Seasons of Battle system tried solo

Having just received FOB3 I have set up as planned a SYW Campaign using the new Seasons Of Battle system included with rules.
Russians versus Prussians and using the generic Campaign Map included with Region names taken from board game 'Prussia's Defiant Stand'.
Prussian Home Base is Berlin and Russian is Warsaw with numerous Regions including Kustrin, Thorn, Kolberg and suchlike.
One could redraw the generic map to better reflect geography but sufficient as is for flavour.
Each Region is assigned (through card play) an overall Terrain type (Open, Moderate or Dense) which dictates which sub-set of Terrain Cards one uses if fighting a battle therein and can effect Movement between areas.
Regions are grouped into several which can effect supply and other aspects depending on how close or far zone is to Homer Base.
Victory Points (awarded if winning a battle in region) are also allocated for each region.
Each Home Base/Capital has VP of 10 the others range from 4 - 9 VP.
A marker is placed on the central region in my case Blomberg to denote the 'Engagement Location ' for both armies.







The Campaign Map and SOB cards played

Army list/Roosters are drawn up for both sides as per standard FOB.
I have fielded 22 Russian units against 18 Prussian, with Prussians under Frederick having a D12 Leader dice and a Superior Deck against Fermor with a D10 and also a Superior Deck (FOB3 now has only 3 deck types - Poor, Average and Superior).
Armies also have National Morale Points which track the progress of the Campaign with  losses of Army Morale Points in each battle, region Victory Points effecting this NMP total.
Losing your Home Base or having NMP reduced to zero losing the Campaign.
Campaign is divided into 4 Seasons these can be standard Spring to Winter or could be Months or Weeks as desired.
At least one Battle will be fought in each such Season (SOB is more of a battle generator than a true campaign system)
A Seasons Of Battle deck is compiled for both sides comprising 2 sets of identical cards (coloured differently) including Move, Battle, Operational Initiative, Supply. Panning and Preparation and Weather cards.
As per FOB a dice off determines who turns first card and tries to act on it.
The opponent has access to a pool of 7 'Opposition Dice'  (a mix of D6, D8, D10 or D12 varied by Army General quality).
So the active player rolls his Leadership dice (sometimes modified by Region or Zone and colour of card) against a chosen Opposition Dice and if active player wins dice roll he can use the card.
As an example on Move card he could move the 'Operations' marker one region (these are linked to 2-3 other regions) or on a Battle card he could force a Battle (or hold to force at later stage of campaign).
In my Campaign I have thus far seen Prussians move East then Russians move back West to Blomberg.
Prussians gained an Operational Initiative card which allows 1 of 3 Tactical options in a Battle (choosing orientation of map, extra Deployment squares or extra Initiative Pips once per battle).
Weather cards were turned but no change in weather occurred (poorer weather effects can adjust dice rolls).
A Battle card appeared which Russians won and they have forced a Battle at Blomberg which is an Open terrain area worth 5 VP.
A Battle Set up dice off occurs with the difference generating (from a chart) a number of effects for attacker (winner of roll off) or defender which includes the number of Terrain Cards attacker gets to choose from.
In my case a difference of 7 in favour of the Prussians allowed 5 Open cards to be drawn (I picked Map 5 a very open card) a 25% Force Increase (not extra units but extra army Morale Points) and 4 Extra squares of Deployment on the battlefield.
The Russians gained 2 extra squares and ability to Remove or Define one terrain piece (they chose to remove a large hill in Prussian deployment area).
And so the battle is now set up ready to go with Force Morale, Deployment adjustments etc in place.







Armies deployed with Prussians (on left) taking advantage of extra Deployment 'squares' to deploy forward.

All in all pretty slick to play through the SOB system (quicker than my pre-amble above might indicate) and faster than play test version I tried a couple of years ago, which had another deck to generate the Battle Set Up and a more fluctuating (but ponderous) method of generating the battlefield.
Bit more to it than I have outlined but hopefully you get the gist.

Testing of the FOB3 system to come at Battle of Blomberg................