The French Line in red trousers were made for the wargaming table. Zouaves and the Legion make the French Army multi-colored and interesting. You can use your Napoleonic Bavarians in 15mm. Anyone who notices and complains should only game solo. Your French can fight many opponents if you don't mind a bit of historical uniform inaccuracy. Austrians, Danes, Mexicans, Prussians, Moroccans, West Africans, Vietnamese for example. No one would disbar you from the wargaming fraternity if you used your Franco-Prussian War troops for the first year of WWI. You can tell your wife that all the above substituting of armies means that you are "gaming for free" and "saving a fortune." You can clear a room by talking nonstop about Chassepot vs needlegun, using mitralleuse as artillery and whether the French left a depot battalion at home. Memorizing the mobilization time and the railroad schedules in 1870's Europe certainly qualifies one for a stay in a mental observation center. All the manufacturers of 15mm figures that I know of make an excellent product in my eyes. If you can't enjoy a toy battle between red troused line, green jaegers, bormeted guardsmen, Picklehaube troops, Bavarian crested helmets involving French elan and Prussian stolidity, then you are not worthy of reading a magnificent Featherstone book! Back to MWAN #107 Table of Contents Back to MWAN List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2000 Hal Thinglum This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com