Field Of Glory Napoleonic - 1814 battle Prussia vs France

Another run out with FOGN against 'dice demon'.

I used 1814 Prussian list and Stephen their French counterparts.
I ended up using Probe set up against Prepared Attack.
We both minimized terrain selection so fairly open table.

This one ended up a bloody affair indeed only ending when I topped 50% losses first.

Couple of lessons learnt about mutual support of units to stop 'ganging up' 2 on 1 (which is seldom winnable situation) in particular I had missed that in this particular context Mounted can support Foot and vise versa.

Really liking this set as gives a good Napoleonic game with decisive action thereby meaning games complete within 3-4 hours easily.

Great War Commander scenario played

Played another scenario from the excellent Great War Commander this time set in 1915 near Vimy Ridge with French attacking entrenched Germans.

Several new rules used in this one including a cratered landscape of shellholes, improved air power, creeping and standing barrages and of course trench lines.
A real meat grinder of a scenario this one with French breaking the German trench line but suffering whilst trying to take an objective hex.
Great stuff once more.

L'Art De La Guerre - three (yes three !!) games played

Played LADG today at Stephens managing to play a full three games (200pt standard versions) including a game with 'Biggies' (25mm).

I brought Galatians and Punic Romans and these faced Carthaginians and Early Germans respectively.
As these two games went so quickly we tried Stephens 25mm Sassanid Persian (the Elephants are immense !) and Hunnic 25mm forces (played on a 6 x 4 table).
The 25mm version was interesting but does seem to suit foot armies better as with big moves and ranges (ie 60mm per UD) its hard to manouvre or evade.

No time to outline games bar stating that first with Galatians was another dicing disaster !
The other two games also lost but much closer affairs with more averaged dice rolls including a few sixes !!

Waterloo Quelle Affaire a nice light game

Just got this of EBay for a mere tenner ($15 ?) and a nicely made and low complexity game it is too.
Whilst simple in rules overhead and very abstract it has some very nice touches with Commander and Event cards and a 'you must do something' each turn process ie to pass is to end your part of turn.
Commanders are linked to specific Corps units except for higher leaders like Napoleon, Ney and Wellington, and can only activate units adjacent to hex the leader is placed in, and with Corps being somewhat spread out a bit its a balance between trying to mass your Corps or trying to gain quicker local advantage.
Terrain is very basic as is combat being a 'gang up' roll off system based on a standard 5 or 6 hits (6 only if in defensible terrain or 4+ if using Combined Arms).
Units are rated for Combat and Movement and can mostly take 2 hits prior to destruction with some variety in weak or strong units and some single step.
Attacker rolls number of dice related to his total strength and defender does same and results are Draw or related to he who has most hits this difference generating a Retreat or Loss, Retreat and a Loss or instant Destruction.
Again one or two nuances if in terrain or strong/weak unit.
There is limited Restoring of losses via event cards.
An interesting concept is the 'mass assault' mechanism wherein once a turn (and it ends your turn) you can declare an assault allowing every engaged piece to perform combat.
This can be key as most other cards only allow movement by certain units with only one or two cards allowing isolated combat.
A few more nuances such as Artillery firing at range in attack or defence or via Tactical Bombardment but all very easy.
Very much a race against time for the French to accumulate a certain level of Victory points (by inflicting losses) before the Prussians arrive, which is not set in stone.
Once Blucher's lot start appearing the French Victory requirements go up and the Allied card deck and options increase.
French however have advantage in initial card decks (players have a 3 card hand each phase of play) as they have more Commanders meaning Allies likely to run out of cards first leaving French a possible free hand.
All in all a nice little game.

Field of Battle - Katzbach 1813 scenario......the horror...the horror..........

Played Field of Battle game today with Stephen (in full on 'Dice Demon' mode !) using an adaption of a Gen De Brigade scenario covering action near Katzbach 1813 with my Prussians under Yorck attacking McDonalds French.

What a game it turned out to be with the Prussians being ignominiously crushed.
Stephens opening rolls for artillery were both 10+ with my target units managing lowly 1s and 2s seeing my troops decimated and routed in short order.

I had my Cavalry massed on my right but saw them all destroyed or routed in one charge phase by French as once again it was 'dice Demon' rolling high to my low.

And so it continued combined with an unlucky run of cards.
I had several units now routing and managed to win initiative (1 of only two such events) and tried desperately to turn 1 of the 4 Leadership cards in my Skilled deck.
However I managed to turn 1 Move and 2 Move One Command Groups cards and watched as my Routers all left the table before I could even attempt to Rally them.
Truly terrible to behold.

I did have a Brigade of Crack troops on my left but managed on 3 Move cards aforementioned to fail to move at all.
Then I watched as one these 'Crack' types Routed from shooting which I actually managed to Rally only to see his mates suffer exactly same fate.
I did however manage to Rout a French Hussar unit with my Guard Jager but they of course rallied before leaving table.

By this time my Army morale was gone but I did manage to pass an Army Morale roll (I really should have conceded but decided to fight to last).
Nothing seemed to go my way at all and my Landwehr were soon threatened by French light Cavalry and forced into squares which were subsequently shot to oblivion by an Elite French gun battery.

On next turn of Army Morale I conceded having been thoroughly hammered.

Despite this total defeat I stil enjoyed the game immensely as the pure excitement and drama of this rule set shone through.

There is always next time................................






The battlefield prior to deployment (Prussians waiting to deploy on left)

Opening Prussian advance note two Routing units already (red puffs) and several Out of Command (yellow 'puffs').........harbingers of things to come

French unharmed

French Cavalry massing on my right

French reserves arrive as their Cavalry sweep against my right

Prussian light Cavalry has disappeared on my right !

My Elite Hussars rout on my left

Landwehr reserves arrive into the maelstrom

Prussian right has collapsed and now threatened by French Cavalry

Great War Commander - three scenarios played in anger.................

Game with GWC with my Dad and we managed to play through the first three scenarios.
All are set in 1914 pitting the Germans (Dad) against French (Moi).

French trounced in first scenario as with new Cohesion rule (units are usually Suppressed if out of command range) they were too slow to group from their initial set up dispersal.

Second scenario saw French triumphant despite their artillery support being spectacularly ineffective (I could not even hit with Observer at 2 hexes !!) but putting the Boche to flight at bayonet point (French seem to have several melee enhancement Actions in their deck).

Third scenario saw a large French force attack Boche in a Chateau and village.
This one went down to the wire with French narrowly winning (by 2 VP) only after luckily taking the Chateau just before German reserve unit could occupy a vacated Pillbox in last hex.

Great version of the original system with only a few rules extras to bring WW1 flavour and we have not yet got to the trenches or tank scenarios.

Hopefully the expansion with British etc will not be far off ?