Sunday 10 June 2018

A Fork in the Road - Part 1

There hasn't been a huge amount of painting going on around here, so it's definitely time for Part 1 of the Perambulations of the Prussian Expeditionary Force.

While visiting the UK my plan was to see as many friends and family as I could and to cram in as much wargaming as possible while I was about it. The result was a trip that took me from the South coast of England to Scotland and back again.

With the PEF safely collected from sister number one, the first leg involved setting off westwards towards sister number two. Almost exactly half way, as luck would have it, lay a fork in the road which took me to the house of Mr Lewis Gunner and what must surely be one of the world's most spectacular collections of Hinton Hunts.

Von Lützow according to WM meets von Lützow according to LG,
just one  of LG's innumerable brilliant command conversions.

The situation was as follows: Marshal Davout, anxious to join the Emperor's army marching on Berlin, has sallied forth from Hamburg with his Saxon and Danish allies. Meeting them at a vital road junction, however, was a Prusso-Swedish force under Blucher which was determined to bar the way. Commanding the French was Matt B, while I took charge of the Prussians as Marshal Blucher. LG, Muskets & Marshals in hand, acted as umpire.

Davout's mighty Franco-Saxo-Danish army arrayed for battle

Well I just had to be the Prussians. My mission was hold the road junction.
Davout himself, strange to say, had been unavoidably detained (LG couldn't find him!), but his well-disciplined troops readied for battle nonetheless.

Davout's plan, by the looks of it, was to conduct a converging attack against the Prussian left and centre in an effort to seize the road junction.

The formidable French right. I really didn't like the look of all that guard cavalry

Davout's centre with yet more French and a couple of Saxon battalions.

Davout's Danes on the left. I'm ashamed to say that I completely failed to get any 
decent shots of these fabulous Hinton Hunt conversions.

The Danish cavalry on the Franch far left. These were conversions of 
British light dragoons if I remember correctly.
Blucher's plan was to foil Davout's attack be means of a massive assault launched from the Prussian left. Although this left him rather weak on his right flank, Blucher hoped that all the hills on that side of the battlefield would slow down Davout long enough for this main assault to develop.

The Leib Hussars, Garde du Corps and uhlans manaouvre to pounce onto the French right.
It didn't quite work out that way...…

The Prussian left. Prusso-Swedish assault columns, led by the PEF.

The Prussian artillery massed around the town. Blucher's plan was
 to blast to smithereens anything that came too close.

A mixed Prusso-Swedish division held the centre. The dragoons were to play a critical role.

The Prussian right - with yet more Lutzowers!

Swedish cavalry defend the far right flank. We'd deal with those Danes in no time
…..or so I thought.

To be continued.....

WM

22 comments :

  1. Glad to see beautiful and diversified armies, great looking game!

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    1. LG's collection is simply breathtaking, Phil. It really was the most amazing privilege to be allowed to play with some of it!

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  2. Replies
    1. It certainly was, Stokes. There were fifteen battalions, five cavalry regiments and six batteries on each side - which is probably the maximum handlable by a single player. LG's deft umpiring, however, kept things going at a brisk pace.

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  3. An impressive looking line up and good to see some of LG's spectacular collection again. Movement trays are a new addition? I'm looking forward to part 2 and the action!

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    1. They are indeed, Ian, or at least since the last time I visited, which was about 2 years ago. They also helped to speed things up a bit!

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  4. Wonderful display. I am slowly working my way up to the point where I have enough figures for a small battle. In the meantime, such battle reports(with lots of photos) help keep me inspired. Stage 1 for me s to have 1/6 of the amount you have listed above! Humbling indeed.

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    1. Right there with you Captain Nolan - inspired and yet so far away before troops can actually hit the table!

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  5. A fantastic looking game...

    Old school gold...
    Jealous.... yes!

    All the best. Aly

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    1. I'm jealous of my former self, Aly. I'm twelve thousand miles away from them now.

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  6. Gorgeous game - just wondering, with all these old-school troops on the table, what rules would the originals have been using back in the day?

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    1. That likely depends on the year and what country you were playing in. Perhaps the LWS rules that Musket and Marshals is based on, or perhaps Bruce Quarrie’s or Charles Grant’s Napoleonic Wargaming rules (or maybe a variant of “The Wargame” by Grant), or maybe Donald Featherstone’s Wargames rules, or “Charge!” by Lawford and Young. Lots to choose from, even back in the day. And don’t forget, lots of folks wrote their own rules, so it might be your local club’s rules, or even your own.

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    2. I prefer the home-made ones, CN!

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  7. I don't quite have the quality if paintwork that WM and Old Flinty (Stryker) have, but I have been collecting since 1967, so I do have quantity. The conversions I am most proud of are the Swedish cuirassiers which are from mainly Alberken British heavy dragoons and some HH household cavalry. The HH are, I think piratical, because they have a mould line down the face that looks like they had survived a sabre slash from a Danish light dragoon early in their career. Still I love them vecause I had to create new holster caps for them from dripped and hammered molten solder!
    I am touched by WM's felicitous comments . Matt and I were awed by WM's gorgeous hussars, Prussians are not generally rated in the beauty stakes, but these were stunning.

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    1. I only got to see a few of WM figures whilst he was travelling. They are stunning.

      The game looks stunning and fun to play.

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    2. It was both of those things, Mark!

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  8. Great site. I have some 20mm HH (or similar) Napoleonic figures you may be interested in but not able to access your email through your profile page? I am in Levin just up the line. M

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    1. Hi Mark. Blogger seems to be on the blink at the moment. I'm not getting any notifications about comments, for example, which seems to be a general problem.

      I'd be delighted to make contact. I'll see if I can track you down via the interwebs.

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  9. I like the size of your Battlefield - there seems to be plenty of Regiments and yet it is not over crowded -with space to manouvre. I'm hoping my future 1846 Battles will look as good. Cheers. KEV.

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    1. LG's table must be 12 feet long, Kev. It'll be a while before I've got anything even close to it, let alone the regiments!

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  10. Another fabulous Hinton spectacular!

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    1. I think I can claim only about a tenth of the credit, James.

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