FOG 800pts Punic Roman vs Parthian

Played another FOG game with Stephen using my Romans vs Parthians

He had 9 BGs of 4 LH Bowmen 3 of LF and 3 BG of Cataphracts

He won initiative and of course went for steppe so generating a vast open plain (the terrain setup rules combined with deployment are really awful)

LH highly manouvrable (they really whizz around flanks etc) and shooting can be effective enmass, but not any real use in melee. Roman HF have torrid time trying to get into contact with skirmishers (a game of 'chasies' with my HF and Cav vs all the lights).

In fact Romans would have been better served forming a defensive 'square' as just out classed in open play by Parthians. But what sort of game would that be if Parthians decided not to attack !!??

Systems once again very easy to use and we have most general Factors/POAs etc learnt. Very few rules queries (ZOI and Interception Charges) and resolved easily once relevant rule tracked down.

Long game taking awhile to resolve combats.

I still miss the Inertia/Commands/Deployment/Stratagems etc of Dbmm but FOG definately easier to play and more competition friendly.

Hard decision coming up about which set to concentrate on this year with view to attending a UK competition (Britcon ?)

Command Piquet playtest 10mm Malburian

Used Cmd PK as playtest using 10mm WSS troops (Austrian Imperial vs French)

Love the PK card/initiative system. Cmd PK like a streamlined PK with a few nuances differing from Field Of Battle. Quite bloody as always once combat/firing starts. Lots of broken units.

French brigade advances

Prussian Brigade defends right flank
The French line of battle

View from behind Austrian lines

FOG 800pts Maurikian Byzantine vs Arab Conquest

Played FOG today using Byzantines vs Stephens Conquest Arabs

Interesting game with me conducting an out-flank with 2 Cav units but coming acropper as my other Cav died on the quite tough Offensive Spear Islamic foot (my whole centre succumbed).
Terrain placement usual arnitary affair.
After some rustiness (we almost forgot about death rolls !) the rules flowed easily.
Shooting by Byz ineffective, one really needs to acheive a concentration of shooting units to have any meaningful effect.
An enjoyable enough game (if still lacking the buzz/excitement of Dbmm) but I still struggle with the tactics of the system. Certainly the mechanics are straighforward and easily learnt/remembered.

DBR 400pts Imperial Catholic vs Ottoman Turks

Played 400pt DBR game with Stephen for a change

I used my TYW Catholic Imperialist and Stephen his Ottoman Turks

I had great terrain (big hill centrally) upon which I deployed 2 ArtO in breastworks flanked by Pk/Sh with Pistols & LH on wings...........................BUT......................through a very specific combo of dice rolls Stephen was able to conduct a night attack on my static force. He had 6 turnns of fast moves during Dusk followed by 30+ moves at night.
A mistake in my deployment (no pickets deployed) allowed him to basically surround my entire army and assault it at daybreak before a single Imperialist had moved !

Result of course inevitable especially as my CIC was charged to rear and whose death killed another 2 Pistols (6ME gone !) After a mere 2 turns of combat game was over............................

Still fun stuff that DbX games allow.

Warfare 2008

Went to Warfare 08 show in Reading on Friday 21/11/08 until Sunday 23/11/08 with Stephen and his brother John.

Great time had by all and way too much money spent !!

Played a turn or two of Warlord II game being run by author Trevor Halsall

Another visitor snapped a photo, my presence noted due to pink bag which I had on table at time :-)

Watched a few competition games with several Irish players of Dbmm present, lots of FOG games too as well as FOW. 6th Edition, POW and some WH40K

Lots of lead to paint now and rules to read :-)

DBMM 400pts Avar vs Central Asian Turkish

400pt Dbmm game vs Stephen Brittain

I used Avars vs his Central Asian Turks

Very quick game (4 turns!) which saw my Avars hemmed in by terrain and struggling to gain room to manouvre (including being out-flanked by Flank March) and yet destroying eenemy in course of 2 turns of combat (loads of 1's thrown by Stephen) and for loss of a mere 3 elements !!

A 25-0 :-)

Still a good fun game

DBMM 400pts Hsiung Nu vs Kushan

400 pt Dbmm game today vs SB

Used Hsiung Nu vs Kushan

I used Brilliant General option with KnF and LhS with couple of PsO & HdO against Stephens Kushans with KnX, LhS, ElO and some LhO AxO & PsO

Another fun and close game which I lost mainly due to my KnF suffering at hands of LhS. Very hard for KnF to kill LhS in own turn and very vulnerable to LhS (due to -1 for F and +1 for S) in Lh turn.

Both right flanks broken but my CiCs central Cmd was broken as well

Great stuff

DBMM 400pts Sassanid vs Hunnic

400pt Game today with my Persians vs Stephens Huns

Another win for me !! (23-2)

Basically down to very poor combat rolls by Stephen out of some 30+ combats (over 1-2 turns)he lost some 11 elements of LhS and did not even recoil a single CvS (did kill a LhI)

Only vs my Inf cmd did he have any success (disheartened).

No compliants from me :-)

Dbmm Rome vs Carthage

Fought a 400pt battle today using my Polybians vs Carthaginians (S.Brittan)

Romans 198-105BC (ie not strictly historical matchup but close)
Cic CvO with 12 BdO 6 PsS 2 SpS 3 AxS 3 PsO
Sg CvO with 8 BdO 4 PsS 2 SpS 2 AxS 2 PsS(Achaians)
Sg CvO with 2 CvO Romans 4 CvO Italians & 2 LhO Tarentines
Army Baggage with 6 BgF
all Regulars No stratagems

Carthage fielded 3 Cmds (with 4 Army Bag) with Cic commanding a block
of around 20 WbO with some PsS AxS and some SpO a SG with AxS LhO CvOand a SG with CvO LhO and AxS.
A mix of Irr and Regs.

Carthos invaded in spring (weather n/e) and terrain placement saw ariver on Roman right flank with GH in Roman centre the remaining 2 SH1 GH 1 V & 1 RF all ended up in Cartho half of table and was to play no part in battle.

Romans deployed 1st with 2 Inf Cmds side by side with right anchored on River and Bd deployed on central hill. Cav Cmd was on Left just behind one Inf Cmd.
Cav Cmd was allocated 1st the baggage the lowest and the 2 Inf Cmds averaged (shock! horror!) the remaining 2 dice.

Carthos deployed with Cav Cmd on right, Warband cmd in centre and the Spainish AxS with Cv/Lh on left

Initial moves saw Romans deploy off the hill into standard 3 line formation with Velites joined by PsO Cretans and the AxS Extraordinarii.
Roman Cav moved to their left to opposse their Mtd Carthos mirror image.
Carthos moved Wb cmd forward screened by their AxS and PsS (AxS Ligurians part of Mtd cmd emerged from vineyard to extand their screen)
Their Cav cmd moved towards Roman left and a group of Numidiam Lh moved across the river to threaten Roman right.
Bad Pips for Carthos saw all but their Cav Cmd slowed to crawl the Romans with Great Pips (6 5 5 & 1 on two successive bounds) saw them deploy their Cav against the Cartho Mtd and form a defensive flank vs the river.
In the centre the Carthos moved up towards the Roman Light Inf screen but feel short of contact. More poor Pips from Carhage played a part in slowing their advance.
The Roman Light Inf however were forced to hit their Lt Inf opponnents as Ps became impetuous in enemy TZ.
This turned out to be a major plus for Romans as their AxS and PsS made mincemeat of the Cartho equivalents (lots of 1s from Carthos andthe S grading counting against them).
First blood to Rome :-)

The Roman Cav then charged into the Carho Mtd and again luck favoured the brave with the Carthos going Disheartened in one fell swoop !
Of course having done no damge to Roman mtd whilst fresh the disheartened sods then killed 2 Italian CvO ! but it was too late to stop them going Broken themselves.

Meanwhile the Warband finally cleared away the Velites but hit the waiting Principes Bd line piecemeal losing a couple of elements.
On Roman turn they managed some flank contacts on Wb and with QKs several Wb elements disappeared and their Cmd was disheartened.
Carthos had to throw their SpO into the fray to try to shore up their right flank and they did kill a couple of AxS but suffered from Cav and being flanked by Lh.

On Roman right the Carthos were causing some problems at end of Roman line as they managed to outflank some AxS but again a dearth of Pips slowed their progress (just as well as the Cv and Lh could have caused major problems).

Another turn saw the game end in Romans favour as the Legions broke the Warbands.

As always with Dbmm a fun game with lots of incident and the 'feel'of having fought a battle.

Few rules queries arose with corner to corner contact counting as contact and allowing lining up being only one we had to give much thought too.

However Reg SpO as a troop type feel very weak and poor value for Pts.
Sp are QK by so many troop types and their changed rear support from Dbm makes them very vulnerable and impotent.
Even CvO can deal with them effectively never mind S Mtd.
How anyone fields an army of Sp (such as Hoplites) is beyond us !!??

Anyway another fun game and my first victory (in some 15 attempts) versus Stephen !!!!

Roma Victor :-)

DBMM 400pts Byzantine vs Hunnic

Dbmm 400pt game today vs Stephen (just for a change)

I used Maurikian Byzantine vs his Huns

Another superb game with the Byzantines actually coming close (I had great Pips but usual poor Combat dice).

Situation end of turn 2

400pts DBMM Minoans vs Hittites

400pt Dbmm game today vs Stephen

I used my Minoans vs his Hittite Empire

Great game with oppossing Chariots cmds both being broken.

Hittite Inf combo of PkF & WbF rolled over my lowly PkX/I to give Hitties an 18-7 win

Minoan Chariots arrayedHittite Chariots
Minoan right flank
Nasty Hittite Infantry

Strongbow Dbmm 200pts Sat 30th Aug 08

Foreign sojourn to Dublin with Dbmm 200pt Maurikian Byzantine army.

3 games played 3 lost but still managed to win a prize !!!!???? (a mistake sorted later with organizer).

3 good games each played in good spirit

1st vs Jan van Embden with Zanj Revolt army (not a good matchup for my Byz)
2nd vs Brian Roynane Ghaznavid (a good slog that was close at end)
3rd vs Phil Waldron Hindu indian (Desert Rajiputs)

In hindsight I made a lot of mistakes with rule recall (especially in 1st game) forgetting essential stuff like the back rank of my Dbe Cav counting against foot not just mounted and forgetting to count +1 is scoring less when shot at with all my S Mtd !!!

Only real 'learning' was that corner to corner is classed as contact and therefore allows 80p shift. Not how we have been playing it but does seem to be how its done.

Dbmm 200pt Game Turgesh vs T'ang

200pt Dbmm game today (as practice for Stronbow comp we have entered)

I used Central Asian Turks vs Stephen's T'Ang Chinese

A fun and quick game. Even at this reduced scale Dbmm has epic battle feel to it (so glad I did not enter the 400pt FOG comp).

Am going to use Maurikian Byzantine at Dublin

DBMM 400pts Sassanid vs Kushan

Dbmm game on 7th Aug 08 with Stephen

First Dbmm in awhile !

Fun game with usual outcome ie I lost drastically :0(

Dbmm still feels like a battle compared to FOG but certainly a more complex set

FOG 800pts Galatian vs Marian Roman

FOG game on 29th with Stephen

I used Galatians vs his Late Republican (Marian) Romans

A close fought fun game with Romans showing thier prowess vs other foot. Galatians suffered in Melee rounds as always down a POA (ie always needing 5's)

FOG 800pts Sassanid vs Elpthalite Hunnic

FOG game today with Stephen

Sassanids used again vs Hunnic type (with Indian subjects)

Much better game with more incident and fun factor

Still prefer Dbmm at heart but FOG definately an easier prospect

FOG 800pts Sassanid vs Late Roman

FOG game with Stephen

I used Sassanid vs his Late Romans

Fairly mundane, predictable draw.

Terrain awful for foot army (FOG pro-cavlary re terrain)

I still find FOG uninspiring in so many aspects

If only DBMM had more clarity.........................

BattleGroup PzGrenadier Scn

15mm WWII

Solo scn (Gavrus) with excellent BGPzGr rules (also played it with Overlord last week)

FOG 800pts Galatian vs Alexandrian Macedonian

FOG game today using my Galatians vs Stephens Macedonians

Good game with very few rules queries (FOG definately scores highly in this respect)

Galatian Foot slogged it out with Pikes and eventually were ground down.

If Celts dont win at Impact they are fighting disadvantage for all (most) ensuing Melee phase (ie 5s vs 4s) and will be ground down.

Elite Agema cavalry with a General in front rank fighting are mean re-rolling 1-3s !

FOG does not really have an equivalent to Warband or IrrA or Firece trrops of other sets.

Galatians seemed quite impotent/diluted compared to other sets, not sure if this is good or bad ??

FOG 800pts Early Bulgar vs Abbasid Arab

FOG game with Stephen

My Early Bulgars vs Abbasids

Game essentially hinged on my charging 4 BGs of Lancers into 3 units of Defensive Spear MF and losing awfully. Lancers not potent at all vs such foot as they lose Lance vs steady Spear who also get +POA for being steady. So Lancers who need to win Impact are at disadvantage only becoming equal in Melee.

Much different interaction than in DBMM wherein KnF can 'take on' SpO/I more readily. FOG much like 7th Ed

Still fun game with lots of action. Again the rules proved their strength of writing as all queries easily answered in rulebook (once you find relevant rule).

Still think Dbmm has more depth but at cost of more complication....................

FOG 800pts Sassanid Persian vs Dominate Roman

FOG game today vs Stephen

Using my Sassanid vs his Late Romans.

Sassanid

1 FC

2 TC

2 BG of 6 Armd/Supr HC Bow/Swd

2 BG of 4 Armd/Supr HC Bow/Swd

1 BG of 4 LH Unprot/Avg Bow

1 BG of 4 Cat HArmd Lance/Swd

1 BG of 6 LF Unprot/Abg Bow

1 BG of 6 MF Unprot/Avg Bow

1 BG of 6 MF Prot/Avg Lr Spr

1 BG of 8 MF Mob/Poor LtSpr

2 BG of 2 Elephants

Romans (estimated)

1 FC

2TC

4 BG of 4 Legionaries with 2 LF Bow

2 BG of 4 MF Auxulia with 2 LF Bow

1 BG of 4 Cataphracts

1 BG of 6 MF Archers

2 BG of 4 LH Jav

2 BG of 4 Cav Lt Spr

1 BG of 4 Slingers

1 BG of 6 LF Javelin

Persian gained initiative and used Developed terrain with a River on left flank. My compulsory village ended up on Roman left edge and all other terrain ended up in my half with a small GH near river and my left bunged with large Enclose Field, a Vineyard and a Plantation.

Romans deployed with Legions massed in centre flanked by Aux on left with Archers and slingers and Cataphracts to their right with a BG of LH providing support to rear. Roman right comprised 2 BG of Cav with a BG of LH and BG of LF archers.

Sassanid placed an ambush of LF archers in the enclosed field with Hillmen in plantation also in ambush.

The MF archers deployed in the enclosed field with Levy. The Clibanarii deployed centrally with Cataphracts and on Persian. To their left the 2 BG of elephants were arrayed with a BG of LH on the GH with BG of Clibinarii behind.

Initial moves saw the Romans advance all along the line and Persians essentially matching them.

On Persian left and exchange of missiles between the LH saw the Persians go fragmented without losses and then evade Roman charge (they played no further part in proceddings ) Persian Cav charged with a General into oppossing Cav with their general and several rounds on inconclusive fighting ensued (Romans lost a base and went disrupted but recovered) with Roman LH charging ineffectually into Persian flank.

The Elephants charged the oppossing Roman LF and narrowly missed hitting a BG of Cav in skirmish order. Next turn the Elephants charged again and caught the LF (Cav evaded) and routed them. Nothing further of note occurred on this flank.

On Persian right the Persian LF Archers gained upper hand vs the Roman MF archers causing a loss. The Hillmen emerged from ambush to chase off enemy slingers. The Persian MF Archers shot with no effect at the Aux bearing down on them. The Aux then charged into the field and after some initial resistance the Persian archers routed.

The key central combat saw generally poor shooting from the Persian mounted and the Romans passed any Cohesion tests with ease. Persian lancers failed a CMT to not charge and broke off Disrupted from 2 Legion BGs.

The Legions charged enmasse into the lines of Clibinarii and usual grind occurred with Romans gaining slight advantage. Major turning point was death (by double 6) of a Persian General in frontline combat ! the Cohesion tests caused by this saw one Persian BG go Fragmented and another rout. This rout then Fragmented another BG and wavered the Inf in the field. Subsequently the Persian centre collapsed as did the right wing and their arrition level (12) was equalled ending the game in Romans favour

A decent game and played to completion in about 4 hours including several of our usual discussions.

FOG is definately in our experience a less decisive game than DBMM and I still feel it lacks a lot of 'flavour' of ancient warfare as such. But it is definately a more balanced game and will I think be main competition set eventually.

Mounted Bow is not very potent generally and Sassanids had problems dealing with Armd Romans with supporting Psiloi. They can option to use skirmish and frustrate the HF but still no real punch and evading Sassanid HC does not really seem very historical ?

FOG is growing on me slightly as very playable but it does seem a tad bland overall.

FOG Romans vs Selecuids

800pt FOG game at UWS Sat 29/03/2008

Game vs Keith Branagh at UWS club (some 5+ years since I attended there !!)

My Romans comprised

1 FC

1 TC

1 TC Roman Ally

2 4 base Roman HCav

1 4 base Numidians

1 BG of Elephants

1 4 base Extraordinarii (Prot)

2 8 base Supr Legions

1 4 base Elite Triarii

3 4 base Velites

2 4 base Avg Legions (Allies)

1 2 base Supr Triarii (Aliies) a

nd compulsory Fort Camp giving 14 BGs

Keith used (I think I recall it all correctly)

1 FC

2 TC (might have had 3)

2 Elephant BGs

1 4 base Companions

1 4 base Cataphracts

4 8 base Pikes (3 Avg 1 Supr)

1 8 base MF Bow

1 8 Base LF Bow

1 6 base Thorakati

1 6 base Thracians with Hvy Wpn

1 BG of Scythed Chariots

giving him 12 BGs

Selecuids won Initative and we placed terrain. On my left was an OF and a small Plantation with a OF on base line on Keiths half was a SH on his left about mid table and couple of OF that had no bearing on events.

I deployed with Legions lining centre (Avg Allies on my left) with Velites to front.

My Elephants took left flank duty with Numidians further left.

My Cav shored up my right opposite the SH.

I placed the Extraordinarii in ambush in the plantation.

Keith deployed his Pikes enmasse opposite my Legions with his right having the nasty Companions & Cats and Elephants with LF support.

His right was anchored on the SH occupied by the Bowmen/Thorakati/Thracians. Both sides advanced all along the line with my Numidians evading from the Heavy Greek horse.

Usual inconclusive shooting from LF was prelude to the clash of Pike and Legions.

My elephants supporting Allied foot clashed with enemy Elephants and one Greek set of nellies were destroyed. However a 4 Base Legions BG was fragmented.

As this was occuring my Numidians bravely stood against charges by both heavy Greek Cav BGs with predictable result (ie auto-broken) this exposed the flank of my own Ele and the shaken (sorry fragmented Legion.

Too late I brought my Extraords from their leafy sojourn (they never made it to contact). A Unit of Velites was routed exposing the flank of my centre.

On my right I extended one Cav unit into Skirmish formation and the other went Disrupted from bow fire but I had a TC on hand to restore cphesion.

In the centre a mighty battle ensued as I charged into the Pike Phalanx (4 BGs each 2 wide 4 deep) with my Impact Legions.

I gained very narrow advantage over two turns of combat disrupting one Pike block and managing to inflict a couple of base losses. This advantage proved decisive versus 3 of the Pike blocks in the end (due to loss of POAs once steadiness is gone) as one routed and the others failed cohesion tests.

It was great to watch 3 blocks of Pike flee with their General desperately trying to restore some order (not sure Keith enjoyed the spectacle as much)

One Pike block stood firm however and broke its oppossing Legion.

This was combined with the Companions/Cats flanking my Elephants and a Legion and breaking them both ! Time to send in the Triarii.

I only had the 2 base BG on this flank but had the Ally TC on hand to fight in front rank.

But despite intial stand they too sucumbed and another Legion was hit in flank (a Supr 8 baser !) and it too fled. On the right things were pretty indecisive as my Cav could not take on the Inf on the SH.

However when the Pikes wavered Keith was forced to come off his hill and charged his MF Bow into an overlapping Legion file but it made no difference to fight.

Indeed this unit then was charged by Roman Cav and routed. I charged my other unit of Cav into both the Thorakati and the Thracians but no advantage was gained by either side and the Cav broke-off.

At this point I had suffered 14 attrition pts and so lost the game but it was a bloody and close run affair with Greeks losing 10 attrition pts.

Keith might remember things a bit differently but I think I got the essential actions in reasonable order ?

Comments : All in all a very enjoyable game.

Only real gripe I had with rules was how to physically measure wheels ontable as it all seems rather fiddly. We had a few rules queries but managed (eventually) to find relevant answers after lots of page flicking.

As another confirmed 'DBMM lover' I must confess that FOG is a decent set of rules written in generally clear style with great support for any queries that arise and a lot less headaches than Dbmm.

Movement (wheels aside) and Combat flows logically and smoothly (we had several multi unit combats all resolved without headaches).

Combat takes a bit of getting used to with its 'grinding' nature compared to more descisive/quick events of Dbmm but it certainly works as it 'says on the tin'.

Actually its all has a familar feel to those of us who played 6/7th........... We played a solid 4 hours with minimal delays for queries, FOG games are not quick.

My main dislike is the Cmd and Control rules (or lack thereof) vis DBMM and FOG still feels like a smaller scope of battle than Dbmm despite having a few more toys on table, FOGs 'top-down' view seems to hover a tad lower than Dbmm

Whilst I understand the mechanism/simplisticty of having Generals whizz about the place from point to point I would have preferred that they were more limited in who they can control, that said it is certainly fun/exciting using them in front rank combat (despite numerous rolls and with every Gen on the table fighting at some point we were lucky we did not lose any !).

I miss the inertia generated by the PIP system of Dbmm as FOG allows every BG to move every turn potentially and indeed the new Strategems.

At times FOG feels like line 'em up roll' em forward and chuck buckets of dice but I know that is down to lack of playing experience and tactical nounce on my part although I am not sure just what tactics are viable in FOG compared to Dbmm as match-ups are not as critical ?

As I said recently on Dbmm forum if I rate Dbmm as 9 out of 10 FOG is a close 8. I can happily play either but suspect that FOG will be the more popular choice for Comps but maybe not otherwise ?

Looking forward to trying Cavalry based armies next instead of HF slogging matches

FOG 800pt Game Punic Wars

First 'official' FOG game today using my Mid-Republican Romans vs Stephens Carthaginians

Much more enjoyable than beta game but still not that enthused by FOG

Slow moves, slow attritional nature of fights and lack of C&C compare unfavourably with more exciting and decisive Dbmm games.

But much better written rules with most queries answered in text (even if lots of toing and froing to find things)

Not 4 times better than Dbmm despite 4 times the cost.........................

Dbmm 400pts Polybian Roman vs Carthaginian

Dbmm 400pt game on Sat 1/3/08 at Stephens

Really excellent game with exciting Warband vs Blade battle in centre.
Very close game.

Another loss of course...................

Update

Several Dbmm games in last few months latest today

Late Roman (stephen) vs Sassanid

Hard fought with narrow win for Romans


Fuedal Spainish (Stephen) vs East Frankish

Spainish win

Maurikian Byzantine vs Tang Chinese (Stephen)

Tang Win