WELL, that was a near-run thing, to paraphrase the Duke of Wellington.
My Prussians easily cleared the Rotherberg of French troops, and later captured the town of Spicheren, but at the end were not close to taking the Stiring-Wendel ironworks.
Indeed, Prussian losses of 19 strength points were three more than the French suffered, although the latter lost a greater percentage of their fighting force, which is why the French lost the battle.
This rather mirrors what happened in the real battle, where Prussian casualties of about 4,500 killed or wounded compared with French losses of around 2,000 killed or wounded. However, more Frenchmen were taken prisoner, presumably mostly after the battle was lost.
Both my opponent and I thought the rules, based on those in Bob Cordery's Portable Wargame books, with a big assist from Neil Thomas's Wargaming Nineteenth Century Europe, worked very well.
The battle was exciting, and felt to us to have a genuine feel of the Franco-Prussian War, and all with toy soldiers!
What more can a wargamer desire?
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