FPW Work Continues

Work continues on expanding the Franco-Austrian War project into the Franco-Prussian War and even the Austro-Prussian War.  Since the beginning of September, almost all painting work has been focused on mustering out FPW units.  That trend continues today with Bavarian guns rolling out of depot.

Today's offering features four Bavarian guns and crew.  Artillerymen are from Lancashire Games while the guns are from Freikorps 15's.  As an aside, I read today that QRF figures seem to be once more back into production.  Their return is a positive result since I use their limbers and guns for this project almost exclusively.

Still more FPW units to emerge from the painting queue before I turn attention to something else.  This diversion may be a brief one but who knows?

After my recent, long delayed, hostage situation with Irish Customs from my August Lancashire Games' order, I was delighted to see a box of lead drop onto my doorstep in record time from Newline Designs.  Goods are flowing again!

Hanau, Hanau...

There's a battle ahead, many battles are lost...Hanau, Hanau, don't dream it's over.

OK, OK.  Perhaps I carry the homophone a bit too far in paraphrasing Crowded House but we know they won't win.

Scott sent a text late Saturday morning saying a buddy was making the drive north from Moscow for a boardgame session at 2pm and asked if I wanted to join in. The plan was to tear the plastic from Legion Games' La Bataille de Hanau and give it a run out on the table.  Well, without much hesitation, I replied that I would be there to watch the action as they worked through both rules and scenario.  I hopped into the car and off I went to Coeur d'Alene for the day.

Scott recently bought Hanau and Dale has the game on order.  Me, I had never seen it before although I have another in the series, Le Retour de l'Empereur from the Vive l'Empereur series.

Now, I have never played my game or even read the rules, so this is all new to me.  The Hanau game is a single mapper with only a few handfuls of units in play.  Perfect situation to use as an introduction to the system in a group learning setting.

The Hanau map.

Scott commanded the French while Dale commanded the Allied Army of Austrians and Bavarians.  I looked on.  In this scenario, the Allied task is to block the road to Frankfurt as the French Imperial Guard comes pounding in their direction.

Scott carefully studies Dale's moves.

After several hours of play, Scott managed to break the Allied Army and claim a Sudden Death victory.  Interesting situation and interesting rules.  Can the Allies pull out a victory on this field?  I hope to find out one day.

Anyway, that is how I spent the second half of Saturday.  Good fun!

On Reliability of Data

Data from Wargames, Soldiers, and Strategy's 2025 Great Wargaming Survey (GWS) has arrived and the annual ritual of teasing inferences from these data begins!  Following Excel file conversion and recoding variables for more efficient data analysis, the process of addressing some of the survey results kicks off.  First off, a word about data reliability.

Addressing Data Reliability

Questions about data collection methods and reliability often arise, so I frequently provide select meta analyses to address these concerns.  The GWS relies on voluntary responses from anyone who completes the survey.  Without random sampling, responses are based upon convenience sampling.  In convenience sampling, respondents must know about the survey, have access to it, and be interested in wargaming, which naturally limits the dataset to this group.  Each annual survey includes all valid submissions in a cross-sectional study, capturing data from many participants at a single point in time. Non-random sampling can introduce bias, meaning the sample might not fully represent the broader wargaming population.  Any significant bias could potentially lead to misleading inferences.

While the possibility of sampling bias has been a recurring concern from readers over the years, is this concern justified? Does collecting a large sample size per year help mitigate this risk of bias introduction?  How large of a sample is required?   Can reasonable insights still be drawn despite potential issues?  What about sampling the same target population repeatedly but drawing different samples?  Annual survey analysis like the GWS rely on repeated cross-sectional studies, allowing analysis of changes over time even with varying samples.  To build confidence, each survey should draw similar samples from the population.  

A quick initial review reveals one immediate surprise: participation dropped significantly over the last three years.  After 9,282 responses in 2023, the 2024 survey garnered only 5,995 responses.  In 2025, total responses dropped yet again to 5,005 responses.  Reasons for the continued fall off in responses are unclear but reports suggest that only 78% of respondents beginning the survey completed it.  Many of these dropouts were due to failure to click "Submit" once finished.  Could this participation reduction skew upcoming analyses for the 2025 reporting cycle?  Speculation aside, data might offer clues on bias.   As the first in the 2025 reporting series, this post examines data reliability and compares select demographics from 2023, 2024, and 2025.

Prior Survey Indicator

With a decrease in responses in both 2024 and 2025, the percent of those repeat survey respondents falls from about two-thirds in 2023 to roughly 60% in 2024 and 2025.  Still, overall percentages are similar across all three years.  

Location

The mix of respondents' home countries remains relatively stable from 2023 to 2025.  Fewer respondents originated in USA/Canada and Australia/New Zealand in 2025 to the benefit of UK/Ireland respondents but no significant change in the overall distribution.

Age Group

When examining age demographics, a shift in age cohort emerges.  In 2025, the 61+ age groups saw a marked uptick in responses.  Outside of a heavier weighting to the older cohorts, 2023 and 2025 distributions look similar.  For age distributions, 2024 looks like the anomaly.  As past surveys demonstrate, older cohorts tend more toward historical wargaming.  Will the survey confirm this inference? 

Education

Highest education level attained remains consistent across all three years.  No significant difference with respect to education.

Primary Interest

With an age group shift to the 61+ age cohorts as noted above in Age Groups, we might expect a corresponding shift toward historical wargaming as primary interest.  These data suggest that may be the case.  This is exactly the result that the breakdown of primary interest shows.  Fantasy/Sci-Fi primary interest grouping lost ground in 2025 to both Historical and Mixed classifications.  Historicals gained about four percentage points from 2024 to 2025.  Fantasy/Sci-Fi lost five-and-a half percentage points from 2024 to 2025.  Why this shift and what effect (if any) will this hold for following analyses?

Duration

Finally, when examining responses to how long a respondent has been wargaming, the results are not surprising given the age and primary interest shifts seen above.  The percentage of gamers having been in the hobby for 31 years or more increased by 7.5 percentage points from 2024 to 2025.  Notice that 2025 results follow the distribution pattern seen in 2023 more so than the pattern seen in 2024.  Again, was 2024 an anomaly?

Insights on Reliability

Despite a non-scientific approach to survey sampling, the GWS demonstrates again that sampling tends to remain consistent year after year.  I return to the topic of data reliability frequently to help mitigate concerns about bias (and usefulness) of these surveys.  Even with a move toward older gamers, cross-sectional, repeated sampling, in this case, seems to produce a stable sample from which to investigate inferences.  With fewer responses again this year, will established trends hold?  Some may and some may not.  Watch as results and analysis of the 2025 survey unfold.

There are a few new questions this year and I look forward to exploring these results.  I would enjoy seeing your thoughts on why fewer gamers completed the survey and/or the demographic attributes of the GWS Class of 2025.

Clash Course in Flower of Chivalry

As an alternative to a Monday Paint & Chat session, Reject Richard gathered a collection of Postie's Rejects for a remote game.  Richard pulled out a 30-plus year-old Medieval ruleset for the session's entertainment.  Richard converted these old rules to hexes, made some amendments, and gave the rules a couple of solo playtests.

The rules that Richard dredged up from his vault are Flower of Chivalry by The Canadian Wargames Group and Bruce McFarlane.  Now, I have had this set of rules filed away on my shelves of wargame rules since about the date it was published in 1993.  Since I only recently became interested in bringing Medieval warfare to the gaming table, McFarlane's book sat on my shelf mostly unread.  Certainly, the rules, themselves, were not give much consideration.  Coming in at only four pages of the 76 page book, they were easy to overlook.  This is especially true since the rules are quite terse with ambiguities at every paragraph.  With four pages of rules and a number of interesting concepts and mechanisms, cramming everything into such a small space would be a hard task.  The game uses card draw, percentile dice, D10s, Orders, Leader Aggression and Command Ratings, Personal Challenges, Army Morale, Variable Actions, and a concept of Battle Lust.  As for brevity, for example, Morale and Melee explanations are only given one paragraph each and short paragraphs at that!  After a quick read, I envisioned sizable holes to be fill.  I explored no further.

Figure photos courtesy of Richard.

This is where Richard comes in armed with multiple pages of custom designed QRS' and the knowledge to lead us all through the basics of the game.  Since Richard will almost certainly provide a more comprehensive battle report (see My Wargaming Habit), I provide a simple, captioned overview of the action from my few screenshots.

The battle opens with a French column caught on the march by an Imperialist Army.  The battle begins!  Since I commanded the French van, my brief recap focuses on that wing almost exclusively. 

Imperialists interrupt the French march.
Imperialist Right heads for the high ground at charge rate.

Dual cameras showing the battle from each side.
The French turn to face the enemy.

All three French Battles deploy as the Imperialists approach.

On the French Left, crossbow crossfire drives off the

Imperialist MAA causing significant damage.

Having destroyed the enemy Landsknechts at the bottom
 of the hill through firepower, alone, French Center attacks.

As the French Center goes crashing in to clash with enemy pikemen, 
the French Right sees its commander cut down in a personal challenge.
  They are leaderless for a turn.
French Gendarmes continue fighting arquebusiers over the hill
on the left in a protracted melee. 
Gendarmes should have made short work of these fellows!

Against the French Left, Imperialist MAA charge to the hill.
With no remaining actions, the horsemen stop.

With Imperialist MAA hampered by the hill,
French Landsknechts move into contact.
French Center makes progress against the enemy center.

In one turn, the Imperialist Left and Center collapse.
This battle is over!

Decisive victory to the French!  A battle well executed by my French comrades Ray and Dan.  Game lasted about three-and-a-half hours.

The game provided a lot of interesting play with some uncertainty and careful decision making.  With only one game in the books, I look forward to more opportunities to give Flowers of Chivalry a bit more exercise.  On exercising, a review of these rules along with my thoughts and a compare and contrast to Basic Impetvs and my more recent work for the WotR might be interesting.  At least, to me, perhaps!

Thank you, Richard and the Rejects for a very entertaining gaming session!

More Bavarians Muster Out

Painting efforts continue to be focused on bringing FPW Germans up to a "gameable" state.  Honestly, I am likely at that point already, but I continue to forge ahead while motivation remains.

Mustering out today are two, sixteen-figure battalions of Bavarian infantry form IR4.  Figures are Lancashire Games.  Only two battalions, this time, because that was all that could be rounded up from a dig through The Lead Pile.  After these 32 figures were pushed through the painting queue, my long-delayed order from Lancashire Games arrived with a bunch of new recruits.  Oh, this order dodged any tariffs too.  Interestingly, a recent hex-and-counter wargame sent from Canada was passed over by any tariff since the game was originally manufactured in the USA.  Now that is something to stick away for future reference.

Again, I think these advancing Lancashire Bavarians are simply splendid.  Easy to paint and look good en masse. Some Bavarian artillery ought to be joining the small but growing Bavarian contingent soon.  Still, lots more figures from a variety of projects working through the production line.  I might even manage to finish off a regiment of Prussian dragoons before too long if I remain focused.

On the gaming front, CCA in 6mm was out on the dining table this week.  The session featured the Punic War Battle of Po River in an encore engagement.  Kevin and I managed to play five games plus fit in an Indian buffet out in under four hours.  Surprisingly, Carthage won all five contests with Kevin coming out as victor in two of the five games.  Good fun!

Downstairs on the big table, boxes have been pulled as I consider a Reconquista battle for the next series of games. Given that information on these battles is scarce, I am on the hunt for suitable candidates to bring to the table.  I may bring one of Matt's many scenarios to the table.  For rules, all of my other Reconquista games have utilized my version of Basic Impetvs on a grid.  Thoughts waffle on whether to give my WotR Medieval rules a try with this collection.  If I go down the latter route, hopefully, the core game engine will work "mostly" as is.  All of this excitement sees more Reconquista-type lead excavated from The Lead Pile and added into the growing painting queue.  Records show I have not added any units to this project in five years.  I thought I was finished! 

Goin' Down for the Last Time

Yes, today's report is likely the last replay of Quistello before I move along to another new period and another new battle.  In this replay, I take on Peter (Grid-based wargaming) in a one-on-one match.  Peter has already provided an excellent account of our contest with a series of marvelously hand-drawn maps.  If only I had Peter's artistic talent!  Be sure to visit Peter's blog and read his battle account.

As a refresher for the situation, the Allies (Franco-Piedmontese) begin the battle encamped with a possibility of being caught off guard when the Austrians launch their surprise attack in the early morning.  Army and troop dispositions are shown in the table photos below: 

Battlefield with original Austrian attack plan.

Army dispositions.

While Peter's account is a tough act to follow, I provide my recollections from battle in a series of captioned battle photos.

View of battlefield looking SE from San Benedetto.

In the early morning hours, the Austrian Army successfully approaches the Secchia River without sounding an alarm in the camps of the sleeping Frenchmen.  The battle is about to begin!

Austrians poised along the eastern bank of the Secchia.

All three Austrian columns begin crossing the Secchia.
Quistello is completely bypassed! 
The French are surprised about this development!

After running off de Broglie,
 Suchow's brigade attacks the defenders of Gaidellina.
Despite being surprised,
 the defenders throw back Suchow's attack.

Crossing the river, Neipperg attacks a second body of French.
Similarly caught by surprise,
 the Frenchmen fall back as the Austrian grenadiers come on.

In minutes, the center of de Contades' line is pierced.

Rather than clearing out Quistello,
 Sachsen-Hildburghausen right faces and marches to the Secchia.
Another surprise by the Austrians!

Lantieri swings his Austrian dragoons around
 to cover the right flank of the army.

A second attack from the east into Gaidellina.
Austrian grenadiers scatter the defenders!
Gaidellina is theirs!

With Gaidellina secure, Konigsegg pushes his columns forward

along the main road to San Benedetto,

Neipperg urges his men forward on the attack.

After suffering artillery fire from Quistello,
Sachsen-Gotha attacks the town with his cavalry. 

The French defenders of Quistello are expelled
and French guns are overrun.

Prince Wurttemberg leads an attack
 into the French positioned astride the main road.
Not surprised, the French get a chance to fire
 as the Austrians bear down.
In close combat, the French are sent reeling back,
and a second battery is overrun! 
De Contades' Brigade breaks!

In the center, the Prince presses on
as Konigsegg advances from Gaidellina.

Lantieri crosses the Secchia and engages a body of
French cavalry forming up in front of Mirasole.
The French are driven back!
Austrian infantry reach the canal.

With Quistello cleared out, Austrian heavy cavalry move
through the town and along the road toward San Benedetto.
The Allies begin to respond.
De Bonas' cavalry moves forward to pin the enemy at Gaidellina
 while shifting two regiments to the center.
One isolated Austrian infantry unit is scattered
 when one of de Bonas' French cavalry attacks.

The center is quite thin on troops!

As more of Waldeck's infantry reach the canal,
the Piedmontese attack with grenadiers leading the charge!
The Austrian brigade breaks!

Piedmontese grenadiers move up to defend the canal.
The Austrians attack across the canal with grenadiers
 leading the way and Sachsen-Hild at the head.
Sachsen-Hild. goes down but the Piedmontese are destroyed.
Savoya's Piedmontese brigade breaks.

Austrians are across the canal and Austrian cavalry
 are working around the French left at Mirasole.

Needing only to destroy one of de Coigny's French
cavalry regiments to break the Allied Army,
 Lantieri brings up his dragoons.  
This may be a high-risk venture.
If successful, the Allied Army breaks.
If not, Lantieri will likely be broken in his efforts.

Lantieri succeeds and the Allied Army retires.
This battle is over!

Butcher's Bill

Congratulations to Peter on a fine victory!

Well, the Allied Army took another beating but fared better than they saw in their last outing.  The Allies almost held out for long enough but not quite.  Game ended on Turn 7 of 8.  The Dead Pile may be a little deceiving since several Austrian units were hanging onto life by the skin of their teeth. 

As in the historical battle, the French were caught by the early surprise attacks and de Contades was barely able to put together any sort of defensive line at all.  Like in the other games, de Contades was overrun and broken before he really got his footing.

We witnessed an historical result with the Allies battered and retiring from the field.  For the Austrians, von Waldeck's large infantry brigade was broken and his cavalry nearly so.  Each army saw two of its generals go down in the fighting.  Losing the fight at the canal and allowing the Austrians to turn the French left was really my undoing.  De Coigny's cavalry should have reacted much sooner and more aggressively.

Still, this battle iteration's result reinforces that the historical outcome can be replicated and probable.  Game #2 saw a similar historical result but on a grander scale.  In Game #1, without the sudden collapse of two Austrian brigades at the start of battle, we may have a seen similar outcome to the second two games.  In the final accounting, the Allies came up short in all three games.  For now, the Franco-Piedmontese Army at Quistello has gone down for the last time. 

Nice job, Peter!  Maybe I will get you next time? 

As for next time, I pack away the War of Polish Succession armies, clear the table, and plan for the next series of games.  I have a hankering for seeing my Reconquista armies back out on table so that may be next.

Thanks for looking!