More Like Foxes Than Lyons Battle of Grimsburg

 From Arofan's Back group packet 

I was in the Role of Turenne the French Commander using his superior quality troops to drive back the Imperial Army.

The main French line it has multiple streams to cross to attack the Imperialists who are in a very strong position. 

The open area on the right was my best hope for a break through where my elite cavalry was located. 

French troops advance across the river and begin exchanging fire with the Imperial troops I was hoping to maybe get lucky and disorder someone with a good volley or artillery barrage but that didn't happen. 

The fighting on the left was heavy but inconlcusive still large portions of the Imperial force were tied down. 

On the right my cavalry won an initial clash against Imperial Cuirassiers then advance steadily with dragoons on one flank and infantry on the other. Then it was time. 

A charge sent first one and then another Infantry battalion falling back. 

In the center Turenne sword in hand lead the German regiment in an assault on the town taking the battery and holding off the Imperial counter attack. 

The Imperials have to with draw under the pressure of troops in the town and French cavalry on the right pressing their men back.  Its a near thing but the Germans must abandon the town and  fall back from the City of Trier the objective of the campaign. 

 

Force de Raid Le Fantasque-class contre-torpilleurs

 When is a Destroyer not a Destroyer?  When its a Contre-Torpilleur? The French did not really use the term Destroyer dividing their smaller warships into Torpileurs (Torpedo Craft) and larger Contre-Torpilleurs (anti-Torpedo Craft) harkening back to the days of Torpedo Boats and Torpedo Boat Destroyers (Pre-World War One)

Still the French Contre-Torpilleur of  Le Fantasque class are something of a special case.  They are big over 400 feet long with a beam of 39 feet.  They have 5 5.5 inch guns, two triple torpedo launcher, depth charges and mines.   Their AA as built is  bit light with two 37mm AA guns and pair of AA Machineguns. 

Speed is a key factor with a top speed 37 knots. Tactically there role was to race ahead and intercept opponents armed with torpedoes and put them down fast and hard.  Thus the focus on speed and a relatively heavy guns.  

The United States Navy thought of these ships are Light cruisers you'll also see the term "super destroyer" thrown around.   Comparing Le Fantasque to the Atlanta class you can see the point. The Atlanta is 530 feet long compared to the 434 feet length of the Fantastique.  Also the Fantastique were built to counter a class of Italian light cruiser (the Condottieri) I would argue they are just on the Destroyer side of the line (though only just). 

If any Contre-Torpilleur crosses over to being a light cruiser I'd argue its the Mogador class with its three twin turrets (for a total of 6 5.5inch guns).  You can see how it on the right here next to a Fantastque. 

Force de Raid La Galissonnière-class cruisers

 The La Galissonniere class of light cruisers are the next part of Force de Raid. 

Four of Six members of this class were assigned to Force de Raid providing the Battle ships with a cruiser escort.  These are solid light cruisers of the 1930s period.  They have good armor only slightly lighter than the Alegre one of the best Prewar Heavy Cruisers.  They have a design speed of 31 Knots though they could reach 35 to 36 knots! if you pulled out all the stops (and were willing to risk engine damage) 

They have nine 6-inch guns for a main armament capable of a rate of fire between 3 and 5  round per minutes.  That's a good if not impressive rate of fire (the US Brooklyn's could manage 10 rounds a minute in short bursts) . They also had a pair of twin torpedo launchers one on each side.  The Galissonnieres are fleet light cruisers focusing on taking out enemy destroyers and cruisers so the battle ships can focus on the other fellows big boys. 

There other function is providing arial scouts each vessel had two sea planes for spotting and scouting.  The rear of the sip included a hanger and seaplane launch catapult on the 3 turret.  The open area be hind the gun is for an ingenious recovery system a wood and canvas mat dragged behind the ship that the seaplane could drive up on to and then be pull up on a crane.  This allowed aircraft to be recovered at speeds up to 15 knots 

Force de Raid Battleships

 Those Italian ships need some opponents so I have been painting up some French ships the intended opponent. I'm basing my French fleet on a formation called the "Force de Raid" 

The Dunkerque class battle ships were built by France as response to the German building the Deutschland class they were intended to hunt down and kill such ships.  

These ships were fast 29.5 knots, reasonably well armored  though somewhat lightly armed with 13" guns. Some folks think of these as Battle Cruisers and it's a reasonable argument though Fast Battle ship fits better.

The all forward main gun armament allows a shorter armored citadel and as a ship that is intended to run down raiders it makes sense. That said I have never liked all forward armament as it limits tactical flexibility and then there is the edge case of Mers-el-Kabir where these ships had to anchor with their bows pointing towards the shore when the British opened fire from the sea. 

Flanders 1793

 

I had Comand of the French forces attempting to break the siege of Dunkirk.

The English artilery spars at long rang withoug much effect but then their cavalry charges across the Bridge. 

We succesfuly throw buck the first charge but then a follow up charge destroys my Dragoons ...

and then over runs my horse battery before it can deploy. 

Wtih a rosuing courus of Ca Ira a unit of levvies charges the emigie cavalry and scatters the cowardly monarchists. 

Currasiers charge accross the bridge at the disored enemy dragoosn and drive them form the field. 

Naturaly this causes the English horse artilery to turn and shoot into my cavalry... 

My Currasiers go down but then my guns and infantry fire tinto his guns. 

The Levies over rune the artilery and have regular French Infantry coming up in support the English army withdraws in good order. 

More like Foxes then Lyons: Defrence of Le Crotoy

 Arofan hosted this remote game using his rule set More like Foxes then Lyon.  This scenario was based on a landing (raid) on the French coast. 

The Scotts Fusiliers are already ashore as my battery fires on the troops still in the boats. 

French troops are on their way to the rescue!

French troops advance but time is already running short. 

The Scots storm the battery and take it as the survivors of run for thier lives. 

The English are ashore but seem reluctant to advance... 

the French move up on their left and open fire hitting the Germans hard. 

Firing back and forth becomes general, I'm holding my won except for the disproportionate damage coming from the naval gun fire. 

With two units hit and shaken by the ship (and some failed rally rolls) I lose my best chance to break the Allied center. Still my opponent is having just as much trouble making head way.

Both side have a battalion and a battery lost. Arofan is looking into what happed with the Naval gun fire and we agreed after that the English needed to have a turn limit (I advanced so we would have a game but logically there was no reason I should have) forcing them to push forward. 

More Ghekek Ships the French Navy

 More ships Printed for me by Arofan from Ghekek's excellent files.  I now have a nice little French Taskforce.

The Heavy Cruise Algerie Widely considered one of the best of the Treaty Era Cruiser 

She had a good balance of Firepower, speed and armor.  She never found a fight before France got out of World War II and she was scuttle in Toulon. 

Next up is the Light Cruiser Emile Bertin.   She served Both the French and the Free French Navies, having carried French Gold Reserves to the Martinique.

She served as a Destroyer Flotilla Flagship and could operate as a minelayer a very versatile ship.

Last we have the contre-torpilleurs of the Mogador Class the Mogador and the Vota.  English Sources call these Destroyers and they fill a similar roll but they really are a French approach.

They are large, fast(39 knots!) and heavily armed with six 5.5 inch guns as well as Torpedoes, Depth charges and Mines. They are powerful units on paper but in reality they had a low rate of fire and that high speed lead to poor maneuverability. Many Cruisers and even some battleships could turn tighter then they could.  

This Picture gives you an idea of the size of the Mogadors.  US Destroyer, Mogador and the light cruiser Emile Bertin as you can see the Mogador is about 70% of the size of the cruiser. 

Mayhem Gaming Convention: Battle of Gravelotte–St. Privat

Another war another piece of the French country side... This time I am playing the German side of the conflict and my old friend Gerry Lane is oposite me. 

At first most of the action is on my right I am not familar with the rules (Big Bloody battles if I remember correctly) so I was happy to wait a few turns befor gettign stuck in. 

Gerry had a regiment of French light infantry deployed up frought the should have died quick but it turned into Hugomont on a smaller scale.  My intitial fire stunned the denders and my Saxon troops lowered bayonets to charge. 

Only to be repusled, it tooka nother attack with an addition brigade joining int to clear the town a two hour delay in game time that I could ill afford. 

My excellent Prussian grand battery had bad luck they shorred hits but kept running out of amuntion (randomly, not a game feture I like). 

Sacon cavalry didn't get the memo that this is 1870 not 1670 and charrged foward.... 

They did manage to fend off some french cavalry but were lossing lots of men to fire.  My Artilery finaly got enough damage on one French unit for me to move up.. too little to late we are out of time (sadly the prervious game hadn't gotten clean up in time so we lost almost an hour to set up time...) If we had been able to play ther three turns left to us in game time we might have pulled it out or perhaps not. I like the game system on the whole excepting the random out of amunition rules which don't seem right to me.