I was invited to take part in a final big battle to close off 2023. This was the Battle of Sedan 1870: The major defeat of the French Army by the Prussian and German allies that signalled the final stages of the Franco-Prussian War.
The game was put on by Andrew in his lovely spacious wargaming space and was played over two days. The rules we used were a variation on Fire and Fury/Age of Eagles. Other players included John S, Jenko, Nigel and Anthony (who I met for the first time on day 1). Anthony and I played the unfortunate French on Day 1 and Nigel stepped in for Anthony on Day 2.
The spectacle of the initial deployment was mind bending. So many troops... So many Prussian guns... All those coloured dice on the table were used to differentiate corps & divisions, otherwise it would have been too difficult to keep track of who was who and what was what. As it turned out is was still an difficult task to keep track of the French who were crowded in to a tight area with very little room to manoeuvre.
"We are in a chamber pot, and we're going to be shat upon."
~ General de Division Auguste-Alexandre Ducrot ~
Unfortunately, the photo's don't do justice to sheer amount of figures on the table.
Above and below: Looking at Sedan (the central built up area) from the north bank of the River Meuse to the south.
The French eastern perimeter edge. This was where the initial Prussian thrust came from. Facing these troops was the massive grand battery in the pic below. The Prussians didn't have many troops deployed at the start of the battle but huge amounts of reinforcements were pouring in right from the word go.
This massive gun line started delivering casualties right from the first turn and it continued for the whole battle. Unfortunately there was little we French could do about it. We did manage to deploy our own grand batteries on some high ground opposite but it did little to help. We managed to silence some of the Prussian guns and slow down the initial infantry assaults but the weight of Prussian firepower and troops just wore us down.
We managed to hold the banks of the stream for a short while. The first Prussian attack was pretty much repulsed. But subsequent assaults drove us back. We formed a second line but that was driven back, as was a third line.
On our western flank the Prussians were slowly moving into place to try and close the pincers around the French. We had a couple of cavalry divisions and decided to attack with the hope of driving the Prussian infantry back and charging their guns before they had a chance to unlimber. We had limited success. The charges went through but failed to follow up and hit the guns. As a result our counter-attack stalled. We did cause a major traffic jam but by the time we sorted ourselves out for a second push the Prussians got their troops into a decent defence.
This was the Prussian pincer coming from the east. We managed to prevent these troops from getting too far and they were pretty much held for the entire battle. (
You can see John's hand-of-God instructing his troops on how to perform the classic "pincer move.""
Yet another Prussian gun line pounding our troops from the northern bank of the Meuse. In this sector (north) we had major traffic jams but we put up a good defence for the majority of the battle. However, when the main Prussian push came in this sector our forces pretty much began to collapse. It was more a matter of isolated worn out units getting in the way of the Prussians and slowing them down. By battle's end the Prussians had pushed through both of the small built up areas that you can see and almost to the walls of Sedan itself.
Still holding the river line to the east at this stage. We did make them pay to get across but, unfortunately, we also paid a high price trying to hold them back.
On the French right (west) the Prussians got the better of us and started to push around our flanks. We had received the order that we could attempt a break out and this was the direction we thought would be our best option. Throughout the battle we did push into the Prussians and gave ourselves some breathing space but as the Prussians slowly shook themselves out we began to lose ground again. We lost the opportunity and now we were beginning to be squeezed.
You'll note that our central reserves are looking very thin. We were getting to the stage where we had suffered "Heavy Casualties." This would give us deductions on our command dice rolls and when it happened whole brigades started routing and leaving large gaps in out lines.
The western arm of the pincer was getting around our flank. In the photo below we still had a chance to drive into the Prussian guns and then into the big traffic jam. But it didn't eventuate. The Prussians got their guns deployed and slowly started decimating our cavalry.
As you can see the weight of numbers in the west was getting the better of us and the Prussians began to push us back. It was a slow grind for them but this sector was where the; "-2 Heavy Casualties" modifier, really took it's toll on our troops with several of our brigades either retreating or breaking.
The photo below was our second line of defence. It looked good but collapsed pretty quickly because it was manned by worn and spent units. Also, our line had nothing to anchor itself upon and that huge battery to their front was still pounding away. You can see our own gunline on the high ground behind. Parts of it did good work pinning down the eastern arm of the pincer but other than that it was of minimal effect.
Unfortunately, I didn't take any more photos as the battle became more intense. The French reached that critical "
Heavy Casualties" mark and things just went down hill faster and faster. We surrendered. The Emperor Napoleon III was taken captive and that was the end for the Second Empire.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It was a great game for the end of the year and I'm very happy to have taken part - even on the losing side. A big "Thank You," to our host; Andrew who took the time to do the research, create all the unit labels and set it all up. These photo's really do not do much justice to the vast amount of troops on the table and, as more and more Prussian reinforcements arrived, the numbers grew even larger.
Also; thanks to the other players. I didn't really know the rules as the last time I played Fire and Fury was several years back. I managed to pick up the rules fairly quickly but the help of Anthony, John and Andrew was greatly appreciated.
So it was a big end to 2023 on the wargaming front.
Happy New years folks, and I hope you have a great 2024.
