FPW Belle Epoque

 Tom wanted to try out some rules for the FPW (he recently acquired a bunch of 10mm FPW figures), and I recommended Belle Epoque as something he might like. We set up a game and gave it a go.

This is a 'sort of' Froeschwiller/Worth. The orbats are correct but the terrain is only a vague representation. Each unit is a division and the hexes are roughly 1km. MacMahons Corps plus bits of 1st Corps vs two Prussian and two 'Bavarian' Corps (one division is Wuerttemburgers). Eight German divisions vs five French, and the French have two cavalry divisions while the Germans have two cavalry brigades.

McMahon on the ridge above Worth. The French have better troops but very limited command points, while the Germans have CPs coming out of their ears. The French divisions are also smaller (3 bases each) due to the chaos of the French mobilisation.

Toms Bavarians (left) and Prussians (right) march on in Corps columns. Unit activations are interleaved in the turn - basically you put a chit for each unit in a hat and draw them out, but you can choose which unit to activate with the chit. This nicely produces a degree of friction in the activation sequence. 

My chaps got to the ridge above Worth first as they started closer! I put a division into Worth, this proved to be a catastrophic error. On the German right the Bavarians made excellent progress around the flank. The Prussians were a bit slower, delayed by the steep ridge.

I'd hoped to get my cavalry on the left out into the open, but the Bavarians forestalled them. Cavalry are rubbish in woods, so I had to pull them back instead.

The massed ranks of Bavarian and Prussian cannon annihilated the Worth garrison. I'd very cleverly blocked all their retreat routes. What an idiot. I had to put the cavalry up on the ridge to provide some flank protection. The cannonade pushed another French division back and the Bavarians advanced.

My right was a bit of sideshow. The Prussian cavalry tried their luck against my division on the hill, and the horses were just shot down. Frontal charges against breechloading rifles are not a good idea...

On my left the pounding was relentless and I was forced to retire to the reverse slope (where I should have been in the first place). The number of leaders you get is related to command quality and number of active bases, sadly the French losses had been such that MacMahon was removed.

Things were looking a bit desperate now, all my cavalry was destroyed and in the centre I just had two divisions left. Fortunately one was able to rally some hits off while sheltering behind the ridge.

The Bavarians closed in, but the reverse slope position was a tough nut to crack and the Chassepots tore gaps in the Bavarian ranks.

With their musketry ineffective, the Bavarians tried charging and pushed one French unit back, but the other hung on and the Bavarians lines got ever thinner.

Amazingly my division on the right was hanging on (with one base remaining!) against an entire Corps. They kept up an annoying fire into the flanks of the units assaulting the ridge, and tied up lots of Prussians who could otherwise have been more effective elsewhere.

The Prussian cavalry finally found a flank just as the Bavarians were wavering in front of Froeschwiller.

And massed infantry fire and charges finished off the last French units, leaving the Prussian cavalry to occupy the objective. MacMahons Corps retired to reorganise and fight another day.

That was really good fun, I'd forgotten what a great set of rules Belle Epoque are, the uncertainty about the exact activation sequence each turn adds some real tension to the proceedings. I'm tempted to break them out again for one of our Zoom games. It was also nice to play with the larger 10mm figures than my usual 6mm.

This game reminded me too that they are very bloody, and I'm minded to tweak the casualty allocation. In the standard game, units can convert each second hit into a retreat result (so if you suffer 4 hits, you can turn it into 2 hits and 2 retreats). I think a better resolution might be to allow to conversion of odd hits into retreats (so hit 1, 3 etc) - this would mean a 1 hit result would most likely become a retreat, unless the unit was very keen on standing. I'd also change the combat target dice rolls, as at the moment it is a very odd mixture of rolling low sometimes and high other times. The maths would be the same with just rolling high, and much easier to remember. 

Something to think about anyway.