Seconds away, cards 2

[Leman (Andy)]

This time the cards gave a very interesting result. The French army ended up costing 59 points, so the last point was spent on a mitrailleuse. However, the French had no cavalry, very little artillery and ended up as the attackers, so the mitrailleuse merely absorbed casualties, disappearing in turn 2. The Prussians had 6 artillery batteries, two of which were horse, two regiments of cavalry and a shed load of bombardment dice fort the off table corps 6 pounders. They were devastating:



Yes, those are all the guns the French had. Nevertheless less they pressed the attack, taking the wood, chateau and small hill, but at an enormous cost in the loss of complete units, and both Prussian regiments broke through to the French baseline, which gave the Prussians an overwhelming victory - level four out of five. Oh dear. This was the first time my long-time FPW protagonist had played Walter Schnaffs (although we have had many SB RCW games in the past). Next time he fancies using the British home army list up against the Prussians.

[SimonC]

you were unlucky , given the Imperial French attacks values are much lower than the Prussians - and they had cavalry.

The French must have had great events, and the Prussian terrible.

Squarebashing typically favours the defender so in this game sounded grim.

I've avoid walking under ladders for while

[Leman (Andy)]

Indeed it was an unfortunate experience, but it did mean we both had to think a lot. My opponent had about half his army off table at the start of the game, but a great deal of luck with his first bombardment, which stalled my planned rapid advance in the centre, enabling him to get more troops on the table, including more dreaded Krupp guns. In order to take key objectives I had to advance into close range. This resulted in my loss of complete units, whereas the Prussians lost a good few bases but no complete units and they had two cavalry breakthroughs to the baseline. It was clearly an overconfident French divisional general who had positioned himself not very magnificently!

[SimonC]

but it did mean we both had to think a lot.

sign of a good game 

when adversity presents itself it gives the opportunity for tactical brilliance to shine... or else get shelled out of existence 

[Martin Smith]

Sounds like a challenging game, always the most fun to play 😊 🎲🎲

Where could I acquire some of those natty little red-orange explosion markers?

[Leman (Andy)]

I think the explosions are Gale Force 9. They come in packs of 7 (why?) and each is a little kit which glues together really easily. I bought several packs at a couple of different shows, but haven't seen any for a while. They are remarkably useful and in different games have served as explosions, morale markers, disruption markers, casualty markers and so on.

Then I thought, have I got this right, so went on the web and found them under Element Games, credited to GF9, but I couldn't see them on the GF9 site. The design looks slightly different to mine. They are now priced at £6.50 for six.

[SimonC]

here they are

https://elementgames.co.uk/paints-hobby-and-scenery-by-manufacturer/gale-force-9/gale-force-9-gaming-aids/fire-explosion-markers-6-pack

looks like OOP though

[Leman (Andy)]

It would appear that Flames of War are now producing something similar, again as little plastic glue together kits. should be ok for use with 15mm. May look for them myself as the GF9 ones have proved extremely useful over the last few years.

[Colonel Kilgore]

Litko do quite a range of similar markers, including these:


https://litko.net/products/micro-blast-markers-transparent-yellow-base-10




and these:



https://litko.net/products/artillery-strike-markers-med


And I believe you can get them to custom-make anything you want within reason.

[Leman (Andy)]

The second one looks exactly like the ones I use. As I bought all mine at shows I'm not certain who actually made them.

Looked at the Litko site. The ones I use are definitely their Small Artillery Strike Markers, sold in sevens at $9.99 US. I must have bought from traders who sell Litko in this country. I've certainly seen Litko products at most of the UK shows, but those little strike markers I haven't seen for several years. I assume it depends on what the UK seller has in stock.

[Martin Smith]

They certainly look good....you'd think one of the mdf makers would come up with some, to DIY with (?).

[Leman (Andy)]

I haven't sent for any Litko ones because of postage from the US, but I have sent for an 8 pack of the FoW ones from Element Games to see how they compare.

[Leman (Andy)]

For those interested, I do not like the FOW explosions as much as the Litko ones. As can be seen in the above photo, the Litko are transparent plastic and look really nice. The FOW ones are opaque white plastic with a coloured sticker on each side, representing explosion, smoke etc. However there is thus a thick white line when viewed fore and aft. This is also the case with the base, so not buy and play for me. I will have to paint the flame edges with a reddish orange paint and the base edge with the usual earth brown I use for figure bases. Somewhat disappointed. They are also about twice the height of the Litko ones I have.