Into the Belle Epoque!

This summer was awful for homecasting, just way too hot every weekend.  So a few weekends ago I finally got all the gear out and poured these customized British and French artillery crew figures, who would go with a bunch of Armies in Plastic krupp guns.  

Ready for paint!

In my previous 54mm Little Wars-style games, I had used Britains toy cannons for artillery, usually crewed by spare figures which I did not have in large enough numbers to field as infantry units. This certainly is in spirit with Wells but the look was not quite right. I was hoping these simple crew figures, which could take head swaps to change nationality, paired with the AIP guns, would look more the part.

Once the castings were done and cleaned up, I primed the guns with a simple gray spray paint. I painted the seat backings black but that's it.

Then out came the gloss varnish!

No choice but to get them on the table!  I rolled up random forces, used the terrain cards to create a table, and tried out my randomized deployment system for my draft Belle Epoque battle generator (needs a little clean up and then I will post it up).  I played around with various sizes of units.  The Portable Wargame assigns 4 strength points to an infantry unit, but a four-figure unit on a six-inch grid square looks a little skinny.  In the below photo, I played around with how 8-figure units looked, and while they looked great I ended up changing them to six-figure units.  Lost SP were tracked by knocking figures over, and an infantry unit which lost 4 out of 6 figures was destroyed.

Starting positions.  The two British units in lower right are off-table.

Both sides end up with six units of infantry and a gun. The British however had two elite units (Scots Guards and Irish Guards) to the French's one elite (Algerian tirailleurs).

French line infantry.

The Belle Epoque battle generator deployment foregoes deploying on the back line in a "traditional wargame" method in favor of deploying on, and next to or behind, a terrain piece.  My Belle Epoque terrain tile cards feature no "blank" tiles, so each quarter of the table has a terrain piece on it. Depending on the flipping of the tiles, these terrain pieces could be closers or further from the center of the table.

Newly recruited British artillery positions in the woods, with Scots Guards deployed to right. Retrospectively I think I did not count all artillery modifiers which may have made this gun less effective than it could have been...

So each side basically gets to deploy one unit in or on the terrain feature in each quarter on their half of the board, then place a single unit to the flank or behind that terrain feature.  1d3 remaining units are then diced for see if they are deployed from an off-table flank (3 French line were deployed as such, none for the British). Then it is diced to see if any units are on the "back line" but on-table, and then any remaining units are assumed to be in "reserve" off table to the rear.  The big difference between off-table Flank and off-table Rear units is that the Flank units are presumed to be part of the general's plan - they have partially chosen to fight here because they know they have a force in flanking position, so the Flanking off-table units may come on board at that player's discretion.  Off-table units to the Rear are presumed to be "marching to the sound of the guns" and may come on table if the dice result of a 1d6+1 (for each unit) is equal or less to the current turn number (so they will not enter on turn 1, but will certainly arrive by turn 7 at the latest).  All of this creates an effect similar to Wells' curtain-across-the-center-of-the-table proposition - when the set up is done and the curtain drawn back, as it were, both sides are presented with a unique set of tactical choices based on their positions and the enemy's positions.

French attacking the village, defended by British commander and Cheshire Rifle Volunteers.

Because the French had three flanking units and the British none, and because the French could see that two more British units would be arriving late from the rear, the French brought all three flanking units on table on the first turn.

Coupled with the elite tirailleurs in the woods opposite the village, and the French figured they could dogpile on the British in the village with four units while the other two French line infantry units kept the British left occupied.

This game was played using The Portable Wargame's late 19th century rules, with loss of 1/3rd strength points equaling exhaustion and loss of 1/2 strength points being the army's breaking point.  I have learned (and appreciate) that advancing your army is beneficial in  The Portable Wargame.  Otherwise, you will hit your exhaustion point with the majority of your army too removed from the action to still contribute in anyway.

French tirailleurs attack the Irish Guards.

The tirailleurs attacked the Irish Guards in the village many times but could not drive them out.  The tirailleurs would fall back but managed to avoid actually losing strength points.

Cheshire Rifles, and slain officer!

Things went less well for the volunteer rifles who were subjected to rifle fire and close combat attacks from three different French units, resulting in the death of the British commander.  The commander counts as 6 (!) points toward exhaustion point, so between this and some other losses, the British were already on the brink of defeat!

The Scots Guards fight against French regulars.

On the opposite flank the French diversionary attack against the British left wasn't going anywhere.  The Queen's Westminsters (another volunteer unit) had arrived from the rear and bolstered the line in the woods. 

New French artillery crew alongside the (dashing) French commander.

These two French line infantry units are on verge of breaking, but have succeeded in routing the Cheshire Volunteers and pushing the Irish Guards and [black helmets] out of the town.

In the village, the Cheshire Rifles were broken, but French attacks on the Worchestershire and Essex regiments failed to make significant gains. More importantly, however, the Irish Guards were at last pushed out their defensive position and then hard pressed by the tirailleurs, line units, and an French artillery fire, causing the Irish Guards to fall even further back.  

Scots Guards pushed back.

On the British left, the Scots Guards had been pushed back, although, along with the Queen's Westminsters, with few casualties. However, the two French line units had gotten close enough that they were not in clear line of sight of the British artillery in the woods anymore, and it was fire from the gun which had previously kept causing the French to fall back. But compared to the carnage and loss on the British right in the village, fighting was light.

Indecisive fighting in the woods.

Back in the village, the tirailleurs then rushed out of the seized position in the house and flanked the Irish Guards.

Irish Guards are flanked by tiralleurs.

This flanking attack by the tirailleurs cost the Irish Guards another lost strength point and pushed the British army past the breaking point. French victory.

Endgame.  The Irish Guards have fallen back and lost the 13th strength point (which would also break the Guards, actually, having lost 4 SP) to reach British breaking point.

The loss of the British commander really did in the British early, and I may scratch that rule. I also did not count a +2 modifier to hit for field artillery if they have unobstructed direct line of sight. This would have made the two guns much more effective and could have effected things greatly. I miss the look of the old 10-figure units but six-figure units give me more French to deploy. I would shrink the grid size to 5" or even 4" squares but that pushes the pebbles rather too close together and clutters the board, I think. Also my houses are all built to fit on a 6" square (some just barely), so a smaller grid would involve another round of house building. On other hand 4" squares would give a table about 24 squares wide and 20 deep which might work really well for Belle Epoque games? Hmm...

This was the first toy soldier game played on my flocked mat as opposed to plain felt, which I had previously avoided because I thought they would visually clash.  If anything I think the flocked mat makes the figures pop a bit more visually.