in the end, with two objectives to the single French-held victory point. It was an absolute blast, and I'll have pictures of my OWN miniatures next time I update this blog.