Spicheren! (x2) A most excellent Franco-Prussian wargame.

What could be a better way to spend a Sunday afternoon than 4 hours wargaming in the company of friends, followed by a beer and a curry? (Keep your smutty answers to yourself, thank you.) At shortish notice I still managed to muster four of the guys. The plan was, rather than the usual one big battle, to play a medium-sized one twice, changing sides at half-time.

Our chosen game was Spicheren. This is something of a classic battle, well documented and well known, and important in setting the tone for the Franco-Prussian War. However, because the French force fell below my threshold for size of battle, I had not covered it in the initial 9-scenario FPW campaign in the BBB rulebook. But popular demand from BBB players for some smaller games, including specific requests for Spicheren, led me to create the scenario for it. This has been played once before - see my February blog post about it here - but I hadn't had a chance to see or try it myself.

 

View of the battlefield at start of the game.

Lots of pics and the scenario itself in Flickr here

We managed to fight Spicheren twice in 4 hours, two hours per game, with two players a side. The second time turned out as a rather one-sided emphatic win for the French, because the German plan was defective. This was still a good game, and generated some great post-battle discussion about the pros and cons of the various attacking options open to the Germans.

The first one was a much tighter affair. The Germans shook out into quite a well co-ordinated line and were able to take the Pfaffenwald and the Rotherberg by Turn 5 without too much trouble. This left them three turns in which to take just one more objective to win. Their flanking column emerged to try to take Forbach, but was swiftly dispatched by the French defenders there. An attempt to storm Spicheren village was repelled by French fire. Stiring Wendel, however, lay ungarrisoned, open and in range of two nearby German brigades for two whole turns - but neither could manage the movement rolls necessary to take it. The end result was therefore a draw.

I was really pleased with these games. The scenario seemed to produce the right feel of intense fighting in difficult terrain. As a game it is great because both sides have to manoeuvre so much and have so many options, something I had not really appreciated before playing it. Its one negative is that the terrain is quite complex and takes a bit of time to set up, but it is well worth the effort.

Full scenario is in the files of the BBB Yahoo group as usual.