Sunday 5 July 2015

"My First" Prussians make it to the Leipzig Tabletop

My Prussians finally make it to the tabletop in a battlefield formation! It has only taken them ten years to turn from silver legion wannabes to fully painted Prussian heroes with a flag (see below, as they march on to meet the French):


Meanwhile the Prussian maidens and womenfolk are left weeping as their menfolk walk off to war (see below, their view - "Will they ever see them again?") :


As part of the "map consolidation phase", the two separate battles being fought simultaneously are joined together on one table. An impressive Herculean task if truth be told as apart from the very "gingerly" physical movement of toys, much mental dexterity was required to rotate and merge the battlefield geography without teleporting troops in random directions (see the following photo sequence for full appreciation of the size of the battle):


My Prussians are part of a massive mixed  Prussian and Russian infantry XXX (see above top left, second formation down, the neatest formation bar the French "Old Guard" on table IMHO). On teh downside, they are headed towards a formidable line of French Artillery backed by infantry and cavalry. In short an "all arms" wall of death, not a nice wargaming christening (see below):


The panoramic view from the French lines on the main battlefield (see below, the Prussians/Russians are top, moving onto the battlefield and the French in the center of the photograph to bottom, ready and waiting, just off to the right would be a large formation of "Old and Middle Guard!" just emerging from the fields around Leipzig):


The view of the French dispositions across the blue river in the above photograph is shown below (see below, the French have a good combined arms force but are outnumbered, however the Guard Artillery 'park' and Cavalry XXX are within easy reach): 


The man himself, Napoleon, is now awake and talking to his beloved Guard, admiring their potent artillery pieces and the glint of steel catching the bayonet and cuirass of their infantry and cavalry (see below, ahem note the understated six figure command base as befits The Emperor):


I have a feeling The Guard may have to be committed early to crush one threat and then turn upon another in true Napoleonic genius for the French to win this one!

4 comments:

Sean said...

Just caught up with the blog, very interesting. I'm glad you're getting some of your old lead painted and fielded. I'm working on a fantasy force that's been unfinished for 25+ years. I really like the idea of using the board game as a campaign map. I'm curious as to how you've translated it to the table top.

Geordie an Exiled FoG said...

Well I was not the umpire bit a 4x8 rectangle of the board game was abstracted to the battlefield (big table 4' by 8') and played for six turns

The smaller one was a 2x2 hex set-up to a 2' by 2' table and six turns were played

The forces had by this time pushed together and were brought together on one table (roughly 10' by 4') with entry points corresponding to XXX's still off map

Ray Rousell said...

Great looking troops!!

Geordie an Exiled FoG said...

Thanks Ray :)