Two On The Go

ONE advantage of having 54mm toy-soldier and 10mm model-soldier projects on the go simultaneously is they reduce irritating downtime caused by waiting for paint to dry.
I have primed the four 54mm uhlans with my usual black primer, and while that dried got on with basing the officers of my War of the Austrian Succession 10mm armies.

Troops of Bavaria, Saxony and the United Provinces with, to the figures' right and behind them, 54mm uhlans and mounts

Ancient Warfare Mar/Apr 2019

I RESISTED buying the latest issue of Ancient Warfare as the theme, Rome's Indispensable Auxiliaries, did not really grab me.

AW's covers are always striking

One could sometimes be forgiven for thinking the magazine works on the principle that the whole of the ancient world was either part of, or fought against, the Roman Empire. I guess there is just so much more material available for everything Latin.
Nevertheless, I was pleased I did eventually buy it, particularly for Gary Brueggeman's article on accurately scaling battle maps.

Here Come The Cavalry

I AM about to paint the first mounted troops from my Armies In Plastic order for Project Kaiser, my plan to refight the Franco-Prussian War with 54mm toy soldiers.
First up is the box of "Mounted German Uhlans," which contains five horses, an officer, a bugler, three lancers and five pennanted lances.

The box, which cost £9.70 plus postage from Preston's Transport Models, has a sticker on the side showing £8.70

The horses come in a separate plastic bag from the rest of the contents and are in a different colour.

Ready to be opened

There is nothing quite like opening new packs of toy soldiers, and the uhlans were no exception, although I had not been expecting to have to fit troopers with their lances.

Horses are in all-action poses

However, the lances fit snugly but reasonably easily into holes in the troopers right hands. Neither the officer nor the bugler has a slot for a lance, which means I will have two lances left over.
All five uhlans have pegs under their saddles so they can be fixed onto their mounts, which have appropriately sized holes in their backs.
So far I have washed the figures in warm soapy water, lightly scrubbed with a fibre cleaning cloth and rinsed under a hot tap.
I am leaning towards painting two as Prussians, two as Bavarians and leaving one for possible future pairing.

Dettingen Ready

PUTTING the officers of my War of the Austrian Succession armies onto bases continues apace, with Austria being the latest to receive the treatment.

Austrians waiting for the glue to dry

This means I have completed basing all the forces likely to take part in my long-delayed refight of the Battle of Dettingen.
The good news on that front is that my regular wargaming opponent and I should be able to stage the refight fairly soon ...

Basing Bonus

A BONUS of putting units' officers on steel bases is the handy opportunity it gives me to dole out dabs of glue to those rank-and-file figures who have come unstuck or at least are loose.

My French 10mm War of the Austrian Succession army on my work-table

My French forces are quite extensive but, perhaps surprisingly, only one infantryman and one trooper needed such help.

Back To Base-ics

BEGAN basing the 'officers' (some are musicians) of my 10mm War of the Austrian Succession troops - first up are the British and Hanoverian contingents of the Pragmatic Army.

Basing … a work in progress

Here are two of the completed units, von Zastrow foot and Queen's Own dragoons.

My fear of officers' bases looking obtrusive was greatly exaggerated

Having officers on bases will vastly speed movement as getting individual 10mm figures, especially infantry, to stand upright on a gaming cloth was a fiddly business.

Gunning For It

FINISHED painting this morning the two guns from the Armies In Plastic Franco-Prussian War special set that I began before my trip to Bavaria.

Two guns … no crew

The left-hand gun has a steel barrel and is painted in the medium blue used by Prussian artillery, while its companion has a bronze barrel and is painted in the style favoured by French artillerymen in 1870.
Neither gun came with crew, which gives me a problem to solve.

Home To Treats

GOT back from Bavaria earlier this evening to find, as is often the case when I have been away, exciting wargaming things waiting for me.
First up were the April/May 2019 edition of Toy Soldier Collector and the March/April 2019 edition of Slingshot.

Double delight

I have not had time to go through either magazine yet, but promising articles in TSC include Gallant Little Belgium (a Canadian collecting the Belgian army of WW1), Fantastic Plastics (more than the usual number of reviews of new plastic figures) and Rescuing A Dying Hobby (a brigadier-general's views on toy-soldier collecting).
The arrival of the Society of Ancients' Slingshot rarely fails to please. The latest edition includes The Battle Of Thapsus (refought under the Lost Battles system), 6mm Accessories With 3D Printing (using 3D printing to customise model soldiers) and so much more - a quick flick-through of the magazine makes me think I will be avidly reading it cover-to-cover.
My other wargaming acquisition may seem a great deal less exciting, consisting as it does of 120 15mm-square pieces of steel from Products For Wargamers.

This photo, thanks to my smartphone's flash, makes the steel squares look more exciting than is justified - in reality they are of uniform colouring

I had the squares made to order - they are not of a size stocked by Products For Wargamers - to solve a problem with my 10mm mid-18th century armies.

As can be seen in this picture of Austrian infantry assaulting a Prussian-held town, I affix rank-and-file soldiers to (steel) bases but leave officers unbased

I love 10mm for making it possible for me to get the visual appeal of a large battle even though I live in a small flat in central London.
But individual figures, especially infantry, do not take kindly to being asked to stand upright on a gaming cloth.
I ordered 120 15mm-sqaure steel bases for £15.50 from Products For Wargamers so I can give my officers stability. I do not think the bases will be too obtrusive, but time will tell.

When Frankie Met Eddie

IN JANUARY I visited the Czech town of Mariánské Lázně, which is in an area of Bohemia populated by German settlers in the 12th century at the request of the region's Czech rulers.
It became a famous spa exporting millions of bottles of water, much of which was sold in an evaporated form as a laxative.
The town, under its former German name of Marienbad, was the site of a famous meeting in 1904 between Britain's King Edward VII and Austria's Emperor (Kaiser) Franz Joseph.
I was reminded of this today when sorting through photos on my computer.

Statues in the town commemorating the meeting of Franz Joseph (left) and Edward VII

Edward was apparently keen to detach Franz Joseph from his alliance with Germany, but had no success.
I guess that because I, like the two monarchs, have lived part of my life in the 20th century, their meeting does not seem so long ago.
But since Edward was born in 1841, and Franz Joseph even earlier in 1830, both were mature men when the Franco-Prussian War broke out in 1870, and that conflict does seem a long time ago to me ...

Britain's Rightful Monarch?

CONTINUING my stay in the south Bavarian tourist town of Bad Wörishofen , I am usually having my first espresso of the day at Cafe Wittelsbach.

Cafe Wittelsbach … always seems to be busy

Many places in this part of Germany have a Cafe Wittelsbach or, more often, a Hotel Wittelsbach.
The premises are not part of some huge chain but rather are named after the House of Wittelsbach, which ruled Bavaria for more than 700 years until being deposed in 1918.
To call them great supporters of the Weimar republic would be a stretch, but the family was strongly anti-Nazi, with several members ending up in concentration camps.
A reign of more than 700 years is quite a dynasty - compare that with Britain's House of Windsor, which came to power, using the name House of Saxe-Coburg & Gotha, in 1901 (the name was changed in 1917 because of anti-German sentiment in WW1).
This perhaps explains why royalist-celebrating pubs and hotels in England tend to be called King's Head or Queen's Head rather than after a single dynasty (thanks to the British education system, many have lost their apostrophes).
Arguably the high tide in the fortunes of the Wittelsbachs came in 1742 on February 12 (the same month and day of my birthday) when the Elector Karl Albrecht was crowned Holy Roman Emperor.
His joy did not last long - within days virtually the whole of Bavaria had been overrun by vengeful Hapsburg soldiers.
By the time of the Franco-Prussian War 128 years later, Bavaria was ruled by kings rather than electors - their elevation being self-announced on January 1, 1806, ahead of the Holy Roman Empire being formally dissolved seven months later.
The new title was not the only change - by the 1860s Bavaria was firmly allied to its long-time nemesis Austria.
This led to Bavaria, under King Ludwig II, being among the losers in the Seven Weeks War of 1866, but he picked the winning side four years later.
The current head of the House of Wittelsbach is Franz Bonaventura Adalbert Maria, Herzog (Duke) of Bavaria, who was aged 11 when the Nazis sent him to a concentration camp along with other members of the family.
Jacobites, assuming they still exist, recognise Franz as the rightful heir to Britain's last Stuart monarch, James II of England/James VII of Scotland.

War Memorial - Bad Wörishofen

THE war memorial in the south Bavarian spa town of Bad Wörishofen seems to have been built in the mid-1950s.
It consists of a soldier in greatcoat and stahlhelm (steel helmet - nicknamed "coal scuttle" by Allied troops) lying down with his rifle by his side.

German soldier in stahlhelm

Above this figure is the list of fallen, the vast majority of which are, as is to be expected, from WW2, but with a lot from WW1.

The list of fallen

Above the names from the world wars, two other names have been added - one of someone killed in 1870 and the other of someone killed in 1871.
Considering that the memorial seems to have been unveiled in 1955, it may be that the two victims of the Franco-Prussian War were added at the request of people who, in the 1950s, were old enough to have lost a loved one in the conflict of 1870-71.

Thomas's Franco-Prussian War

HAVING mentioned how much Neil Thomas's book, Wargaming Nineteenth Century Europe 1815-1878, is growing on me, it is as well to look at how he handles differences between armies in the Franco-Prussian War.
Prussian infantry are treated as elite and armed with early breechloading rifles, while most French imperial and republican infantry are average and armed with later breechloading rifles.
Elite units need to roll 3 or higher on a normal die every time morale has to be checked (otherwise they lose a base); average units need to roll 4 or higher. In other words, Prussian infantry are 66.7% likely to pass a morale test; French infantry 50%. However, French imperial guard, foreign legion and zouave infantry have the same elite morale as the Prussians.
Prussian rifles have a range of 16cm; French rifles 24cm. Both roll two dice per base to determine hits, the score required depending on the target.
French republican armies can also have garde mobile infantry, who are treated as levy and armed with rifled muskets. This means they need to roll 5 or 6 to pass a morale test (a 33.3% chance), have a range of 16cm and throw one die per base to determine hits.

Collage from Wikipedia's page on the Franco-Prussian War

Prussian guns are rifled steel, giving them a range of 60cm and throwing four dice to determine hits.
French imperial guns are generally treated as smoothbores - downgraded from rifled bronze, which is what the guns were in reality, because they suffered from what Thomas calls "inferior doctrine (they were invariably held back in reserve, never committing to the decisive point of the battlefield) and from defective ordnance (fuses often malfunctioned)." Smoothbores have a range of 32cm and throw two dice. Thomas does not mention it, but presumably French guns should not get the smoothbores' capability of throwing five dice at short range when firing canister. However, French imperial guns do get an extra die at short range (up to 12cm) to reflect batteries having Mitrailleuse machineguns.
French republican guns are treated as rifled bronze, giving them a range of 48cm and throwing three dice per base.
There are some exceptions to these classifications, eg one or two Prussian infantry units can be replaced by Bavarians who count as average and armed with rifled muskets, while one French imperial artillery unit can be designated as rifled bronze.
From the above it will be clearly seen that Prussian artillery has a big advantage over French artillery, but the differences between the rival infantry are more nuanced.
The other major difference between the French and Prussian forces comes at the command level. Prussian command is rated as good, which means that each turn the Prussians have (depending on a die throw) six, seven or eight units "in command." French imperial armies have poor command, meaning each turn they have two, three or four units in command; French republican armies have average command, meaning four, five or six units in command.
Units "out of command" move at half normal speed. They roll only half the normal number of dice - fractions are rounded up - to determine hits by firing, except that units being charged never have their firing penalised.
Thomas calls the French imperial forces "a potentially fine instrument of war ruined by execrably poor leadership." He adds: "Wargamers can take comfort from the excellence of the Chassepot infantry rifle, and deplore the inferiority of the artillery."
He says the Prussian army "was a truly formidable instrument of war by 1870, and its quality leadership ensured its troops outclassed their French opponents."
The French republican armies raised after Napoleon III's downfall "perform(ed) rather better than (their) imperial predecessors due primarily to superior leadership … expressed not only in the command level but also in the artillery classification."

Making Rules Grid-Compatible

I AM expecting to use my Project Kaiser 54mm toy soldiers on a table-top battlefield formed of 12x10 3in squares.
However, I have a lot more reading to do before I decide on the rules to use, but if I do use an already published set they do not have to be specifically designed for a grid.
In fact I will probably compile my own rules, but would not be surprised if they are heavily influenced by Neil Thomas's in  Wargaming Nineteenth Century Europe 1815-1878.

Wargaming Nineteenth Century Europe … the more I read the book, the more I like it

The key to using these rules would be converting movement and firing distances from centimetres to squares.
Thomas has loose-order infantry moving 8cm in difficult terrain, 12cm in the open and 16cm on roads; close-order infantry moving 4cm, 8cm or 16cm; skirmishers, who are not penalised for difficult terrain, moving 12cm or 16cm; cavalry moving 12cm, 16cm or 24cm; and artillery moving 12cm or 16cm (no movement in difficult terrain). In addition, infantry lose a quarter of their move if turning. Note that all movement distances are dividable by four.
Weapon ranges are 8cm for smoothbore muskets, 16cm for early rifles, 24cm for later breechloading rifles, 32cm for smoothbore guns, 48cm for rifled bronze guns and 60cm for rifled steel guns. Again all measurements are dividable by four.
Bearing in mind that Project Kaiser is for toy soldiers at corps level rather than regimental, and will work best with simple - but not simplistic - rules, I would probably dispense with skirmishers and just have one formation for infantry. None of my infantry will have smoothbore muskets, so their 8cm range can also be ignored.
One possible solution would be to convert the 60cm range of rifled steel guns to five squares. This would give rifled bronze guns a range of four squares, smoothbore guns three squares, later breechloading rifles two squares and early rifles one square (in each case distances have been rounded to the nearest whole number).
Movement distances could become one square for infantry in the open, half a square in difficult terrain and two squares on roads. Cavalry could move two squares in the open, one square in difficult terrain and three squares on roads. Artillery could move one square in the open and two squares on roads.
There has been even more rounding with the movement distances, and there is the additional problematic factor that infantry have a half-square move in difficult terrain.
But as movement would be measured through the sides of grids, rather than through corners - a point emphasised by Bob Cordery in his Portable Wargame books - there would be no need to give infantry an extra penalty for turning.
Inevitably there have been some compromises in the above conversions, but I think they make a good basis for further work.

Konig Ludwig II

LUDWIG II of Bavaria is probably best-known today as the builder of Schloss Neuschwanstein, the castle that was apparently Walt Disney's inspiration for Snow White's Castle at Disneyland.

Neuschwanstein shortly after Ludwig's death in 1886

I have been inside Neuschwanstein twice and Disneyland once, and it is easy to see the similarities, at least from a distance.

Snow White's Castle  - later renamed Sleeping Beauty Castle

However, do not think the Disney version is the more kitschy - Ludwig II had Walt beaten hands down when it came to OTT decoration.
From a 10mm and all that! Project Kaiser viewpoint, Ludwig II is important as being king of Bavaria during the Seven Weeks War of 1866, when Bavaria ended up on the wrong side by supporting its long-time nemesis Austria, and during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, when Bavaria was on the winning side, but promptly lost its independence by being incorporated into the newly-formed German Empire.
I mention this now as the king's portrait is prominently displayed on the wall of my favourite bar in Bad Wörishofen, a spa town in southern Bavaria.

Ludwig II

I already knew of Ludwig II, having been given a watch with his likeness on it by the Bavarian tourist board 20 years ago - I know the date because I went there just after Man Utd beat Bayern Munich (Bayern München in German) in 1999.


Still going strong … I had a new battery fitted before my latest annual visit to Bad Wörishofen

The king was a Wagner fanatic - another of his eccentricities, castle-building, may well have cost him his life - and stridently anti-Prussian.
I hope to add Bavarian troops to my 'Prussian' forces for my refight of the Franco-Prussian War, but I cannot see Ludwig II's spectre nodding its head with any enthusiasm.

Featherstone's Franco-Prussian War

DONALD Featherstone had some intriguing ideas on refighting the Franco-Prussian War in his 1970 book War Game Campaigns.

Featherstone's War Game Campaigns … my copy long ago lost its cover

Chapter 11 is called "Re-fighting the Franco-Prussian War." In it he arranges 15 principal battles from the war into three columns, each containing five battles.
The two sides have an army for each column, with Featherstone pointing out "as they fight separately, this can be covered by using all your troops for each army."
Starting with, say, the middle battle of the central column, the army that loses the battle retreats to the site of another battle.
For example, if the French were to lose the refight of the Battle of Vionville it would likely retreat to the site of the battle of St Privat.
But under the campaign's rules it could also retreat 'west' to the Battle of Rezonville or 'east' to the Battle of Mars-La-Tour.
This sounds very interesting, but there are two flaws in the scheme. First, it is not explained what happens if an army retreats to a battlefield in an adjacent column that is already occupied by two other armies.
Secondly, Featherstone seems to have thought Vionville, Rezonville and Mars-La-Tour were separate battles, when they are different names for the same battle.
Neither flaw is insurmountable. The first could be solved by only allowing armies to retreat to a battlefield in their starting column; the second by drawing up a different set of battles.

Two of the book's photos … top is a skirmish from the Peninsular War and below is from a 'refight' of the 1870 Battle of Spicheren, but both are clearly posed dioramas rather than scenes from wargames

Chapter 13 is titled "Re-fighting an Actual Battle (Spicheren, Franco-Prussian War, August 1870)."
Featherstone starts by drawing a map of the relevant countryside equivalent to a 5x4 block of his wargames tables.
Each side is given identical forces (18 regiments of line infantry, three of light infantry, three of cavalry and six guns) and has to deploy them on the map in at least three of four possible assembly areas.
Dice are rolled to decide where the first battle takes place, with the losers retreating and the winners having the choice of following them or standing still. Casualties are not carried over so both sides return to full strength after a battle.
Featherstone writes: "Other than map-moving for relatively unopposed flanking forces, moves on maps for other troops will be largely a matter of expediency to give a good situation!"
So this system refights a battle as a campaign. Effectively the only similarity to the original battle is the terrain over which the campaign is fought, although it would be easy to adjust the two sides' strengths to reflect the real number of troops involved.
Chapter 23 is "A 'Potted' Campaign (Franco-Prussian War 1871)" and uses Featherstone's famed matchbox chest (I do not know if he invented this, but he was certainly keen on it).
The idea is that two players can fight a campaign that includes hidden movement but does not need the services of an umpire.
The chest consists of 36 empty matchboxes glued together in six rows of six, and a map is drawn and divided into 36 squares.
Each player has counters representing the 19 units of his army, and these counters are moved from matchbox to matchbox to correspond with movement on the map.
Players move alternately and out of sight of each other until one player moves a counter into a matchbox already occupied by counters from the opponent, at which point a battle occurs (unless the square is divided by, for example, a mountain range that means the two forces are not in contact despite being in the same box).
As Featherstone points out: "Such a (system) can be used for more or less any part of the horse-and-musket period or even up to modern times."
It could also be used for ancient campaigns, or at least those in which the two sides were spread out for some reason, eg Roman consular armies marching from different parts of the Italian peninsula.
I have here covered just three of the 29 chapters that make up War Game Campaigns. Many of the other chapters have material that could be of use in refighting the Franco-Prussian War, and all are stimulating for the keen wargamer.
Copies of the original hardback are available on Amazon from about £25, or you can buy a John Curry paperback reprint, retitled Donald Featherstone's Wargaming Campaigns, for under £15, including postage.

Weighing The Rules

THE early days of modern wargaming with miniatures saw rules divided into three periods: ancient, which included medieval; horse-and musket; and modern, which generally meant just WW2.
Such rules can provide enjoyable games, but usually do not give period flavour - armies in the War of the Spanish Succession fought very differently from those little more than 150 years later in the American Civil War.
One of the earliest, if not the earliest, sets of rules for the Franco-Prussian War was published in the 1974 book Practical Wargaming by Charlie Wesencraft.

Practical Wargaming … I have the 2009 reprint organised by John Curry

Wesencraft's rules use many of the same mechanisms as the book's Napoleonic rules. The interest lies, naturally enough, in the differences.
He identifies six factors as being significant for the 1870-71 conflict:
1. "The French … were armed with the most advanced infantry weapon yet produced, the Chassepot bolt-action rifle."
2. "They also had the Mitrailleuse machine-gun, which would have been a battle-winner if it had been used correctly, (ie) distributed among the infantry (instead of) treated as artillery."
3. "(French) regiments were known for their élan in attack which the Prussians never equalled."
4. "The Prussians were able to rely upon superior staff work, which meant that their troops had ammunition for their guns when required, that their railway timetables reduced delay of troop movements to a minimum - they were thus able to carry out an attacking type of war."
5. "(Prussian) artillery was far superior to the French in numbers, accuracy and range."
6. "(Prussian) individual troops were heavier than the French, giving them an advantage in the melee."
Here is how he deals with these factors.
1. French infantry throw a die per three points; Prussian infantry a die per four points. Since an ordinary infantryman is worth 1pt, a typical French infantry battalion of 16 figures would throw five dice, in each case needing a 3 or more for a kill. A typical Prussian infantry battalion of 20 figures would also throw five dice, again needing a 3 or more for a kill. In other respects the French Chassepot rifle and the Prussian Dreyse needle gun are treated as being the same, including having a maximum range of 12in.
2. French machineguns are given a range of 24in - half that of Prussian field artillery - but are otherwise "used exactly like artillery." However, it is not explained how they score hits. Is a 3 or more sufficient, as for Prussian guns firing shell (against targets in the open); a 4 or more, as for Prussian guns firing shot; or a 5 or more, as for French guns firing shot?
3. Morale rules are the same as for Wesencraft's Napoleonic rules (ignoring squares), except French troops never have to test for morale before a melee. Generally before a melee, Prussians ordered to charge the enemy or receiving such a charge have to test (the one exception is, as in the Napoleonic rules, when charging an enemy in the flank or rear).
4. The superior Prussian staff work has no effect on the rules. Perhaps it was supposed to be at least partly represented by the Prussians having larger forces on the table.
5. Prussian field artillery has a maximum range of 48in compared with 44in for French field artillery. As noted under point 2 above, Prussian guns have a much greater chance of scoring hits.
6. Prussians in a melee roll a die for every 3pts; French for every 4pts (the reverse of the infantry-firing rules).
There is much food for thought here, including two points I regard as rather controversial.
The first is the Chassepot and Dreyse having the same range. Depending on which authority you consult, the Chassepot's maximum sighted range was at least twice that of the Dreyse and probably closer to three times as far. It became something of a norm in battles for French rife-fire to keep Prussian infantry at bay until the Prussians brought up their artillery, which outranged French rifles.
The other controversial point is making Prussian infantry 25% more effective in a melee (this can also be expressed as making the French infantry 33.3% less effective than the Prussians - that's statistics for you; it depends on whether you are comparing three with four or four with three). Were Prussians really "heavier" than Frenchmen? I have not read of this elsewhere, although any reader of the Latin classic histories will know how Roman legionaries were fearful of the greater height of Germans and of Gauls.

Prussian Line Infantry

THE final 12 Prussian figures from my Armies In Plastic Franco-Prussian War special set will be painted as generic Prussian line infantry.

Prussians in assorted poses

Not for the first time, I had trouble getting the blue of the figures' tunics to "take." It did not turn bronze on this occasion, but instead barely showed above the black primer - a second coating did the trick.

Painted Prussians … my mobile's flash makes the blue seem overly bright

Review: The Franco-Prussian War 1870-71

I BOUGHT this under-100-page summary of the Franco-Prussian War after seeing an online reviewer praise its maps.
The book was first published in 2003 as part of Osprey's Essential Histories series. My copy cost £6.21 plus £2.80 postage from BOOKS etc via Amazon.

Essential Histories … the cover shows Ernest Meissonier's The Siege of Paris

Osprey is best known for its highly specialist books for wargamers and model-soldier enthusiasts, but neither hobby gets a mention here as the book is clearly aimed at a more general audience.
Author Stephen Badsey is credited as a senior lecturer in war studies at Sandhurst, which makes him something of an ideal choice if you are looking for a summary of a conflict that concentrates on its military aspects.
I am no expert on the Franco-Prussian War, but his account reads like the sort of non-controversial account you would expect from Essential Histories.
It is lavishly illustrated with (mainly black-and-white) reproductions of contemporary illustrations, and modern maps of the more important battles and campaigns.

Two maps of the battle of Gravelotte-St Privat

The maps are mostly exactly what I was hoping for - stripped of excessive topographical detail while not so simplified as to be of no practical use. My main complaint with them is that more battles should have been covered, especially if this meant sacrificing some of the less-appropriate contemporary illustrations, eg the colour portrait of Napoleon III's wife that takes up the whole of page 23.
Badsey's text makes some important points that are easily overlooked, including:
1. The French army was highly regarded in the run-up to the outbreak of hostilities, having acquitted itself well in the Crimean War (1853-56) and having beaten the Austrians in the Second Italian War of Independence (1859).
2. The result of the Franco-Prussian War was not "the unification of Germany," but rather the creation of a smaller Germany that excluded one of the main German states, Austria.
The book is an entertaining easy read, and a bargain even if you have to pay the full recommended price of £10.99.

French Line Infantry

EIGHT French Foreign Legionnaires from my Armies In Plastic Franco-Prussian War special set will be painted as generic French line infantry.

The eight legionnaires unpainted

By now I am getting into a routine of washing the figures in soapy water, lightly scrubbing with the rough side of a "magic" fibre cleaning cloth, rinsing under a hot tap and covering with PVA glue, followed by black primer.
I like to paint the largest and easiest bits first, so the order goes something like: green base; blue coat and the bottom of the kepi; red trousers, top of the kepi, tunic buttons and epaulettes; black backpack, boots, cartridge box, etc; brown rifle; 'silver' bayonet; flesh; white gaiters; black/brown eyes, hair, moustache/beard, chin strap.
Finally I coat in gloss, partly for protection but more to give something of a shiny toy-soldier look.

The finished line infantry … best viewed from a distance

Garibaldi's Redshirts (addendum)

I SHOULD have mentioned that my Garibaldi Redshirts are loosely based on an illustration in Blandford's Military Uniforms Of The World In Colour.

Garibaldista … bottom left

Garibaldi's Redshirts

I SUSPECT most Brits, if they have heard of Garibaldi at all, would assume he was a foreigner, possibly Italian, who invented the garibaldi biscuit, or at least had it named after him.
If this were the extent of their knowledge, they would be more or less right, as far as it went.
Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807-82) was a mainly-self-appointed general who became the sensation of his age for leading successful military campaigns against great odds in South America and Italy.
He regarded himself, and was looked upon by contemporaries, as being Italian, although arguably he was French, having been born in Nice (coincidentally the name of another biscuit popular in Britain) two years after it was annexed by Napoleon Bonaparte's France.
When the Franco-Prussian War broke out in July 1870, Garibaldi, like many European liberals, sympathised with Prussia (Italy's ally in the Seven Weeks War of 1866) as a victim of Napoleon III's aggression.
But with the swift defeats of France's armies, combined with deprivations caused by the Siege of Paris and Prussian determination to grab German-speaking parts of east France, Garibaldi changed his mind.
Following the declaration of a new French republic, he famously wrote to the radical Movimento newspaper: "Yesterday I said to you: 'War to the death to Bonaparte'. Today I say to you: 'Rescue the French Republic by every means'."
Garibaldi offered his services to the new French authorities who, reluctantly it seems (Garibaldi had strenuously opposed a second French occupation of Nice - Nizza in Italian - in 1860), eventually appointed him commander of the volunteer Army of the Vosges (a mountainous region near what would be the German border from 1871-1919).
As well as French volunteers, the army included many foreigners who rallied to the liberal cause. It was arguably the most successful of all France's armies in the Franco-Prussian War, but that is not saying much.
From his early days as a military commander, Garibaldi was known for his Redshirts or Redcoats - the respective Italian phrases Camicie Rosse and Giubbe Rosse were both used.
Legend has it that he first equipped volunteers in Uruguay with red tops produced for slaughterhousemen, the tops being cheap and distinctive.
My Army of the Vosges volunteers will be made up of two figures from the Armies In Plastic zouaves and two from the AIP French Foreign Legion.

Army of the Vosges pre-painting

The only thing uniform about all four of them will be their red tops, as shown below.

A suitably irregular look

Review: Wargaming Nineteenth Century Europe 1815-1878

I AM a big fan of Neil Thomas's books, frequently re-reading or consulting Wargaming: An Introduction, Ancient & Medieval Wargaming and Napoleonic Wargaming.
The second of these I find especially entertaining and imaginative, particularly enjoying his accounts of four battles fought using the book's rules.
I held off buying Wargaming Nineteenth Century Europe 1815-1878, henceforward referred to as WNCE, because it was a specialist period that did not greatly interest me when the book came out, published by Pen & Sword, in 2012.

My hardback copy of WCNE, £15.02 from Book Depository via Amazon

Part of the reason I did not buy is that I found it hard to believe rules covering under 70 years would take up some 200 pages. I was right  - the rules occupy eight pages, including generous amounts of white space.
Army lists cover almost another 30 pages, but the really valuable part of the book is when Thomas converts historic battles into wargame scenarios.
By comparing scenario maps and unit numbers with maps and line-ups of the real battles, one can see how he goes about what is a particularly tricky business with the sprawling nature of some 19th-century engagements.
Unfortunately, and in contrast to the three previous books of Thomas I mentioned earlier, none of the scenarios is played through so there is no way to see the rules in action. This is a major and, for me, a very disappointing omission.
The book is also disfigured, as is usual with Thomas's books, by photos that have nothing to do with the book's rules. Indeed most of them are not even of wargames, but are posed dioramas.
There are some photos which Thomas identifies as being of armies "configured for my rules." Unfortunately, the armies are of Baccus 6mm figures which have, to my eyes, a ridiculous appearance by being placed on bases almost as thick as the figures are tall.
Much of the rest of the book is taken up with Thomas's succinct and very readable account of 19th-century military history and with his philosophy for designing wargame rules.
The latter brings on a strong sense of déjà vu since the same or very similar passages are in his previous books, and include several straw-man arguments. A lot of this is unavoidable, however, as Thomas has to cater to readers who do not have his previous books.
Less understandable is why an appendix on "Figure Sizes, Scales and Prices" has seemingly been cut-and-pasted from Napoleonic Wargaming, whose appendix was in turn cut-and-pasted from Ancient & Medieval Wargaming, without any apparent attempt at updating
So, all in all, a lot of criticism. Does this mean I am disappointed with my purchase? Not at all - I have gone through the book cover-to-cover twice and have re-read favourite sections many more times that that.
WNCE is proving excellent at stimulating my thoughts on how to refight the Franco-Prussian War as part of my Project Kaiser to mark its 150th anniversary.
Thomas remains a great writer of wargaming books - yes, WNCE is flawed, but it is, for me, a flawed masterpiece.

How Do You Paint Plastic Toy Soliders (part three)?

THIRD up were four of the French Foreign Legion.
The good thing about the legionnaires' uniform, certainly around 1870, is that it was very similar to the uniform of ordinary French infantry.
The main difference, at least as far as these Armies In Plastic figures are concerned, is that the rank-and-file legionnaires - but not the officer - are wearing a (white) cloth covering the kepi and neck.

Four legionnaires

With any luck this should be fairly easily disguisable with a suitable paint job when turning them into line infantry - time will tell.
Meanwhile I am painting the first four legionnaires with the help of René North's 1970 work Military Uniforms 1686-1918.

René North's Military Uniforms - my well-thumbed copy has many loose pages, but none missing

As can be seen in the book by comparing illustrations of legionnaires on pages 53 and 112, the basics of their uniform changed little in the 19th century even though the men depicted served almost 70 years apart.
This time I washed the plastic soldiers in soapy water, rubbed with the rough side of a "magic" cleaning cloth, rinsed under a (mildly) hot tap and painted with PVA glue. And it worked, or at least I was able to wholly cover each figure with primer.

The finished legionnaires

How Do You Paint Plastic Toy Soldiers (part two)?

NEXT up from the Armies In Plastic Franco-Prussian War special set are these four Prussian infantrymen.

Four Prussians … as with the French zouaves, there was no flash that needed removing

I am again using Blandford's Military Uniforms Of The World In Colour as my main reference

My figures will be based on the officer of the 3rd Garde-Regiment zu Fuss (top left) from the Seven Weeks War of 1866

Again I washed the figures in soapy water, but also scrubbed them with the rough side of a scouring sponge.
Unfortunately I forgot to coat them in PVA before adding black primer, so I cannot say if the scrubbing made any difference.
In fact the result was very much the same as with the zouaves - there were small patches the primer would not cover, but these were not a problem once the top coat was added.
However, a very definite problem was that the figures' blue tunics turned bronze overnight - perhaps the result of painting them before the primer had fully dried? A second coat of blue fixed this.

The Prussians after their tunics were given a second coat of blue

One drawback of using a smartphone, and a relatively cheap one at that, for taking photos is the difficulty of getting the colours to come out clear and true.
Using the phone's flash is often not the solution as it can easily distort colours.

Details show up much better when using flash, but the blue tunics appear much brighter than they really are

You may have noticed the soldiers' pickelhaubes have no brass plate at the front. This may be because the men have been told to cover them to avoid sun flashes giving away their position (or maybe painting plates was just too intricate for me).

How Do You Paint Plastic Toy Soldiers?

I WAS a teen when I last painted plastic toy soldiers - mainly Airfix, with a few Spencer Smiths.
They were made of soft plastic, as is the case with Armies In Plastic and their ilk - the main thing that has changed is that I will be using acrylic paints rather than oil-based enamels.
Even so, it is as well to refresh knowledge and keep up with the latest techniques, so I surfed the web for advice.
As is often the case on the internet, there were almost as many answers as there were posts, so I may experiment a little to find what works best for me.
I will be starting with the contents of the Armies In Plastic Franco-Prussian "special set," which has 16 green Prussian infantry, 16 blue French Foreign Legion infantry, 20 red zouaves and two grey Krupp guns.

Franco-Prussian War "special set"

I have not decided which rules I will be using for refighting the battles toy-soldier-style, but the leading candidates are those published in the books The Portable Wargame, Wargaming 19th Century Europe 1815-1878, Tin Soldiers In Action and Practical Wargaming (the Charlie Wesencraft book from 1974, not the Charles Grant WW2 book from 1970!).
My final rules will probably be an amalgam of all four, plus ideas from other sources - but in any event they will need to suit my current preference for a gridded table-top of 12x10 3in (c75mm) squares.
Bearing in mind that the armies of Neil Thomas - author of Wargaming 19th Century Europe 1815-1878 - generally have units consisting of four bases, while infantry in Bob Cordery's The Portable Wargame usually have four "strength points," it seems very likely my Franco-Prussian infantry units will consist of four figures (whether such a unit represents a corps, division, brigade or something smaller will depend on the scale of the engagement).
The advantage of this is that the loss of a strength point or base can be reflected by removing a figure.
Similarly I am leaning towards cavalry units of two mounted figures, where each would represent two strength points. Here the loss of one strength point would be shown by a marker - perhaps a coloured rubber band around one of the horsemen.

First up for painting are these four zouaves

I first washed the zouaves in soapy water, rinsed under a (tepid) hot tap and painted with PVA glue, the idea being to give a surface to which primer will adhere.
As with my metal 10mm figures, I used a simple black acrylic primer, painted on with a brush (I do not see the need for a spray can).
Next I painted the bases with Miniature Paints' grass green -  just seeing figures with their bases painted makes me feel as if the job is well under way.
Incidentally, there is no question of me flocking the bases. I always prefer leaving bases as flat and unobtrusive as possible, and that is definitely the right way for a toy-soldier look.
Bearing in mind that Project Kaiser is for toy soldiers, not model soldiers, I am not overly worried about getting uniforms 100% right.
I do not want them to be obviously wrong, but I am completely happy using Blandford's Military Uniforms Of The World In Colour as my main reference for the zouaves.

Blandford's gem … first published in English 1968

The zouave in the book is from the Crimean War, but the regiments' uniforms did not change much over the decades as their distinctive look was part of their mystique.

The Zouave, from the 3rd Zouave Regiment, is top right

Despite my preparations, it proved difficult to get the primer to completely cover the vertical parts of each figure, but bare patches were small enough to be easily coverable with the top coats of paint.

The finished zouaves … you might just be able to spot yellow "false pockets" on the men's tunics, which show them to be 3rd Regiment

By the way, I was quite surprised to find the Blandford book, first published in English in 1968 (I have a 1971 reprint), is available on Amazon for well under a fiver, including postage - very much a bargain.

Project Kaiser - The Plastic Alternative

PLASTIC is the modern affordable substitute for metal for 54mm toy soldiers, and luckily for me the Franco-Prussian War is not completely unrepresented in this scale.
Scouring the internet soon drew me to the site of Armies In Plastic, based in Wappingers Falls, New York, which has an extensive range of 54mm toy soldiers.
The company does not accept orders outside of North America, but I was able to use a UK outlet, Preston's Transport Models, to buy a selection that should get Project Kaiser off to a good start.
I need to emphasise that Project Kaiser is very much about toy soldiers, rather than more historically accurate model soldiers.

My order from Transport Models

That is why in the photo you can see figures, including Crimean War British hussars, that might not immediately spring to mind as being suitable for the Franco-Prussian War.
But the fact is that while military fashion changes, albeit not as frequently as fashion in civvy street, hussars from the Charge of the Light Brigade bore a strong resemblance to their French counterparts two decades later.
Similarly, my order included Napoleonic French Dragoons by HäT and Napoleonic British Life Guards by A Call to Arms - both sets will have their uses.
The total cost of my figures, including postage, was £53.96, and Transport Models turned out to have a very efficient mail-order service.
Undoubtedly the best value for money was an Armies In Plastic "special set" on the Franco-Prussian War. For £15 I got a box containing 16 Prussian infantry, 16 French Foreign Legion infantry, 20 zouaves and two Krupp guns. That works out at under 30p a model.
However it is certainly just as well this is a toy-soldier project - some of the Prussian infantry have stick grenades attached to their belts!
This is because they were designed as World War One soldiers, later repackaged by Armies In Plastic as 1870 Prussians.
Massachusetts blogger Scott B Lesch (ilikethethingsilike.blogspot.com) has pointed out this sleight-of-hand, while noting Armies In Plastic had the decency to "remove the grenade throwing figure of the WWI sets."
He adds: "Rather than 'call' AIP on this, I have been using their WWI  pickelhaube-helmet figures in blue as 1870-71 Prussians for some time."
I plan to do the same, albeit I will be painting mine rather than leaving them as is, which seems to be Scott's preference. And that brings me to the all-important topic: How do you paint plastic toy soldiers?

Project Kaiser

NEXT year sees the 150th anniversary of a conflict that radically changed the course of human history.
For centuries it had been assumed that if German-speaking lands were to be united, it would be under the leadership of the Dukes of Austria, ie the Habsburgs, better known for their long run of success in elections to the title of Holy Roman Emperor.
Admittedly the electorate was small and extremely select, never reaching double figures, but even religious schism could not dethrone the Habsburgs.
However a temporary blip in 1740, when Charles VII of Bavaria won the title, was followed by the empire's dissolution in 1806 as a consequence of Napoleon Bonaparte's victory the previous December at the battle of Austerlitz.
The Habsburgs had anticipated this, with the Holy Roman Emperor Francis II giving himself the extra title of Emperor of Austria in 1804.
Austria's dominance in German affairs had faced various challenges over the centuries, but by the 1800s its only serious rival was Prussia.
The two countries fought in the mid-1700s, with Prussia grabbing traditional Habsburg lands in Silesia.
They came to blows again in 1866 when Prussia won an overwhelming victory in the Seven Weeks War.
This allowed Prussia to annexe Hanover, Frankfurt and other German-speaking lands. More importantly, from the viewpoint of Prussian Prime Minister Otto von Bismarck, it led to the creation of what was called the North German Confederation.
(Bismarck's title in German was Ministerpräsident, which literally translates as minister-president - his better known title of chancellor was to come with the formation of the German Empire.)
Despite its limited-sounding name, the confederation covered much of what today would be regarded as Germany. It soon forcibly included Saxony, but missing - for the moment - were the major states of Bavaria, Württemberg, Hesse-Darmstadt and Baden.
Also missing, very much according to Bismarck's plans, was Catholic Austria, which he feared would challenge Protestant Prussia's pre-eminence in a united Germany.
Four years after the Seven Weeks War, Bismarck seized the chance to goad France's Napoleon III into invading German lands.
Austria remained neutral, as did Denmark, which also had a recent grudge against Prussia, while nationalism overcame most south Germans' fear of Prussia to such an extent that Bavaria, Württemberg and Baden joined the Prussian side.
The Franco-Prussian War, known in German-speaking lands as the final event in a series of conflicts called the German Wars of Unification, broke out on July 19, 1870.
It lasted longer than seven weeks but could easily be called the Seven Months War as the Germans marched into Paris on February 17, 1871 (the official victory parade in Paris occurred on March 1).
France was forced to pay an indemnity of five-billion francs - the equivalent, depending on how you calculate it, of almost £350billion in today's money.
That eye-watering sum was chosen to match the formula of an indemnity imposed on Prussia in 1807 by Napoleon Bonaparte, and was later the basis for reparations imposed on Germany after World War One.
But the main result of the Franco-Prussian War was the formation of a unified Germany under the title of German Empire, which included all states where German was the main language, except for Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg and Liechtenstein.
The new German Empire included the vast majority of Alsace and German-speaking areas of Lorraine (its German name is Lothringen), both former parts of the Holy Roman Empire that had been seized by France in the 17th and 18th centuries respectively.
The King of Prussia became, officially, German Emperor, a title carefully worded over other possibilities that included Emperor of Germany (the preference, apparently, of Prussia's king at the time, Wilhelm I) and Emperor of the Germans.
The latter two titles were regarded as politically insensitive - Emperor of Germany because it implied personal rule over all states within the new German Empire, and Emperor of the Germans because it implied rule over all German speakers.
The German Empire began as a federation of 27 states, but one in which Prussia completely dominated by virtue of population, territorial size and the wording of the empire's constitution.
Incidentally, the German word for emperor, Kaiser (all nouns in German are capitalised), reflects the original Roman pronunciation of the title caesar (the letter c in Latin was pronounced as a k - if the Romans wanted an s sound they, weirdly enough, used an s).
Clearly the Franco-Prussian War was a pivotal moment in European history but also had major ramifications for humans most everywhere, leading, as it surely did, to both World Wars.
Project Kaiser is my name for what I hope will bring together three of my current main interests in wargaming - 54mm toy soldiers, using a grid as a playing surface, and refighting historic battles on or close to significant anniversaries.
As it happens, I already have some figures that are very suitable for Project Kaiser, being  reproductions of Victorian metal soldiers.
I bought them somewhere in Kent, I believe, probably Deal or Folkstone, in the 1970s.

My metal toy soldiers patrolling in front of my collection of wargaming books

The box they came in does not reveal the manufacturer, but they are described as being "Prussian Band Jäger Battalion circa 1870".

Distinctive packaging

There is no way I am willing to spend the sort of money required to complete Project Kaiser with metal soldiers - luckily there is a good alternative.
to be continued