FPW playtesting?

[Leon]

why bother Leon? you should just stock up on all the Warmaster based rulesets (and all the fan-based stuff as well as downloads) it (WM) is whats driving your sales in the main, plus your excellent figs are driving sales of the ruleset. Well thats my opinion anyway, but you know what they say about opinions.

It's better from a profit and marketing point of view.  We can make more money from our own rules than we would reselling the WM ones, as well as increasing the sales of any pre-packaged armies.  Plus, if the rules are decent, it brings new gamers into the scale and into Pendraken. 

[goat major]

i think Baccus have managed to grow the whole 6mm market through linking their figs to ruleset support. I think its a good idea

[Nosher]

i think Baccus have managed to grow the whole 6mm market through linking their figs to ruleset support. I think its a good idea

Are we talking Polemos here?

They have got to be the most  rules I have ever played. Poorly written, poorly laid out, and frustratingly dull to play. That said their figures are superb and their service is good so two out of three keeps me going back

[goat major]

yep i meant polemos. i dont know it or play it but it seems to sell their figures....

[privateer]

Well after much delay we have had the second battle in the campaign using the rules.
A brief description of the battle
The French of 1st Corps, with the 4th Division in the centre, the 2nd Division on the left and what was left of the 1st Division on the right with the 3rd Division in reserve, were lining the edge of a wooded area that ran down to a river in a valley. This was the area of the 4th and 2nd Divisions. Across the river was a town which was held by the 1st.
The Prussians of the XI Corps' XXI Division march onto the table opposite the French 1st Division. The commander ordered the XXI straight into the attacked with no artillery preparation. In fact the Prussian artillery did not make it to firing positions until well after the first attack had be repulsed. This messy repulsed was something he never got over and from then on seemed to change his plan. Next to move onto the table were the Prussian IX and X Divisions of V Corps. They proceeded to attack the wooded areas defended by the 4th Division who shot them to pieces with the help of the Corps reserve artillery. This was the point where the hard pressed 2nd divisions 50th Regiment broke leaving a hole in the French line and forcing the 74th to give ground as well.  The Prussian 6th Grenadier and 37th Fusilier Regiments had done the job but with the divisions 2nd Brigade unable to provide support quickly enough they were routed by a well timed counter attack by the 2nd Zouave, the 48th Regiment and the 8th Chasseurs . This put paid to any through of breaking the French and forcing another retreat. The Prussians withdrew to the high ground at their table edge to await reinforcements and the French commander is to decide whether it is still a good defensive line or to withdraw closer to support from the other French Corps .
The Prussians got thumped, really thumped. French rifle fire cut the Prussian infantry apart. The Prussians failed to support with their artillery and the result was that the Prussian infantry advanced into fresh French troops for the 1st Corps and were cut to pieces. What was to be expected really.
The Rules
They worked well now that we have made some modification for moral, we also fleshed out the built up area rules to allow for Battalions/Regiments to be responsible for the defence of an area which allows for support from within the Regiment. This seemed to work quite will and when artillery is used to soften up the point of attack makes it very playable (we did a quick test after the game).
Next game we will be looking at the command and control aspects as all of us felt they could have been more influential with attack and defence.
Summary
A game that was fun for the commanders and myself. I will be getting wagons for the supply aspect of the battle as I am a big fan of the logistics of the battle. I will be looking to have one wagon per battalion so a Division will have a train of fifteen to eighteen wagons which will create a new set pf problems for the Commanders of the Corps.

(Do I get extra point for size of post? it has got a bit big)

[Leon]

Well after much delay we have had the second battle in the campaign using the rules.

Excellent, cheers for the report and thanks for the feedback on the rules.  I'll show this to Dave when I see him tomorrow.

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Great report, any piccies?
Does sound typical, French hold ground and don't take the initiative to throw the Prussians back.
Prussian order of march was artillery first, so they could get them into close range and fire in support of the infantry; unfortunately if the infantry gets tied up (such as IX Corp at Razonville) they got mauled by the French Chassepots!
Mad Lemmey

[Chad]

I haven't tried them yet, but if Dave doesn't mind I would like to download them and adapt them for 1866,

Chad

[Bigfulsey]

Hi

I've not been on the forum long but play FPW and would be really interested in playtesting the FPW ruleset. At present I plat Polemos but as has been said in previous posts, they can be a bit frustrating. It would be interesting to look at a different possibility.

Nick

[Leon]

I haven't tried them yet, but if Dave doesn't mind I would like to download them and adapt them for 1866,

That'd be great, if the core of the rules works, then we'd like to adapt them for other areas anyway.

I've not been on the forum long but play FPW and would be really interested in playtesting the FPW ruleset.
Nick

The more the merrier, the PDF link is in the first post of this thread.

[privateer]

Hello, The march on to the table was very disorganised, The Prussian Artillery was not on the vangard but at the rear of both divisions of both corps and the Corps Artillery of both corps did not even get to fight.
I have large units for my armies, four stands of ten figures per battalion for the Germans and three for the French Line and Chasseur. The Turcos and Zoveues have two and half and two stands per battalion. Add to this a logistics wagon (which we did not use this game) and the Divisions become quite big making planning of engagments very important.
I was very pleased with the result of the game, it was what I expected when I saw the Prussian deployment. It turns out that one of the Prussian commander, who had never played the Franco-Prussian War before had read just enough to be dangerous. As it was only the second battle in the campaign it is shaping up to be interesting

[Leman]

FPW is my thang! I'll be happy to give them a go and can guarantee at least two opponents.

[Leon]

Dave's just asked if anyone has any more feedback on these, plus any recommendations on changes to be made?

[Leman]

Yo Bigfulsey, drop me line on the forum. May have some alternative FPW stuff up here in Liverpool before too long.
DP

[Luddite]

Dave's just asked if anyone has any more feedback on these, plus any recommendations on changes to be made?

Haven't played them yet but i've had a good read through.

Once i get my French painted up i'll run a game with these rules and let you know.

However, there's one question i have about the small arms ranges. 
German rifle 300mm / French rifle 500mm.

Now, as i understand, the German Dreyse had an effective rang of about 600yards, but given the failings of the rifle itself (tendencey of the bolt to fail to close properly which reduced the muzzle velocity and range further and forced the troops to 'fire from the hip' to avoid getting their face burned by the escaping gasses) the Germans rarely opened fire at ranges beyond 2-300 yards.

The French Chassepot on the other hand had an effective range of 1300yards, and the French drill and training had them opening fire on average at 7-800 yards, often with devastating effect that surprised the German troops and commanders.

Since your groundscale indicates 1mm=2m, should't the ranges therefore be:

German Dreyse
Short (Effective) 300yds (150mm) / Long ()Maximum) 600yrds (300mm)

French Chassepot
Short (Effective) 700yds (350mm) / Long ()Maximum) 1200yrds (600mm)

Just a minor point i suppose, but for me the 'rifle duel' was one of the critical frictions of the FPW and worth giving consideration to.
I'm not sure how this relates to your troop movement paces though.  How long is a turn? 
Open order troops move 70mm max in a turn which is 35 yards by your groundscale. 
At a brisk pace, troops would do 35 yards in 20 seconds.  So a turn is 20 seconds?
In that time, a Chassepot rifle could get off about 6 shots (represented by the one attack dice roll?)
Is that important to consider?

More importantly though at a pace of 70mm, moving into guns under your ranges, advancing Germans will take 4 rounds of shooting before contact.  They should probably face 8 turns of shooting if reflecting the friction of the problems they faced advancing into the French rifles during FPW battles?

Just some intitial thoughts.