We used the points system and terrain generation from book and found it worked quite well.
I was defender with my Corps (2 Mixed Divisions 1 Infantry Division and a Cuirassier Division) against a French Corps of 3 Infantry Divisions and a Light Cavalry Division (which out-flanked on it own left flank).
A good game ensued.
I threw my Cuirassier at some French Young Guard Infantry in square to see how rules handled this.
Cavalry essentially bounced and lesson is that compared to Lasalle there is much less chance of destroying a steady square, which we both felt was reasonable outcome. Square would need to be softened up by Artillery or Musketry which again seemed plausible.
Movement and Shooting a fairly easy to pick up as is the Cohesion (Morale) system with only the Assaults (Charges) and Combat (Melee) being a bit more involved.
We do however find FOGN to be a very hard to read and digest set with many exceptions and clauses in rules and literally all over the show.
Much easier to actually play.
Whilst core system is ala FOG/FOGR a lot is different and we both had rules 'legacy' issues.
But all in all I was impressed with FOGN and do feel that set would gell quickly as more games played.
Nice to get Napoleonic figures on table.
French arrayed
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Prussians deployed
Cuirassiers approach the Young Guard
Prussian Dragoons
Prussians right go into square as French Cavalry approach
Couple of obligatory 'fancy' pics
Damn nice eye candy sarge!
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting this playtest/review (and those beaut photos!).
ReplyDeleteI read the 'taster' for these rules earlier in the year and was not that impressed. They did not seem to offer anything over existing sets and the lack of any kind of higher level morale (brigade, division) and the recovery of 'casualties' dropped them down the list of sets to try for me/us. How did you find these elements in your game?
James
Certainly FogN has nothing new as such (if anything they feel quite WRGish in lots of ways). Since units are Regts organised into Divns/Demi-Brigades and a 'standard' game is a Corps vs Corps the higher level testing is abstracted into the victory conditions (essentially kill more enemy and if possible at faster rate than he kills you) Re casualties again its an abstraction of actual hors de combat and morale factors (ie cohesion) wherein a unit can recover from wavering to disordered to steady. Once a unit is Broken it has only one chance to rally or is destroyed and even it does it counts Spent (reductions to shooting etc) for rest of game. We liked how Cav usually become spent after a charge making them more of a 'one shot' only proposition than many sets.
DeleteI like Lasalle but Cav too potent also Shako again Cav rather good also Field Of Battle (many don't like its chaos factor) but probably Gen De Brigade is best although I prefer standard sized units and GdB has a lot of factor counting. I have a couple of other sets to try but did find FogN a nice option (certainly for a non Naps expert) But it definitely needs to be better laid out as the need for the 'taster' highlights. At its price level I would try to play a game before buying a set :-)
Some great pics Sgt and some nice looking figs too!
ReplyDeleteWonderful looking game!
ReplyDeleteChristopher