Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Battle of Weissenberg-a Video


Something a little different today. I set up an 18th century battle based on the 1870 Franco Prussian War Battle of Weissenberg and have posted here a video of the initial set up. Just a little experiment for the sport of it...

...and yes, that strangely disembodied narrator you hear, (yours truly) manages to mispronounce the name of the actual historical battle (borg, instead of berg) so now it goes down in my ImagiNations history as the fictitious "Battle of Wiesenborg".

I halved the historic Order of Battle to get a scaled down force tailored to my 18th century stuff. The only other adjustments were to change a French mitrailleuse to a Bleiherzen howitzer and to change the historic rail station which was a Prussian objective on the field in 1870 to a walled chateau. I also changed the railway embankment to a wall and the castle of Schloss Geisberg which featured as a strongpoint defended by the French in the original battle became simply a windmill. The absence of this castle will affect the dynamics of the battle but it seemed like it would make a better tabletop scenario to omit it...though I might change my mind before fighting it out.

The OB:

Grolstein:
4 battalions of infantry (36 figs each)
2 battalions of light infantry (12 figs each)
1 battalion of converged grenadiers (24 figures)
4 field guns, 1 howitzer
2 squadrons of cavalry (24 figures)

Bleiherzen:
3 battalions of infantry (36 figures each)
1 1/2 battalion of grenadiers (12 figures)
1 battalion of jagers (12 figures)
2 field guns, 1 howitzer
...and on turn 5 a squadron of hussars

 This is a first time posting a video on the blog so let me know if it works or not.

8 comments:

tradgardmastare said...

Great video and excellent commentary- I look forward to more...
best wishes
Alan

abdul666 said...

Excellent initiative!
And potentially an excellent introduction to wargaming for the uninitiated.

Capt Bill said...

Wonderful indeed!!!

Ross Mac rmacfa@gmail.com said...

Great idea! The video works fine, not as sharp as could be wished but gives a really good 3d feel for the battlefield and troops. Now add a little background music and it would be perfect! I may just try my hand at this sometime!

By complete co-incidence, I have nominated you for a Stylish Blogger Award Should you choose to accept, the rules are that you do so by:
-Thanking the nominating blog and providing a link back
- Sharing seven things about yourself
- Nominating more blogs you deem worthy to share your honor
- Letting those bloggers know you nominated them!

Cheers! (and sorry)
-Ross

littlejohn said...

Thanks guys!
Ross: Yes it's a blurry effort, but since it seems to be kind of interesting to try I'm charging up our family's "real" video camera and perhaps I'll give it another try soon...this was just shot on an iphone and though the video is sharp when it plays on my laptop, the translation to blogger seems to degrade it considerably....I guess that's why most blogs use a link YouTube instead...and thanks a bunch for that nomination, I'll be sure to give it a shot.

Cheers
Dave

Stryker said...

Really enjoyed that - neat!

Ian

Steve-the-Wargamer said...

Great idea... gives more of an overview I find..

Mosstrooper said...

May I take this oppertunity to nominate you for 'The Stylish Bloggers Award'