Black Powder 1870 Stats and Modifications

1870 Franco-Prussian Conflict in Black Powder

Hi all,
If you are reading this, it's because. like us, you are Black Powder fans and want to know how we manage the Franco-Prussian War. Anything below is by no way official, just the house rules we have developed over the last few years of playing.
A few thoughts first:

Fighting in the period is best described as hard fought assaults by Prussians, supported by superior artillery against superior but very strong defensive French lines.

All ranges and movements are in cm scale, just to be awkward!

All my forces are modelled on 3” square bases, apart from divisional commanders, skirmishers and artillery which have a frontage of 1½” and Corp commanders who are on a 2” base. Feel free to ignore that.

My units are regiments of infantry,  brigades of cavalry and skirmish squadrons of cav. Artillery is either battalion as one gun, or a battery of two guns on a base, horse artillery have limbers attached.

Army composition and Army Rules:

Prussians:

4 infantry regiments per division, 2 attached batteries and a cavalry skirmish squadron. Corps jaegers and artillery. Most were at full strength due to the Prussian conscription, reserve system and regional recruitment policies. Their moral was superb, but were often cut down in a hail of lead as they advanced.

Prussian staff was very independent, individual divisions would often turn and march to the sound of the guns from up to 20 miles away, they were also very aggressive. Each days march was carefully controlled by von Moltke with careful route maps and march tables and each division was usually in clear contact with their superiors at Corps and army.

Prussian Infantry was very well handled, and was effectively independent, its moral was very high, but they suffered massively in assaults. They attacked with one battalion in skirmish and two columns behind; their Drayse Needle Rifle was massively out ranged by the French Chassepot rifles (with an effective range of about 300 yard vs. the French 1500 yards).

Their cavalry was either deployed in mixed brigades of 3 units, a Cuirassier unit and Uhlans or as Light Cavalry (Uhlans or Hussars), which did see action (von Bredlows death charge) against deployed guns and the flanks of French infantry. The Dragoons or Hussars were attached to each division as skirmishers.

Prussian artillery was Krupp Iron 4lb and 6lb rifles breech loaders with contact fuses and had a much greater range than the French; it was also used aggressively being brought into short range before firing commenced, or massed into gun lines (often miles long). It was incredibly effective.

Prussian Infantry default to Attack Column formation.

Command ratings:

Prussian and Hessian Generals are 5+DAV Command if random.

Divisional Commanders 8 if set. 9 Corp Commanders. 10 for Personalities.

French:

Each Corps strength depended on who commanded it, each unit was drawn from a depot that could be half way across France (it was noted that 3^rd Corps depot was Marseilles, where reservists where supposed to assemble but most of its troops were from western France, so they had to travel, collect equipment, and then return to Metz)!

French Generals were a courageous bunch, 12 brigade and regimental commanders died at Mars-Le-Tours, but they were crippled by many factors:

·         ‘System D’ the idea that the commander should react to the situation on the ground (born out of the Algerian conflicts), so no real prior thought was put into the war (the French commanders had no maps of France), some corps even had no entrenching tools.

·         The French since the 1860s had depended on a purely defensive attitude, on several occasions refusing to advance when a massive victory could be won because they would not surrender the ground.

The main strength of the French was their stubbornness and their chassepot rifles which had an effective range of 1500 yards and a fire rate of 5 shots per minute. Very few French units broke in contact, but mostly from sustained artillery fire.

French Cavalry was poorly handled. There was no reconnaissance, at all. It was glorified and thought of as an elite shock arm, but was often shot down before it could engage the enemy.

French artillery had a light (6lbs) and a heavy (12lbs), bronze muzzle loaders which used contact shells in the 1856 War of Italian Liberation, but had abandoned them on cost! In 1870 they used a timed fuse with only two ranges 1800/500 yards (and canister).

The French Machine Guns (Mitrailleuse) were Napoleon III secret weapon, so secret that their unit commanders didn’t know about them before the war started. They fired 25 shots in a burst at the same range as a Chassepot, but were attached to the artillery, rather than the infantry where they could have bolstered the line; they were often picked off by Prussian guns. When it was used well (such as at Razonville where a battery demolished the Baden Artillery) it could be devastating. However, due to their tendency to jam, they are classed as Early Machine Guns.

French Infantry default to line formation, Unreliable, Sharpshooters. Only Frossards 2nd Corps may entrench on an encounter or set piece battlefield (all the others abandoned their entrenching tools)

Command ratings:

French Generals are 4+DAV Command if random.

8 if set, 9 Corp Commanders. 

10 Napoleon, Macmahon, 9 Canrobert if attacking, 10 if defending, Bazaine , roll d16. 1=7, 2-4 = 8, 5 = 9, 6 = 10. While these command factors may seam high, remember, the majority of French infantry count as 'unreliable'.

General Thoughts on Cavalry

There was only a few main cavalry actions before the fall of the 2^nd Empire, von Bredlow’s charge, the Guards Dragoons who hit disordered French infantry emerging from a ravine at Mars Le Tours and the massive (but largely inconclusive) clash at Vron. Thses actions were emphasised in the public mind, so much so that charging cavalry was still seen as a factor to 1914, and beyond. However, there are many notable failures: the Prussian 5^th Cavalry Division and The French Guard Cuirassier at Mars Le Tours; the Cuirassier charge at Worth and the charge of the Chasseurs a Cheval at Sedan were all gunned down without contacting the enemy.

Therefore, to reflect Mounted did not like to charge steady infantry frontally, either  they are not allowed to charge steady inf frontally or are classed as wavering (ie moral test from casualty) if charging ‘ steady’  (ie not disordered or shaken) line infantry frontally and take closing fire casualties.

French Cavalry brigades were larger than Prussian formations, so have a combat resolution of D6+2, Prussians toss a coin, Heads = +1 for the Brigade, Tails +2 (this then stays with the Brigade for the rest of the game)

 Stats used: