The French are coming!

At the beginning of July, we informed about the revolution in the production of figures in 6 mm scale, in the form of 3D printing. More information can be found here: http://www.gmboardgames.com/blog/druk-3d-rewolucja-w-skali-6-mm/

On the occasion of this article, we presented the first figures that we created with this method. They were units of the French army.

In today’s post, we would like to share more information about this army.

Why French army?

With the advent of Rule, Britannia army book, we introduced the first nation outside the American continent. Game development plans related to the second edition of the rulebook are to extend it to other conflicts and armies of this and perhaps even other periods. The British were the first choice for a new army, also because there was a little opportunity for them to actually join the American Civil War. This opened the possibility to play a whole range of hypothetical scenarios. Rule, Britannia, however, went far beyond the possible conflict in America. The British have there lists of armies and generals allowing them to fight both in the colonies (Asia, Africa and others) as well as to deploy the troops who fought in the Crimean War.

Therefore, a logical continuation for our publishing is the issue of the French, who could also take part in Crimean conflict. But, issuing the army book for the French, we do not need to remain only during the Crimean War, but we can also create an army list for the war of 1859. This, of course, means that the next armies we will release will be the armies of French opponents: Russians and Austrians.

Of course, at the same time, work is also underway on Indians, to which the modified rules of the so-called small war will be created. We will inform more about the Indians in another post, now let’s focus on the French.

“Napoleon the Third” will be the second army book (expansion) for Gods of War: Lee, comprising two army lists, the French Army of the Orient, that is, the army in the Crimea, fighting in 1854-1855, and the French army in Italy in 1859. Both army lists differ to a large extent by the organization, special units or armaments. However, the year 1870 and the Franco-Prussian war will be included in a separate book, due to major changes in armament and infantry tactics.

France under Napoleon III

Napoleon III Bonaparte was the son of Louis Bonaparte, king of the Netherlands and brother of Napoleon I, the Emperor of the French. The February Revolution of 1848 in France overthrew the monarchy and paved the way for the return of Bonapartes, who were still very popular. Napoleon III won the election and became president of France. A few years later he proclaimed the creation of French Second Empire. It appealed to the tradition and symbolism of the Empire from the time of Napoleon I.

France under the rule of Napoleon III returned to the role of the most important power in Europe, also led a very active colonial policy. The Crimean War, the Second War of Italian Independence, the wars in Algeria, China and Vietnam ended with the victory of the French and their allies, contributing to the consolidation of the opinion of the French army as the best in the world.

Strengths and weaknesses of Napoleon’s III army

What are the strengths of the French?

Good generals – generally French command was at a high level, officers were mostly educated at St. Cyr military school, many of them already had experience in fighting in Algeria. They will allow complicated tasks to be performed by the various corps of the army.

High-quality infantry. The French army in those days was a professional army, soldiers served for 7 years, many of them enlisted again. Colonial conflicts meant that they were often already fought in battle. The player will be able to place both experienced and “green” units. It is, of course, worth mentioning many unique units, such as fanatical Turcos, zouaves legendary French Foreign Legion and, finally, Imperial Guard. The French will be good at firefighting, but they will also have a special rule regarding bayonet attacks.

The Cavalry of the Second Empire was very diverse. It was not one of the best cavalry in Europe (especially in 1870 it showed itself from the worst side), but if someone likes heavy units, he will be almost in heaven. Cuirassiers, used at the right time, can break the formation of the enemy and resolve the battle.

Like any army, they will also have weaknesses.

The Orient Army will have a weak artillery, especially the ordinary one. She will be able to use naval guns, but otherwise the enemies will rather surpass her range of fire.

The special rule of the French will be so-called gambling debts (of Napoleon III), which will make the opponents of the Second Empire receive victory points for appropriate card play (we will the details closer to the premiere of the Army Book).

In addition, only a few types of French cavalry will be able to dismount, so the French player will have to look for the right area to carry out his charges.

Having elite units also has its drawbacks – their price. This means that a good French army will certainly be less numerous than the Union Army or even the Confederacy, although it will have a greater concentration of impact force.

Miniatures

Most of the figures for the French will be produced in 3D printing technology. The production versions of several basic sets for this army are in preparation and sales will begin soon. The first sets are, of course, generals, La Hitte system guns, infantry, dragoons and, of course, cuirassiers. We already started a presale of them. You can find them here: https://bolter.pl/en_US/c/NEW-PRODUCTS/1020

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Miniatures painted by “Nutka Paints” : Nutka maluje.

Due to the colors, it is also worth noting that the French are one of the most colorful and nicest looking armies of this era. As one of the generals said, “Red pants is France!”.

When the premiere?

The Polish version will hava a place in the autumn of 2019. The army book is already written and the army itself goes through the testing period. We need to check if it is balanced with other armies, whether it can be won but also whether it can lose. So everything depends on the tests. “With good winds”, there is a chance to see them on the Fields of Glory near Cracow (end of Sept. 2019), although we would bet more on a later date.

English version will be published after we will translate main rulebook.

You can now see how the army will look like in the army builder. Remember – it’s still work in progress: http://www.gmboardgames.com/ab/index.php

General, the glory of the great Napoleon I is looking at You. Will you lead the great army of his nephew to the victorious battle? Will you deserve the rank of marshal or even the title of Prince of Magenta?

Last weekend our team had a great pleasure to take part in the Joy of Six convention. We invite you to read the second part of our account from the trip to United Kingdom and our participation at this convention.

The organizer of Joy of Six is Baccus – the world’s most famous miniature maker in 6 mm scale. Despite the fact that we are to a certain extent competition, all companies that appeared at the convention are very positive about cooperation and know that our activities contribute to the promotion of hobby and the scale of 6 mm. I would like to thank Peter, the boss of Baccuss, for the organization of the convention, which has already had a dozen or so editions. Every year attracts more and more exhibitors and viewers, which is a very positive phenomenon.

The convent is held in Sheffield, in the main hall of Hallam University, about 200 meters from the train station. This is undoubtedly an attractive location, right in the center. The organization, signs (at the entrance and then in many places in the corridors), informers (all dressed in yellow, visible from the distance), the pre-convention information (maps with the exact location of each position etc.), and the possibility of eating lunch in one of the halls of University.

If I had to list things that are worth improving, I think that the convention could be longer. It starts at 10.00 (of course, the exhibitors are admitted much earlier), and by 17.00 you have to leave the building. In practice, this means that at 4pm you have to start packing, so it is only 6 hours of the convention itself. This can be a problem mainly for clubs that try to fight big battles. Also from our perspective – travelers “from far away” a two-day convent would be an interesting alternative.

The convention was located in three large halls and a corridor between them. Two rooms and the aforementioned corridor were occupied by exhibitors and clubs, presenting their games, the third room was occupied for lectures. We did not have time to participate in them, but it is always a positive aspect of the convention – it allows you to share your knowledge, experience and discussion on important topics related to wargaming.

Of course, the greatest impression was made by battles. The 6 mm scale is ideal for playing big clashes that look epic. The battle at Poltava made the most impression on us. There were many more big games and many of them we had the “jaw dropped effect” – thousands of miniatures on beautiful battlefields made a stunning impression.

Historical systems dominated, but there was also a bit of fantasy and science fiction.

Our team (Adam from Bolter.pl, Witold and Maciek) set up a stand, the biggest attraction of which was our latest sets of figures produced in 3D printing technology. They aroused great interest, some guests took pictures of them close up to show them to friends “or they will not believe that they are printed miniatures”.

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On the second table, we put miniatures for “learn to play” game – a small clash between the two Union and Confederate corps. We had the opportunity to show Gods of War: Lee rules to many people. The game mechanics we talked about, especially those related to the fog of war and command&control, aroused great interest. After finishing work on the second edition of the Polish version of the rulebook, we will start translating it into English.

We were aroused by the offer of many stores, the best impression was made, among others by latex fields, rivers and roads that can be laid on any hillyterrain. The offer of ready hedges or forests was also interesting. In addition, of course, you could buy miniatures in a huge number of historical periods, fantasy and science fiction.

It was already our second visit to the Joy of Six convention and next year we are going to go again. We are very happy that together we can promote and develop a 6 mm scale hobby – the best scale for large battles. Once again, many thanks to the organizers and cordial greetings to all participants, especially those with whom we had the pleasure of meeting.

We invite you to look at the photos from Joy of Six.

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Revolution!

Today, we would like to share with you one of the most important information in the history of our company.

After almost a year of trials and hard work, we have succeeded. Thanks to this, we can present today a new line of miniatures in 6 mm scale. Miniatures printed on a 3D printer! Thus, the world of great possibilities opens up before us.
Most likely, no one in the world has produced historical infantry miniatures on a scale of 6 mm with such a level of detail yet. Miniatured are as detailed as our metal patterns, with many other advantages.
Technological progress in the field of printing and hard work of all people involved in the project made it possible to realize it.

Our first line of printed miniatures will be minis for the Second French Empire, under the reign of Napoleon III. Soon, printed sets of British infantry will come out.

This miniatures can be seen and bought this weekend at the Joy of Six convention in Sheffield, and then at our distributor, in the Bolter.pl shop (it’s in English).

About miniatures

New technology and new material raises many questions like “what are these miniatures?”.
We invite you to look at the gallery, which presents printed minis. Please click on the picture to enlarge it.

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Due to the printing technology, all figures are placed on a trays. Under the strip with minis, under the base of the cannon or a single cavalry miniatures there is a small tray, connected to the miniature by a series of supports. All minis in sets will be equipped with such trays. They should be cut off gently together with the supports. You can use a very sharp knife / scalpel or modeling pliers (there are different techniques).

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Behind us are months of trials and errors and constant corrections when it comes to various parameters of the printout and the sculpture itself. Printed figures are quite hard and not very plastic – they will not bend, but using large force can of course break them. Damaged ones, however, do not spill “into fine”, so you can always glue them together. These physical features of figurines must be kept in mind when cutting them and preparing them for painting.

Hard minis will luckily also mean that we will miss the bane of this scale – rifles bending in to every direction of the world. From now on, all rifles will always have the same shape!

Another positive is the use of hard, wire spars banners. The new sets produced in the 3D printing technique will contain sections of the appropriate size wire, which should be pasted into the shoulder of the ensign in a place specially designed for this. Thanks to this, we will miss the second bane of some metal minis – breaking banners. It will also be more convenient, from the point of view of the sequence of painting figures and planting the flag, than it was before.

Painting printed minis is very similar to metal ones. We described them well on our website, in the painting guide. Basically, it is worth remembering that the undercoat is also the basic color of the uniform. On this scale, we do not put a separate undercoat on which we paint the right layer of paint. We immediately put on the color of the uniform.
The painting guide is here:
LINK

What’s next with metal?

Metal miniatures will still be a part of our offer. There will be more sculptures that we will cast in metal. The Sioux will be the next nation to publish, and their minis will be metal ones.

Both materials have different properties and advantages. We will use it, for example, to create minis of important characters, which we mentioned a long time ago. The closest example will be General Custer.

The introduction of new technology will first of all speed up the process of creating new minis. The design and production of the whole line for a new nation can last several weeks, not several months.

Therefore, both techniques will harmonize with each other.

Second French Empire

Presenting the minis of the French, we can immediately inform that the nearest faction that will be released for Gods of War: Lee will be the Second French Empire. The Army Book will contain two army lists: for the Crimean War of 1854 – 1855 and the Second War of Italian Independence in 1859. We think that it will be a feast for all fans of red trousers, Imperial Guard, Cuirassiers and French Foreign Legion.

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Army builder

The French army has already been added to the Army Builder, which has also undergone many changes. Some of its graphic appearance has been changed, and many new functionalities have been added, including possibility of saving and uploading roosters, summary of the size of our army, or naming your divisions. We will describe them in a separate entry, for now we invite you to explore the army of the Second Empire, remembering that it is still a test version of this army and some small things may change. English version is available!

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The British and the future

In the near future we will complete the missing sets of minis for the British Empire and of course for the French. Most new minis for both nations will be 3D printed.

We have already written about the plans for the next armies at the beginning of the year, but we will remind about this in a separate entry.

Post scriptum

Preparations up to this moment lasted about a year and cost a lot of effort and work for all the people involved. We would like to thank them very much in this place. We hope that you will like the minis and that they will allow faster development of historical wargaming in 6 mm scale.

En avant! 😉