Spicheren 1870

[Le Manchou]

Hello

Last Sunday we played the battle of Spicheren. As it is tough for the Prussian to win this one, I decided to forbid the use of one of the three divisions of the II French Corps and make it difficult to use the reserve artillery. I replayed in the past already twice this battle as a player and had a good idea on how to balance this game. So the Prussian at first tried with a brigade to push on Forbach by the Saarbrucken Wald but the French faced with Jolivet brigade and it became a stalemate. On the Prussian left, the 27th brigade deployed it's 18 guns without trying any offensive. The French received the reinforcement of the second brigade of Vergé division in Forbach and tried to push back the Prussians. He was stopped in Schoeneck. The Prussian reinforcements were regular and five turns before the end of the game, they became superior to the French. They abandonned the idea of seizing Forbach and decided to concentrate their efforts on Spicheren. After 4 turns of bombardment, they weakened severely Micheler brigade. Brigade Doens moved forward, but too late, the Prussians entered in St Arnual Wald before the French could make a good use of their Chassepot and the close range infantry shootings were bloody. The French failed it's morale tests, the Prussian didn't and three turns before the end, the German victory was clear.

I posted two pictures on my blog

http://smolensk.homelinux.org/projet1870/

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Nice report sir, well written, love the maps on your blog too! 

[cameronian]

Excellent; I like the shading you used in the earlier maps to denote height/incline etc.

[cudders]

Excellent maps!

Look like a great game.

Cudders

[nikharwood]

Very nice - nice to see some thinking behind the game as well, rather than just the default plonk 'em down & fight or keep the standard refight...I am, of course, as guilty [guiltier?] as the next gamer at doing this, but it is always good to see folks taking the time to think these things through.

And your maps are *truly* funky 

[Hertsblue]

Interesting and original take on the battle, Manchou. Great to see a totally different system in action. 

[Le Manchou]

Thank you all, next battle should be Wissembourg in April !

[mollinary]

Manchou,

Always look forward to your posts - really inspiring. Wissembourg should be great, just got a copy of Ronald Zins' book on it in the "Les Batailles Oubliees" series.   Superb little book.  Can't wait for your refight.

Mollinary

[Le Manchou]

As you noticed, the map of Spicheren is different in style from Gravelotte. Gravelotte was represented by part of two campaign maps, and was 1m50 wide. Spicheren map has been specifically designed for the battle and follows exactly the map of the ruleset 1870, no shades but much more precise with the contour lines to represent elevations. It's 1m80 wide and now I regret I did 1m50 for the campaign as I prefer 1m80. I plan to follow the same scheme for 1870 battles (Wissembourg, then Froeschwiller, Borny, Mars la Tour, Gravelotte, Beaumont and Sedan for 2012), and the 1859 battles in 2013. As for miniatures, to continue 1870 painting with the rest of engineers, trains, caissons and supply chariots as well as tents, continue slowly the Wagram project and begin the 1859 campaign project.

(BTW I am still struggling to find 19th century general staff maps for this campaign (part of Piedmont and Lombardy at a decent scale, and help would be much appreciated).

Le Manchou

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

I only have the maps we used for 1859 Campaign with the guys from Timecast (about 5 years ago), it was not as detailed as the versions you used for yours, I've emailed them to see whether they have a digitised version, if they have I will forward it on.
It looked like an early OS map, and about the same scale (basically rivers/roads/settlements as dots and blobs, the odd rise but not much else).
We wrote orders as moving from town to town,  if it ended up in a clash, sort out where the fight was, then look at the terrain on Google maps.

[Le Manchou]

I already have the Austrian general staff map of central europe. It covers Germany, the Austrian Empire, Italy and the Balkans, the scale is 1:200 000, it is just not precise enough to do 1/4 000 scale tactical maps from it as I need. If some of you are interested, it's available online at this address:

http://lazarus.elte.hu/hun/digkonyv/topo/3felmeres.htm

[cameronian]

Fantastic map resource manchou, many thanks.
A suggestion; have you thought of carefully cutting round the contours and mounting them on thin DEPRON or similar; this would give a 'pancake' appearance to the board and might make it easier to appreciate the terrain features, LOS, etc. I did something of this nature for Woerth years ago here - http://www.flickr.com/photos/pendraken/sets/72157623404033825/
ignore the title and position of the troops, its just for the photo. Depron is about 6mm thick, cuts beautifully with a heat knife and can be easily glued using UHU POR of hot glue from a glue gun (don't use water based anything, the water can't evaporate!).
Anyhow, just an idea, your collection is mind boggling.

Oh, BTW, the maps in the folder attached to volume 1 of the German General Staff account of the war are excellent but they are only present in the original volumes NOT the reprints.

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

I already have the Austrian general staff map of central europe. It covers Germany, the Austrian Empire, Italy and the Balkans, the scale is 1:200 000, it is just not precise enough to do 1/4 000 scale tactical maps from it as I need. If some of you are interested, it's available online at this address:

http://lazarus.elte.hu/hun/digkonyv/topo/3felmeres.htm

Those look like the ones we were using!
Nice one!

[Le Manchou]

Cameronian, your Woerth battlefield is fantastic, I simply don't think I can stock dozens or hundreds of historical battlefields made this way, hence my 2D approach. The dream (and goal) I have is to create a wargaming center with two kinds of activities: Summer camps for whole campaigns recreation played in a week or two with thirty or more players coming from everywhere, 1870 being the first planned, 1859 the second and 1815 the third, and during the rest of the year, to propose to players (mostly locals) a catalogue of historical battles I can set for them in an hour or so.  I am preparing all the battles of 1870 first (imperial phase only), I will then do the 1859 battles. Concerning the maps of the original volumes of the german general staff, I agree the ones I saw were the best. Unfortunately, I only have the reprint.

Le Manchou

[cameronian]

I hadn't realised the extent of your ... megalomania !!! 

It sounds awesome, a campaign played over a week - with of course some excellent French food, wine, perhaps some cheese ...