They Died For Glory gets an outing

Game at Stephens today and he decided to give his 10mm Franco-Prussian forces an run out with venerable They Died For Glory rules.

Stephen set up scenario and let me pick sides (jolly decent off him) and so be a masochist at heart I chose the Prussians who were as ever on attack.

French also as usual ensconced on a wooded hill top in command of a village ie standard formidable defensive position.

I had 16 Regular Line Battalions, 1 Jager Battalion and 4 Batteries of 4pdrs the French had I think 12 Battalions and 2 x 4pdrs and a Millatruse.

Been ages since we used They Died For Glory but a fairly simple set at heart and soon got into flow of the rather unique interactive sequence of play and systems.

Only a couple of queries arose and most discussion was about whether or not to use the optional/alternative -1 for Long Range firing.

In end we thought it aided attackers as with the generous shooting ranges (12" for Needle Guns and 18" for Chassepot) it is difficult to close with enemy which is were Prussians shine as they generally get more dice in melee which is their forte whilst French are supreme in shooting with longer range.

Game went pretty much as expected with Prussians advancing in Deep Columns into a storm of French fire (with 2 Operations per turn this allowed loads of shooting) with lots of casualties and units forced to go Prone (equivalent to Disorder) which requires an Operation to be expended to Stand Up.

Had forgotten that any Infantry in the rules can use Skirmish, so was relying on my single Jager to perform that roll, which would have lessened casualties somewhat but still a tough ask to advance uphill across open ground.

I had massed most of my infantry on right to try to take 'open' half of ridge but things went awry when single unit failed a Morale Test which caused cascading tests on rest of Brigade and 6 units Fell Back/Routed !

FPW period is in many ways WW1-lite (lacking the artillery mass) and rules certainly reflect the high casualty rates.

Great to see the toys on table (mix of Chariot and early and later Pendraken)

Prussian mass in no mans land and taking losses from get go, the French right looked even tougher with units in woods which meant Prussians could not really engage in shotting except at short range (not great from Column anyhow)

A wall of French volleys

Single Jager Battalion reduced to half strength

Deep column formations with Prussian guns unlimbering in support