Field Of Glory Napoleonic 2nd try with 2nd Edition

Another game with new FOGN edition this time Stephen using an British force circa 1815 and I tried an Imperial Guard force from same time frame.

We both think the new Strategies and set-up rules are excellent (in fact may use for other rule sets) as they generate a nice scenario set up and plausible terrain.

Game saw first use of new Bombardment rules as with Prepared Attack against my Flexible Defence the Brits got 2 rounds of fire pre-game (which is really 3 round as they also get first turn).
French able to utilize the Strong Point and Reverse Slope rules with one Division off-table in Reserve whereas Brit all deployed on-table.

Another excellent game even though my Grenadier a Cheval Superior Guard Shock Heavy Cavalry succumbed in one turn when charged by two British heavy cavalry units.
I had 6 dice scoring an excellent 5 hits however the 'dice demon' managed 10 hits in 12 dice (two re-rolls helped) to destroy the Grenadiers.
My Dutch Lancers where then Disordered seeing their pals Rout and duly succumbed to the British heavy's (Light cavalry lose 1 dice to heavy's who also gain a dice vs lights)
This along with several other Wavering French units (mostly from Artillery fire) saw my army break as being small it has low break points.

Another fun decisive and indeed quick game with a much improved FOGN.
Whilst it lacks the 'chaos' factor I like it does what it aims to do and is great for a points based game that one can play to completion with reasonable sized armies.
Kudos to the Aussie developers.

Field Of Glory Napoleonic 2nd Edition tryout

Managed a miniatures game today with Stephen trying out the 2nd Edition of Field Of Glory Napoleonic.
I fielded a Prussian force from Spring 1813 and Stephen their French equivalents.
Some changes to points values and force structure in 2nd edition with probably main change being reduction in numbers of possible Artillery units (now a max of 1-2 units depending on early/late period) which is certainly more in keeping with the scale (Regimental/Divisional/Corps) of the game.
Also no longer any Skirmish formation but Light Infantry have several other advantages (sort of making them skirmishing types)
Huge and very welcome change to the game set-up phase with a very interesting Force Stance selection which yields much more variety in battle types than the previous simple Attack vs Defence.
Skilled/Exceptional Corps Commanders can have a big effect in this by possibly denying opponent certain selection types.
I selected Probe which has 2 Divisions off-table at start one in Reserve (can arrive in any Move Phase) the other as a Reinforcement (Dice to arrive) and Stephen used Felxible Defence (one Division in Reserve) with him as Defender (fairly obviously) and Prussians nominally attacking.
Terrain set-up was fairly easy and by using Flexible Defence the French were able to occupy 2 built-up areas at start as Strong-points (sort of La Hay Sainte and Hugomount).
Built up areas rules are pretty simple in essence but one needs to break the defenders to get them shifted and not easy to do.

The rule systems at their core are unchanged but simplified in many instances and rules much clearer, if only by virtue of a more readable font !, and thereby understandable.
We certainly found that we seemed to have a lot more action in this game across the table than we remembered from previous edition.
Outcomes can still be fairly brutal in that a Division of 3 units that takes 3 Disruption or worse in a turn is still only able to attempt to recover a single unit per turn.
This does make for decisive actions (something we both like) rather than long drawn out attrition and again seems in keeping with the scale of game especially as turns are 30 minutes (which is a long time to in range of enemy fire or in combat).

First go with new edition but we enjoyed the game (French won by the way) more than previous outings.
Bit like Black Powder we always felt there was a decent system/game struggling to get out.

Of course this did not stop me pledging to the Kickstarter for Over The Hills 2nd Ed !!!!

Combat Commander - two more scenarios

Another couple of games with my Dad tonight (on eve of his 74th birthday) with the ever excellent Combat Commander.

We played 2 scenarios from Tournament pack.

First had my Yank patrol facing a Kraut patrol in the Ardennes and the second saw !st Airbourne assailed at Arnhem by SS.

Two great games as ever the first narrowly won by my Yanks the second by my Brits.

Hurrah ! a game played, in fact two thanks to L'Art De La Guerre

Actually managed a figure game today at Stephens using LADG as we had little preparation time and Dice Demon in the groove with rules after outing at Munster last weekend and to christen a new mat he bought.

I brought two armies (one big plus for LADG is quick set up and playing time) Minoans and Sassanid Persian.
First game was Minoans against Hittites the second Sassanid against Late Roman.

Two quick playing and fun games as ever (despite my losing both as per usual) and good to see that we had pretty much got rules correct which is not always a given when we only play each other.

Combat Commander takes the field again

Been a bloody awful month for wargaming overall (roll on retirement in July !) but managed a set of three games of Combat Commander tonight with my Dad.
The scenarios were from a set of WBC 2009 Tournament games.
First up saw my Dad with Germans as usual in Normandy against Yanks.
A narrow win for the Germans as Sudden Death saw game end with 2 German VPs mainly due to relentless Time triggers.
Second game had some Elite Ivans against his Nazis in Germany 1945 with Fascists hampered by a 2 Action hand.
Judicious (and somewhat lucky) use of Smoke Grenades saw Ivan Assault units thump into a building defended with Bunkers with Satchel Charges and Flamethrowers chewing up SS and lesser defenders for an easy Russian win.
Last game had French in 1940 facing Teds again.
Bloody French hand discard of one is very frustrating and the Germans were able to pick of a key VP location early on and again a quick march to Sudden Death roll saw them win.
Great stuff with a great game.

I also took plunge on latest iteration of the Combat Commander system
Great War Commander and look forward to its arrival despite the lack of British in initial release !!!

Wild Blue Yonder again

Another session with WBY with my Dad.

First up I had early Spitfire MkIIv ersus early ME109e with Spits winning 3 of 5.
Next it was ME109G up against my YAK5 with ME winning 2 of 2
Then I used La5 against the ME109G with Ivan planes winning 2 vs 1

Great fast play little card game