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Sunday, October 6, 2024

A Step into FPW

What if the armies used in the 15mm 1859 Franco-Austrian War project could be used for two additional wars with only the addition of Prussians and their allies?  Seems like a reasonable move in the direction of creating economies of force and getting more bang for the buck.  This decision makes even more sense if one already has many of the figures lingering and taking up space in The Lead Pile.  No new figures need to be purchased and no increase in the size of The Lead Pile.  Well, who could resist this temptation?  Not I!   
Prussian IR#26
While fielding a Prussian Army in a tabletop battle is still a faint, far away dream, the wheels of progress have been set into motion.  The first green shoots of the 1866/1870 expansion (no, not a new project!) appear.
Given the organization of the 1859 armies, the Prussian Army will field a Corps of two divisions, each having 12 infantry battalions in four regiments, four artillery batteries, and one cavalry regiment.  In addition to these, the Corps will field six more artillery batteries and a regiment of jaegers.  Gosh, this is a lot of artillery!

With current figure ratios, a Prussian infantry battalion (one stand) will muster 16 figures as seen in the photos above.  Across twelve such battalions, that totals a 192 infantry per division.  This is a lot of infantry too!  My immediate year-end goal is to see if I can produce one Prussian division before the calendar ticks over to 2025.  Possible?  Perhaps but I need to be a bit more focused than as of late.
On the gaming front, the Confederate attack on Sherman at Shiloh Church saw a second outing on Friday.  The fight produced a different result (and in much less time!) from the first game but another hotly contested action developed.  A third trial is on deck for Monday when four of The Rejects join in to try their hands at this scenario.  Those fellas opted for limited intel briefings so none of the players really know what lies ahead with certainty.  That reminds me.  I need to reset the table before tomorrow.  Hopefully, both battles will eventually see a write up in the battle chronicles.  Still, plenty to explore in this scenario so expect to see even more games at Shiloh.

56 comments:

  1. Lovely Prussians and your logic is of course impeccable! I hope you had fun with your ACW game!
    Best Iain caveadsum1471

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    1. Thanks, Iain! Friday's ACW battle was good fun providing me with a very interesting challenge.

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  2. No one can fault your logic! And with the added bonus of reducing the lead pile!!

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  3. Love the Prussians and looking forward to seeing your progress on these. Do you know which rules you will be using?

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    1. Thanks! Rules of Engagement will be my adaptation of Fields of Honor that I use for most of my Horse and Musket or Age of Rifles remote games. I might try something else along the way but am quite satisfied with these mechanisms, the game play, and the resulting outcomes.

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  4. I salute you Sir! It has taken me this long to produce the same number of four-man battalions for NQM!

    Regards, Chris.

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    1. Thank you, Chris! To be fair, only the first 48 out 192 figures are completed. This is the start of the expansion. I give myself a goal of mustering out 192 by year-end.

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  5. Beautiful work Jonathan and my money is on you being able to get the other 144 figures done by year end. It looks to be a much simpler uniform than the beautiful SYW figures you have completed recently at least.

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    1. Thanks, Lawrence! Yes, definitely a much easier uniform to paint than SYW.

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  6. A lovely looking regiment Jonathan and Shiloh is a very interesting battle to work through.

    Christopher

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    1. Thank you! Shiloh is an interesting battle to study and refight, no question.

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  7. So... NOT a new project, eh? Well, you think big, that's for sure! 768 infantry not counting the jaeger, 10 artillery batteries (how many guns?).
    Only my ACW kit can approach that for size!
    Colour me impressed!
    Cheers,
    Ion

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    1. Definitely NOT a new project! Ion, you should see the size of some of my other projects. You would I am mad.

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  8. A very clever 'extension' ! And a good goal to try to get half done in the next few months. I have considered the european wars of the mid 19th century for a while and like the look of the 100mm Pendraken ones.

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    1. Richard, it is only semantics and the only one I am fooling is myself. Still, it is an expansion only...
      10mm would have been my second choice or even first choice had I not already invested heavily in 15mm. Go on, you want to start a new period!

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  9. Great looking figures Jonathan and well done on using the existing lead pile!

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  10. Good way to use your Prussians and they look great, always interested in seeing mid/late 19th century projects, one day I may do something myself! Looking forward to seeing the next Shiloh Church instalment, the teaser about the result is very intriguing!

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    1. Thanks, Donnie! Waste not, want not, right? Who am I kidding? Game #3 in the Shiloh series is on deck for a game today. Then, I can sit down and return my thoughts to hammering our BatRep from Game #2. Mid-19th Century games have much to offer.

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  11. as soon as you explained it, the idea made sense. FPW will give you room for so many scenarios, and if the lead pile stays the same or is reduced, that's a positive consequence. Fingers crossed for your end of year painting goal....I expect you'll achieve it!

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    1. Glad these ramblings made sense, Joe! fielding a Prussian division ought to be doable but I have no Prussian cavalry. Do I buy now or wait until the New Year?

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    2. At least the Cavalry didn't feature that much in the 1866 and 1870-71 Wars compared to early ones, so the cavalry could wait a while. If you haven't read it, I recommend the following:
      https://www.amazon.co.uk/Studnitz-Wars-Wartime-Journals-Prussian/dp/1910294403

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    3. Yes, I agree that cavalry can wait. Thanks for the book recommendation!

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  12. Ah you are on the slippery slope now Jonathan! And of course you will need a Bavarian Corps to go along with the Prussians.

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    1. It is a slippery slope, indeed. Fortunately, I already have about Corps' worth of Bavarians in The Lead Pile!

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  13. A splendid start to the "not new project". The second battle of Shiloh sounds interesting.

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    1. A splendid start, for sure! Shiloh #2 was a good one with not exactly the preferred ending.

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  14. Fine work there Jon and good to see the start of a core Prussian Division in progress. Certainly for my ImagiNations armies for this period, I've gone for a Germanic/Prussian look for one force and a very mixed and by chance, Italianesque, look for the other. Lots of fun and maximum playability and variety:).

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    1. Thanks, Steve! Why did you travel down the ImagiNations route rather than the historical wars for your 19thC project?

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    2. Well I started off with the aim of gaming the 1st Schleswig-Holstein War in 1848, as I loved the miniatures from Pendraken. Then as I read up on the War, lots of options presented themselves (British & Russian intervention fro example), so it sort of expanded from there. Then realising that I would not have the time nor the patience to paint up all the armies I might like, the ImagiNations option seemed the best solution.

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  15. Excellent figures Jonathan. I'm still contemplating doing the Austrians for 1866. I do not doubt you will achieve your painting target.

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    1. Much appreciated, Richard! I reckon your project will spill over into 1866 at some point.

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  16. So it's either a new project that you PREPLANNED to do many years ago and bought most of the stuff then or it's an old project that gets a new effort. We call that 'wargamer spin' in my neck of the woods. LOL 😁

    It was supposed to be my ACW weekend... grumble grumble... baby showers are lame...gripe grip sigh... children are the worst. 😁😜


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    1. Wargamer spin, indeed. Perhaps I have a chance for a second career working in the Spin Room? Really too bad that you could not get to the table but there will be other opportunities when your schedule permits.

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  17. The mid century (pickelhaubed) Prussians are very much like the Napoleonic French. You only need one collection to face off against whatever others you want to field--1866 Austrians (and sundry German states like the Saxons), 1864 (and even 1848) Danes, and of course 1870 French.

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  18. Without setting up another rabbit hole there is always the fictional invasion of the UK - The Battle of Dorking certainly springs to mind. 25% of the way there; that's only a regiment a month (I'd love to match that) AND I'm impressed that the lead pile had clearly been pre-booked for just such an eventuality - clever stuff. Andrew

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    1. Andrew, I am a long range planner which helps to partially explain the size of my Lead Pile!

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  19. Stew has called you out Jonathan: there is no temptation if you already have the figures, hahaha!! :)
    I read a fine little book several years back "Wargaming on a budget" by Iain Dickie (of Miniature Wargames fame—when it used to be good; there is a beaut scenario for Shiloh in one of the issues that I have from the 90s). He has lots of little tricks and ideas for 'home-spun' terrain and basing materials and so forth. He refers to the notion of troops that are 'good value', i.e. able to be used across several periods. Your fine looking Prussians (and their French and Austrian adversaries) are a case in point.
    Regards, James

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    1. Yes, Stew, caught me spinning. Still, I say it is an old project with a new expansion since I already have French, Italians, and Austrians. I may have to look for Dickie’s book even though I really have no budget.

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  20. A great start to the new project, you'll have a bunch painted up before you know it!

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  21. Give those poor elves in the basement a day off!
    Reducing the lead mountain is always a good thing....
    Neil

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  22. The Prussians look great, I like the splash of colour from the red cuffs ( though maybe a good target for enemy sharpshooters? ). Three battalions done, 'only' 21 to go...
    Looking forward to seeing how the Rejects got on with Shiloh!

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    1. Thanks, David! The Reject Report will have to wait until next week. I am away tending to Parental Units this week on a last minute call for help.

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  23. Like the look of your little mid to late 19th century Prussians,Jon! Lots more to come in the next 10 to 12 weeks by the sound of it!

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  24. FPW - long considered, never tried. Very interested to see how this develops.

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