Why do some battles become favourites?

Last Sunday, Anton and I laid on a Franco-Prussian War game for a couple of new friends, Malcolm and Ian. When we were deciding which battle to offer, it was very simple: I immediately thought of Loigny/Poupry.

French garde mobile in the quaint little village of Loigny. Baccus 6mm figures from my collection.

Field from Hotz Mats (no longer trading). Roads by Rob Owens of Rob's Scenics.

Building from a set of ornaments picked up at a country fair.

Looking back through this blog I see posts about playing it in 2022 and 2023 (the latter also prompting a "Reflections on Wargaming" essay). As the 2022 report notes, apart from the playtests before publication in 2014, I had already played it several more times since. Evidently it is a favourite of ours.

Why should such a relatively unsung battle - a French repulse in the unglamorous republican phase of the war - keep drawing me back to it? (Literally as well as on the tabletop - I visited the actual battlefield in 2024.) Rather than just list its virtues in isolation, I thought it might be interesting to see how its characteristics compare with other much more famous 'favourite battles'? By which I mean, not my personal favourites, so much as those that seem to get most attention from wargamers. I'm thinking of the likes of:
- Waterloo and Borodino for the Napoleonic period;
- Gettysburg and Antietam from the ACW;
- the Alma and Balaclava for the Crimea;
- and Blenheim for the 18th century.

Let's look at some important features of these battles in both historical and game terms and see how they all measure up.

1. Epic History!

The most famous ones are generally also among the largest and most consequential: both sides' main armies in a clash that is seen as either a crucial turning point or a climactic end. (This latter factor is why a battle such as Resaca in the ACW, which was just as large as Gettysburg though not as bloody, hardly impinges on most wargamers' consciousness at all. It was a speed bump that changed nothing.)

The Crimean battles are exceptions, as the largest engagement of the war and arguably the most important was actually the battle of the Chernaya. They are famous for other reasons: Balaclava has no fewer than three famous episodes within it, the Charge of the Light Brigade obviously being #1; the frontal assault on the heights at the Alma has a certain legendary status too. (The Chernaya remains relatively obscure among us Anglo-Saxons as it features hardly any Brits.)

At about 35,000-45,000 a side, Loigny/Poupry was only medium-sized by FPW standards. However, it is a turning point of sorts, in that the French repulse here was the highwater mark of their advance during the Loire campaign - and it was a close contest that could conceivably have gone the other way. It also has one notable dramatic episode at the end, when the Papal Zouaves attempted to storm Loigny.

2. Great Generals!

Famous battles are fought by famous generals. This verges on tautology. Napoleon vs Wellington; Bobby Lee; Marlborough - all famous. (As for McClellan and Raglan, you might say infamous.) Kutusov and Meade play supporting roles. Tallard, Menshikov, Liprandi: more like bit-parts.

One of the French corps commanders at Loigny was Antoine Chanzy. His is a less familiar name than most of these above but deserves to be better known. He is something of a hero of mine for the way he subsequently held his 2nd Army of the Loire together during his determined fighting withdrawal down the Loire.

3. The Battlefield!

The terrain shapes the battle; the battlefield gives it its character. All our famous examples feature famous locations. Waterloo has the bastions of Hougoumont and La Haye Sainte in front of its ridge; Borodino is all about the Raevski Redoubt (in a lot of wargamers' imaginations, at least); more Russian redoubts on the heights above the Alma; the Gettysburg 'fishhook' and all its landmarks; Antietam's Bloody Lane; Balaclava's valley of death; the two villages anchoring the French line at Blenheim.

Loigny/Poupry is unremarkable by comparison. It was fought on a relatively flat and open plain, dotted with a dozen villages. However, from a practical perspective, its plain terrain is a major virtue. Doing large historical battles properly often requires quite a complicated terrain set-up: a jigsaw of hills, a patchwork of woods, a network of streams and rivers. As Loigny is so quick and simple by comparison, that makes it particularly good for a Monday night at the club, where we have to factor in the set-up and take-down time. That is definitely a significant contribution to making it a favourite for us. (It was also a snowy winter battlefield, an aesthetic plus as far as I'm concerned.)

4. The Armies!

Tabletop wargamers want to get troops on the table. The more varied and colourful those troops, the better. Characterful and unusual units add a lot to a game.

Waterloo is hard to beat in that respect and Borodino not far behind. Napoleon has his Imperial Guard in all its glory, while Wellington has the most variegated and motley of allied armies. ACW can be a bit drab - all that monotonous blue and gray - mitigated for our US brethren by being able to point at their local regiment or the unit great-grandpappy was in. The Alma and Balaclava are a proper parade: not only does one side get three different armies, but each army has multiple different types of unit. Blenheim has lots of 18th-century peacocks in tricornes and lace.

Loigny/Poupry can hold its own in this respect. The German side is not just a lot of pickelhaubes in Prussian blue, it has the Bavarians to add colour. The French are more varied. Their infantry is a mix of newly raised garde mobile and regular regiments' depot battalions, further spiced by the presence of the Foreign Legion and the Papal Zouaves. Assorted cavalry livens up the picture as well.

5. The Drama!

Famous battles tell famous stories. As well as strong characters (the famous generals), these stories have multiple chapters, twists and turns, and moments of high drama in which other particular characters may step forward for their moment of glory. I hardly need to list these for the battles we've been examining. Instead, let me generalise and say that they all have some ebb and flow, fortunes swaying from one side to the other until their grand finale. For wargamers, ideally this means they translate into close and exciting games on the tabletop.

Loigny/Poupry does tell just such a story. It's worth going into this in a little detail and explaining why it is such a good game to keep replaying.

Multiple Chapters. This battle lasts a day and a half. Both sides receive reinforcements in several echelons, mostly on the second day. The Germans start with just most of a Bavarian corps on the table; the Hessian and Holstein divisions then march up on the Bavarians' left, with the remainder of the Bavarians arriving on the right. As for the French, they too have just one corps initially, but two others join them as the game progresses. This reinforcement schedule has a couple of benefits. One is that it means the shape of the game changes as it goes on, which is always good for keeping things interesting. (See my essay on Changing Situations Mid-Game.) Another - a definite advantage when there are newish players involved - is that the players can get to grips with the scenario situation and the game mechanics gradually, rather than being overwhelmed by having to order 50,000 men around from Turn 1.

Twists and Turns. Although the Germans are on the defensive, the fact that more than half their army has to march on obviously means the German players get to do some manoeuvring. And it's not simply a case of marching directly into a pre-ordained defensive line without much thought. There are three objectives to defend and different ways of defending them - plus, of course, much depends on what the French attackers do. The French, meanwhile, have to advance and develop their attacks to take a couple of those objectives. The French have several different routes to victory, while the Germans, as mentioned, have different ways to defend. The many possible interactions between the two sides' different plans produce twists and turns that can play out in multiple different ways. The existence of these different options therefore means the scenario has a lot of replay value.

Moments of High Drama. Historically, the grand finale was a dramatic one alright, when de Sonis led the Papal Zouaves in their vain attempt to storm Loigny. This is exactly the kind of last-gasp assault that we see all the time in BBB scenarios!

To Sum Up:

Although Loigny/Poupry was not among the largest or most consequential battles of the FPW, it has enough merits in all the other respects to deserve the attention it has had from our group. I commend it to anyone else who wants to wargame the Franco-Prussian War.

I'd be very interested to hear from you all, a) whether you think there are other features that contribute to making battles into 'favourites' and b), which are your favourite battles and why.

The Game

Just for the record, here are a few photos of the Loigny game (including a couple labelled up at great pains for the greater enjoyment of my reading public) so you can see how that went. No extra reflections this time as you've already had the major one above.

The two wings of the battlefield. Pics not perfectly aligned but I hope they give the idea. Situation around Turn 4, morning of Day 2, when the German reinforcements have just arrived and French 15 Cps is about to march on.

A better view of the right wing, a couple of turns later. 1st Bav Bde is now isolated in Faverolles as French swarm past it towards Loigny (left of pic). On the right, German 4th Cav Div sacrifices itself charging Barry's French regulars to cover 3rd Bavarian Brigade as it occupies Nonneville.

The centre, penultimate turn. Some Holsteiners are backing up the Bavarians in Lumeau, bracing themselves to receive the inevitable French assault. Elements of French 15th and 16th Cps converge on Lumeau either side of the march columns of De Sonis's 17th Cps. (By this time, Loigny has fallen to the French garde mobile, as shown in the pic at top of this post.)

The grand finale. That unit in line left centre of pic is a Hessian brigade that has thrown itself across to help protect Lumeau. That meant only the one French assault column centre of pic managed to reach Lumeau. It was repelled. Final score: a draw.

Loigny/Poupry is one of the scenarios in the BBB rulebook, now available in pdf from SkirmishCampaigns.

Rule #1: read the victory conditions!

 

Luke asked for a Franco-Prussian War game, so we wheeled out one of my favourites: Beaumont.

This is a fighting withdrawal, a situation that always makes for a free-wheeling fast and furious game. In our last go at it, I got thoroughly well beaten (report here). It went differently this time. I'll let the pics tell the story. Some reflections at the end.

French chasseurs á cheval detect the approaching Germans. 6mm Baccus figures, nicely painted for me by Reinforcements by Post (a firm that used to operate from Bangladesh and whose painters maybe weren't totally up on European flags).

And there's a lot of Germans - three and a half corps totalling >100,000 men. Each base is 1,500 men or 36 guns in this scenario. Units are large brigades.

Luke and Ben took command of the Germans, so Mark and I were the French.

The French have two widely separated corps falling back on a third behind the River Meuse. Here we have a German-eye view of Douay's French 7th Corps, which starts in the SW corner and has to cross the whole table to escape to the NE. Note how I have deployed those two brigades of its 3rd Division already facing north for their getaway. This will prove to be an error.

In the SE corner, again looking from the German side, Mark has deployed Failly's 5th Corps with a brigade as rear guard in Beaumont itself (the town in the right foreground), another covering its eastern flank against the Saxons' arrival, and three astride the road behind Beaumont ready to race for the bridge along with most of his artillery. Just visible in the top right corner is part of 12th Corps lining the Meuse to receive our fugitives.

I told Mark the victory conditions said we needed to get 5 infantry units and 3 artillery units across the Meuse.

Plan view of the battlefield to show just how far my lads top left have to go to escape, and all the steep hills and woods in the way. Fortunately it's only a 5'x4' table rather than the usual 6-footer.  At least Mark's troops lower left have a road to help them. On the other hand, they will have to contend with the bulk of the German onslaught.

Battle is joined. This is my corner at the end of Turn 1. Remember those two brigades I deployed carelessly facing north? The should have been facing east, because that's where the Bavarians at the top of this pic came from. They piled onto my flank, wiped out both brigades, and exploited into the village of Oches. Now they're in a firefight with what has become my rearguard brigade (1st Bde, 2nd Div, 7th Cps) just south of La Berlière. I've sent the corps cavalry round to bother the Bavarians' flank (top left).

Meanwhile, over to my left, more Bavarians are pouring through the gap between our two corps (top right), while a whole German corps takes on the gallant brigade in Beaumont. Mark's retreating brigades aren't forming column and retreating quite as fast as he'd like.

At least Mark's guns are getting away and about to cross the Meuse and shelter behind 12th Corps's chassepots. (Those artillery are all currently being towed, it's just that some cheapskate couldn't bring himself to pay for a load of limbers. I kinda regret that.)

At La Berlière, my rear guard holds firm. A Bavarian charge has failed, leaving one Bavarian brigade spent. Another German division arrives to reinforce the Bavarians.

Mark's rear guard likewise holds on in Beaumont and causes casualties. The black smoke top centre marks a German brigade as Spent, which explains the brown smoke showing the French are now low on ammo.

The Germans therefore commit the newly arrived Saxons to assault Beaumont from the east (left of pic). This assault is repelled by mitrailleuses on the hill (out of pic lower left). The Bavarians moving through the gap are struggling forward slowly, harassed by fire from some of my guns (out of pic to the right) as well as Mark's retreating infantry (out of pic below centre).

The Germans became 'target fixated' on my defence of La Berlière. There are now three German divisions queueing up to get in, when they might be doing better to work at least some of them past the rear guard's flank to cut off others' retreat. Even the German cavalry (top centre) that surely ought to be chasing retreaters is heading over this way to join the fun.

Similar story around Beaumont, where Mark's solitary brigade continues to detain five times its number (thanks to it fending off a huge assault with an improbable 6:1 die roll). Some Germans are at last filtering past behind it.

While all those Germans are busy at La Berlière, Douay supervises an entire division marching serenely undisturbed towards safety.

Germans are now swarming past Beaumont towards the bridges. Nevertheless, Mark's one beleaguered brigade still holds out. It must be Brigadier Asterix ...

Turn 8 out of 10. The Germans have finally disposed of both rear guards and are chasing across open country. It was around this point I realised I had made a slight booboo. I had to admit to Mark that the numbers I had told him were those we needed to achieve a draw. To win, we actually still needed to get two of Douay's brigades and another artillery unit across the Meuse. With Germans now approaching the bridges and setting up guns to command them, this was going to be tricky!

I did manage to march the infantry off. It looked as though our guns would be the problem.

Douay's artillery was theoretically close enough to escape, but getting guns through woods can be a struggle. Happily, my dice were kind and they made it.

However, as insurance, Mark had actually been obliged to have a brigade of 12th Cps advance across the Meuse so that his batteries could get away. They did so - but the infantry, pinned down by fire, could not! Consequently, we had extracted enough for a draw but were a unit short of what we needed for victory. Oh la vache!

Out of breath but exultant: panting Germans survey the fleeing French from the heights above the Meuse.

Reflections

Target Fixation. In the previous game, the Germans focused on pouring troops through the gap between the French corps, so they managed to interfere enough with the French retreat to earn a victory. This time, they devoted so much effort to wiping out the two rearguard brigades that the rest were able to get away relatively unmolested. This 'target fixation', the need to kill what's immediately in front of us rather than seeing the bigger picture, is a common syndrome among wargamers (and, indeed, in real life commanders).

Read the Victory Conditions! That's a stricture that always applies - that primary principle of war, 'maintain the aim' - and one that both sides neglected in this game. The Germans did so through their target fixation; we French did so through my careless reading at the start, so that I had to hastily correct near the end of the game. Had I not made that error, we could probably have organised our artillery's retreat better and ensured we got enough away to win.

Variables and Replay Value. These historical scenarios seem to have endless replay value. We can roll the same ones out again and again and they are still fresh and fun. That is because there are enough variables for them to be interestingly different each time. Some of those variables are due to the scenario structure, especially the fact that with BBB we can make the time and space large enough to not only provide room for manoeuvre but also provide options for both sides. The other major variable, though, is the players. Different players will approach a tactical challenge in different ways; even the same player will come up with different plans depending on whether they are feeling tired or aggressive or how they judge their opponent on the day ... so I am sure I will fight Beaumont again and I am sure it will be fun and different again.

Variables and Scenario Balance. We playtest BBB scenarios several times before sharing them with the world. The aim is of course to pitch the victory conditions so that both sides have a reasonable chance of victory, with a good chance of a draw as the 'par score'. A wise man (Mark J) once said to me scenario balance isn't that important, so long as the scenario produces a good game. Furthermore, I have come to realise that the margin of error, the engineering tolerance, in my scenario design is probably rather smaller than the variation in players' plans. In other words, players' tactical mistakes are likely to have a bigger impact on the result than any small skewing in the scenario balance.

Beaumont is one of the nine Franco-Prussian War scenarios in the BBB rulebook. These can be played as an episodic campaign in which the result of one battle affects the set-up for the next. There are another eight scenarios freely available in the BBB io group files.

Both sides of the hill: Beaune-la-Rolande (1870)

A seriously big battle is not necessarily the same thing as a seriously big game. After all, the whole point of BBB is to fit the biggest battles - Gettysburg, Solferino, Königgrätz and the like - onto a normal-sized table and into a single afternoon or evening session.

However, smaller battles still tend to produce smaller games. One particular advantage of these arises when they are small enough to swap sides and play the whole thing twice in a session from opposite viewpoints.

Such was the case last Monday, when Crispin rolled out his battlemat for Beaune-la-Rolande. This little skirmish involving fewer than 100,000 men was one of the first battles of the so-called 'republican phase' - the second half of the Franco-Prussian War, after Napoleon III was captured at Sedan. I remembered this being one of the first BBB scenarios Crispin wrote, but I was still taken aback when he said he created it ten years ago, in 2015. With four players (plus Dave W refereeing), we started setting up at 6:30, fought the battle twice, and were packed away by 9:30.

Here's a full photo-AAR of Game 1 in a dozen photos, then just a short verbal account of Game 2, then some Reflections.

This is what the battle was about: the town of Beaune-la-Rolande in the centre of the German defensive line, which the Germans had fortified heavily. (Figures are Pendraken 10mm from Dave's collection. Buildings handmade by Crispin. All terrain provided by Crispin.)

The French have two corps of their newly-formed Army of the Loire. Here we see General Crouzat with the six brigades of his 20th Corps. The unit with the flag is one of only two decently trained formations on the French side (composed mainly of zouaves). The rest are either régiments de marche (hastily organized from depot battalions; figures in red kepis and pantalons) or garde mobile (poorly armed and barely trained levies - régiments de poubelle? figures all in blue).

The troops of the Prussian X Korps are twice as good but there are half as many, so it's a fair fight. Here we see Stülpnagel with the two brigades of his 5th Division, in greatcoats against the November weather, backed up by Hartmann's 1st Cavalry Division. Note that each unit includes a base of green-jacketed Jäger, indicating that it has the Skirmisher attribute.

View of the whole bleak autumnal battlefield from the French side. Germans have deployed a brigade in Beaune-la-Rolande itself and two others on its left (upper right of pic), relying on 5th Div to arrive on the other wing. Green patches are villages, grey ones are towns. White counters indicate objectives. Beaune itself is worth two. The French need to take four to draw or five to win. Note that the Germans have adopted a forward position to contest Les Cotelles and Juranville (right centre of pic).

Close-up of the German centre and left, dug in with artillery support. Mark commanded this German wing.

I took Crouzat's 20th Corps on the French left. Crispin marched on with 18th Corps on the right. We agreed to attempt a double envelopment and win by isolating Beaune rather than storming it. Here's my left hook arriving on Turn 2. Red and yellow counters show my attempt at setting up a grand battery is already suffering from German counter-battery fire.

Better fortune on the right, where black 'Low Ammo' counters and vacated trenches show how effectively Bremond's 18th Corps has shaken out and blasted the German first line. Mark made a swift command decision to extract the survivors, concede the two forward villages, and fall back to hold Longcourt.

Back to me on the left wing. Next turn sees patient progress as my columns continue to march around the German right. Next stop; the objective village of Batilly, with La Pierre Percée just visible beyond it. No sign of German 5th Div yet.

Wide open spaces on our right wing as Crispin extends to envelop the German left, while the Germans reorganise their line. Our advance is slow because in this scenario (as in many FPW battles) the inexpert French army labours under the 'Passive' movement penalty.

On Turns 5 and 6, the action hots up on our left. The German cavalry has arrived and hastened across to reinforce Mark on the German left (out of shot right of pic). The two brigades of 5th Div have dashed forward to the town of Borville (grey patch) to try to retake La Pierre Percée from my zouaves (green village upper right). They've driven back one of my régiments de marche (yellow and blue indicates Disrupted and Spent) but are about to suffer an awful lot of incoming fire. Meanwhile, at top left, their newly-deployed gun line on the base line is taking flanking fire from some gardes mobiles.

Over on our right, the Germans have fallen back from Longcourt to rally around the central high ground above the Beaune bastion, relying on artillery to keep Crispin's French at bay. However, once Phil's counterattack at La Pierre Percée failed, Mark realised they needed to hold Longcourt or lose, so he pushed a brigade forward into it again. Crispin massed all he could and launched assaults from two directions on the last turn. Could victory be ours? Mark rolled his firing dice - and repelled both assaults. Foiled, we had to settle for a draw.

Situation at game end. Just three German infantry units remain: in the town of Borville (top left), in Beaune (centre) and clinging on against huge odds in Longcourt (upper right).

How the second game went

We swapped sides. Crispin and I also swapped wings. I took the German left, facing Mark, while Crispin commanded the German reinforcements on the right to fend off Phil.

We decided not to repeat the forward defence. Instead, we posted two brigades in and next to Longcourt, behind the reverse slope of the hills. However, we did mass 72 guns (3 artillery units) on the high ground on our extreme left, where they could pummel Mark's advance.

The French similarly decided to try a different plan, partly because of ours, but partly just for the sake of seeing how it worked out. They responded by sending only a couple of brigades (plus their small cavalry division) up their right-hand touchline, and a couple up the opposite side to face our reinforcements, while all the rest of their force converged to form a big arc focusing on Beaune-la-Rolande.

The French plan worked only in that their concentrated fire inflicted grievous casualties on the Beaune garrison. However, the French were unable to mount an assault to actually take the place. The German plan had worked better: our reverse slope force didn't need to fire a shot all battle; our Grossbatterie stalled the French right flank infiltration and then hurt their mass in the centre; then when 5th Division arrived it rolled up the lefthand end of the French arc around Beaune. The French only held one village at the end - an emphatic German win. 

Reflections

Two games in an evening = more than double the fun. There are those who like to savour a game over several sessions totalling 10, 15, 20 hours or more. I have happily acknowledged elsewhere that there is a particular pleasure to be had from the looong game. Nevertheless, the particular wargaming pleasure I mainly seek is that of making plans and high-level decisions and seeing how they work out. There are only so many such decisions to make in any given battle. If I can spend my 15 hours playing five games rather than one, that's a lot more big decisions, hence a lot more of that particular mental pleasure. This time we managed to fit two games into three hours and work through two alternative pairs of plans for the same battle. Not only did we have the direct pleasure from each game, there was also the pleasure of comparing the two - the whole was greater than the sum of the parts.

The other side of the hill. When I commanded the French left, I was very conscious of how brittle my army of Raw Fragile régiments de marche and garde mobile was: a single casualty would render a brigade Spent and largely combat-ineffective; those Krupp guns were very capable of inflicting such casualties; we had to cross a lot of open ground under their fire. The French task seemed very daunting (especially after failing at a similar task in a game of Coulmiers the week before). However, when I swapped my kepi for a pickelhaube, it didn't look any easier! Being outranged by twice our numbers of rifles wasn't a happy prospect, even with some entrenchments to hide in. Where to deploy was quite a tricky puzzle and we were fortunate it worked out so well. In short: it's a challenge for both sides, in very different ways - a tribute to Crispin's scenario design.

Fortifications in BBB. It seems too easy for an attacker to shoot defenders out of trenches. I'm not sure why it's taken me 10 years to reach this conclusion ... anyway, my thought is that a good house rule would be that units in fortifications can only be fired on a) by artillery, b) by units within 3", c) in Offensive Fire Phase if the target unit fired during the preceding Defensive Fire Phase, or d) in Defensive Fire Phase if the target unit declares it wants to fire in its Offensive Fire Phase. What do you think? (Maybe something for 2nd edition!) 😉.

The scenario is available from the BBB io group files here (you need to join the group to gain access).

Dave's Franco-Prussian birthday party

 Dave Whaley is the soul of BBB. It was he who started the whole BBB journey back in 2009 with "Chris, I'd like to do some Franco-Prussian War games".

Fifteen years on and Dave and I are both a bit older and we have indeed done some FPW games. Last weekend he hosted a birthday party with half a dozen of us. We celebrated his birthday in suitable style with two FPW games from the BBB rulebook, one for the imperial phase of the war (Froeschwiller) and one for the republican phase (Loigny/Poupry), punctuated by a non-FPW-themed curry. Herewith a few captioned photos from the games, then reflections as usual.

French in their "position magnifique" await the German onslaught. The bastion of Froeschwiller itself left edge of pic, facing Woerth at the top. An outpost in Elsasshausen (centre of pic) is backed up by Pelle's 2nd Division of MacMahon's 1st Corps. Figures are 10mm Pendraken from Dave's collection.

View looking south. From the left, Germans of Von Kirchbach's V Korps advance around Woerth. Facing them, the French line the heights in front of Froeschwiller and beyond. Bottom right, the Bavarian 7th Brigade files through Langensulzbach to work its way around the French left flank.

Virgin soldiers! Dave didn't have enough Germans, so his were reinforced by Phil's newly painted troops (the ones with the green tufty bases), being blooded in their first ever on-table outing. Lovely work!

Ably commanded by Crispin, the Bavarians had a good war. Here we see both brigades of the Bavarian 4th Division, having smashed through the zouaves of the French 2nd Bde of 1st Div, catch a brigade of 7th Corps in column of march before it can deploy. This was hurled back and eventually wiped out.

Things didn't go so well for me and Phil on the German centre and left. The German gun line plays a crucial role in this battle. I made the mistake of deploying my guns immediately, which meant they were too far back to be truly effective, so I had to limber them up again and redeploy further forward. That cost us a couple of turns when they should have been firing. That plus some duff rolls when they did fire meant we didn't blast away the French quickly enough. Nevertheless, we still stormed Froeschwiller in time to earn the bonus point for taking it early. But we'd therefore had to leave ourselves a bit weak (and been a bit unlucky) on our left, where Mark's audacious Turcos actually sortied across the River Sauer to deny us a victory point there. This is a scenario where casualties matter as well, so we were trying to kill off French units. The above pic shows a sadly diminished 2-base unit, outnumbered by Germans to its front and enfiladed by Bavarians who've just captured Froeschwiller. The French should have been dead meat. Phil's pink dice for this last roll of the game sum up his day.

Congratulations to Mark and Matt on their victory. We could have beaten them, if only we'd been smarter and luckier. Many real generals could say the same.

On to Loigny, then! Exchanging the poorly commanded but excellent troops of the empire for the better-led raw levies of the republic. This pic shows the massed French forces before we deployed them. Again, Dave's 10mm Pendraken.

View of the eastern half of the table (the French right). I took the part of the French C-in-C, d'Aurelle de Paladines, seen here with 15th Corps as it arrives from the SE corner of the battlefield halfway through the game. Poupry, with its white objective counter, is the village upper centre. From the top right, Hessians and Holsteiners race towards Poupry and the town of Artenay (right edge) - not an objective, but a good place to harass the French from.

Meanwhile, Matt on the French left, as Chanzy commanding 16th Corps, had been doing a great job. He killed off a Bavarian advance guard brigade on day 1 and maintained that advantage on day 2. Here we are looking west across the western half of the battlefield. Chanzy's troops have arrived from left edge of pic and worked their way around the Bavarian right: the troops in the wood to the left and the three groups on the far hill are all French. The beleaguered Bavarians have formed a crochet around Loigny (lower right), where their artillery is losing the firefight. Despite a bold counterattack in the centre by one of Mark's German brigades (out of pic, below bottom edge), Matt's well-handled advance was inexorable and the Bavarians were driven out of Loigny - one objective taken by the French. (Incidentally, in reality the high ground is much less pronounced than these polystyrene cliffs suggest and the gentle slopes are very gentle. See my report of my battlefield tour here.)

And on the right, I managed to get a toehold in Poupry before the Germans could get there, and they never managed to winkle me out. Here we see the Foreign Legion fending off green-jacketed German jaegers. As the French held two of the three objectives, that made it a French win. Hurrah!

Reflections:

There are your guns! As I've remarked before, in 19th-century battles putting your guns in the right place is often critical. My early miscalculation cost us at Froeschwiller.

The scenario option worked. For Froeschwiller, Dave used the scenario option that adds an objective: the Germans have to prevent the French from advancing across the Sauer. This added spice to the last couple of turns as Mark's Turcos tried (with eventual success) to dance around Crispin's left flank.

Same scenario, very different games. Loigny is one of our most-played scenarios. It's easy to set up and there's plenty of movement. Its last outing was in December - report here. That was very different, as both sides converged on the Lumeau objective in the centre, whereas this time all the action was on the flanks. It's a great example of the replay value of historical scenarios that let players explore different plans to see how battles could have gone differently.

I do like 10mm. I'm a committed 6mm adherent as I have built up so many 6mm armies over the decades that it would be a massive task to start again in 10mm. However, I'm very happy to play with Dave's and Phil's 10mm armies. At that scale, you still get the mass effect so the game looks a bit like a battle rather than "a few blokes taking a flag for a walk". But it is also easier to distinguish the uniforms and tell the units apart. Another reason I went with 6mm years ago was that I wanted armies for which figures didn't exist and it was easy to proxy 6mm with a paint job. Nowadays that's no longer such a problem as there's much more choice of figures (and you can still do a lot to 10mm with a paint job). Recommended.

Happy Birthday Dave! It was a great day and a great way to celebrate a good man's birthday. The good news is, the man himself had such a good time, he's already planning a repeat for next year!

FPW - Loire battlefields

The republican phase of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871 is full of interest for us wargamers. The republican armies are a fascinating mix of troops: elite corps such as the Foreign Legion, Papal Zouaves, exotic spahis, sailors turned into infantry, a lot of 'régiments de marche' formed from depot units, irregular francs-tireurs, and of course the bulk provided by hastily trained and poorly equipped gardes mobiles. Pitting these against by now very experienced and increasingly tactically skilful German formations makes for excellent asymmetrical match-ups on the wargames table. In particular, I like the Loire campaign and am a great admirer of General Antoine Chanzy, who commanded the French 16th Corps and then the 2nd Army of the Loire and held his force together in considerable adversity. Three of the main battles of the campaign - Loigny, Beaugency and Le Mans - feature as scenarios in the "Bloody Big BATTLES!" rulebook and I have fought all of them, plus the opening action at Coulmiers, several times. Loigny is an especial favourite as it is very mobile and both sides have plenty to do.

However, apart from Le Mans, I had never actually visited the battlefields. Now that has been rectified. Herewith a brief (and in some respects incomplete) report of my battlefield tour and a few photos.

First some general observations. Coulmiers, Loigny and Beaugency were fought on the Beauce, a great agricultural plain. It is very flat and very open: dotted with villages, but few and small woods, and no hedges to break up the extensive vistas. This is handy for wargamers, as it makes the terrain simple to set up ... but it means not many dramatic key points for me to take photos of, just one field looking much like another. There was snow on the ground when we arrived but it had gone by the time we started our tour. This was a pity as I hoped to see the battlefields as they were described by one eyewitness, a chequerboard of white snowy fields and dark patches of villages and copses. 

1. Coulmiers

The Army of the Loire was formed in October 1870. Its main mission was to push north and attempt to relieve the siege of Paris. At the battle of Coulmiers, it pounced on the Bavarian I Korps screening Orléans. The Bavarians were driven back and the French then retook Orléans. (The Coulmiers scenario is a good small 'training game' and is in the BBB group files here. For a report of it being playtested, see here. For an exquisite 2mm game of it, see here.)

I didn't take any pics of where particular actions occurred, nor any general ones of the battlefield, as it just isn't that distinctive. There are two large monuments next to the main road on the northern edge of Coulmiers village.

The French monument

Inscription on the French monument: 'Here, on 9 November 1870, the Army of the Loire under General d'Aurelle de Paladines seized the Coulmiers park [the grounds of a small manor house], the Bavarian forces' last centre of resistance.'

The more modest Bavarian monument in the cemetery.

2. Loigny / Poupry

This was definitely the main event of the tour: the most interesting battlefield with the most to see. (For a full account of the history, see here. For our most recent tabletop outing of the scenario, see here.) There is a museum in Loigny dedicated to it, the Musée de la guerre 1870. Unfortunately it is closed in winter.

In rough outline: the French left advanced, drove back the Bavarians and captured Loigny. The German 17th Division held Lumeau in the centre; 22nd Division came up on the German left at Poupry and held off the French right wing coming through Artenay. The Bavarians retook Loigny and a famous climactic charge by the Papal Zouaves at Loigny was unable to save the day for the French.

This panel on a plinth just south of Loigny sketches out the battle.

A helpful panel on the side of the museum steers visitors to placards at various sites around the western half of the battlefield. These have QR codes on them that should provide more information. Unfortunately the links didn't work for me.

The 'Croix de Sonis', just south of Loigny, is dedicated to Louis-Gaston de Sonis, commander of the French 17th Corps at Loigny. He personally led the final charge and was wounded, subsequently losing his left leg but continuing to serve.

The panel about de Sonis.

View of Loigny from the 'Bois des zouaves' (the Zouaves' Wood) showing the ground the Papal Zouaves charged across. As previously stated: very flat (Loigny is on an almost imperceptible rise), very open.

Panel about the Bois des zouaves.

In the Bois des zouaves is this monument to one of their number, the Comte de Verthamon.

Plaque on the monument.

The only German monument, just north of Loigny. That field was too muddy to get any closer.

Explanation of the history of the German monument. There were two others that no longer exist.

The chateau at Lumeau: a manor house surrounded by walls and very sturdy buildings. This was the German stronghold in the centre.

No photos of Poupry, sorry: a pretty little village with a lot of woods behind it.

3. Beaugency

This was a sprawling battle on a 10-mile front. At its northern end, the Germans fought through the Foret de Marchenoir - a seriously large forest. At the southern end, they fought through the large town of Beaugency. Neither makes for good battlefield photos, while the centre was more flat Beauce country. Hence no pics of Beaugency at all, sorry.

If this seems a bit incomplete and half-baked, apologies. It was sort of impromptu so I wasn't as fully prepared as I might have been and wasn't able to do as detailed a tour as I otherwise might. Also I didn't get to Beaune-la-Rolande (another fun battle to refight) or the area of the 2nd Battle of Orleans (a scenario yet to be written, I think). Still, it was enough to get a feel for the nature of the terrain and a better understanding of the events of that freezing winter of 1870-1871.